Does Crofton Have A Point

Started by Timothy Leary, January 09, 2007, 11:48:04 AM

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Timothy Leary

Angry Crofton calls up U-21s for O'Byrne clash
Tuesday January 9th 2007






KILDARE will field a team made up mainly of U-21 players in next Sunday's O'Byrne Shield game against Meath at Newbridge on Sunday.

According to manager John Crofton, the O'Byrne Cup is an "imposition" that has already disrupted his training regime and the Sarsfields clubman maintains the U-21s would gain more benefit from the outing ahead of their championship outing against Dublin or Meath at the beginning of March.

Crofton is utterly bemused by the introduction of a Shield competition without consultation with county managers and is making no apologies for doing what he sees is best for Kildare ahead of the visit of Armagh to St Conleth's Park in the National League opener on February 4.

"Is it an O'Byrne Cup Shield or an O'Byrne Shield or what is it?" he inquired.

"You're forced to play. Nobody was asked - I certainly wasn't asked 'would you like to play in the O'Byrne Shield by the way?' But you're out next Sunday, whether you like it or not.

"The U-21 team have a championship fixture in early March. We have a subset of eight or nine players that are current U-21s in our senior set-up, so that will probably be reflected in next week's fixture. They have to be accommodated.

"The way the league is structured this year, there isn't any gap," he continued. "We're essentially in pre-season training now.

"We didn't do a collective training regime from the end of September until just before Christmas, so we value the time we have here and I think it's an imposition, these O'Byrne Cup and Shield matches.

"So we'll derive what we feel is the maximum benefit from the match next week and it won't necessarily be what other people like.

"My view is that if you're prepared to play these matches - McKenna Cups, McGrath Cups and O'Byrne Cups - and everything has to stop to play them, why not start the National League now if you want to create room for club football or to create this buffer that they're talking about," he added.


tayto

Starting the league a bit earlier and having a couple of weekends off for club games inst the worst idea in the world.

youbetterbelieveit

ya i agree, the county panels are training since november anyhow,so starting the league in janaury is a good option i believe.then take a break and club activity should start around early march, as most clubs are getting back training in mid- late jan anyhow. then finish off the league and straight into may and championship begins.

Lone Shark

But if you start the league in January, then county panels will start getting together even earlier. Teams will always want pre season challenge matches, the only difference with these competitions is that they don't get a choice who to play. On the other hand the games are advertised and people who want to can go and see them. (Unless you have to work!!  >:()

As for a gap between league and championship, much better have no gap, because it would be worth feck all to clubs - county managers would just fill it with training sessions, challenge matches and weekends away anyway.

Start the championship in May, have the provincial championships finished by the first week in July, AI semis in the first week in August and let the club championships start in August everywhere. That way the clubs get three uninterrupted dry ground months. No more of this club championship stuff like in Offaly last year - one group game in April, the second in June and the third in late August. Nonsense.

turk

What is Crofton whinging about here or is he just getting his excuses in early?
I would have thought meaningless but mildly competitive fixtures are just the ticket this time of year and lots of counties have approached these to try out young lads and develop the squad for the league.

If Crofton doesn't think it is worthwhile then fine, he may be right. But i don't see what he is trying to achieve by going whinging about it.

believebelive

The probelm with all the proposals for a gap between the league and championship is that while trying to accomadate clubs they actually deminish their value more.
Why should a club have to play a championship fixture in april or may during a break between the NFL and Championship when they have not been able to have their county players at training to prepare for the match. It is totally unfair on both the club and the county player and the clubs with more county players are penalised even more.
In my opinion a few things have to be done. November needs to be a month that no county team is allowed to train collectively. The pre national league games need to be scrapped and the league needs to be started earlier, there needs to be no break between league and championship and the as a result the championship could be finished by mid july early august - this leaves more time for the club championship and allows county players to prepare with the clubs and give the same effort to them as they do for their counties.
People will say that this is unrealistic, that a the free month in November could never be enforced and that an early conclusion to the All Ireland series would eminish profits. This may be the case but in my opinion it is more unrealistic to expect county players to train all year long for what can be a ten month county season while at the same time affording them no opportunity to properly prepare for their clubs.
The club is being paid only lip service by this gap period and until there is something done radically to redress the imbalance between club and county then the clubs slide into ignominious anonymity will continue. The huge increase in time dedicated to preparing and playing county football and the advent of the back door has meant that players are county players first and club players a distant second.