After easily overcoming Waterford in last weekend's Munster Football Championship, Tipperary's reward was a semi-final clash with Cork the following weekend - a turnaround that the county manager Liam Kearns took particular umbrage with at the time.
On Saturday evening in Thurles, Tipperary were convincingly beaten 1-17 to 0-09 after their week-long break, and, despite having previously "kept quiet", Tipperary's Robbie Kiely has now come out to similarly condemn that scheduling of the provincial football championship.
Disappointed with our performance yesterday as a team and I would like to congratulate Cork on a deserved win..I've kept quiet in relation to the quick turnaround between matches and it is no excuse but as a player I'm very frustrated with how the fixtures worked out...
— Robbie Kiely (@robbiek6) May 27, 2018
... playing a sport I love and planning my life to facilitate this having the GAA change fixtures so easily and not acknowledging players and the life they live outside of the GAA leaves players discouraged, eventually this will rear it's head at club level and enough is enough
— Robbie Kiely (@robbiek6) May 27, 2018
Acknowledging the disappointing performance of Tipperary on the day, Kiely did suggest that while the quick turnaround in games is no excuse, it certainly is a source of 'frustration' for the Tipperary players.
Condemning the apparent aloofness of the Munster council in failing to recogise that players have a "life they live outside of the GAA," Kiely is very much on message with his manager, Kearns.
A source of understandable consternation in Tipperary, it is known that the county were offered alternative dates to play the fixture.
As reported in the Irish Independent in April amid Kearns' initial complaints regarding the potentiality of a situation that came to light when Tipperary overcame Waterford,
It had been due to go ahead on Sunday, June 2 in Thurles but with the Waterford and Tipperary playing in the hurling championship in Limerick, the Munster Council sought change to avoid a potential clash. Saturday was ruled out because Cork are playing Limerick that evening in Páirc Uí Chaoimh while both counties did not want it to go ahead on the Bank Holiday Monday because of the wait players would have over the weekend. The following weekend was also unacceptable to the counties so without agreement Munster CCC fixed it for Saturday, May 26.
Primed now for a run through the qualifiers after Saturday evening's disappointing defeat, Kearns will be hopeful his side can recover in time.
