Junior Footballers in County Panels

Started by tc_manchester, December 31, 2014, 09:49:15 AM

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tc_manchester

I'm a great admirer of how the Kerry Championship is structured. It means that every player in the county has a chance to play in the premier competition in the county and that no good junior/intermediate players are missed by the county management team. Around 2008 I did an analysis of the Tyrone and Kerry senior panels. 78% of the Tyrone panel were made up of players from the senior clubs while 52% of the Kerry Panel were from senior clubs. Of the 28 that togged out for Kerry in the all - ireland final in 2014 25% were from junior clubs. Last year Tyrone had 1 player from a junior club (Stephen O'Neill). I was wondering how it was in the rest of the counties?

Syferus


Itchy

Jason McLoughlin, highly rated corner back in Cavan is from junior club Shannon Gaels. Doubt they'll be junior for much longer though.

ONeill

I wanna have my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames.

tc_manchester

#4
So far
Kerry 7 (from panel of 28)
Tyrone 1 (26)
Cavan 1
Roscommon 1
Derry 0
Down 1

My argument is that the straight senior/intermediate/junior club championships hinder the development of individual players from Junior clubs. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the counties fare in respect to Kerry. Kerry don't have a massive advantage in playing numbers over other counties but they have won about 20-25% of the All-Irelands. I believe that they utilise their resources better by the way that they have structured their county championship.

Norf Tyrone

Stephen O'Neill is now retired obviously, but Cathal McShane from my own Club is in the McKenna Cup squad this spring so there's still 1 x player there or there abouts that plays junior. Kevin Gallagher is another Tyrone player that plays junior football. However I am not sure if he's in or out this year.

Tyrone have always had 2-4 players from Junior football on the Tyrone squad, O'Neill as mentioned, plus Packie McConnell, Ciaran Gourley, Declan McCrossan, Kevin Hughes among others who've featured for Tyrone while playing Junior ball.

I think Tyrone Clubs have a lot tighter spread in terms of ability which is reflected in our record in the All Ireland Juniors the last 10 years, hence why more Junior players from Tyrone might feature for the County.
Owen Roe O'Neills GAC, Leckpatrick, Tyrone

oakleaflad

Derry have 0 Junior players. There just aren't any good enough, not that they are being overlooked.

DownFanatic

Paul McComiskey from my own club Dundrum in Down was a shining example of a junior club player on a senior county team.
We were Division 4 in 2005 when he top scored in the All Ireland MFC final.
He had played in All Ireland MFC, U-21, SFC and Sigerson finals by the age of 22.

BallyhaiseMan

Another Cavan addition to this list
Liam Buchannon, Ballymachugh

Itchy

David Givney was a junior player too but he transferred up to Dublin club.

twohands!!!

I did see a stat previously that a serious chunk of eligible lads in Kerry played with the Kerry Junior team at some stage.

Along with the divisional teams this would also help in developing young lads from small clubs where the coaching might not be at the very top level.


ardtole

I think Cork have a similar set up with players coming through their junior team, donnacha o connor i think was one and miskella too i think.

5 Sams

When you think about it some of Kerry's greatest ever players past and present were junior club footballers.  From South Kerry alone for example...Declan O'Sullivan, Jack O'Shea, Maurice Fitzgerald, John Egan, Mick O'Connell among many others. The system they have for championship works perfectly.
60,61,68,91,94
The Aristocrat Years

mylestheslasher

Quote from: BallyhaiseMan on December 31, 2014, 05:57:36 PM
Another Cavan addition to this list
Liam Buchannon, Ballymachugh

Is he on the senior panel this year? Don't think he was brought in last year after the U21s but I could be wrong.

INDIANA