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.
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.