Quote from: Throw ball on November 03, 2015, 06:58:20 PMQuote from: Syferus on November 03, 2015, 06:44:23 PMQuote from: Captain Obvious on November 03, 2015, 05:09:25 PMQuote from: Croí na hÉireann on November 03, 2015, 04:54:05 PMThat would only dilute the competition and you are as well to scrap it if the best players aren't allowed to play in it.
Yeah, I don't get when they'd abolish the football and not the hurling. I don't think they even want to abolish the football, probably their starting position to be negotiated back to any U21 player becoming ineligible once they have played a senior match.
Yeah. It's only less daft because the optics of scraping underage IC over the age of 17 in the most popular sport in Ireland because the GAA has created a mangled calendar is so bad. Both ideas non-runners. Sigerson league needs to disappear into oblivion so the Sigerson can be played in Sept-Dec. And a bonus would there would be absolutely no reason for colleges to be in the IC January competitions because their season would already be over.
I would have to agree with Croi here. The problem is that the elite players are playing too much. I do not feel it would reduce the standard. In fact by making younger elite players have fewer commitments at that age group it should make them less prone to injury and may improve the standard at senior level in the long term. Other players who may not have fully developed may get a chance at under 21 and improve too.
I would suggest also that a rule could simply state that an under 21 player cannot play senior football in any year until the under 21 championship is over., or if he plays senior in that time he is ineligible for under 21.
I am not a great fan of the under 17 idea. Most championship matches in Ulster anyway take place when exams are over and any that go to university cannot play Sigerson in first year. A big gap.
You could have a situation where a U-21 is ineligible as he brought on in a senior game with 5 minutes to go and for the rest of the year he could be warming the senior bench. The same player if allowed to play for his U-21s could be the difference between his side winning or losing.