Johnston saga comes to a close

As exclusively revealed in The Anglo-Celt on March 1, Sean Johnston will not be lining out with Kildare in 2012. The Cavan Gaels player ended a five-month saga when he failed to lodge an appeal to the Disputes Resolution Authority by last week's deadline. Having repeatedly stressed that he now resides in Straffan, Co Kildare, it is not clear if Johnston's commitment to Cavan Gaels will now be in doubt. The 27-year-old faces a 160-mile commute to play with his home club having been denied the chance to line out for St Kevin's in Staplestown, a club whose chairman had stated the player was "committed to playing for". "As far as I'm concerned, Cavan Gaels have signed off on it," stated Johnston on February 5 after a training session with St Kevin's. "They know I'm living down here at this stage. Unfortunately Cavan have put in an objection so we'll have to wait and see what Croke Park says. "I don't think there should be any problem, the fact I'm living down here and moved clubs. I was told I had to move clubs, I've done that, so there should be no issue." Cavan county board PRO insisted that the issue is done with as far as he is concerned. "We'd hope that Seanie comes back and plays with his club and look forward to seeing him there," he said. "We didn't expect that this would end any other way," said Woods. "From the sound bites that we got, including from the media, the word was this wasn't going to go through. It's a non-story for us now. Nobody is talking about it."