Ban on college inter-county players would be ’unthinkable’

Kilkenny’s Cillian Buckley has warned any ban on inter-county players playing in the Sigerson and Fitzgibbon Cups would devalue both competitions and threaten third-level sponsorships currently being offered to him and many others.

Buckley is on a scholarship at UCD, where he is part of their elite sports academy, and while he agrees something must be done to combat the excessive demands on some younger players, he finds the idea of such a ban unthinkable.

“That would be affected,” he said of his scholarship. “They would definitely be affected if we were to lose our profile playing there. Hopefully that doesn’t happen.”