Limerick minor hurling manager Diarmuid Mullins feels GAA 'owes an apology to young players'

LIMERICK minor hurling manager Diarmuid Mullins feels that the GAA "owes an apology to young players".

His comments comes after confirmation that the All-Ireland minor and U20 championships are "paused until further notice".

But Mullins is aggrieved at how the decision was made and communicated, amid much confusion as to what sport could continue under Level 5 restrictions.

"On Monday night we were training and we knew that if it went to Level 5, the Taniste said last week that inter-county action may not take place. So I think there was an onus on the GAA that when it moved to Level 5 to clarify what was going to be the situation with Minor and U20. I think that's been very, very disappointing," Mullins said on 2FM's Game On show on Wednesday night.

"I think the GAA owes an apology to young players about how they've been treated.The communication shouldn't have been through the media. Some players this morning when they got up, that was the first time that this was on the cards. The level of communication from the GAA in making this decision has been very poor and I also think that pausing the competitions isn't a very logical decision," said Mullins, who guided Limerick to a 2019 Munster MHC title.

The Limerick minors (U17) were be in action on Friday October 30 at 6.30pm - against Cork in a Semple Stadium semi final.

"I think for the players I'm really disappointed, they're young players that have given a huge amount of time since this time last year when they were training for the Minor Championship. Then to come back, even though we were going to miss out on the round-robin aspect of the Munster Minor Championship, which was brilliant last year. We were fortunate enough to be successful but even if you weren't successful, it meant minor players were playing before the senior games," he outlined.

"There was a huge amount of development and minor isn't all about winning competitions, it's about developing players. I just feel really, really disappointed for the young lads and the players. I think there's a sense of frustration from our point of view from talking to other minor managers about the lack off communication or effective communication from the GAA. That's most disappointing for young players involved."

Diarmuid Mullins (Mungret) is in his second year as Limerick minor manager. He has Andrew O'Shaughnessy (Kilmallock), Tommy Quaid (Effin) and Ger Barry (Killeedy) as his coach-selectors.