Mayo want U-21 grade

No Mayo support for scrapping of U-21 grade

Edwin McGreal

LAST week’s publication of the GAA’s Report of the Task Force on Player Burnout draws some alarming and frightening conclusions which should inform future handling of elite GAA players. However, it is the subsequent proposals listed in line with the findings that will cause the greatest immediate controversy.
The plan to replace the Minor and U-21 championships at inter-county level and replace them with an U-19 championship for a suggested two year trial period in 2009 and 2010 is the nucleus of the proposals and likely to be the largest stumbling block.
Mayo senior football manager, John O’Mahony, admits that there certainly is a burnout problem but argues that there are far less radical solutions than simply scrapping one grade of competition.
“The biggest problem is the congestion of fixtures in February, March and April where you can have players playing U-21 and National League with their county and Sigerson Cup with their college. As a county senior manager I would have absolutely no problem if U-21 players who were also in the senior squad were not allowed to play in the National League until the U-21 team was out of the championship,” he told The Mayo News.
Mayo U-21 manager Pat Holmes, who worked closely with O’Mahony in the past year in terms of accommodating players involved at both senior and U-21 levels, also feels that there are many other ways around the problem.
“Problems are created where everyone wants their pound of flesh. A Sigerson manager might want a player training on Tuesday and Thursday, the county senior manager might want the same player on the Wednesday, and the U-21 manager might want him on the Friday.
“My position with players involved in multiple squads was that as long as they were getting quality training done then it didn’t matter if they were with us. We wanted them for one or two challenge games and then only for training on the week of championship,” added Holmes, stressing that this philosophy needed to become widespread.
The Moygownagh native also made the point that several Mayo players made their county bow at U-21 level and to take this grade away would deny counties an extremely valuable chance to shine, if they had not made the grade at Minor.
“By getting rid of the grade you are depriving so many lads of the chance to play county football. If you look through the years an awful lot of Mayo U-21’s never played Minor and went onto star with the seniors, guys like James Nallen, David Brady, Noel Connelly, Kevin Cahill... there’s lots of them.
“The U-21 grade is ideal for those who don’t develop aged 16 or 17 but do aged 18 or 19. This Task Force is missing the point and I don’t know what they are trying to achieve.”
Ray Dempsey is looking at the proposals from a different perspective, that of an inter-county Minor manager set to see that grade change to U-19. The reports purports that changing the level from U-18 to U-19 will ease the pressure on teenagers in their Leaving Cert year and provide a better bridge to the senior grade.
Dempsey is somewhat sceptical.
“Reading the report a lot of things strike me. Mainly that if the competition goes to U-19 what difference does that make to a good 18 year old? He’s still going to be playing schools, club and U-19 with the county so this new grade won’t limit his football, as it suggests it might.
“You can have a lot of U-19’s doing their Leaving Cert. as well and problems can be compounded by the fact that you’ll have half of your panel in college and the rest in school so preparations won’t be easy. The proposal that U-19’s shouldn’t be allowed play senior inter-county football is a good one though. Stuff like that makes sense and I think there is huge merit in bringing in a code of conduct with rules and regulations as to what can and can’t be done with players.”
The Task Force was chaired by Dr Pat O’Neill and among its 12 members are former Mayo manager Mickey Moran and John Tobin, Games Manager of the Connacht Council.