Reports have emerged that Longford GAA manager Denis Connerton is considering his position over the county board's refusal to postpone a round of league fixtures.
According to The Longford Leader, Connerton and his management team have informed their county board that the decision to proceed with Round Five fixtures of the All County League will be a huge disruption to the squad's championship preparations.
The paper has also released the contents of a statement from the Longford management team (Connerton, Ciaran Fox, Enda Macken and Derek Ryan) outlining their views.
"This is the fourth time that a round of League Games couldn't be completed in one day. This has hampered our preparation for the Championship as we have had to cancel numerous training sessions and at this stage we unfortunately feel that we are unlikely to win the first round versus Offaly. Therefore we feel we are now preparing for the Qualifiers and we hope our preparation for this competition will receive greater support. Our elite players deserve better.
"We have to ask how other county teams manage to have much greater free time leading up to their respective provincial championships and we can't? This was never an issue in Longford before as previous management teams got ample time to prepare.
"Our preparation has been made seriously difficult due to the fixing of League Games involving County players on the following dates: March 16th ,17th ,19th and 20th, April 8th, 9th, 10th, 13th, 19th, 23rd, 26th, 29th and May 1st."
According to the Longford Leader, a crisis meeting was held last night by the management team "to reconsider our situation in regard to continuing in our role".
Connerton replaced Jack Sheedy as manager last August, to retake the reins of a county he had managed between 2002 and 2004.
Longford start their Leinster championship campaign against Offaly on May 15th.
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