Kilcormac-Killoughey's Ger Healion believes Lar Corbett's New York trip was a mistake.

The former Hurler of the Year was in the Big Apple doing charity work in the run-up to Thurles Sarsfields' All-Ireland club semi-final meeting with the Offaly champions and Kilcormac-Killoughey full back Healion says this was indicative complacency in the Thurles camp:

"I was, like, 'What sort of preparation was that for any sort of game?' I said to myself, 'I don't know how a manager could let him go, never mind to let himself go'," the Offaly star says in The Irish Times.

"It is not the way to be preparing for a game. Any flight is going to affect a person for four to five days, your sleep patterns, everything. It was a bit of a shock.

"Again, it was their confidence that they thought that didn't have to perform that well for us and maybe it showed in the way that they played on the day.

"It was never mentioned in the dressing-room but like that it was so publicised and didn't he win the Lotto the same week? If anything else happened, if there was a dead horse in Thurles, he would have been blamed for it as well because, as he said himself, horses wouldn't play in some of the conditions that we do.

"Again, I think he brought an awful lot of publicity on himself that he would have been better off without."