Former Wexford All-Ireland winner Tom Dempsey said he believes Offaly should not be relegated from the Leinster hurling championship.
Offaly were demoted to the Joe McDonagh Cup for the 2019 championship after being pummelled by Pat Gilroy's Dublin in Parnell Park, their fourth defeat in four weeks.
As a consequence, they will not compete for the Bob O'Keeffe Cup in 2019. They will step down to the second tier competition, the Joe McDonagh Cup, which still, as it happens, offers the winner a route to the Liam Mac Carthy Cup via a game against the third placed side from one of the provinces.
At present, Westmeath, Carlow and Antrim are still in the mix to replace Offaly in the 2019 Leinster championship.
Many pundits have fretted that demotion will be highly damaging to Offaly hurling, with Liam Sheedy, the chair of the committee which devised the new structure, floating the idea that the provinces expand to six teams for next year.
However, speaking on The Sunday Game on RTÉ2 last night, Ger Loughnane said there was a PR campaign in swing to rescue Offaly's top tier status, one which was "disrespectful" to the Joe McDonagh counties. Loughnane argued that Offaly had simply found their present level in the Joe McDonagh Cup and they could actually benefit from a period of re-grouping in the lower tier.
Speaking on Morning Ireland on RTÉ Radio 1 today, Tom Dempsey said he was hostile to the idea of relegating Offaly, stressing that their rebuilding job would potentially be harmed by being outside the Leinster championship.
"I'm very much in the camp that they shouldn't be relegated out of the Leinster championship," he told Darren Frehill.
"I know on the Sunday Game last night there were Munster men giving very good reasons why they should.
"But if you want to rebuild Offaly hurling, I think it's very important that they're in the Leinster championship next year.
"I was reading Johnny Dooley at the weekend (where he said players might opt out if Offaly go down). I think we need to listen to what they're saying in Offaly. I do believe that there are a small enough group of hurling counties playing for the Liam Mac Carthy.
"I think we need to look at that and take advice from the people who are actually affected by it."
8.30 Morning Ireland sports bulletin - Tom Dempsey tells Darren Frehill he's in the camp that says Offaly shouldn't be relegated pic.twitter.com/3obcvMcT7j
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) June 4, 2018
