Ulster under 21 club championship

[norabeag]

See some lazy journalism today in Irish News.
According to them the Down U21 reps will be Burren or Longstone!
maybe no point in Bredagh playing Downpatrick this Sunday with winners going on to Co Final

[fitzroyalty]

do other counties actually take u21 seriously? In armagh its a complete farce...

[bennydorano]

Some Co Boards may view the U21 grade as a bit of a nuisance (Armagh anyway), but the clubs who have a realistic chance of winning certainly dont.  When we won it in 2005 there were some fantastic games, the semi v Dromintee being a particular stand out.

Fair play to Creggan for trying to inject some enthusiasm into the grade, churlish to say they are only diong it because they have a good side(no doubt they are), as hopefully it will will still be going strong when Creggan are not competing in it.

[Gold]

Tend to agree with you wanderer. The U 21 county teams are in preperation and there was a right  row here a few years ago for lads needed by Omagh CBS and county minor squad. Can't see how the management of Tyrone minors, U21s and Omagh CBS will be too enamoured with this idea if it involves Omagh playing three games over three weekends.
Seems ill thought out and a bit self indulgent of Creggan.

No it was Greenlough who had the comp going for a few years in early 2000's.

I remember Slaughneil and St Galls winning it--it was always unofficial but had a right few county u-21 winners and always the host club.

I think the final year it turned into a 7 a side competition. The games were played over a weekend or a day but were taken very seriously and well run. The only downside i remember was some unbelievable hometown refereeing decisions when Greenlough were playing--they would have to be seen to be believed!

Yeah don't forget to factor in the McKenna Cup which will rob clubs of certain University and County Panellists also.

Derry had their first U21 Championship in years last year and in fairness it's not a level taken seriously at all here. I don't mean to sound negative but surely there's enough going on for lads at that age without adding an extra unimportant competition on top of it.

Unfortunately this competition is not well timed and should be set aside and possible played at the end of the county u21 ulster championship when college, national league and university competitions have ended and before the start of the ulster senior cship. Cant see all games being played. does any one remember who previously run a similar competition think it was bellaghy of ballinderry?

castledawson?

No it was Greenlough who had the comp going for a few years in the early 2000's

I remember Slaughtneil and St Galls winning it a few times. The competition was well run and taken very seriously by teams involved with fighting breaking out on more than one occasion.

Many county winners took part but it was never an official ulster u-21 comp and not all counties were represented. The host club also played each year and their games featured some unbelievable hometown refereeing that would have to be seen to be believed.

I think the last year changed format and was a 7 or 10 a side competition. Most years it was ran over a weekend or one day

[orangeman]

Looks like Creggan got this idea from taking part in the Coalisland Fianna, Ulster Under 21 sevens in the summer. A bit tacky to try and revamp that idea a few months later and even put up the same money for first prize. 

[longrunsthefox]

Looks like "player burnout" is just a distant memory, if it ever entered the minds, for too many.

Yet another competition at a cluttered time of the year for established competitions including MacRory and McLarnon Cups, McKenna Cup and Sigerson Cup.  Makes no sense except to a few administrators who have their own agenda which doesn't include or understand the demands on underage players in other counties.

Agreed-does not seem to take notice of bigger picture at all. Seems totally self serving and I can see it causing conflict with secondary schools, colleges and even county panels. Poorly thought out if thought out at all.   

[AFS]

Counterintuitively, this competition may actually improve the burnout situation as it's existence will encourage more counties to run off their championships on time, rather than let them drag on into the following year.

[bennydorano]

'Burnout' is not caused by overplaying, over training maybe. 

[gallsman]

do other counties actually take u21 seriously? In armagh its a complete farce...

I think we won seven in a row or something in Antrim, which provided a great opportunity for players a few years older or younger to play on the same team. Fair play to Creggan.

[saffron sam2]

Tend to agree with you wanderer. The U 21 county teams are in preperation and there was a right  row here a few years ago for lads needed by Omagh CBS and county minor squad. Can't see how the management of Tyrone minors, U21s and Omagh CBS will be too enamoured with this idea if it involves Omagh playing three games over three weekends.
Seems ill thought out and a bit self indulgent of Creggan.

No it was Greenlough who had the comp going for a few years in early 2000's.

I remember Slaughneil and St Galls winning it--it was always unofficial but had a right few county u-21 winners and always the host club.

I think the final year it turned into a 7 a side competition. The games were played over a weekend or a day but were taken very seriously and well run. The only downside i remember was some unbelievable hometown refereeing decisions when Greenlough were playing--they would have to be seen to be believed!

Yeah don't forget to factor in the McKenna Cup which will rob clubs of certain University and County Panellists also.

Derry had their first U21 Championship in years last year and in fairness it's not a level taken seriously at all here. I don't mean to sound negative but surely there's enough going on for lads at that age without adding an extra unimportant competition on top of it.

Unfortunately this competition is not well timed and should be set aside and possible played at the end of the county u21 ulster championship when college, national league and university competitions have ended and before the start of the ulster senior cship. Cant see all games being played. does any one remember who previously run a similar competition think it was bellaghy of ballinderry?

castledawson?

No it was Greenlough who had the comp going for a few years in the early 2000's

I remember Slaughtneil and St Galls winning it a few times. The competition was well run and taken very seriously by teams involved with fighting breaking out on more than one occasion.

Many county winners took part but it was never an official ulster u-21 comp and not all counties were represented. The host club also played each year and their games featured some unbelievable hometown refereeing that would have to be seen to be believed.

I think the last year changed format and was a 7 or 10 a side competition. Most years it was ran over a weekend or one day

Greenlough is correct. May have been in memory of the late Paul McCann.

I remember big Louis' older chap getting a good write up.

[Orior]

'Burnout' is not caused by overplaying, over training maybe.

That's also why I never made the county team - I was over training.

In fact I just barely made it on to O'Hanlons division 4 team in Armagh.

[TacadoirArdMhacha]

Counterintuitively, this competition may actually improve the burnout situation as it's existence will encourage more counties to run off their championships on time, rather than let them drag on into the following year.

None so blind as though who don't want to see.

Burnout is caused by continued overplaying of underage players due to demands from too many sources and ever increasing new competitions at so many age levels. 

There is an immediate need for someone to take an overview of all competitions for underage players to cut down the number of demands on young players from so many sources by co-ordinating and curtailing competitions.  The GAA is rife with semi autonomous units with their own administrators who are apparently unwilling to cooperate and operate in what they see as the best interests of the unit.  A re-organisation of the GAA structures to allow an executive able to co-ordinate the actions of units with a high degree of authority.

Burn-out is an issue mainly, though not exclusively, an issue for young players in second and third level education. A competition like an Ulster u21 would be tremendous for players on an u21 team who don't go to University and would be delighted to test themselves against the best in Ulster and represent their counties but perhaps a nuisance for those with school, or more likely, freshers or Sigerson commitments. Its a difficult balance to strike but the GAA have to be careful not to overlook those underage players who play exclusively with their clubs and often don't get as many playing outlets as they'd like.

There are a few very fundamental steps that can be taken to address burn-out amongst young players;

1. Scrap the pre-Christmas stages of the McRory cup and the 3rd level Ryan Cup

2. Encourage schools and universities to ensure that their managers take a mature atitude to the training demands on players. For example, if 1 was enacted, there should be no McRory panels assembled before 1st December.

[ceol agus peil]

Why do  colleges threat theMcRory cup with such esteem ,Omagh must have trained 4 times over the holiday period and hadafriendly in Dublin yesterday against a Dublin  minor team , is this not  leading to player burnout  it is certainly time that the  college season  at least takes  a break   also at this time just like the adultintercounty footballers.

[TacadoirArdMhacha]

Burn-out is an issue mainly, though not exclusively, an issue for young players in second and third level education. A competition like an Ulster u21 would be tremendous for players on an u21 team who don't go to University and would be delighted to test themselves against the best in Ulster and represent their counties but perhaps a nuisance for those with school, or more likely, freshers or Sigerson commitments. Its a difficult balance to strike but the GAA have to be careful not to overlook those underage players who play exclusively with their clubs and often don't get as many playing outlets as they'd like.

There are a few very fundamental steps that can be taken to address burn-out amongst young players;

1. Scrap the pre-Christmas stages of the McRory cup and the 3rd level Ryan Cup

2. Encourage schools and universities to ensure that their managers take a mature atitude to the training demands on players. For example, if 1 was enacted, there should be no McRory panels assembled before 1st December.

Scrapping the pre-Christmas MacRory Cup games would not prevent training and practice games.  The best solution would be to move the MacRory back to term 1, start league games in early September and play cup final in November.  Leave students time to work for January exams and give them a rest over mid winter.  The current system encourages teams to gamble on qualifying for the knockout stage and then going mad with training in December and January when lads should be paying more attention to their studies for modular exams in mid January.  Start games in September before squads have time for training and run the knockout over three weeks in November to prevent senseless stamina training.

Other problem is that it would be the elite players who participate in these competitions at Ulster level and will be those in greatest demand, hence burnout.  The solution would be to run these new competitions during the early and mid summer when games are hard to come by for many players due to "holiday" breaks and counties halting games due to county teams.

It would if schools were determined enough to stamp it out. If the GAA got all the schools together and got them to agree that any oragnised training before 1st December was a disciplinary offence, and in turn the school principals disciplined any teacher not respected the September to November closed season, you'd soon stamp out the excessive training.

[Keyser soze]

I would commend Creggan for undertaking this initiative. Whilst i recognise that there may be an issue of player burnout I think that at club level this will effect only a limited number of the players involved in this competition. Not all of them will be playing McRory, or be at university, or be be able to get on their club senior team. Some of course will be, but it is likely that for a large proportion of them this may be their only involvement in playing since they finished minor football/left school. It is, imo, more important for the longterm health of the GAA to attempt to provide as many outlets for playing for the greatest number, for as long as possible, rather than focussing on burnout of the few, albeit most talented, players.