Offaly hurler Brian Carroll has blasted his own county board for entering into a home and away arrangement with Wexford. The counties agreed to toss a coin for home advantage for last month's Leinster SHC quarter-final with Wexford Park earning the right to stage the game, though the next provincial meeting will be in O'Connor Park. But that's no consolation to Carroll, who feels an opportunity was lost as Offaly crashed to a 0-16 to 2-17 defeat. "Home advantage stood to Wexford at times (in that match)," he said at yesterday's Croke Park launch of the VHI Summer Cúl Camps. "While we are not going to make excuses - they were better than us on the day - it was a big ask for us, and the county board will have to look at themselves as to why they gave away home advantage. "Championship hurling is hard enough without having to go to someone's back garden. I can understand from a logistics point of view in the qualifiers, maybe, but when it comes to the Leinster championship, these matches against Wexford, Kilkenny, Laois or Dublin - we might play them every third or fourth year. I don't see where this advantage is, that 'oh, you will get them at home the next time, whenever the next time is'. "These opportunities might not come around for years. It is not like it (the championship) is run on a league basis where you can get tit for tat over one season. To me it is a ridiculous situation. It is a pure monetary situation. It is not for the benefit of players, certainly not. It was a county board decision, an agreement between the two county boards." Ironically, under the arrangement, the Offaly footballers would have had home advantage against Wexford had they managed to beat Kildare in the first round of the Leinster championship. The counties will now meet on July 4, but because it's in the All-Ireland qualifiers and Wexford were the first name drawn, they will have home advantage. Tweet

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