Potential dilemma on the horizon for Limerick's young stars

Limerick U20s’ Munster Round 4 game against Tipperary on April 21 is in the same seven-day block as the seniors’ Munster opener against Waterford in Thurles on April 23.

DOUBLING UP: Limerick's Shane O'Brien with Adam Hogan of Clare. Pic: ©INPHO/Evan Treacy

Senior and U20 inter-county managers are busy weighing up the availability of their counties’ most promising players as a new rule has relaxed eligibility requirements.

As the U20 provincial championships begin this week, Wexford’s successful motion at Congress last month has allowed for more U20 players to play for both their senior and under-age teams.

A player can now line out once for either the senior or U20 teams in the seven-day period from Friday morning to the following Thursday night. A substitute appearance is considered as having played a game.

Waterford pair Mark Fitzgerald of Passage and Ballygunner’s Patrick Fitzgerald will be prominent U20 players when they begin their Munster campaign against Limerick in Dungarvan on Wedbesday evening. 

Defender Mark Fitzgerald has started league games for the seniors while Patrick Fitzgerald, selected on the 2022-23 club hurling team of the year, has come off the bench in games.

They obviously did not travel with the rest of the senior panel to Portugal on Tuesday for their five-day training camp, while their final U20 Munster round game against Tipperary on April 28 falls in the same seven-day window as the seniors’ provincial SHC Round 2 clash with Cork in Páirc Uí Chaoimh two days later.

Although both Adam English and Shane O’Brien have been used by John Kiely in this year’s Allianz Hurling League, they were not involved against Wexford in TUS Gaelic Grounds last Sunday, even though they could have played in both it and Wednesday's U20 game in Fraher Field as the seniors’ fixture was not in the championship.

Where there might be a dilemma is next month as the U20s’ Munster Round 4 game against Tipperary on April 21 is in the same seven-day block as the seniors’ Munster opener against Waterford in Thurles on April 23.

In Ulster, Tyrone starlet Ruairí Canavan is available for the seniors in their crucial Allianz Division 1 final round game against Armagh, and the 19-year-old will captain the county’s U20s in their Ulster quarter-final against Down next Wednesday.

Should Tyrone’s U20s win that game, their semi-final is on Wednesday, April 12, which is four days before the seniors’ provincial opener against Monaghan. As that latter game is in a new window, he would be eligible to play both matches.

Last year, Limerick’s Cathal O’Neill and Cork centre-back Ciarán Joyce were high-profile hurlers who missed out on U20 games due to the previous eligibility rule, in O’Neill’s case the narrow U20 All-Ireland final defeat to Kilkenny.