‘Disappointment all round’ as MIC Thurles have Ryan Cup appeal rejected

The Mary I Thurles panel before one of their Ryan Cup fixtures this year. Photo: @mic_stpats / Twitter.

There’s ‘disappointment all round’ in MIC Thurles today as the Ryan Cup team will not be in this weekend’s semi-finals following last night’s unsuccessful appeal.

The Thurles side had appealed a ruling which saw them eliminated from the second tier third level hurling competition, despite having the same points and better score difference than Queens University and MTU Kerry, who both progressed to the semi-finals.

Due to walkover elsewhere in the group, when three teams were level on points, score difference is only calculated in games between those three teams, rather than the group as a whole.

This means MIC Thurles will not be in the Ryan Cup semi-finals this weekend.

Following last night’s unsuccessful appeal against the ruling, MIC Thurles player and Golden Kilfeacle club man Cian O’Connell explains the players reaction:

“Straight away there was a feeling of complete disappointment and just really disappointed for Cian Treacy, Mattie McGrath and Aaron McNamara who put so much into it and definitely all the players as well.

“There’s been a massive effort and a massive push put in and from the college itself have been good to us so, it’s just disappointment all round really.

“Going forward, I just wish the lads all the best for next year and I wouldn’t like to be coming up against them in the Ryan Cup as I feel they are going to be very hurt and they are going to be even stronger again next year with a couple of players coming back and a new crop of first years coming in.”