The Clare County Board has decided to appeal the suspensions handed down to four of their players by the GAA's Central Hearings Committee as a result of the fracas that took place prior to the Guinness Munster Hurling Championship quarter-final clash with Cork in Semple Stadium.
The matter was debated at a meeting last night and the decision to appeal was taken, but the threat to withdraw from this year's Championship appears to have dissipated.
Clare County Board chairman Michael McDonagh had suggested prior to the meeting that the county would withdraw from this year's Championship in protest at the bans.
But Clare manager Tony Considine, speaking with RTÉ's Martin Kiely, confirmed his side have no intention of withdrawing from the Championship and was critical of the role played by McDonagh.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, Considine insisted: 'We were preparing the team (on Tuesday) evening in Cusack Park and somebody sent a text to somebody that this was said by the County Chairman. Now, there was no consultation whatsoever with me as manager of this team or the players as regards this, and I can assure you we’re not pulling out of any Championship. The players and management are not pulling out of any Championship.
'I believe that the chairman went on a solo here himself. We’re definitely not pulling out of the Championship. We know we’ve a tough game against a good Antrim team up there, we know we’ll be down a few players but no, no way were we pulling out of the Championship. We’re actually looking forward to the rest of the Championship.
'If the chairman is really worried about us having players missing, maybe he should have a look at the Senior Club Championship in Clare that’s going ahead next week. If he could see his way to calling off that, where we could have more injuries to county players, maybe then that would be more in his line to do something like that, rather than talking about us pulling out of the Championship.'
The Cork County Board have not revealed if they will appeal or not, but Gerald McCarthy has named his side to play Waterford on Sunday.
