Change underage back to u14,16,18

[thewobbler]

You know, I've found an odd thing over the past couple of seasons Johnnycool; that mentors are almost entirely more civilised and balanced at u14 football (competitive) than they are at u10.5 and u12 Go Games levels.

I'd harbour a few guesses as to why. Real referees would help. That the kids are older and don't need so much of a "protective arm" would help. That the teams are streamed more evenly would help.

But I would think the main reason is that as mentors go through the ranks and gain experience, most of them come to realise that treating a juvenile league match like a senior championship final helps nobody, but does stress everyone.

——

All under 12 footballers keep score whether the referee does or not. There's pretty much always one team cheering at the final whistle.

[johnnycool]

You know, I've found an odd thing over the past couple of seasons Johnnycool; that mentors are almost entirely more civilised and balanced at u14 football (competitive) than they are at u10.5 and u12 Go Games levels.

I'd harbour a few guesses as to why. Real referees would help. That the kids are older and don't need so much of a "protective arm" would help. That the teams are streamed more evenly would help.

But I would think the main reason is that as mentors go through the ranks and gain experience, most of them come to realise that treating a juvenile league match like a senior championship final helps nobody, but does stress everyone.

——

All under 12 footballers keep score whether the referee does or not. There's pretty much always one team cheering at the final whistle.

I'd agree with that sentiment from my experiences as well but that's due to the coaches (and parents) being conditioned with the go-games mentality from P4 (U8.5) and P6(U10.5) that they need to involve every kid in those short sided blitzes.

Not sure how the football works @U12 in Down, but in the hurling they still involve mini-blitzes with 3 or 4 teams playing slightly longer games amongst themselves so every kid gets an opportunity to play and winning is very much for the kids and not something the coaches get excited about.

I'd not be rushing to change that in Down.

As for the intercounty model change to U17, for me it was well intentioned to take the heat out of minor in what is an exam year for a lot of kids, reduce the load on the 1% of elite players, but wasn't thought through enough in terms of the impact at club level.

The reduction to U17 meant you didn't have a transition year for 17yo's who weren't getting exposed to adult hurling and then the only hurling available the following year was adult and that can take time for some lads and some drift away.

At least with club being U18, they have their core agegroup of minor and in our case we let the 18yo's also train and play adult hurling, but those who struggle will also have their minor games to keep them involved.

That's my experiences of it, other clubs and counties will vary.