O'Halloran: I was humiliated

March 14, 2015

Clare's David O'Halloran and Stephen Maher of Tipperary during the Waterford Crystal Cup Quarter-Final at Sixmilebridge. INPHO

Axed Clare hurler Davy O'Halloran has accused Davy Fitzgerald of humiliating him.

O'Halloran and fellow 2013 All-Ireland medalist Nicky O'Connell left the panel this week after they were asked to train alone in a corner of a pitch for a breach in discipline.

Eire Og clubman O'Halloran - who could now link up with the Clare footballers - told The Irish Times than neither he nor O'Connell were prepared to accept such draconian measures, which also saw them denied access to the team's dressing-rooms and being not allowed to be part of match-day squads.

"I had a strained hamstring so I wasn't able to train anyway so that's why I was out, I definitely wouldn't have been out if I could have featured against Galway. And I wasn't drinking." says O'Halloran said of the discipline breach before the Banner's Allianz League opener against Galway.

"Myself and Nicky O'Connell were out two nights before the Galway game and the two of us were actually injured at the time and we weren't drinking. We met one of our trainers out and he said he would say it back to the captain about us being out and we just said fair enough.

"Davy wasn't told until after the Cork game because they didn't want to tell him until after the two league games so they waited until we had our week's break.

"He then called a meeting on the Tuesday night in the dressing room, he called it out in front of everyone [the punishments].

"While all of this was happening another senior player told Nicky that he'd had a meeting with one of the selectors who told him he knew that he was drinking but he wasn't going to say anything about it.

"We just thought it was double standards, one rule for us and a different rule for someone else just because he was a pivotal part of the team and we weren't at the time basically."

O'Halloran added:  "A lot of the lads aren't happy, see lads are too scared to stand up to him.

"I just didn't see myself being there knowing that I was getting treated differently to another player - and if we were running around a pitch for three weeks we would have missed the whole league campaign and we wouldn't have had much of a hope of making it into a championship team."

The Clare management has so far refused to comment on the claims.


Most Read Stories