McKenna Cup 2024

[illdecide]

3 years later and the Ulster council still don't have the balls to sort this out.

+1

No balls, no desire and no leadership. Mickey Harte rules the roost. Ulster Council are bunch of puppets

Keep your nose out of our province

[BennyCake]

3 years later and the Ulster council still don't have the balls to sort this out.

+1

No balls, no desire and no leadership. Mickey Harte rules the roost. Ulster Council are bunch of puppets

Keep your nose out of our province

Even a non-Ulster man can see Harte is the problem here. Always was.

[Aristo 60]

Do people think Mickey has the same sway he used to? I'd thought it'd be on the wane now.

[ck]

3 years later and the Ulster council still don't have the balls to sort this out.

+1

No balls, no desire and no leadership. Mickey Harte rules the roost. Ulster Council are bunch of puppets

Keep your nose out of our province

I've been involved in colleges football for a long time now and I just watch in amazement as to how the ulster colleges are treated by their own council and a few hitlar managers. What exactly is the point of a council that can't enforce its own rules? The tail is wagging the dog here. Incredible stuff year after year.

[Wildweasel74]

I rather my own county men play fro the unis, gives u a chance to see what else is out there. its getting game time, sure the encounter of tyrone and Armagh in January last year had let bearing come crunch time in the summer past. for the McKenna Cup to be a decent standard we need the uni at full strength

[BennyHarp]

I rather my own county men play fro the unis, gives u a chance to see what else is out there. its getting game time, sure the encounter of tyrone and Armagh in January last year had let bearing come crunch time in the summer past. for the McKenna Cup to be a decent standard we need the uni at full strength

The competition has no baring on what happens in the summer regardless if the Unis are involved or not. The only purpose of the competition is for county managers to prepare for the season as it is an inter county competition after all. It isn't acceptable to them to prepare without half their squad. The only solution is to chuck out the Unis and move on.

[ck]

I rather my own county men play fro the unis, gives u a chance to see what else is out there. its getting game time, sure the encounter of tyrone and Armagh in January last year had let bearing come crunch time in the summer past. for the McKenna Cup to be a decent standard we need the uni at full strength

The competition has no baring on what happens in the summer regardless if the Unis are involved or not. The only purpose of the competition is for county managers to prepare for the season as it is an inter county competition after all. It isn't acceptable to them to prepare without half their squad. The only solution is to chuck out the Unis and move on.

I think this is fair comment. The colleges should have their players or else just put them out of their misery and put them out of the competition. It's a wonder this hasn't been proposed before now.

[BennyHarp]

I rather my own county men play fro the unis, gives u a chance to see what else is out there. its getting game time, sure the encounter of tyrone and Armagh in January last year had let bearing come crunch time in the summer past. for the McKenna Cup to be a decent standard we need the uni at full strength

The competition has no baring on what happens in the summer regardless if the Unis are involved or not. The only purpose of the competition is for county managers to prepare for the season as it is an inter county competition after all. It isn't acceptable to them to prepare without half their squad. The only solution is to chuck out the Unis and move on.

I think this is fair comment. The colleges should have their players or else just put them out of their misery and put them out of the competition. It's a wonder this hasn't been proposed before now.

I'm well aware this has been suggested many times before but I'm sick of this discussion every year and there isn't a compromise (or more accurately, there's no appetite for compromise from a few of the county managers) other than as you say, put the Unis out of their misery and move on. It was a fairly meaningless competition before the Unis got involved and they haven't added anything to the competition except this pointless roundabout of an argument every December. Let's return it to the meaningless competition it once was, but at least we will be without this even more pointess argument.

[Throw ball]

Firstly I feel the universities should have first choice on players as a general rule.

However. For me a university is firstly a place of learning. It is as important for the last to be given the same opportunity as the first. If they lose players to the counties I do not feel it is right to simply take their ball and go home. As much as the counties have a pool of players to choose from so do the universities. If Caolan Mooney is picked by Down for example does this not open up the opportunity for another student to take his place. Some will say that they will not be competitive. From the university point of view so what. The replacement has as much right to play as the first choice and will probably learn much more from the experience. By pulling out of the competition the university is telling its students that in times of adversity you run away. That winning is more important than trying. That one students rights are more important than another's. If I was a student on the bench or seconds for a university that pulled out under these circumstances I would feel cheated. For me it was wrong when Queen's pulled out and it is still wrong.

If we transfer it to the club scene. When Cross played Omagh this year they had Aaron and Stephen Kernan injured. McKenna, Cunningham and Franny Hanratty were not fit to start. Carragher went off after 5 minutes and they had 2 players sent off. But they still played on and lost narrowly. They will be stronger in future for it as young or unfancied players got a chance to learn. With Cross history has proved that.

Universities are places to learn. Winning is not always were you learn.

[theticklemister]

I mind when I coached Magee in Derry. We tried to enter the McKenna Cup, those were the days.

[mylestheslasher]

It should be remembered that not all county teams take  this ridiculous approach that Mickey Harte does. In fact the vast majority across the country allow players the best opportunity to be successful with their colleges. I am happy to say Cavan are one of them. Its a great honour for a player to win a Sigerson and as far as I am concerned Mickey Harte and those like him are selfish and are not thinking about the players concerned and diminishing their chances of succeeding with the college.

[NaomhBridAbú]

is this not a throwback to the Harte v Tally "discussion' and mickey is just doing what he wants?
universities should get the pick, and the bottom line is that the ulster council are too busy running around with their head up their holes afraid to challenge harte

[ONeill]

Proverbs 18:12  "Before his downfall a man's heart is proud, but humility comes before honour."

[BennyCake]

Did Tyrone not get dethroned as McKenna Cup winners a few years ago because of this issue?

[Redhand Santa]

Every year someone says the universities helped save the mckenna cup, personally I think that's a load of crap. Hartes attitude to the mckenna cup at a time when tyrone were successful was the main factor in drawing increased interest in it, combined with the changes in the timings of the gaa calander.

I dont think the competition would be much worse without the uni's. It would mean a game less but the games involving the universities are quite meaningless and attract minimal interest from the general gaa public.

At a time when burnout is thrown out so much I think a reduced emphasis on university football with less training and a shorter calander would help a little.