GAA and the art of ageing gracefully - if not relatively!

Kieran Shannon reflects on the ever growing importance of the Relative Age Effect in  underage sport.

Last Saturday, the same day that we wrote about just how much it helps to be born in the early part of the year to ever play for the Irish national soccer team, the 2017 Munster Hurler of the Year, Mark Coleman, celebrated his 20th birthday.

While the matchday squad that lost 5-1 to Denmark in the recent World Cup play-off didn’t feature a single Irish-born player born in the last four months of the year, the hurling year’s outstanding newcomer was blowing out the candles on December 23, a birthday he must have cursed at times growing up for being eight days short of the January 1 cutoff point.