Minimum age to play senior football 2016

[JoG2]

Has a new rule been passed that a player has to be 18 to play senior football next year? If not,  has the current rule changed for next season at all?  Have been hearing various bits and bobs in recent weeks. 

[mrhardyannual]

The rule was changed at Congress but afaik will not come into effect until next season. A player may not play at adult level unless he is 18 or turns 18 in the year of the competition.

[JoG2]

Good man.  Will hit a good few smaller clubs hard

[Angus]

This is a good amendment! Senior football requires stronger stamina, hence, this rule will avoid youngsters to experience early physical and mental stresses they might encounter during the game.

[JoG2]

Good if you've a big panel but so good if you're struggling to field as is

[Rossfan]

Struggling to field would suggest you should be Junior or Inter not Senior?

[ashman]

Good if you've a big panel but so good if you're struggling to field as is

Kilmacud crokes , for example, rarely play current county minors . Smaller senior clubs generally do .

[theskull1]

We need a definition of "what is good"

Good for the club short term or good for the player long term?

[Throw ball]

Good if you've a big panel but so good if you're struggling to field as is

Kilmacud crokes , for example, rarely play current county minors . Smaller senior clubs generally do .

Derrynoose, a rural junior club in Armagh, introduced a rule a few years ago to their club that a player still playing minor could not play senior. The hope is that it will be to the long term good of the player and club.

[mrhardyannual]

Struggling to field would suggest you should be Junior or Inter not Senior?

This rule applies to all adult teams irrespective of whither they play at Junior, Inter, or Senior Grade.

[manfromdelmonte]

In our club the minors would only get 5/6 games a year if they don't play adult games.
Our 17 year olds get very few games and we haven't seen some of them all year

[barelegs]

Our club minor season finished before the end of April after 6 matches. That would mean our 17 year olds wouldn't have had football of any description for the guts of a year if the same scenario was to happen next year. I can understand not wanting to burn the top players out, but that situation helps no one. There'll be lads dropping away with that level of inactivity- and we really can't afford to be losing players.

[Rossfan]

Our club minor season finished before the end of April after 6 matches.
There'll be lads dropping away with that level of inactivity.

And there is a major problem.
If they played soccer or rubby they'd have maybe 20 or more games over the whole season.

[AZOffaly]

It used to be a vicious circle. You couldn't schedule minor leagues or whatever because the same players would be burnt out with junior, u21 etc etc.

Now that they can't play adult football, the relevant county boards need to schedule appropriate competitions and games to fill the void, against people they are capable of competing with.

[Lone Shark]

This is a vicious circle to be honest, and it needs to be broken. In a county like Offaly, if you're a 17 year old footballer who isn't good enough to play adult or county, or if you don't hurl, then you get feck all games. The reason is that they can't schedule a meaningful programme for minors, because adult clubs are dependent on their minors* to field junior teams, so they have to put in place a schedule that facilitates both.

Naturally then, the 17 year old who gets feck all games then gives up, while the good 17 year old is playing senior by age 22. Consequently there are no 22 year olds available for the juniors, and the juniors need to hit up the minor panel again - and so it continues ad infinitum.



*funny how clubs that are dependent on minors to field second teams are always dependent on getting the good minors. If only the weak ones are available, then they "can't field".