Twiss critical of U-20 Championship return to spring

KERRY GAA Secretary Peter Twiss says he feels the GAA’s decision to pull the inter-county Under-20 football championship back to the spring is a box ticking exercise that won’t benefit the players or the competition.

In his annual report to County Convention next week Mr Twiss writes: “The decision to revert back to the springtime with the inter-county Under 20 football championship is a mistake in my opinion. Training and playing in the worst of conditions has no developmental value. It feels more like just ticking a box and getting the thing done with. For elite players coming out of Minor, it should be all about development, practicing and developing their skills in a far more appropriate time of year.”

On a related issue, Twiss agrees with Croke Park in tightening up the All-Ireland Club Championship, with the All-Ireland Club finals coming back to January in 2020 and beyond.

“I welcome the bringing forward of the All-Ireland Club Finals to January.

The long gap between the Munster Club (completed in December) and All–Ireland Senior Club Final (player on 17 March) was difficult to justify,” he writes. “With the new dates, a lot of time and needless costs in trying to keep teams in shape are reduced. For the inter-county players involved with the club it also frees them up for the Allianz League.”

TWISS ON KERRY CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS

“There is no doubt that by separating the Club Championship (played in April), the hurling championship (played in summer) and the (county senior) football championship played after the All-Ireland, allows the space for the teams involved to prepare well and compete without being pulled and dragged all over the place. No matter what format one comes up with for our championships it will never suit everybody, but let us be cautious about changing the one we have at the moment

“One of the fears expressed by completing the Club Championships in early May was that it would disadvantage the winners due to the long delay before they would compete in the Munster and All-Ireland series. However, with Kilcummin and Beaufort going on the win the Munster and All-Ireland titles following the first year of this new format, this fear turned out to be unfounded.

“This year the Club Championship was tweaked slightly to make the third series of games more competitive and avoid ‘dead rubbers’. In fairness the changes had the desired effect. In an ideal world it would be great to have a quarter-final in the competition to facilitate two teams from each group of four qualifying for the knock-out stages but the time period we have available to run the fixtures (maximum 6 weeks) works against that.

“If this year proved anything it showed the importance of keeping championship fixtures on a very tight reign. With Kerry reaching the Allianz League Final, the All-Ireland Final plus a replay, any fall off in either the

Club championships or the Hurling championship would have had serious consequences for our County Senior Football Championship.

TWISS ON UNDER AGE GRADINGS

“Again the issue of age grades has been highlighted with Central Council recommending in its new policy that the standard age grade for county competitions be under-13, under-15 and under-17. In my view this is the way to go for Kerry. Our present minor competitions are badly hampered by the interference of adult club activity which inevitably requires the involvement of the good players who are over 17 and under 18.

“By bringing the underage grades to U-17, U-15 and U-13, you get a very streamlined fixtures programme for all. The interference of adult fixtures in relation to Minor fixtures has to be removed if we are to have any hope of providing a high quality games programme for this most important group of players.