Members of the St Oliver Plunketts' hurling club involved with the county senior hurling panel have threatened to leave the squad due to a row over club fixtures.

The Westmeath CCC recently docked the Mullingar based club two points and fined them €500 for their failure to field in a county senior hurling championship match recently.

The fixtures committee pencilled in two championship games in the space of a few days and Plunketts felt it was unethical to play two games in the space of 48hrs, so they played and won against Crookedwood on the Sunday and refused to play Raharney the following Tuesday.

Plunketts were then handed the fine and docked the two points much to their annoyance and they have since appealed the decision.

But, now in a further twist, their county players have announced that they will not make themselves available for selection in the future.

County goalkeeper Peter Collins told the Westmeath Examiner that he had been in contact with the GPA and they had backed the players' decision.

"We've been on to the GPA about this as a matter of player welfare and they are shocked with how we have been treated," stated Collins.

"If the club decides to pay the fine, that's one matter. But the players don't believe that we should have to pay any fine, or that we should have to accept a walkover. We've been training flat out since January. We jus want to play our games, and we're the ones being punished."

Collins and dual star Ciaran Curley, Paddy Layde, Stephen Conway, Aaron Craig, Conor Lynch and Davy Gavin have all been part of the county squad this year. Tweet

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