Change underage back to u14,16,18

[Onthe40]

the lower age groups should be aligned to school year, a simple no brainer
its a farce that one lad in a given school year can play u13 or u15 and his class mate cant, yet they play on same school team etc

u13 - all 2nd years and down
u15 - all 4th years and down
change u17 - back to u18

[Armagh18]

the lower age groups should be aligned to school year, a simple no brainer
its a farce that one lad in a given school year can play u13 or u15 and his class mate cant, yet they play on same school team etc

u13 - all 2nd years and down
u15 - all 4th years and down
change u17 - back to u18

Only issue I'd have there is it's a big jump for a lad coming out of U15's to be playing against lads at 18 especially with the gym work a lot of fellas do. U16 then u18 is the best way I think. (Or 16.5 and 18.5 whatever the school year is)

[johnnycool]

Would it align across the country?
What is a 4th year in the south? Is their school cut off date the same as it is in the north?

This could make a balls of Féile, Ulster championships and All Irelands.

Feíle has changed drastically and you won't be having host counties and the weekend tournaments ever again. It'll be more like county winners attention regional blitzes played off in a day and at U15.

Some of the southern contributors may be able to clarify, but is junior cert @16yo and leaving cert at 18yo?

[shark]

Would it align across the country?
What is a 4th year in the south? Is their school cut off date the same as it is in the north?

This could make a balls of Féile, Ulster championships and All Irelands.

Feíle has changed drastically and you won't be having host counties and the weekend tournaments ever again. It'll be more like county winners attention regional blitzes played off in a day and at U15.

Some of the southern contributors may be able to clarify, but is junior cert @16yo and leaving cert at 18yo?

Junior Cert at 15/16
LC can be 17/18 or even 19 now.
Transition year is optional

[Truth hurts]

with safeguarding etc there definitely won't be any more weekend Feiles!

[tbrick18]

I'm not against it but why does keeping them in school years make a big difference?

The big advantage soccer has, from what I can see, is that they don't struggle for numbers. They are able to field a few teams at every age group.
Then again, giving kids a shed load of games on a consistent and regular basis will attract them.

From my own experience, I have a wee lad who graduated from u12s to u15.5 this year as opposed to going into u14s due to the changes.
He's was in 2nd year, small-average size for his age. First night at training he was training with 4th years, some of which are touching the 6ft height and built like tanks. He was intimidated out of it but I was also worried he'd get hurt against lads so big.
As it happened he did pick up an injury which kept him out for the rest of the year and now he's very reluctant to go back.

It doesn't matter what way you look at it, a 2nd year vs a 4th year is not sensible in my mind. This is why I think they should keep it at school years.
The schools have year group based competitions for this reason.

u13?

There was no u13 here anyway....I didn't know there was such a thing.
Just to clarify, I'm not suggesting there is a competition at club level for every school year group. Only suggesting the old u12, u14, u16 groupings were better as there is less of a chance of there being huge physical differences in the kids.
I could be wrong, I'm basing it on a personal experience with my own son.

[rrhf]

Would it align across the country?
What is a 4th year in the south? Is their school cut off date the same as it is in the north?

This could make a balls of Féile, Ulster championships and All Irelands.

Feíle has changed drastically and you won't be having host counties and the weekend tournaments ever again. It'll be more like county winners attention regional blitzes played off in a day and at U15.

Some of the southern contributors may be able to clarify, but is junior cert @16yo and leaving cert at 18yo?

I understand the Covid present, but surely Feile was as good a lifetime experience as any in GAA terms for youth.

[clarshack]

I just can't warm to the new system. There was nothing wrong with the old system.

[LeoMc]

I'm not against it but why does keeping them in school years make a big difference?

The big advantage soccer has, from what I can see, is that they don't struggle for numbers. They are able to field a few teams at every age group.
Then again, giving kids a shed load of games on a consistent and regular basis will attract them.

From my own experience, I have a wee lad who graduated from u12s to u15.5 this year as opposed to going into u14s due to the changes.
He's was in 2nd year, small-average size for his age. First night at training he was training with 4th years, some of which are touching the 6ft height and built like tanks. He was intimidated out of it but I was also worried he'd get hurt against lads so big.
As it happened he did pick up an injury which kept him out for the rest of the year and now he's very reluctant to go back.

It doesn't matter what way you look at it, a 2nd year vs a 4th year is not sensible in my mind. This is why I think they should keep it at school years.
The schools have year group based competitions for this reason.

u13?

There was no u13 here anyway....I didn't know there was such a thing.
Just to clarify, I'm not suggesting there is a competition at club level for every school year group. Only suggesting the old u12, u14, u16 groupings were better as there is less of a chance of there being huge physical differences in the kids.
I could be wrong, I'm basing it on a personal experience with my own son.

We have u13 here in Tyrone.
U7.5, 9.5, 11.5 then 13, 15 and 17.
There is a smaller gap for the likes of your son. The oldest he would be up against at u13 would be someone 18 months older.
It means primary school kids play with their own class mates which encourages them to keep at it but Secondary it is aligned by the year you are born. Personally I like that split between school and club football as different players have good birthdays for school and club.

[DuffleKing]

Everyone has u13

[tbrick18]

I'm not against it but why does keeping them in school years make a big difference?

The big advantage soccer has, from what I can see, is that they don't struggle for numbers. They are able to field a few teams at every age group.
Then again, giving kids a shed load of games on a consistent and regular basis will attract them.

From my own experience, I have a wee lad who graduated from u12s to u15.5 this year as opposed to going into u14s due to the changes.
He's was in 2nd year, small-average size for his age. First night at training he was training with 4th years, some of which are touching the 6ft height and built like tanks. He was intimidated out of it but I was also worried he'd get hurt against lads so big.
As it happened he did pick up an injury which kept him out for the rest of the year and now he's very reluctant to go back.

It doesn't matter what way you look at it, a 2nd year vs a 4th year is not sensible in my mind. This is why I think they should keep it at school years.
The schools have year group based competitions for this reason.

u13?

There was no u13 here anyway....I didn't know there was such a thing.
Just to clarify, I'm not suggesting there is a competition at club level for every school year group. Only suggesting the old u12, u14, u16 groupings were better as there is less of a chance of there being huge physical differences in the kids.
I could be wrong, I'm basing it on a personal experience with my own son.

We have u13 here in Tyrone.
U7.5, 9.5, 11.5 then 13, 15 and 17.
There is a smaller gap for the likes of your son. The oldest he would be up against at u13 would be someone 18 months older.
It means primary school kids play with their own class mates which encourages them to keep at it but Secondary it is aligned by the year you are born. Personally I like that split between school and club football as different players have good birthdays for school and club.

Is u13 (u13.5?) a new grade then?
Maybe I've missed something completely, which is more than possible. So my lad went from u12s straight to u15.5. On that year it was my understanding that it was the first year of u15.5 and normally he'd have been going to u14s so he was never near an u13s team.
Maybe he's just the exception with how his birthday falls in that he missed the entire u13 grade and had to go to u15.5.
I must go and have a chat with some of the other coaches to see if I can work this out. Either way, he'd definately be too old for u13 now.

[DuffleKing]

u13, u15 and u17 is now mandatory

[tbrick18]

Nobody should be going from U12 to U15.5 ffs.

yeah that's the point I was trying to make, but that's what happened my lad. I thought it was just the way of it now, but I'm starting to think now there's been a balls up somewhere along the way and he's missed a year of u13.5.
He's lost a year of football now anyway with being injured but he's reluctant to go back given his experience of making that jump straight to u15.5 even though he'd now legitimately be u15.5 as he turned 14 over the summer.

[DuffleKing]

Something not adding up there.

Every county has to have u13, u15 and u17
Most counties have u11.5, u9.5 and u7.5 below that based on school ages but its not prescribed
Every county has to have one age grade above u17 to bridge to senior
Each county decides on additional grades beyond that. Big counties run the even numbered age grades also.

[bigarsedkeeper]

Something not adding up there.

Every county has to have u13, u15 and u17
Most counties have u11.5, u9.5 and u7.5 below that based on school ages but its not prescribed
Every county has to have one age grade above u17 to bridge to senior
Each county decides on additional grades beyond that. Big counties run the even numbered age grades also.

I think he means they were playing U12 (maybe 12.5s?) and with the restructure he went to 15s instead of 14s. Some counties went a year later than others