Clare to challenge U20 eligibility requirements

CHALLENGE: Clare are to challenge the GAA’s decision to amend Wexford’s successful motion to ease the eligibility requirements for U20 and senior inter-county players. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Clare are to challenge the GAA’s decision to amend Wexford’s successful motion to ease the eligibility requirements for U20 and senior inter-county players.

On Tuesday evening, Clare will put their case in front of the Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA) that Central Council went beyond interpreting Wexford’s proposal.

The motion, as passed at Congress in Croke Park in February, would have allowed a player to line out once for either the senior or U20 teams in the seven-day period from Friday to the following Thursday night.

In essence, a player could have lined out for the U20s on a Wednesday or Thursday before being available to the seniors the following weekend. On the other hand, he would not have been able to do it in reverse, that is play senior at the weekend before the midweek U20 game.

Central Council last month voted to change the rule, transforming it into a rolling seven-day window whereby a player could only play for one team in that period.

The matter is a pressing one for Clare as their U20 hurling captain Adam Hogan is due to play against Cork in their provincial championship in Cusack Park on Wednesday and the seniors open their Munster campaign at home to Tipperary also in Ennis on Sunday.

In their defence, the GAA will be expected to highlight Central Council is, according to Rule 3.43 (a), “the supreme governing body of the Association between Annual Congresses” and (b) “it is the final authority to interpret the rules” and “any such Interpretations shall have the force of Rule until the Congress held in the Calendar Year after the Interpretation being given, and which Congress shall, on a Motion submitted by Central Council, approve or disapprove the Interpretation being included in Rule.” 

That the amended rule has already been in place since the start of the U20 championships could also work in the GAA’s favour.

A number of counties could benefit if the DRA find in Clare’s favour. Derry and Down meet in the Ulster U20 final on Wednesday week. However, the senior teams’ next provincial games, Down’s quarter-final against Donegal this Sunday and Derry’s semi-final with Monaghan on Saturday week, fall in the same seven-day period.

Derry currently have four U20 players in their senior set-up – Matthew Downey, Eoin McEvoy, Lachlan Murray and Niall O’Donnell - while Odhrán Murdock represents both Down’s seniors and U20s. Kilkenny’s Billy Drennan, Timmy Clifford and Gearóid Dunne have played for both seniors and U20s this season.