DJ Carey: Lowering minor age limit will only cause more problems

KILKENNY hurling legend DJ Carey has warned of increased levels of burnout in young players following the decision to change the age of the minor intercounty grade to U17 from 2018.

And Carey believes he would not have featured on Kilkenny’s All- Ireland minor winning team in 1988 if the U17 rule applied then.

Carey explained that an extra year’s development from 17 to 18 years of age allowed him enough time to catch up physically with his peers. And Carey says lowering the age limit from U18 will result in bigger problems for young players thrust into development squads earlier than he believes they should be.Carey also warned some young players will drop out of Gaelic Games because of the potential to win too much, too soon.

He explained: “A lot of sports are promoting All-Ireland titles too young.

“Go back to my own sport of handball – I’ve seen lads winning U13, U14 and then giving it up. It’s too much success, too early. Secondly, there’s a massive difference between 17 and 18.

“You have development squads all over the country and now that’s all going to start a year earlier, with lads starting on weights and nutrition.

“I’m not sure how overly well thought out of all of this is. You can’t get burned out by games but you can by the amount of physical work you do.

“You’ll now see young players, instead of being physically strong and having that extra year between 17 and 18, you’ll see them nearly at that level at 16 and 17. That’s wrong and guys will have to be physically stronger and faster at a younger age.

“If this new rule was in when I was playing, I would not have played minor for Kilkenny. It took me that extra year to 18 to get me physically bigger than what I was.”

Meanwhile Joe Brolly claims the Dublin minor footballers have already encouraged their players not to take a mark in the Leinster minor league because it carries no benefit. The provincial under-age competition has been the test case for the new rule, which was voted in at Congress last Saturday.

Brolly, though, has called the mark “ugly” and says he was told by Dublin minor football selector Ciarán Whelan their team has already abandoned it.

“The Dublin minors trialled it for the last four weeks,” he told the Sean O’Rourke Show on RTÉ Radio yesterday. “I was speaking to Ciarán Whelan and he says it’s a disaster. It slows the game down, you only get five seconds to take the free if the referee actually hears you calling for the mark. If you don’t take it within the five seconds, the ball is thrown up.”