Ulster Under 21 Football Club Championship (at Creggan)

[nrico2006]

Truagh Gaels should be good with class acts like Daniel McKenna on the side. But Slaughtneil I think are going to be one of the strongest in the competition. There will be no stars but they will be a tough tough team for anyone to play against at this time of year

How many senior players are on the Clonoe side?

[Up The Middle]

4 that appeared in last years county final and Ulster club.

[crookes]

What's going on in Fermanagh, no county U21 manager and now they have no representative in this competition

http://u21.kickhamscreggangac.com/-news/erne-gaels-belleek-withdraw

[FermGael]

where would you start............

[orangeman]

where would you start............

Is there a minor manager yet ?

Under 21s start shortly and no manager ? What's going on ?

[FermGael]

Declan Bogues article in the Belfast Telegraph hit the nail on the head a couple of weeks ago.

Declan Bogue– 18 December 2013

It's unfortunate that we have to analyse the theme, but the content of Fermanagh county board chairman Patsy Dolan's recent address to the county convention is another example of head-in-the-sand, blame-the-media laziness that has come to characterise these events.


Nobody appears to have learnt any lessons from the perpetual crisis-management that the county have been stuck in for the last decade, nor the divisions that were given considerable attention in the Jarlath Burns Report that examined the disastrous 2011 season.

When Peter Canavan departed at the start of September, he released a statement referencing those rifts as something that was holding the county back.

Dolan seized upon the theme, telling delegates: "This year we have seen yet another manager leave the helm citing lack of support, not from where one would expect – the players – but some nameless people who continue to sell the propaganda rubbish."

Canavan brought a series of long-standing issues to the board in late July after the Cavan defeat. He expected a follow-up call that addressed his concerns. A month later, nobody had thought to get back in touch.

That Canavan was left without even a phone call to sound out his intentions was poor leadership.

"Following the Championship, Peter Canavan stood down for reasons I cited earlier," Dolan says later. But it's only half the story.

Predictably, the address also includes a dig at the media when it comes to the appointment of Pete McGrath. "Although I didn't appoint the senior manager quickly enough for the press or our critics, we did I believe wait to get the best in place."

Dolan revealed there were six candidates for the role on October 7, but some of those candidates were completely unaware they were under consideration until they got a phone call some days later.

By his own admission, McGrath was asked on a Monday if he was interested, interviewed that Wednesday, and unveiled as manager the following night, November 7.

Why did they wait almost a month to approach him?

"Our county has a tendency to look to other counties to see how to do things, personally I never bought into this theory ... we are as good if not better than the rest so maybe it's the rest that should be looking at us."

This is plainly dispiriting. If a business is failing, then it is standard practice to study successful businesses and see what lessons can be applied. That's a fundamental principle of leadership.

Either way, it explains the underage record. Since 2003, Fermanagh have won one match at Ulster minor Championship level, and a couple at under-21. Three games out of a possible 23. It is an appalling record, and can only be improved by changing mindsets and attitudes. But in Patsy's world, everything is fine.

[FermGael]

This appeared on the local paper last week, written by Colm Bradley about the Under 21 mess.

Tackling Matters: Under 21 situation is insult to our players

What do Peter Reilly in Cavan, Stephen McDonnell in Armagh, Rory Gallagher in Donegal, Fergal Logan in Tyrone, Paddy Crozier in Derry, Eamonn Burns in Down, The Bradley's in Antrim and Finbarr Fitzpatrick in Monaghan all have in common?

They are all involved in management teams in this years Ulster under 21 championship. Unfortunately Fermanagh does not have a management team at present. Nine weeks before the start of the competition and we don't have a manager.

Other teams have fitted in close to twenty training sessions at this stage while Cavan are even playing in the Hastings Cup, an under 21 warm up competition, against sides from Leinster and Connacht. Need we be reminded that Cavan are going for four in a row under 21 ulster titles while their senior side reached an All Ireland quarter final last season, beating Fermanagh twice along the way.

This is not the first time in recent times that we have shown this age group a lack of respect. Regularly over the past 15 years we have treated the under 21 team with, at best apathy and at worst downright disdain. Time and again they have not been afforded anywhere close to the best environment to prepare as county footballers should.

The fact that at present we are the only county in Ulster without an under 21 manager is a symptom of a much larger problem and that problem is a lack of planning. But what is more worrying is that there seems to be a belief among those elected with running Fermanagh GAA that everything is OK. At the recent county convention it was said by the top table that perhaps other counties should be looking at Fermanagh to see how to do things.

That assertion is hard to take seriously. In order for something to be copied there needs to be a clear template and there is no evidence that there is any type of template in place in Fermanagh. We swing too wildly from the sublime to the ridiculous for there to be any sort of coherent plan in place.

The current problem with the under 21 management is evidence of that. And that problem is wrongly, yet perpetually hitched to the enigma that is the process of selecting a senior manager.

Pete McGrath is a remarkable and brilliant appointment. Yet we know he was not part of a great masterplan. McGrath himself says he was contacted for the first time only three days before he was appointed. One month previous to him being contacted we were told there were six men in for the Fermanagh job. McGrath was out of a job at that stage yet he wasn't contacted for another month. Something doesn't add up.

But really all that is neither here nor there what is important is that while a successor to Peter Canavan was being sought there was little or no focus on the under 21 manager.

No doubt the argument from county officers will be that they had to wait to see who was the senior manager and if they wanted an input into the under 21 team. But this argument is frankly absurd. It is absurd but also painfully revealing in that it demonstrates the attitude which cripples us as a county.

And that attitude is that the senior team trump all. Time and again we put every single egg we own in one basket and throw the kitchen sink at the senior team while failing to grasp the simple yet brutally harsh reality that at under-age level we are struggling to compete. And not only are we struggling to compete but at the risk of repeating myself again there is no plan for our youth.

What is more frustrating is that the people who have been involved with our under-age teams are good coaches and good managers. They have proved as much elsewhere so we have to accept that there is something more fundamental at play here.

Taking just the under 21 situation as it now stands the lesson has to be learned that a manager has to be in place by mid October every year. The Championship is in March and it is quite frankly insulting to the players not to have a manager in place at this stage. But quite apart from the insult to the under 21′s it is also footballing suicide.

How can we expect 18, 19 and 20 year old kids to mature into county senior footballers when we offer no environment for them to flourish, grow and learn? It is time for us to get serious and plan for the future. If we don't we will just slip further into the past.

[FermGael]

In a nutshell, Jarlath Burns did a  report on Fermanagh Gaa after the whole mess with John O'Neill and players refusing to play for the county.
The report has read out to delegates and has never been seen since.
If it would have been implemented, this mess would never have occured.

[rodney trotter]

Fairly shambolic, 9 weeks before the Championship.

[elk]

Between Slaughtneil and Clonoe for me!

Bit of a shock result at the weekend then. Antrim champs might be dark horses.

[crookes]

Both teams looked pretty poor comparing to previous years standard. Don't get me wrong it was a decent match and Portglenone deserved to win but the quality of football wasn't that high IMO

[Milltown Row2]

Both teams looked pretty poor comparing to previous years standard. Don't get me wrong it was a decent match and Portglenone deserved to win but the quality of football wasn't that high IMO

At specified aged group tournaments it's a different set of players nearly every year, standards will dip or get better every year. Well done Portglenone

[bannside]

We (Portglenone) were definitely relieved to hear the final whistle, thats for sure. Slaughtneil were a touch nut to crack, and were sporting in defeat.

I dont know if the Derry ones feel the same way about us, but living Bannside (hence the name) in Portglenone or Toome, or even Rasharkin there is a lot of interaction between the lads, at discos, at schools etc. Not too often do the Antrim lads get a chance to stick their chests out a bit, but they will be enjoying these couple of days thats for sure. For us getting a win was important because we were determined to prove worthy Antrim champions, having just touched off some good Antrim clubs along the way.

Dont know who we get next, but it suits us to be seen as the outsiders in every match we play. Thats four against the odds now.

[crookes]

The Portglenone Goal was decent. I know from year to year it is different but it's doubtful the Tyrone or Donegal champions will be as poor..

http://u21.kickhamscreggangac.com/-news/kieron-mckenna-scores-the-winning-goal-as-casements-progress-to-semi-final

[nrico2006]

Whats the semi-final line-ups and dates?