Not right for GAA to demand such effort at exam time
Girls who had received three Grade As in their A-levels were just about scraping a prize. The top of the list was dominated by pupils who had received a plethora of A stars (whatever they are).
When one of the award winners received her trophy, the man-with-the-mike noted she also played soccer for Northern Ireland. Evidently, she was one of the few top achievers who combined studies with sport. Think now of your average county minor. He will spend September to February training with his school team. When that competition is over, he’ll hook up with the county minors.
As he prepares for the most important exams of his life, he will be expected to train two or three times a week. While our minors spend three hours training those Belfast girls will be bent over their books. Is it any surprise that so few doctors have played inter-county football? To use some old school maths terminology, well-paid medical careers and inter-county football don’t seem to go.
So, the question that needs to be asked is this: is it fair of the GAA to demand such commitment from boys sitting exams that will dictate the rest of their lives? Of course, it’s not the same everywhere. For instance, by way of recognising the pressure on Leaving Cert students, Donegal, Monaghan and Cavan do not play Ulster Minor Championship games in June. In Connacht, Leinster and Munster, there are back doors in the provincial minor championships. Losing a first round game isn’t a massive deal. Teams get another chance.
The exception, as always, is the good old six counties, where absolutely no accommodation is provided for lads sitting A levels.
However, Croke Park wants to change this situation. GAA President Liam O’Neill is a strong advocate of reducing the minor grade to U17. The change would allow final years students, to concentrate exclusively on their coursework and exams. A motion, which proposed this alteration, was withdrawn from Congress recently. It was believed the idea hadn’t been discussed enough, and a wider, more intense debate was required.
Congress made a good decision. To date, the standard of the debate has been deplorable. Typically, Ulster is saying no. But that notion is based on sound bites in the media. Last week The Irish News canvassed county players. To a man, they were all against the new idea. Tyrone minor manager Mickey Donnelly has also voiced his opposition.
But the debate needs to be widened. More voices need to be heard.
We need to hear the opinions of parents. If a particular university course required four ‘A stars’ would you encourage your son to spend two evenings a week with a county minor squad? Those who are against reducing the age to 17 have claimed the move would leave too big a gap between minor and U21 grade. I have one question to the people who expound this nonsense: what parallel GAA planet are you living on? Down here on earth, U21 football is a joke. At club level, it doesn’t really exist. Clubs don’t have U21 squads. The competition is run off as an afterthought.
At inter-county level, the Ulster U21 championship is a Wednesday night affair, run off over four weeks. The minor and senior championships take at least nine weeks to complete. The guff about the gap between minor and U21s is best ignored.
A major problem facing the GAA is the high dropout rate which occurs once players reach 18. Too old for the minors but not good enough for the club senior team, thousands drift away from the GAA. Many never kick a ball again.
Reducing the minor age to U17 would exacerbate this problem. That’s why the GAA must put a lot more thought into this proposal.
If the GAA wants to limit the minor grade to U17s, then it needs to consider introducing an U23 grade. This would serve all the young players who aren’t making the senior team. For this idea to work, the U23 grade would have to replace reserve football.
Unless the GAA is prepared to countenance new, properly-run competitions to accommodate players too old for an U17 grade, then it should abandon this proposal immediately.
That is not to say everything should be left untouched if the minor grade remains at U18 level. Major reforms are still required.
Strictly speaking, this is a player-welfare issue. With the exception of people who own property or land, education still remains the best route to higher wages and better job security.
At present, the GAA is giving huge prominence to a competition played at a time of year when most of the participants are undertaking the most important exams they’ll ever do.
That doesn’t make much sense. Even if the minor grade remains at U18, the competition should be shifted to a different place in the calendar. If the provincial U21 championship can be played over four weeks, surely the minor could be completed when the exams are over? Remove some of the prestige attached to the minor championship and it will not take long before the commitment asked of the players is also reduced.
We live in a competitive world. The best universities and courses require the highest grades. If the GAA genuinely cares about its young players, it should design its minor competition to allow them represent their counties and flourish at their exams.
That’s not happening now, and it is time those opposed to the status quo entered the debate.
