U-16 County tournaments

[The Insider]

At this weekend's central council meeting the future of competitions like the Fr Manning competition in Longford and the Gerry O Reilly in Meath are up for decision. The National Games Development body have to date refused permission to Longford to allow this competition which began in 1965 involving 6 counties playing on a league basis to proceed in it's traditional manner and decreed that it and all other tournaments are run on a "blitz" basis. Blitz day's are ok at U-14 level, but do not work at older grades. The Fr Manning comp ran in its traditional manner from 1965 to 2006 from 2007 to 2011 it was only allowed to run with 2 groups of 3 , while in 2012 permission was got to return to the full competition which had Longford beating Roscommon in the final and Leitrim defeating Sligo in the Shield final Westmeath and Offaly were the other 2 entrants. Should permission not be granted it looks like the organising committee will have no cchoice but to abandon  the competition 2 years short of it's 50th anniversary . The only reason given by the GDC to date is player welfare.They don't  appreciate the value of competitions like this to the Longford's , Leitrim's and Sligo's

[rodney trotter]

Be a pity to see them go, Cavan played in both competitions for a number of years.

[Syferus]

Mad stuff. The  Ted Webb Cup is run on a blitz format and the team that has to play back-to-back (it's two groups of three) is always gassed and even if you've got two gassed teams it's faintly ridiculous to have kids playing two full matches one afternoon against very serious opposition. It's in the worst interests of players in terms of development and safety to run that format.

I think on top of everything else there needs to be some joined-up scheduling - our U16s played the Ted Webb Shield final against Sligo on the Monday in Ballyhaunis and then played a fresh Longford side in the Fr. Manning Cup final on the Wednesday in Pearse Park while Sligo played a fresh Leitrim team in the Fr. Manning shield final. Needless to say, both Roscommon and Sligo lost and we looked leaden-footed for much of the match. Offaly seem to not take it very seriously to boot - we had our match with them scheduled twice only for Offaly to bawk at the last second and eventually gave us a walkover. All teams need to commit to taking competitions like this seriously for everyone to get the most they can out of it.

The Fr. Manning Cup is great competition as it is and it should be a no-brainer to continue but for Connacht counties it needs to be mindful of when those teams have games in the Ted Webb.

[ross4life]

Will be a shame to see the Fr. Manning Cup go i hope they can come to some sort of compromise. Didn't they try to get rid of it a few years ago only to bring it back or am i thinking of some other underage competition?

[INDIANA]

Will be a shame to see the Fr. Manning Cup go i hope they can come to some sort of compromise. Didn't they try to get rid of it a few years ago only to bring it back or am i thinking of some other underage competition?

Where do clubs fit in?

Thats why they are in trouble.

Clubs practically never get to see players on a county underage panel causing endless delays in county championships which results in u16 championships being played in appalling weather conditions.

I've no problem with development teams. They've served us well in Dublin but at u14 and u16 level they've exceeded their importance in my view. The aim is to do well at minor level. Everything else is a development process.

But I've heard of counties training like marines to win some of these u16 competitions which is inherently wrong and leading to player burnout at 18/19.

[johnneycool]

Will be a shame to see the Fr. Manning Cup go i hope they can come to some sort of compromise. Didn't they try to get rid of it a few years ago only to bring it back or am i thinking of some other underage competition?

Where do clubs fit in?

Thats why they are in trouble.

Clubs practically never get to see players on a county underage panel causing endless delays in county championships which results in u16 championships being played in appalling weather conditions.

I've no problem with development teams. They've served us well in Dublin but at u14 and u16 level they've exceeded their importance in my view. The aim is to do well at minor level. Everything else is a development process.

But I've heard of counties training like marines to win some of these u16 competitions which is inherently wrong and leading to player burnout at 18/19.

I think these U-16 tournaments have a place but I'm in total agreement about these marine like training stints for anyone or anything U-16 years of age and even minor.

With all these counties devising development squads etc, etc, there needs to be some sort of periodical bench marking of how successful they are or how would you know if you're making progress until you get to minor and its then too late.

[magpie seanie]

Will be a shame to see the Fr. Manning Cup go i hope they can come to some sort of compromise. Didn't they try to get rid of it a few years ago only to bring it back or am i thinking of some other underage competition?

Where do clubs fit in?

Thats why they are in trouble.

Clubs practically never get to see players on a county underage panel causing endless delays in county championships which results in u16 championships being played in appalling weather conditions.

I've no problem with development teams. They've served us well in Dublin but at u14 and u16 level they've exceeded their importance in my view. The aim is to do well at minor level. Everything else is a development process.
But I've heard of counties training like marines to win some of these u16 competitions which is inherently wrong and leading to player burnout at 18/19.

I agree.

In regard to taking lads away from their clubs - it was even happening when I was playing U-16 in Sligo. Crazy stuff and unnecessary.

[Zulu]

This is a tough one alright as players at this age group are particularly pressurised in terms of teams looking for them. However, I think this solution is simply another barn-pot GAA solution to a GAA problem. The only way to develop elite players is to put them on developmental programs and give them plenty of games. But with nobody in charge of this in most counties we have half a dozen managers dictating training and little or none of it is structured.

The sooner the GAA takes the bull by the horns and looks at the whole GAA season from Jan 1 to Dec 31 the better. Limit IC representation, play hurling and football and IC level at the same time and as much as possible dedicate certain periods of the year to IC and others to club with a clear off season for all. This wouldn't be easy and you'd never get it perfect but there is massive scope for improvement in this regard and some improvements are easy and obvious to get things started.

Clubs are important but so is IC and the best players should have a level to aspire to and an opportunity to improve and compete against other elite players. It's managing this process that's key.

[The Insider]

At the last Central Council meeting the the counties involved looking for the retention of the Fr Manning and O Reilly tournament in Meath ran rings around the coaching and games dictate in Croke Park , so much so that when the time came to vote on it the president "pulled a stroke" to protect them from the embarrassment of being heavily defeated and decided to refer the matter to a 3 man committee who came up with a compromise for this year. The Fr Manning will subject to the 6 counties agreeing comprise of 2 groups of 3 with the group winners playing of in the final , The O Reilly organizers are been asked to turn their tournament into a 6 team tournament up from 4 and be ran along the same lines .
Read into this what you like but Sligo U-16's are due to spend tomorrow in DCU for fitness tests etc , much like what all the Leinster U-14 development panels have done in Carlow IT this year and were rumoured to have looked for permission to play Dublin at U-16 level and were refused  by Croke Park . Sligo are one of the counties involved in Fr Manning since it's inception

[Syferus]

At its core the issue steams from the broken scheduling at the top level. Plenty of time for clubs to have players if they want to under a good calender but HQ has been trying to make U16 tournaments sacrificial lambs to their own incompetence.

It's all well and good big counties having blitzes but for smaller counties it means playing most of the same players throughout and heightening the risk of injury. U16 teams I know are far more happy to have actual games to build up to and to help them prepare for the way football is played at just about every subsequent grade they'll ever play at.

[ross4life]

At the last Central Council meeting the the counties involved looking for the retention of the Fr Manning and O Reilly tournament in Meath ran rings around the coaching and games dictate in Croke Park , so much so that when the time came to vote on it the president "pulled a stroke" to protect them from the embarrassment of being heavily defeated and decided to refer the matter to a 3 man committee who came up with a compromise for this year. The Fr Manning will subject to the 6 counties agreeing comprise of 2 groups of 3 with the group winners playing of in the final , The O Reilly organizers are been asked to turn their tournament into a 6 team tournament up from 4 and be ran along the same lines .
Read into this what you like but Sligo U-16's are due to spend tomorrow in DCU for fitness tests etc , much like what all the Leinster U-14 development panels have done in Carlow IT this year and were rumoured to have looked for permission to play Dublin at U-16 level and were refused  by Croke Park . Sligo are one of the counties involved in Fr Manning since it's inception

Fr Manning cup was to get underway last night Sligo GAA were one of the few that posted fixtures http://www.sligogaa.ie/ArticleDetail.aspx?articleid=14948&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter Westmeath game was called off yesterday.

So what's going on, new format starting next week? if it's 2 groups of 3 with the group winners playing off in the final that will copy the hasting cup.

[The Insider]

New format still has to get permission from Croke Park to go ahead,not certain to get that. 3 man committee that came up with this proposal were from Kerry , Galway and Tryone .

[rodney trotter]

First round games in the Fr Manning Cup tomorrow http://www.hoganstand.com/Cavan/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=196285