Sigerson Cup 2012

[stronghold]

DCU have an excellent eye for talent. They got Donie Smith and John McManus (son of one of the finest forwards in the history of the game, Tony McManus) this year, who both featured prominently in our 2011 minor championship run, among plenty of other Roscommon under-age players. Clearly Roscommon isn't the only county they've selected exciting players from either.

At minimum both Smith and McManus will be future starters for the county - both are already involved with the senior panel - so if you're sick of DCU already it isn't going to get any better.

In strong defence of DCU, I've seen first-hand how much their input has helped players like Donie Shine, Cathal Cregg and, on recent form, David Keenan, develop. They're also imbuing players from counties other than the top three or four with the confidence that there's very little between them and the very best teams in the country and that can only ever be very good thing for the game at large.

Syferus, are you being serious here? Such a pile of nonsense. "DCU have an excellent eye for talent" = They approach the best county minors in the country, don't give a damn what sort of leaving cert they get and offer them all sorts of freebies to lure them up to Dublin. That's an excellent eye for talent is it? UUJ are at the same craic up north. Neither college is credible in my book and both are seen as second rate colleges as a result.
As for "developing players" ..as if that is a consideration for DCU. The only thing they are after is shoving players into courses and then try to win trophies and claim to be some sort of GAA nursary. BS.

CK you appear to be at the very least naïve or ingenuous.  Every college has active recruiting programmes and talent scouting. Why do you think Queens sponsored the Ulster College ALL-Star trials this year with every students getting a QUB jersey in both hurling and football. Why did queens gave out 32 Gaelic scholarships last year and why has Aidan O Rouke personally texted all final years students offering Post graduate masters courses.
No problem with any of this, fair play to them but try to be subjective

[ck]

Stronghold you raise some interesting points here however you can't help yourself in getting a snipe in at Queen's whilst attempting to promote your own college uuj. It seems to be in your dna.
For the record your point on St.Mary's having 1500 v Queen's having 25,000. St.Marys is a catholic teacher training college so chances are that most of them have a GAA background (you only need 15!). Queens has extremely high entry grades (like trinity) and loads of International students so their GAA intake will be mixed (as you well know I'd say). Both of these colleges would be very credible in that they adhere to the ethos of teh competition and depend on their natural intake for players.
Unlike your own college who target players every year to beef up your squad (Leo McLoone, Eoin Waide etc). By the way Ulster uni has nearly 30,000 students, you operate elite entry scheme, you target older players to beef your squad, and you still can't win the thing!

Elite entry schemes are the cancer of HE GAA.

[stronghold]

Stronghold you raise some interesting points here however you can't help yourself in getting a snipe in at Queen's whilst attempting to promote your own college uuj. It seems to be in your dna.
For the record your point on St.Mary's having 1500 v Queen's having 25,000. St.Marys is a catholic teacher training college so chances are that most of them have a GAA background (you only need 15!). Queens has extremely high entry grades (like trinity) and loads of International students so their GAA intake will be mixed (as you well know I'd say). Both of these colleges would be very credible in that they adhere to the ethos of teh competition and depend on their natural intake for players.
Unlike your own college who target players every year to beef up your squad (Leo McLoone, Eoin Waide etc). By the way Ulster uni has nearly 30,000 students, you operate elite entry scheme, you target older players to beef your squad, and you still can't win the thing!

Elite entry schemes are the cancer of HE GAA.

Yes CK and you cant not comment without having a snipe at UUJ.  Lets nail this myth once and for all the grdaes into queens are no higher than any other University, it all depends on the course and the demand.  Maybe you would like to tell me the difference in Leo MC Loone and Eoin Waide gooing to UUJ and Paul Mc Guigan, Enda Clarke and Tim Hanna going to beef up Queens as you say.
By the way there are 25, 000 students at UU which includes Magee, Coleraine, Jordanstown and the Art College there are 12,500 at Jordanstown.

[TheThirdManning]

Stronghold you raise some interesting points here however you can't help yourself in getting a snipe in at Queen's whilst attempting to promote your own college uuj. It seems to be in your dna.
For the record your point on St.Mary's having 1500 v Queen's having 25,000. St.Marys is a catholic teacher training college so chances are that most of them have a GAA background (you only need 15!). Queens has extremely high entry grades (like trinity) and loads of International students so their GAA intake will be mixed (as you well know I'd say). Both of these colleges would be very credible in that they adhere to the ethos of teh competition and depend on their natural intake for players.
Unlike your own college who target players every year to beef up your squad (Leo McLoone, Eoin Waide etc). By the way Ulster uni has nearly 30,000 students, you operate elite entry scheme, you target older players to beef your squad, and you still can't win the thing!

Elite entry schemes are the cancer of HE GAA.

I would agree with that. I don't think anybody has a problem with colleges having some lee-way towards students who had dedicated huge amounts of their time to succeeding at our national game but I think if the competition is ever to be taken serious then it needs to be a level playing field for all the colleges competing in the elite competition in both codes.Say, allowing each team to have 3 elite players or whatever. 

But this nonsense of going and recruiting loads of students just to play GAA has to stop. If a young lad is in college the real reason he should be there is to get a degree and an education in something he wants to do. 95% of a college's team should be made up of players who entered the institute legitimately through the CAO system and not because they were allowed do a course because they are good at football.

How are colleges like NUIM, UCD,  Athlone IT and Queens for example meant to be able to compete with DCU or UUJ when they go around handing the best young players in the country entry into the college even if they didn't meet the points that was required through the CAO?

It's like expecting Everton, Aston Villa and Fulham to go and compete with Man City every year. Eventually it just going to get really boring.

[stronghold]

Thirdmanstanding you havn't read my previous comments. Only DCU operate at direct entry system of Elite players where players can get into college without reaching the minimim requirements.  Maynooth has one of the largest elite entry scemes in the Country followed by Waterford, Carlow IT, LIT, UUJ but these are all under the CAU applications with a small reducetion in entry points, but must reach the minimum requirements
I agree the new rule of 3 elite players per team would be a help

[stronghold]

Sorry meant TheThirdmanning

[DuffleKing]

You'd think tommyjoe would make some attempt to disguies himself posting on here...

[ross4life]

DCU have an excellent eye for talent. They got Donie Smith and John McManus (son of one of the finest forwards in the history of the game, Tony McManus) this year, who both featured prominently in our 2011 minor championship run, among plenty of other Roscommon under-age players. Clearly Roscommon isn't the only county they've selected exciting players from either.

At minimum both Smith and McManus will be future starters for the county - both are already involved with the senior panel - so if you're sick of DCU already it isn't going to get any better.

In strong defence of DCU, I've seen first-hand how much their input has helped players like Donie Shine, Cathal Cregg and, on recent form, David Keenan, develop. They're also imbuing players from counties other than the top three or four with the confidence that there's very little between them and the very best teams in the country and that can only ever be very good thing for the game at large.

Are you mixing up Smith with Conor Daly? as Donie is in his 2nd year with DCU after winning the freshers with them last year he was on the DCU sigerson panel then got injured v Longford in the O`Bryne cup. Mc Manus,Daly,Finbar Cregg,Oates etc are all part of the DCU freshers team this year (they lost the final to Queens yesterday btw)

As for the guys asking why Cregg,Kelly,Murphy weren't starting well all are just back from injury & i'm sure the counties would be asking DCU to ease them back into action.

[stronghold]

You'd think tommyjoe would make some attempt to disguies himself posting on here...

Not TJ, but proud to be a lecturer at Ulster. Always like to deal in fact rather than myths and anecdotes.

[DuffleKing]

Whatever. Couldn't care less about petty 2 college pointscoring which clutters up a football discussion

[donegal_abu]

So to get into DCU do the top players not need to get the points everyone else does ? :S Damn wish I was a bit better at football !!!!! 

[Jinxy]

And school.

[Captain Obvious]

You need to be well eduacted or you would'nt last past christmas in any university.

[ck]

Stronghold you raise some interesting points here however you can't help yourself in getting a snipe in at Queen's whilst attempting to promote your own college uuj. It seems to be in your dna.
For the record your point on St.Mary's having 1500 v Queen's having 25,000. St.Marys is a catholic teacher training college so chances are that most of them have a GAA background (you only need 15!). Queens has extremely high entry grades (like trinity) and loads of International students so their GAA intake will be mixed (as you well know I'd say). Both of these colleges would be very credible in that they adhere to the ethos of teh competition and depend on their natural intake for players.
Unlike your own college who target players every year to beef up your squad (Leo McLoone, Eoin Waide etc). By the way Ulster uni has nearly 30,000 students, you operate elite entry scheme, you target older players to beef your squad, and you still can't win the thing!

Elite entry schemes are the cancer of HE GAA.

Yes CK and you cant not comment without having a snipe at UUJ.  Lets nail this myth once and for all the grdaes into queens are no higher than any other University, it all depends on the course and the demand.  Maybe you would like to tell me the difference in Leo MC Loone and Eoin Waide gooing to UUJ and Paul Mc Guigan, Enda Clarke and Tim Hanna going to beef up Queens as you say.
By the way there are 25, 000 students at UU which includes Magee, Coleraine, Jordanstown and the Art College there are 12,500 at Jordanstown.

No Stonghold I don't have snipes at UUJ, I have snipes at colleges who rip the piss in terms of taking in players through all sorts of silly schemes. UUJ are very much in this group and Queen's are not, yet you bring them up in every post. So what if  O'Rourke texts his own players! .. It might fit you better looking after the players you do have, then you might win something.

[donegal_abu]

Michael Murphy repeated his leaving I think.. why would he bother if you dont need the points to get in to dcu thoguh??