Brennan still backs O’Byrne Cup as Carlow and Dublin withdraw

DESPITE the withdrawals of the Dublin and Carlow senior footballers, the O’Byrne Cup has not been devalued as a competition, according to Leinster Council chairman Nicky Brennan.

Dublin decided only last week to field an U21 selection against Wicklow on January 2 instead of their senior squad after the late appointment of Paul Caffrey as senior manager.

That decision was severely criticised by Wicklow, who were anticipating a large crowd for the fixture in Aughrim, but now Carlow have gone a step further by withdrawing completely from the traditional season curtain-raiser in Leinster.

Brennan accepted yesterday that he would rather see all counties field strong senior panels but claimed the Council was not alarmed or angered by the Carlow or Dublin decisions.

“We’re very flexible on all this, to be honest. We got a formal letter (yesterday) from Carlow to say they wouldn’t be playing in the competition, having made that decision at their convention over the weekend,” he said.

“We would have liked to have got notification earlier but we’re not about to make a big deal about it.

“The same with Dublin. In fairness to them, they could have dropped out of the tournament altogether but decided to play their U21s instead and that’s fine by us. They obviously have one eye on the U21 championship that starts a few months after that and I can imagine there’s a good few young Dublin lads looking to make a name for themselves in the O’Byrne Cup.”

The O’Byrne, McGrath and Dr McKenna Cups - as well as Connacht’s FBD League - are all well-established season openers around the provinces by now but, with more and more teams taking January holidays, the quality of sides and standard of play has suffered at times.

“That’s something you have to accept,” said Brennan.

“Basically, the main purpose of the tournament is to help teams prepare for the season and the O’Byrne Cup is certainly better than trying to go around organising a load of challenge matches.”

The most disappointing aspect of the recent withdrawals is that it is the GAA’s player hardship fund that will suffer. All gate receipts from O’Byrne Cup games go to the fund designed to help players of all levels who find themselves in need of some financial assistance.

The problems tend to be cyclical however, and Carlow and Dublin will certainly be praying that it won’t be late winter again the next time they finally get around to appointing a new manager.

With the colleges entering the draw for the first time last year the tournament is still evolving and the 2004 competition was perhaps the most memorable yet.

“It took on a life of its own last season when Mr Ó Sé came up from the other end of the country and the gates in Mullingar almost had to be locked for the final,” said Brennan of the decider between Meath and neighbours Westmeath.

“That was a bit of a freak year, to be fair, but the O’Byrne Cup can often serve as a good indicator for the league or championships to come.”