U21 player workload is ‘madness’, says Ollie Moran
Moran’s Ahane clubmate Tom Morrissey and Doon pair Richie English and Darragh O’Donovan, all members of last year’s All-Ireland U21 winning team, face a gauntlet of games this month.
After the trio were involved in Saturday’s Division 1B win over Wexford, Morrissey found himself opposing English and O’Donovan in an U21 championship game on Monday. Although English and O’Donovan did not feature in Mary I’s Fitzgibbon Cup quarter-final win over GMIT on Tuesday, forward Morrissey was in the UL team that toppled CIT yesterday.
Prior to Saturday in the Gaelic Grounds, the trio had lined out twice in the Fitzgibbon Cup this month and are expected to be involved again when TJ Ryan’s men face Kerry on Sunday. Another round of U21 championship games is scheduled for midweek next week and the Fitzgibbon Cup weekend on February 26 and 27. But for suspension, Cian Lynch would have faced the same schedule.
“It’s madness and grossly unfair,” said Moran, who bemoans the lack of coordination between the three commitments placed on the players. “The nature of the Fitzgibbon Cup is different to the way it was 15 or 20 years ago and now that it’s on a league basis you’re incurring more games. It’s the same with our own U21 championship. Anyone I have spoken to thinks it’s absolute madness especially as we’re the current U21 All-Ireland champions and our best U21 players are being showcased in February and March. It makes no sense.
“To be fair to our county board, there are issues coming down the tracks as regards the club championship games being played around April/May time. But one thing is just leading to a back-up in everything else. There’s no point in giving out about the county board because I’m sure they would come up with the argument there’s no other time-frame to have the games.
“Because the inter-county season is so elongated, the temptation is to try and get these championships played off before the inter-county season gets into full swing. Then clubs are effectively hamstrung anyway. But this just proves the point that the player is at the bottom of the food chain in terms of welfare.”
Moran regrets fixtures weren’t within the remit of the Hurling 2020 committee he served on in 2014.
“Is the U21 championship one too many? Does the Fitzgibbon Cup need to be pared back to its original knockout format? Do the (national) leagues need to be pushed forward? It’s just fixtures mayhem and that’s the bottom line.”
He agrees providing clubs and counties with exclusive blocks of the calendar is vital.
