Red Hand demands allegiance from student stars

THE county versus college row has escalated in Ulster with Tyrone and Antrim making their student players unavailable to the third level teams for next month’s McKenna Cup.

Universities and colleges are entitled to have first call on the footballers for the pre-season provincial competition.

However, it is understood Tyrone’s student panel members have signed a document pledging their allegiance to the county for their games against Antrim, Fermanagh and Queens University.

At least two of Antrim’s players have told their university they will be lining out for the county in the same group.

Tyrone manager Mickey Harte and Antrim’s Liam Bradley were unavailable for comment.

Derry boss John Brennan has no problem making his students available to their third level teams — “we’re not as badly punished as we were last year when we had 11 tied up” — while Armagh manager Paddy O’Rourke said they will “let the players do what they want to do“.

Harte will now be able to call on the likes of Peter Harte, Sean O’Neill and Matthew Donnelly for their preparations ahead of the Allianz Division 2.

While reiterating universities have priority on the county players in the McKenna Cup, Ulster Council chairman Aogan Farrell said counties can make agreements with colleges to have their players made available to them.

“We have rules and regulations with the McKenna Cup and we haven’t deviated from them,” said O’Farrell.

“The universities have first call on the players but if there are arrangements between the county and college then we have no problem.”

In 2007, Tyrone were docked two points for fielding four players who had already been chosen for the competition by their respective university teams. Despite the deduction, they won the competition before they were stripped of the title because the university players hadn’t been listed on the team-sheet.

However, they were handed back the trophy after successfully appealing the Ulster Council’s decision.

The county versus college row is not confined to Ulster. Earlier this year, Kildare manager Kieran McGeeney claimed some college teams were blackmailing players not to play with their counties.

Interestingly, neither Emmet Bolton nor Gary White lined out for DIT in this past season’s Sigerson Cup.