Queens withdraw from McKenna Cup

[NaomhBridAbú]

Heard a rumour that they have?

[ck]

The colleges revived and energised the McKenna cup. Shame that they now look as if they are being forced out cos they can't have their players.

[Syferus]

The players are much more valuable to their counties at this time of the year than their colleges in the majority of cases.

Colleges have been working away on their season for quite some time while it's the first opportunity for counties to get something approaching real action, indeed only a few weeks before the NFL starts. If it's that big of a deal for colleges they should just unilaterally pull out of the pre-season tournaments and concentrate on the college league and cups because what's happening right now is a cannibalization of both sides which helps no one in the long run.

[theticklemister]

What a pile of balls. Is that ye mickey harte??

Colleges have been training since september to get ready for february. Three weeks before the competition which they have been in training for they suddenly find themselves down their best players for three games and then without a competitive fixture before the sigerson.


This has to be the most useless post ever to appear on this board. I call on the board moderator to remove yer post as it is the biggest pile of shite ever.

[Syferus]

Is that aimed at me, ticklemister?

Colleges should be playing league matches in January rather than taking players from counties if they want to load up for the Sigerson.

The problems having colleges taking players has wrecked many a manager's attempts at training a panel properly and I'd go as far as to say it's proved a significant factor in counties outside the top eight being able to compete effectively at a higher level. It'd take a single look at the Roscommon team sheet from last January to see why colleges playing in the pre-season tournaments can devastate panels. Most counties don't have a massive pool by any means and need their true panel together in January because most counties aren't like Kerry or Dublin where they can afford to spend the league tinkering around with their teams; most of the counties effected the most by college players not being there (remember most of these players are already doing u21 pre-season tournaments on top of everything else) are ones where success in the league is probably their key goal for the year.

When you have players playing in four different pre-season tournaments at the same time the logistics of trying to build anything more than a place-holder team is impossible for counties with a lot of young players. There's literally almost nothing a manager can learn when his team is so unrecognisable from the one he'll be using only a few weeks later; it's not about blooding players when your county is left with using players that won't even see a minute of league action. With more and more counties relying on college-age players this is becoming a bigger and bigger issue every year.

The fact is these tournaments were created with the intention of preparing inter-county teams for the NFL and championship. Somewhere along the line colleges got added and their competing set of objectives (Sigerson) has warped these tournaments beyond all belief. The same basic format is being used for a completely unplanned situation when these tournaments started out. It absolutely needs fixing on a national level or far more counties will turn against allowing colleges use their players against them or against other counties.

Queens and Mickey Harte are just the tip of an iceberg that's about to crash into the pre-season tournaments.

[gerry]

if the counties pull players from the colleges what incentive is there for the colleges to field a team

[ck]

Syferus I completely disagree. The colleges were invited in to these competitions on the basis that they had access to their county players. Slowly and gradually, short sighted county managers started to pull players back into their teams and the Ulster Council in particular seem to have stood back and allowed that to happen. Who can blame the colleges for opting out against that backdrop.
I'm a county man first but I really enjoy seeing our young players play for their colleges. It's a shame to see that end. Will we see the McKenna cup slide back into the competition it used to be? The Ulster council should not allow that happen. The FBD league and O'Byrne Cup continues to go from strength to strength since the colleges joined. Long may that continue.

[ONeill]

This bollocks about the Universities reinvigorating the McKenna Cup is tiresome. It existed before them. The matches involving the Unis are the poorest attended.

[Syferus]

Syferus I completely disagree. The colleges were invited in to these competitions on the basis that they had access to their county players. Slowly and gradually, short sighted county managers started to pull players back into their teams and the Ulster Council in particular seem to have stood back and allowed that to happen. Who can blame the colleges for opting out against that backdrop.
I'm a county man first but I really enjoy seeing our young players play for their colleges. It's a shame to see that end. Will we see the McKenna cup slide back into the competition it used to be? The Ulster council should not allow that happen. The FBD league and O'Byrne Cup continues to go from strength to strength since the colleges joined. Long may that continue.

I appreciate your point of view but that is definitely not true. The FBD barely registers at all around here, and by here I mean the main footballing part of Galway, east Mayo and Roscommon. In other words a huge swath of the province. I can't imagine the reception is much better elsewhere. There's actually open mocking of the FBD going on, to the degree I feel I have to defend the point of the tournament most times it comes up. The only time most around here do more than skim the score-line in the Herald or Western People from the FBD is when Roscommon and Mayo play and that's simply because it's a rivalry game, and one that happens in the locality every year. That Mayo decided to baulk off the FBD League final this year tells you its own story about how much respect the tournament has.

The FBD, the O'Bryne, the McKenna, all the pre-season tournaments desperately need some new planning to be viable in the long term.

[yellowcard]

This bollocks about the Universities reinvigorating the McKenna Cup is tiresome. It existed before them. The matches involving the Unis are the poorest attended.

Clearly they are going to be less well attended since one of the teams will carry little or no support where colleges are involved. Leadership has to come from the Ulster council on this issue, if they don't allow the colleges first call on their players I can only see the competition resorting to its old format. They are too weak however, and afraid to upset the county managers.

[ck]

This bollocks about the Universities reinvigorating the McKenna Cup is tiresome. It existed before them. The matches involving the Unis are the poorest attended.

Clearly they are going to be less well attended since one of the teams will carry little or no support where colleges are involved. Leadership has to come from the Ulster council on this issue, if they don't allow the colleges first call on their players I can only see the competition resorting to its old format. They are too weak however, and afraid to upset the county managers.

+1

[theticklemister]

The reason the unis were brought in was to revive the competitions,and that is exactly what they have done. The interest in the mckenna cup has been huge in recent years. The only way that the unis can compete is if they have a full squad to choose from. Micky Harte must feel proud of beating a team with their best players unavailable. Brian Mciver has the right philosophy .........' what is the point of having a huge panel with lads only getting limited game time, let them play as much football as possible'. The ulster council should step in and help the unis and put an end to the manager's silly and THOUGHTLESS ethos.

I ask you what will the uni players do from sep to jan if you want the league section to be played in January. It three or four weeks to run of your league, then you have qf,sf and final. Then straight into championship??? It would be better on this format to get knocked out early in league in order to prepare for cship.

[shawshank]

What a niave post that is about Brian Mc Ivor, who is with Mc Ivor that he might want to keep sweet. Answer on a stamp.

[theticklemister]

Maybe Mciver is a man who has common sense.

[yellowcard]

What a niave post that is about Brian Mc Ivor, who is with Mc Ivor that he might want to keep sweet. Answer on a stamp.

Does it make his philosophy wrong? It's a far more player orientated approach than others have chosen.