by Damian Dolan

Delegates voted overwhelming in favour of overturning the county board's own regulation that all players must play club championship before they can play for the county team, at last week's county board meeting.

The U-turn came at the behest of joint London hurling manager Tommy Harrell following St Gabriel's decision to give a walkover to Brothers Pearse two weeks ago in the second round of seeding senior championship matches - games which were introduced for this very purpose.

That decision left Harrell, and fellow manager Matthew Fitzsimon, facing the prospect of going into the Leinster Championship without six members of their National League panel - Eoin Kelly, PJ Rowe, Kevin Walsh, Luke Hands and Enda Cooney of Gabriel's and Brother Pearse's Stephen Frawley.

"It would have been a devastating blow. Up to last week we only had 24 players on the panel and three of them are injured (Brian Regan, Maurice Lynch and Dave Egan), so it would have left us with grave difficulty fielding a team."

The regulation, 16 (d), was brought in by London to try and ensure that any player who played for the county team was also committing to play championship for their London club in the same year.

The U-turn, however, means that any player who played club championship in London in 2013 can now play for the county team this year, without having to play club championship in 2014. However, that would then leave them free to transfer home once their involvement with the county team has ended.

Last year saw Robert Emmetts lost seven players from their panel once London's All Ireland SHC campaign ended, and it's believed that some members of the current London hurling panel are intending to transfer home.

New players into the county this year must still play club championship to become eligible. Tweet

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