De La Salle manager Ian Flynn has added his voice to growing criticism of the current Waterford Senior Hurling Championship format, describing the run of consecutive fixtures as “very taxing” on players.

His side bounced back from last week’s defeat with a convincing 2-23 to 1-12 win over Clonea on Saturday night, producing what Flynn felt was their best 20 minutes of hurling in some time. The result secures them a preliminary quarter-final clash with Ferrybank next weekend – their sixth championship game in as many weeks.

“It’s very taxing on the players and they probably need to look at it at the end of the year,” Flynn said. “It is very hard on them and anyone gets a niggle, there’s no recovery. Training during the week is nearly non-existent – it’s very, very light – fellas’ bodies are just in bits.”

The De La Salle boss believes the championship could be restructured to give teams more recovery time, particularly as the knockout stages approach.

“I’d be definitely in for maybe a week off between games, or even play the group games and then, as it gets into knockout, have it every two weeks. They have to try and help out the players a bit better.”

Flynn acknowledged the challenge posed by Ferrybank, insisting they’ll be afforded “the same respect everyone else gets,” but stressed that recovery will be the priority in the days ahead.

“It’s a very hard week on the lads’ bodies, so we’ll just get them recovered now and get them ready for next weekend,” he said.

His comments follow similar criticism from Mount Sion manager Jamie O’Meara in recent weeks, with both calling for player welfare to be placed at the centre of any future championship scheduling decisions.

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