Is it time for minors to return to the senior stage?

A Conor Owens miss in an All-Ireland minor final was cited as one reason to take youngsters off the high-pressure stage. But the Tyrone man dismissed the idea. 

A dejected Conor Owens of Tyrone after missing a late free during the 2021 Electric Ireland GAA Football All-Ireland Minor Championship Final match between Meath and Tyrone at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Daire Brennan/Sportsfile

In a wide-ranging interview on RTÉ’s Sunday Sport last weekend, Jimmy Barry-Murphy bemoaned the removal of All-Ireland minor finals as the curtain-raisers to the senior game.

It’s six years since the two deciders last shared the same bill – the last All-Ireland minor final in Croke Park was four years ago – and the Cork icon wants to see the double bill restored.

Describing it as “a shame”, Barry-Murphy, who won an All-Ireland minor medal in both codes one year after the other and led Cork to hurling’s Irish Press Cup in 1995, said: “I grew up going to these matches and watching young players playing minor finals before the senior and the same in Munster. I think it’s a shame that’s taken away from us.

“You go to Croke Park on All-Ireland final day and there’s only one game, whereas people would have been in early to watch the players who were hoping to be the senior stars of latter years. If it’s something they could ever resurrect, I’d love it. I think people really loved it and miss it.” 

The argument behind delinking the finals was the stress it put on 16 and 17-year-olds playing in front of a large crowd, but Barry-Murphy dismissed that. “I thought it was a very special day – you don’t feel any pressure at that age at all.” 

Barry-Murphy’s contribution was timely because Central Council are set to revisit the idea of reintroducing curtain-raisers to All-Ireland final day later this month. There had been a suggestion a couple of years ago to revive the Railway Cup but it was knocked on the head due to club championship activity.

The last minor final to be played in Croke Park between Meath and Tyrone four years ago was due to be the undercard to the senior final only for a Covid outbreak in the Tyrone senior camp forcing the adult game to be postponed.

Instead, it was staged before the Tyrone-Kerry All-Ireland SFC semi-final, Meath winning their fourth-ever All-Ireland minor football crown. Conor Owens had a free to level the game for Tyrone in additional time, but his kick went wide.

That miss was considered the last straw. Such high-profile errors were considered too much for what were children. That game was an exception but there had also been a noticeable drop in the quality of All-Ireland minor finals since the grade dropped a year to U17 in 2018.

Owens had just turned 17 a couple of weeks before the game. He has long since moved on from it. Ask him if he is haunted by the wide and he brushes off the idea. “I was probably the one that was the least bothered off it. People around me, team-mates and stuff, they were sort of thinking I was going to be in worse form than I was.

“It was just a kick. It's a kick that's been missed before, it's a kick that'll be missed again. I don't think that it was the occasion or the pressure that forced that miss at the end. I think it was, like, in any game, a club game at home, with a couple of hundred people watching, a free to level at the end is a bit of pressure that comes with it.

“Like, it's nothing really to do with the venue or where you're at. At that stage, I wasn't thinking, ‘Oh, I'm in Croke Park here, I can't miss.’ It was just, ‘I'm going to kick this ball over the bar,’ but it didn't happen.” 

Owens would love more teenagers to have the experience of lining out in Croke Park. All-Ireland final day should be shared by more people, he feels. “That's a once-in-a-lifetime thing for a lot of lads. Like, I've been lucky enough to get back to Croke Park since and hopefully there's many more too, but for a lot of people, that's their one chance to get their experience out of an All-Ireland final day in Croke Park, and it is a big day. I'd like it to be a memorable occasion for any lad. And to not have that, I think it's a bit disappointing for people as well.” 

He would also like to see the grade returned to U18. “In terms of maturity, it would make sense — 17's a bit sharp, like. At U18, there's another year's growth. It sort of makes sense. Like, I don't really understand why it was ever changed.” 

It was watching minor games on All-Ireland final day in Croke Park that inspired the Beragh Red Knights man to play in one. “When we were growing up, all I can remember was David Clifford playing All-Ireland minor finals. For young ones, it’s something to look at, something to think, ‘Geez, that could be me in a year's time, that could be me in two years' time.’” 

Along with several of that minor team, including Eoin McElholm, Owens was an All-Ireland winner three years later at U20 level. “On another day, we could have had that game won by five or six and it wouldn't have come down to that last stretch.

“If you ever go on to win an All-Ireland senior medal, the minor one's the only one that's missing from the package. In the latter years, you'll probably maybe regret it a wee bit more, but not now.”