Defending champions Mary I thrown out of Trench Cup after fixture debacle

Mary Immaculate college have been thrown out of this years Trench Cup without warning due to a fixture debate their captain James McNeive has told Pundit Arena‘s Marisa Kennedy.

Mary I, who won the competition 12 months ago were scheduled to face GMIT in the quarter finals. However, with less than a days’ notice ahead of the game, the college requested a change of date.

This was due to the fact that some of their squad had featured in a Fitzgibbon Cup quarter final less than 24 hours previously and considering it was a Friday afternoon, many had returned home to fulfil work commitments.

While they have been ejected, they are yet to receive official confirmation from the subsequent governing authority according to McNeive.

“It’s so disappointing considering we won it last year. All we wanted was a crack at retaining it.

“All we want to do is play a quarter-final. We don’t think we did anything wrong, we know we didn’t fulfil the fixture, but we wanted to fulfil it, but we couldn’t on a Friday evening. That’s not considered a college day, college finishes here at 1pm.

“None of the fixtures have been updated on the website so it’s not like we can go online and see what’s going on. We’re so in the dark, we haven’t a clue what’s going on. Our Gaelic Games Officer, our manager, is doing everything they can but we literally haven’t a clue. We don’t know what to do.”

The fixture confusion began with Mary I accommodating of Ulster University, Coleraine who were unable to face the college as originally scheduled on Wednesday due to heavy snowfall.

Mary I won the re-fixed game but were not informed of their semi-final clash until the evening before it was fixed to be played.

McNeive, outlines how his side are still in the dark as to what their situation is at the moment, with the team even continuing to train.

“We haven’t got any confirmation saying yes, no, or anything. We requested the change last Thursday and Friday and sent in a request yesterday morning again asking what was going on, and it wasn’t even a direct reply saying ‘OK, ye are out’, it was just a fixture list for the Trench Cup weekend.

“The fixture has it down for this Friday in Mallow, Trench Cup semi-final, GMIT v Letterkenny with no mention of us”, McNeive continued.

“We were told to bring down our gear and everything in case there was a slight possibility. We even went training last night in case there was any chance we could get that overturned.”

“All this came because Coleraine couldn’t play the fixture and we wanted to help them out.”

Catch the full story at the following link courtesy of Pundit Arena’s Marisa Kennedy.