All Ireland u21 football championship 2015

[ross4life]

To a point it's helped as much as underage can help you but you're kidding youself if you think if u21 was abolished that it still can't happen. if anything it would ensure counties would identify talent a lot earlier and in the long run would level standards across the board

I said underage teams meaning all the way down to development. For example we won the Ted Webb (Connacht U16 competition) 5 years ago & around 12 of those players are now on this years U21 panel.

Players don't develop at 22/23 anymore bar the odd exception because their inter county careers will be over by 28 in a few years time. 5-7 years from now you won't see players playing inter county beyond 30/31 due to work and family.

Certain players continue to develop at different rates & inter county careers will only be over by 28 if those players are troubled with injury & probably think enough is enough. Others will feel its better to retire early from county to prolong their club careers.

[Hound]

What's the U21 club scene like in Roscommon (or elsewhere)?

Its a bit of of a shambles in Dublin. And Dublin club football would generally be well run at most levels (at least in comparsion to most counties I'd say - still plenty that could be done better of course), but U21s is bottom of the pile in terms of priorities.

This year it clashed with league playoffs across most divisions and minor championships. So some clubs didnt even enter, a heap had to concede because they couldn't field due to fixture clashes, and U21 championships were won with teams playing 1 or 2 games. You also had the comical situation of a lad who is a starter on the Dublin U21 team playing for the U21 2nd team of his club in the Dublin U21 C championship!

[Canalman]

Yep, Hound. U 21 championship in Dublin is a bit of an "add on" competition at the end of the year alright.
Nowhere near as prestigious as it was .

Good way though to keep some former underage players "involved" who have no interest in playing junior football regularly but will happily commit to a knockout competition with their mates  with maybe a few weeks training beforehand.

[blewuporstuffed]

Yep, Hound. U 21 championship in Dublin is a bit of an "add on" competition at the end of the year alright.
Nowhere near as prestigious as it was .

Good way though to keep some former underage players "involved" who have no interest in playing junior football regularly but will happily commit to a knockout competition with their mates  with maybe a few weeks training beforehand.

Unfortunatley Tyrone is the same.
It used to be a much better competition when it was just a knockout championship, but the league type format they use now just doesnt work and there isnt realy room for it in teh calendar.
One of the issues is that you have to pay registration fees for another team when entering an U21 team, and alot of club where reluctant to do that for what could be just one game, so they introduced a league format to insure more games. Unfortunately this wasnt the best solution.
It would have been far better to reduce the registration fees (or scrap them for U21s if you have entered minor & senior teams) and leave the competion as a straight knockout championship.
More games wasnt what was needed.

[Keyser soze]

Since Ros started their development panels way back in 2003 we have worked from u14 right up to u21 now you cant spot them much earlier than 13 or 14, under 21 is essential in keeping players interested after minor and the work done with those players can only help and improve them which is an asset for their clubs and gives the late developers a chance to make it at county level, Mayo current success came off the back of 4 Connacht u21 titles and their downfall will be their neglect of that grade over the last several years, its even more important for smaller counties like ros to develop at underage level and it was our neglect of underage for nearly 2 decades that left us in the sorry state that we are just now recovering from.

Not massively convinced. The replacement of minor and u21 with u19 or u20 level would still identify most of the talent for me.

Players don't develop at 22/23 anymore bar the odd exception because their inter county careers will be over by 28 in a few years time. 5-7 years from now you won't see players playing inter county beyond 30/31 due to work and family.

[/b]

Have you any empiricial evidence for this?? Or did you just make it up?

[giveballaghback]

There seems to be fairly universal agreement that u21 club competitions are not  priority with many counties and maybe the competition should be left optional at club level but it is very important at county level for the development of players, there are several success stories of u21 success being the start of a successful senior team, Dublin current team have mostly come from the grade, Ros is building a team from u21, Tyrone did so in the early 00s, Donegals team of 1992 were made up from the teams of 82 and 87 and a lot of their current team came from that 2010 team that lost the u21 final to the dubs, even go back to the great Kerry team of the seventies and they all have u21 medals, now I know you can say that if they are good players that naturally they would play at u21 but it is very important for counties that are rebuilding or in our own case building from scratch, and most important it is a great grade of football to watch with good open games for the most part and  well attended for the time of year.

[ross4life]

What's the U21 club scene like in Roscommon (or elsewhere)?

Its a bit of of a shambles in Dublin. And Dublin club football would generally be well run at most levels (at least in comparsion to most counties I'd say - still plenty that could be done better of course), but U21s is bottom of the pile in terms of priorities.

This year it clashed with league playoffs across most divisions and minor championships. So some clubs didnt even enter, a heap had to concede because they couldn't field due to fixture clashes, and U21 championships were won with teams playing 1 or 2 games. You also had the comical situation of a lad who is a starter on the Dublin U21 team playing for the U21 2nd team of his club in the Dublin U21 C championship!

3 division competition with semi finals played from October to December, very stop start with the weather so poor the final was played after Christmas one year. This October will be our last U21 club championship as it will become U20 & plans are to play at spring time.

[Shrewdness]

Don't be surprised to see a bit more of Thomas Corcoran against Tyrone than we saw against Galway. Our midfield struggled at times in the Connacht Final, and with another 2 weeks training under his belt, i would expect Corcoran in earlier this time if we struggle there..Ros don't have any injury concerns and are rearing to go.

[Throw ball]

Don't be surprised to see a bit more of Thomas Corcoran against Tyrone than we saw against Galway. Our midfield struggled at times in the Connacht Final, and with another 2 weeks training under his belt, i would expect Corcoran in earlier this time if we struggle there..Ros don't have any injury concerns and are rearing to go.

Tyrone have tried to avoid midfield from kick outs in matches to date. Their two midfielders are very good ball players though.

[treviola]

Went to see the ulster 21 final last week and the following night went to see the munster 21 final,how they were two different contrasting games.While in ulster both teams(Donegal and Tyrone) with two sweepers each the teams in munster openly played entertaining football.Unbelievably tipperary were 5 points up with three minutes to go and still went man to man 6 backs against 6 forwards while the night before tyrone played one big fella inside and other 13 behind the ball,Murtagh wont get any ball sat so roscommon be prepared because if you try kick ball in it will come back straight out,they will need to be patient.Tyrone were poor in midfield when they had to kick the ball out,donegal only contested the kick outs with ten minutes to go and won every one of them,if only they did it from the start.Tipperary are awesome in the middle,o brien and o riordan cleaned cork out and done untold damage,but they are toothless up front(good free taker however)but very little from play.roscommon to win by 4-5pts if patient and dublin by 10pts

[gibbs32]

To say there is a universal agreement u21 not taken seriously by counties. I suspect you live in your own world. What an idiotic statement

[Farrandeelin]

Yep, Hound. U 21 championship in Dublin is a bit of an "add on" competition at the end of the year alright.
Nowhere near as prestigious as it was .

Good way though to keep some former underage players "involved" who have no interest in playing junior football regularly but will happily commit to a knockout competition with their mates  with maybe a few weeks training beforehand.

Same in Mayo. Started the day of last year's All Ireland. The final replay was the Sunday before Christmas.

[tippabu]

Went to see the ulster 21 final last week and the following night went to see the munster 21 final,how they were two different contrasting games.While in ulster both teams(Donegal and Tyrone) with two sweepers each the teams in munster openly played entertaining football.Unbelievably tipperary were 5 points up with three minutes to go and still went man to man 6 backs against 6 forwards while the night before tyrone played one big fella inside and other 13 behind the ball,Murtagh wont get any ball sat so roscommon be prepared because if you try kick ball in it will come back straight out,they will need to be patient.Tyrone were poor in midfield when they had to kick the ball out,donegal only contested the kick outs with ten minutes to go and won every one of them,if only they did it from the start.Tipperary are awesome in the middle,o brien and o riordan cleaned cork out and done untold damage,but they are toothless up front(good free taker however)but very little from play.roscommon to win by 4-5pts if patient and dublin by 10pts

Out of curiosity have you actually seen the dubs or just going on reports? I do agree they should beat us but we'll see.as you say we arent great up front. I'm sure Dublin management were at the munster final and will have a plan for looking to bypass our midfield, one of our forwards biggest job should be to be on top of the dublin kick outs and try to make them kick it long. Without having seen Dublin in the flesh they don't seem to be near as good as last year and I feel if Longford and Kildale can push them all the way I think we should be able do the same

[tippabu]

Dublin (U-21 FC v Tipperary) - Lorcan Molloy; Emile Mullan, David Byrne, Eoin Murchan; Eric Lowndes, Conor Mulally, Ross McGowan; Stephen Cunningham, Shane Carthy; Gavin Burke, Andrew Foley, Niall Scully; Cormac Costello, Conor McHugh, Colm Basquel

Will be very surprised if we don't go with the same team that played cork

[AZOffaly]

Highlights from the finals last week. Tipp's game is from 9 minutes in. Some nice scores, but some scrappy goals. Look at the run the Tipp Full back (I think it's Jimmy Feehan from Killenaule) makes for the point that puts Tipp at 1-12. Unreal, and should have been a goal really.