Oh yeah the split season has very little to do with the travails of Leinster football. In a bygone era that Offaly U20 winning team would translate into a very promising senior team with the likes of Jack Bryant and Cormac Egan leading the charge. I saw The Examiner trying to hype up the victory against Laois as a coming of age performance from them but Iâd classify that as hyperbole. Iâd love to see the likes of an Offaly come again though.
Kildare didnât build on the 2018 U20 success thus far. Hopefully the 23â winning crop develop better. Meath looked to have a great minor team in 2021 when they beat that highly touted Tyrone team but the U20 results since wouldnât fill you with optimism. They lost to Laois last year for instance.
The age change for u21 and minor is a major factor. It might not seem a lot but from a physical perspective its huge. In the long/medium term young lads lose interest after being moved into senior prematurely and getting their arses handed to them. Its the same in hurling. Youâll get lads disagreeing with me but if cork dont make at least a Munster final and/or an all Ireland semi. youâll get lads who will unfortunately walk away.
Theyâll probably make the argument that it will flush itself out and even up in a couple of years. But it will be too late by then and young lads will turn to the likes of rugby and soccer. Its just too big a step.
I know we have the bit of banter about Limerick but as a young 20 year old coming up against the likes of hayes or hegarty even if its only a league or pre season game, shur heâd be ate alive.
Very true. The interest levels have decreased significantly too since the change in age grades. Quite a few counties have reverted back to U18 for minor at club level (Wexford, Carlow, Westmeath) this season. The argument that changing minor to U17 avoids a clash with the Leaving Cert is outdated too. The majority of young lads do TY these days so theyâre almost 19 by the time they complete the LC. A large number of Leaving Certs actually end up on U20 county panels. Adam Screeney a prime example of this, playing an U20 All-Ireland final just days before his Leaving commenced.
The change is underage grades and the nonsense Sam Maguire round robin are my two main gripes with the current GAA structures.
Young lads are too slow to grow up now but Limerickâs emphasis on building Rubby League players certainly hasnât helped.
Not many 18 year olds even make an impact in Club Hurling now. When i was in Transition Year in School there were loads of lads breaking onto Club Senior teams in their first year out of U16 and it provided healthy competition among lads to grow up.
Whats happening already is that inter county teams are using the new minor and u20 as nothing more than fillers. Theyâre not really interested in either winning an ai or a provincial championship. Theyâll take what they think is prepared to make a commitment, lock em up in a gym for a year and have them train with the seniors. Lads on about Dublin and Limerick having nothing coming through due to the fact that theyâre not winning at underage. Give it two years and some of those specimans that we think were a failure at under age will be completely different animals
I dont see one single person defending the split season on tfk anymore? Has the tide turned in terms of support for it or are itâs supporters just being battered into submission by the lads incessant hyperbole?
It needs to be all put back 2/3 weeks with the all Ireland club finals played off in January/February the following year.
The new February bank holiday could be a niche weekend for the club finals.
The new problem is there are too many games in this silly round robin championship designed by Ger Gilroy and his team on OTB.
The hurling round robins have been a relative success in one sense but we arenât really getting the best 6 teams left in the championship in the way the old structure generally did.
The Munster championship now has 11 games instead of 4/5 so itâs a huge cash cow that I cannot see the Munster council or GAA relinquishing.
The change in underage grades has been an abomination but the problem is the likes of Kev and his sports science gurus wonât allow 16/17 year olds play adult hurling so we have to keep minor at u17 for rural clubs.
Clare have got their act together at underage so there will always be 4 teams in Munster for the foreseeable. The new system doesnât suit Waterford who are behind at underage and have a smaller playing pool.
The biggest danger to the current round robin system is if Wexford/Dublin go backwards and Offaly/Laois etc cannot reach the mid tier level.
I donât think thereâs as much resistance to it in hurling and I think that itâs the format in football more so than anything. That said pushing the whole thing back a minimum of two weeks would probably work better. Championship is now competing with the climax of the premiership, European rugby, champions league to name but three. You also have the added problem of aif semi finals and finals being played at peak holiday season thus affecting attendances.
Nothing wrong with waterfords performances In the last 3 non round Robin all Ireland hurling championships. Two all Ireland finals and one semi final loss to Limerick.
Almost like If itâs not their underage results but more
The semi professional structure of the season where they get stretched resourced wise
I think it is ridiculous playing underage hurling competitions early in shitty weather though. Let the football off thatâs only for mullockers anyway.
