Hubert Rigney will be a spectator when Offaly launch their All Ireland Hurling Championship challenge against Champions Kilkenny in June.

A year after injury put him out of the game,the brilliant St.Rynagh's defender has still not made peace with either his club or the Offaly county Board.

There will be no back door re entry for the losers of this Leinster semi final, so if Offaly are serious about re establishing themselves in the top rank of Championship hurling, it's about time people down in that part of the country saw sense and got talking to Rigney.

He's much too good a player to be left twiddling his thumbs, his hurley gathering dust in a corner instead of sharpeniong his game in the Allianz National League and preparing to play a major role at the heart of Offaly's defence.

Perhaps the player is not blameless but its time someone with common sense and authority knockekd a few heads together.Rigney told me yesterday ; "my fitness is perfectly o.k but I would rather not comment about anything else at the moment."

About a year ago, the brilliant centre half back suffered a chest injury which kept him out of the game for months, including vital Championship games. However he reckoned he was fit and should have been selected for the All Ireland Final against Kilkenny. He wasn't and it's now history that Kilkenny went on to win the title handsomely.

Rigney was hurt by the decision of the selectors and also felt that his club St. Rynagh's appeared not to support his case strongly enough. So he sulked and a great talent was allowed to drift into the shadows of the game.

Sportsmen in other disciplines have suffered similarly, some the victims of the politics of their particular game, others because they spolke out of turn of simply because their face did not fit or because they fell foul of some petty official with more power than was good for him.

But whatever the reasons, no matter who is to blame,leaving this man to lick his wounds, whether real or imagined, alone, reflects no credit on the noble game of hurling or those who are running it in Offaly. And after all Offaly is not a county with a bottomless reservoir of talent from which to choose.

They have already played three Allianz games with indifferent results, winning their opener against League Champions Galway, then losing to unfancied Antrim away from home. Being baten by Limerick in round three was no disgrace but there is a long way to go and much work to be done. Rigney played in none of them.

And when I spoke to him he gave absolutely no indication that he had any intention of changing his mind in the immediate future and appeared to have no interest in how the race for League honours might develop.

But like everyone else, the Championship holds a great fascination and it was no great surprise when he said ; "anyone who can get past Kilkenny will be doing well but they are great champions so it won't be easy." Would he be a part of the Offaly team to play Kilkenny" ?, "no comment."

"However" he added "there are a few teams out there like Cork and Tipperary who could beat each other bit we may know a bit more about that after the League has been decided." And by the looks of things Rigney willstill be a wallflower when the upcoming games against Clare, Dublin and Meath are played.

Twenty nine year old Rigney has been an All Star, captained Offaly when they beat Clare to win the Liam McCarthy Cup in 1988 and has also been a National League and Leinster Championship winner. And that's a pretty good C.V. by any standards, so it's a shame it looks like being truncated for lack of communication.

We are constantly being told there is little interest in the National League and that hurling generally is under seige, so it seems rather a luxury to me that Rigney could be lost to the game. It does not really matter who is to blame but I don't think the player should be left to stew in his own juice, hurling can't afford that luxury. Hundreds of players in many sports over the years have claimed full fitness only to fall down on the job later.

Perhaps Rigney was not fit enough to play in the All Ireland Final and deserved to be left out. However that's immaterial , the major point is that he's fully fit now and should be wearing the Offaly colours, I would go so far as to say its his duty to do so and its also the duty of the Offaly County Board to get this man off hisbackside and out on the field. Both sides in the dispute owe it to hurling.

© Tom Keogh 2000

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