Young hurler’s plea not to alter grades

DEAR Sir,

My name is Cillian Boggan, and I am a student at St. Peter’s College. I am currently playing with the Faythe Harriers, a club which I captained to an All-Ireland Féile title in 2016, and have won numerous county titles with them.

I am writing to you on an issue which is of great importance to me and the many other players whom I have spoken to about the subject.

Earlier in the year, a rule change was proposed within the G.A.A., to abolish the Under-16 age group. The new process would see players go from Under-15 to Under-17.

I’m not exactly sure of the main reason as to why this was proposed, but from what I’m told, the idea behind it was to take away some of the pressure from young players doing exams.

This went to the G.A.A. executive council, and the bill was turned down. And for good reason as well as, why would you try to fix something that is not broken?

However, there is still a large number of G.A.A. people in Wexford pushing for this rule to be brought in, and there is an upcoming meeting in the next few days where G.A.A. clubs in Wexford can submit their thoughts about the change.

However, over the past number of months, I have spoken to a number of players from right across the county about this, and each player I have spoken to is adamant that this change should not be voted in by a few club chairmen, without asking any of the players what they think about their own development process.

Apart from the fact that the majority of players are happy the way the system is, by creating this new system of players going from Under-15 to Under-17, those players will be less developed, having one less year in development.

Sir, it is clear that there is a hardline group of supporters for this change trying to push this through, without even thinking about asking the players about their own development process.

I am attempting to bring public attention to the controversy and let the G.A.A. community in Wexford know how talented young players are being cheated of a year of their development.

The bottom line of the whole story is, you don’t try to fix something that is not broken. Yours sincerely, Cillian Boggan.