MAGHERAFELT manager Damian Barton has hit out at the “absolutely bloody ridiculous” lack of water available to players during games.
Derry county board last week announced it was tightening up on the number of people allowed inside the pitch enclosure after a number of incidents in round one games two weeks ago.
The number was reduced to three in total, namely the manager, one selector and a medic. There was no provision for water carriers, which had been allowed temporarily during the August heatwave.
The GAA at national level has outlawed the Maor Foirne after a number of high-profile incidents where individuals were guilty of interfering with the play.
Barton, an All-Ireland winner with Derry in 1993, had at one stage appeared to send two substitutes up the line with water bottles in a bid to get fluids on, a move which officials tried to stop.
“It’s very difficult out there and it’s ridiculous that you cannot even throw water out on to the pitch, in this day and age,” he said.
“Apparently players have to come to the line. If that’s an edict from Croke Park, I think it’s absolutely bloody ridiculous. Have they never managed nor played in a game?
“By the time somebody comes to the sideline to get a drink, they’ve left a man free to pick up a kickout or a short ball. In this day and age, players having to run a distance to the dugout is absolutely ridiculous.
“If it’s something Derry has introduced it wouldn’t surprise me, because it’s idiocracy. We’re in the bloody 21st century.
“You can’t go on to the pitch and give an instruction, so what do you do?”
Meanwhile, uncertainty reigns over this weekend’s proposed relegation playoffs in Derry.
Clubs had been informed at the start of this year of plans to relegate four teams from senior, with no promotion from intermediate as part of a restructure that would leave Derry with a 12-team senior football championship next year.
However, at least one club are understood to have lodged an objection to the competition’s format.
Ballinascreen are due to face Bellaghy on Sunday, with Coleraine v Kilrea, Loup v Claudy and Steelstown v Banagher the other fixtures.
