GAELIC GAMES:DELEGATES AT last night's Kerry County Committee meeting voted 59 to 23 to refuse the O'Sullivan brothers, Pádraic and Colin, a derogation from the Parish Rule that would allow them play with Listry rather than Firies.
It brought an angry response from the boys’ mother Christina OSullivan who stormed out of the meeting before the votes were counted. The transfer case has caused considerable controversy in Kerry recently.
The boys, aged eight and 14, want to play for Listry GAA club, which is just over a mile from their home at Ballytransna, Faha, Killarney.
But because they live in the parish of Firies, they have been told by the Kerry County Committee that they must play for the Firies club, which is more than seven miles away.
Last year a vote of 33-21 was taken by delegates when the matter arose before, refusing the boys permission to play for Listry.
Delegates at last night’s County Committee meeting at the ratified former Kerry and Limerick senior boss Mickey Ned O’Sullivan as the new minor manger. Kerry haven’t won an All-Ireland minor title since 1994.
This will be welcomed in Kerry as O’Sullivan will be joined by another former great, John O’Keeffe, as physical trainer.
Meanwhile, once again, one of the worst injury fears have been realised – this time with confirmation that Derry forward Eoin Bradley will miss the rest of the football championship with a cruciate ligament tear.
His absence will most immediately be felt in Sunday’s Ulster final against Donegal at Clones as Bradley has been their most prolific scorer this summer and quite simply in the form of his career.
Bradley sustained the injury to his left knee in training on Sunday morning, and underwent a series of scans yesterday afternoon. As it turned out, not only was his cruciate torn, but he also sustained damage to medial and lateral ligaments and his cartilage, and is looking at surgery and then at least six months of rehab.
His elder brother Paddy was ruled out earlier in the summer with exactly the same cruciate injury, although to his right knee – and this now denies Derry two of their best forwards.
Eoin Bradley hit 1-5 in a man-of-the-match performance in Derry’s Ulster semi-final win over Armagh last month. Typically, it was a simple contact from a defender at the training match that resulted in the injury.
On a more positive note Gerard O’Kane is expected to be available for Sunday’s showdown, after missing the win over Armagh because of a thigh injury.
But for Eoin Bradley the long, hard rehab must now begin. He joins a startling list of intercounty players who have been hit with the cruciate injury in recent weeks, including only last week, the news that Cork forward Ciarán Sheehan would miss the remainder of the season after he suffered a cruciate ligament injury during the Munster football final defeat to Kerry in Killarney, and thus joined fellow forward Colm O’Neill.
Limerick footballer John Galvin also had his championship season ended with the injury, as did Kerry’s David Moran, and also Kildare’s Dermot Earley and Peter Kelly, Meath’s David Bray, and Mayo’s Conor Mortimer – plus Dublin hurling captain Stephen Hiney and fellow defender Tomás Brady, with Dublin football Paul Griffin sustaining a second successive tear in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, Cavan have confirmed that Val Andrews will be their sole senior football manager for next season, with Terry Hyland moving to a selector role.
Andrews and Hyland were appointed as joint-managers last September, but following defeats to Donegal and then Longford in the qualifiers, Hyland has decided to hand the senior reins over to the Dubliner.
