John O'Mahony has asked the GAA to make a decision to either save or get rid of the M Donnelly Interprovincial series, after the concerning slump the competitions experienced this year. Due to some players commitments with the Irish International Rules squad in Australia, many of the country's best players could not line out for their province and O'Mahony, who was managing Connacht's footballers this year, believes the time has come for the Association to make a decision on the competitions. "The GAA were not helping the competition when it directly clashes with the Australian Compromise Rules tour. "While an international cap is welcome and the bonds with Australia are important the Railway Cup is suffering. "This year it has been very badly hit because players are gone abroad playing a game that isn't even Gaelic Football. The Railway Cup is in limbo at the moment. Something should be done to either save it or get rid of it." During the games, several players were still tied to commitments with their clubs in their respective club and provincial championships, which saw the likes of Kerry pair Declan O'Sullivan and Darran O'Sullivan unable to line out for Munster, and O'Mahony has sided with the idea of Ulster boss Joe Kernan to play the finals in conjunction with the club championship finals on St Patrick's day. "We didn't even know when the final would be played until after the semi-final," he admitted. "Joe Bergin had to come on as a sub on Saturday night and that man had already played in an important club fixture earlier in the afternoon. One of our caching staff stopped for petrol in Portloaise where nobody seemed to be aware that the finals were being played up the road. Over the suggestion of the hurling and football deciders being played in Thurles and Croke Park in March, the Mayo boss said: "At least let us have some serious debate on the issue, without the managers, as they don't listen to us anyway." Tweet

Most Read Stories