'If a mens' Ulster Club game was handled this way there’d be uproar' - McMenamin 

Ryan McMenamin admits that sense prevailed at the Burn Road this afternoon but the Tyrone icon says it should have prevailed much, much sooner. 

His St Macartans side travelled on Sunday to take on Donegal champions Termon in what was anticipated to be a really competitive Ulster Club LGFA encounter. 

However, the Red Hand outfit were bracing themselves for a postponement for most of the lead-in as an Orange weather warning was predicted to culminate in Storm Ashley taking a firm grip on the region on Sunday afternoon.

Still, no word came and McMenamin and his players were forced to set off for a contest that, in the end, didn’t get a red flag until half an hour before the scheduled throw-in. 

“Sense prevailed,” the three-time All-Ireland winner told DonegaLive. “It’s just disappointing and for me, sometimes I just feel the LGFA just don’t do enough for the club players. They are too focused on what the county can do. 

“To be fair to the two clubs, we both asked in the lead in what was the protocol in an Orange weather warning. 

“We looked for a call to be made yesterday as we’d a bus booked for 10.15 am to travel down. We were told a decision was going to be made at 9.30 am. 

“We’d no qualms playing the game but we just didn’t know where we really stood one way or the other. Like, we’d a fantastic game down here four or five years ago so we were really looking forward to it.  

“But looking at the officials trying to kick the ball out there ten minutes ago and it’s not going past the 21m line; you have to ask how we even got to this point? 

“People higher up making the calls need to be more in touch with what’s going on. Games elsewhere have been called off with good notice. 

“And it’s a health and safety matter as much as a welfare matter when you’re talking about Orange weather alerts. 

“It’s just a respect issue for both sets of players and management teams. Termon themselves were like, ‘what are we all doing here today?’

“The LGFA just need to look after their club players a lot better. If this happened at a men’s game - at this level - there’d be uproar. 

“These girls, what they’ve put in, deserve to showcase their talents in the best and even safest environment possible.”

McMenamin accepts that Termon themselves were in a really difficult spot in taking on any kind of responsibility in making their own judgement call.

READ NEXT: Termon's Ulster LGFA Club Championship clash bites the dust just half an hour before throw-in 

As if they had, they’d have coughed up home advantage in the rescheduled s fixture. So ‘Ricey’ says the Ulster LGFA should have stepped up to the plate much sooner. 

“It shouldn’t have been up to Termon. That’s unfair as shoe on the other foot we wouldn’t want to lose home advantage either. 

“That’s why out there we were happy to say we’ll come back down the road next week as there was a real safety concern”.