Under-20 needs to be tweaked, but it’s a crucial grade

THE DOMESTIC G.A.A. fixtures list is reducing in size with every passing week as we move rapidly towards December and the question on everyone’s lips seems to be: ‘where did that year go?’

Just five games remain to be played, with the last two Greenstar Under-20 football championships still down for decision.

The top grade final will be played next Saturday, and that will just leave the Division 2 equivalent which, all going well, will be staged on December 15.

If that’s the case, the finishing time will be eight days earlier than 2017 when the last Under-21 (as it was then) final was played on the day before Christmas Eve.

It’s a common occurrence to see these age-grade games being played in the depths of winter. In fact, it appears to be the norm if one chooses to study the G.A.A. results from all over the country in the national newspapers every Monday.

It has always struck me as odd that the age group where large numbers of players are lost to the games is scheduled for the time of year least suitable for competitive action. Has it not dawned on any of these Croke Park committees that one may be linked to the other?

Having said that, it is nigh on impossible to find a really suitable time of year to complete both codes, because the calendar simply isn’t lengthy enough to accommodate everything at an ideal stage.

Given that Under-20 was a new grade, some teething problems were inevitable, and it’s easy to see how and why this competition can be improved for 2019.

If, as suggested above, that Division 2 football final is played on December 15, it should be noted that the first game in the championship was held on February 16. And, given that none of the teams remaining will need to play more than six games over that ten-month spell in order to win it outright, that is clearly not fit for purpose.

It may have been a noble and well-meaning gesture to provide three group games for all participants, while also guaranteeing everyone a knockout quarter-final regardless of results once they conceded no more than one walkover.

This newspaper gave extensive coverage to the new championships, sending reporters to all bar a handful of games, with the only exceptions occurring on nights when there was simply too many venues to attend.

And from what I saw for myself at a number of those games, it’s clear that any game without some meaningful consequence at this level is a complete waste of time.

Quite simply, players have no interest in lining out for a match when it really doesn’t matter whether they win or lose, and this led to the largest number of walkovers that I can ever remember in any championship in this county.

What’s the solution, then, given that it’s also accepted that a straight knockout with the potential for just one game per code is far from ideal too in an era when clubs are struggling more than ever before to hold on to players?

How about a return to one of the old systems deployed for our Senior to Junior championships, when the outcome of first round games led to at least one more match for all participants, either in a winners’ or losers’ group.

The vast majority got three in fact, because losers of the winners’ group games got another chance against the winners from the losers’ section - and that’s not nearly as complicated to operate as it sounds in that sentence!

I really hope that a workable solution can be found, because I was always a huge fan of the Under-21 grade. And now that it’s reduced to Under-20, with Minor gone back to Under-17, it needs to be a success more than ever because that creates a significant gap for some to deal with in moving from the Coiste na nOg scene to the adult world.

One other observation to be made from my own coverage of Under-20 matches this year: I could count on one hand the number of clubs that had more than 20 players for early round games.

Barely scraping 15 was a more accurate scenario on numerous occasions, and that has to be seen as a major concern.