Junior Footballers in County Panels

[thebandit]

Monaghan have recalled Paddy Kierans (Sean McDermotts) to the panel, they've been relegated to Junior football for this year

[Ciarrai_thuaidh]

AZ..just change your username to "AZKerry" and be done with it!

[AZOffaly]

Know them. Know them well. Then beat them!

[Ciarrai_thuaidh]

Know them. Know them well. Then beat them!

Not since 82 lad..not for a while yet either..I hope!

Incidentally, the Kerry team this Sunday in the McGrath cup will be almost an entire Junior team given the lads are still sunning themselves in South Africa.

Did I hear Niall O'Shea is back from Oz btw?

[DownFanatic]

Ardglass-Saul-Kilclief entered the Down SFC a few years back as ASK Lecale. They were beaten by Longstone. It was a one off which was never repeated.

That's interesting DownFanatic - was the ability to enter a team into the senior championship closed by the county board or can it still be done

I think at the time Ardglass and Kilclief were Intermediate and Saul were junior.
Don't think the county board stopped it - just think the interest wasn't really there from any other clubs.

[6th sam]

Ardglass-Saul-Kilclief entered the Down SFC a few years back as ASK Lecale. They were beaten by Longstone. It was a one off which was never repeated.

That's interesting DownFanatic - was the ability to enter a team into the senior championship closed by the county board or can it still be done

I think at the time Ardglass and Kilclief were Intermediate and Saul were junior.
Don't think the county board stopped it - just think the interest wasn't really there from any other clubs.

Regarding ASK Lecale in 2011, the 3 clubs amalgamated, for a once off preliminary SFC match v Longstone. The county board supported it, the reason it did not continue was simply that Kilclief won the IFC that year, and therefore were in the 2012 SFC in their own right.
It was an interesting experiment, with the team proving very competitive against a strong Longstone side, probably the lack of competitive football as a unit gave them little time to gel.
The 3 clubs bought into it, and the players really enjoyed the experience.
Those involved in setting it up, were determined to bring the best of all 3 clubs to the table, and were prepared to put club rivalry to the side for the benefit of the players.
In summary:
Positives: club cooperation/mutual respect, county board support, good managers/coaches ,  shop window for potential county players, giving supporters the opportunity to follow SFC team, potentially improves standard of SFC, widens pool of county player selection , invigorates county championships, club identity maintained by individual teams also in IFC JFC .
Negatives: fixture congestion, additional cost, limited preparation time, shortsighted negativity/cynicism by some.
I would argue that predicted demographic change indicates that rural clubs will have increasing difficulty with numbers. Divisional sides give their stronger players opportunity to play SFC without being poached by other clubs. The Kerry experience indicates that all counties should explore this as a means of widening their county player pool. If the most successful county in Ireland has loads of junior players in their county team, perhaps other counties are missing out.
With the exception of Paul McComiskey (whose minor and Queens successes showcased his talent) , to my knowledge no other Lower division player has established himself as a senior Down player in the last 20 years. In the same period , I would imagine at least 20 lower division Kerry players have won Allireland medals!
I am not suggesting there are 20 county players currently in lower divisions in Down , however, I think that we must at least explore if adopting some of Kerry's structures can help us widen our county player pool in the next 20 years.

[AZOffaly]

Ardglass-Saul-Kilclief entered the Down SFC a few years back as ASK Lecale. They were beaten by Longstone. It was a one off which was never repeated.

That's interesting DownFanatic - was the ability to enter a team into the senior championship closed by the county board or can it still be done

I think at the time Ardglass and Kilclief were Intermediate and Saul were junior.
Don't think the county board stopped it - just think the interest wasn't really there from any other clubs.

Regarding ASK Lecale in 2011, the 3 clubs amalgamated, for a once off preliminary SFC match v Longstone. The county board supported it, the reason it did not continue was simply that Kilclief won the IFC that year, and therefore were in the 2012 SFC in their own right.
It was an interesting experiment, with the team proving very competitive against a strong Longstone side, probably the lack of competitive football as a unit gave them little time to gel.
The 3 clubs bought into it, and the players really enjoyed the experience.
Those involved in setting it up, were determined to bring the best of all 3 clubs to the table, and were prepared to put club rivalry to the side for the benefit of the players.
In summary:
Positives: club cooperation/mutual respect, county board support, good managers/coaches ,  shop window for potential county players, giving supporters the opportunity to follow SFC team, potentially improves standard of SFC, widens pool of county player selection , invigorates county championships, club identity maintained by individual teams also in IFC JFC .
Negatives: fixture congestion, additional cost, limited preparation time, shortsighted negativity/cynicism by some.
I would argue that predicted demographic change indicates that rural clubs will have increasing difficulty with numbers. Divisional sides give their stronger players opportunity to play SFC without being poached by other clubs. The Kerry experience indicates that all counties should explore this as a means of widening their county player pool. If the most successful county in Ireland has loads of junior players in their county team, perhaps other counties are missing out.
With the exception of Paul McComiskey (whose minor and Queens successes showcased his talent) , to my knowledge no other Lower division player has established himself as a senior Down player in the last 20 years. In the same period , I would imagine at least 20 lower division Kerry players have won Allireland medals!
I am not suggesting there are 20 county players currently in lower divisions in Down , however, I think that we must at least explore if adopting some of Kerry's structures can help us widen our county player pool in the next 20 years.

I think the key point is not that there are oodles of county players languishing in bad teams at junior level etc. The point is that by providing these divisional sides you have a vehicle for those players to *get better*. If you are a good player on a junior club, you will probably stay at that level forever, skills wise. However, if you have an opportunity to be exposed to better players, both with and against, and better standard of football, you will improve. That's how these sides are contributing to the Kerry scene. Not that they are exposing complete players, but that they are allowing diamonds in the rough to become more polished.

It also has the added benefit of raising the standard of opposition for the bigger clubs as well, so the players at those clubs are also tested at a higher level than they would be in most counties where there's always a fair few teams that are just about senior.

[Donnellys Hollow]

Kildare have only one at the moment - Colin O'Shea (Milltown)

Two Mile House were promoted last year and went on to win the Junior football All Ireland. Peter Kelly would have been a junior player when he won his All Star in 2010.

[5 Sams]

When you think about it some of Kerry's greatest ever players past and present were junior club footballers.  From South Kerry alone for example...Declan O'Sullivan, Jack O'Shea, Maurice Fitzgerald, John Egan, Mick O'Connell among many others. The system they have for championship works perfectly.

Anyone else read Paddy Heaney today in the Irish News. Maybe someone with an account can put up the article. A pretty good read about why Kerry win the AI so often and he mentioned the lads above and the system in Kerry.

[nrico2006]

Stephen O'Neill is now retired obviously, but Cathal McShane from my own Club is in the McKenna Cup squad this spring so there's still 1 x player there or there abouts that plays junior. Kevin Gallagher is another Tyrone player that plays junior football. However I am not sure if he's in or out this year.

Tyrone have always had 2-4 players from Junior football on the Tyrone squad, O'Neill as mentioned, plus Packie McConnell, Ciaran Gourley, Declan McCrossan, Kevin Hughes among others who've featured for Tyrone while playing Junior ball.

I think Tyrone Clubs have a lot tighter spread in terms of ability which is reflected in our record in the All Ireland Juniors the last 10 years, hence why more Junior players from Tyrone might feature for the County.

Add Dooher to that list too from recent times.