Rory Jacob responds to criticism
Rory Jacob responds to criticism
Rory Jacob responds to criticism
Wexford and Oulart-the-Ballagh hurler Rory Jacob has responded to criticism of his club in a series of tweets.
Jacob's club were defeated by Mount Leinster Rangers in the AIB Leinster GAA Senior Club Hurling final on Sunday - the fourth year in a row they have lost in the decider.
Oulart-the-Ballagh have never won the Leinster Championship in their history, and as well as being their fourth final defeat in succession, Sunday's loss was their sixth overall in provincial finals.
The defeat prompted plenty of criticism about the club's performance from various commentators, but in a series of tweets from his own personal account, Jacob (30) has responded in detail.
"Over the last few days I have heard comments and listened to comments from respected people who know the game and I respect their views on the reasons why we did not perform as a group on Sunday," Jacob wrote.
"However some of the guff being written and said about our group of players over the last few days both nationally and locally by people who have never even played the game or use their position of power in the media to get digs in at people has been nothing short of a scandal."
Jacob emphasised what Oulart-the-Ballagh have achieved over the years, and highlighted the fact that they have won eight Wexford senior titles since 2004.
"Wexford hurling in general would be in a very dark place were it not for the efforts of our club. We have produced some of the best players ever to wear the purple and gold and given young people in the county heroes to look up to and aspire to be," he went on. "We have raised the bar in Wexford club hurling and it has forced other clubs to up their own standards to stay up with us, which a good few of them have.
"Our achievements in winning our own county championship have been belittled by small minded bitter people who have not only shown a lack of respect for us but also other great hurling teams in Wexford who have pushed us to the limit to achieve anything we have achieved in our own county.
"Our character and bottle has been questioned over the last few days. It takes bottle and character to get to 10 county finals in a row winning 8. It takes bottle and character to win 5 county championships in a row. Something no other club in Wexford has ever done. It takes bottle and character to get to 4 Leinster club finals in a row and to be beaten in them all and still come back for more."
He was full of praise for Mount Leinster Rangers and commended them on their victory, but said Oulart-the-Ballagh would stick together and try and come back stronger again.
"We are hurting this week more than ever before we let ourselves down on Sunday with our performance and we are all very well aware of that. It's very easy to sit in the stand or in a sitting room or hide behind a mobile phone or computer and cast aspersions on people's character, we have to live with Sunday's result and with the results of the last few years for the rest of our lives, we are better than our performance showed but we can't change it now.
"All we can do is lick our wounds regroup stick together as a team and attempt to come back stronger and better than before. Mt Leinster Rangers deserved their victory on Sunday and fair play to them they took their chance when it arose and the best of good luck to them."
