GAA’S CUP RUNNETH OVER..
Too much of a good thing is a problem that needs to be sorted as O’rourke labels young players’ treatment ‘abuse’ due to risk of injury
THE Sigerson Cup semi-finals take place this evening at Dr. Cullen Park Carlow.
For some elite young players from UCC, TUD, DCU and UL – in-demand from their county and college – it will be their fourth big game in 13 or 14 days.
That is, if they’re not injured already.
There’s also been a few bouts of extra-time thrown in, which can push players from fatigued to injured very quickly.
The inter-county/sigerson bottleneck over the past fortnight was known about, and has, almost invariably, come at a cost for some of the young stars of the future.
So far, the big losers have been Meath, DCU and more pertinently Matthew Costello and Shane Walsh, who have both suffered hamstring injuries over the past week.
But there have been others. Robert Finnerty (below) of DCU had to go off in Galway’s Division 1 opener against Mayo.
The Dublin college are down half an inter-county attack for tonight’s clash with Limerick.
Costello was forced out of last week’s victory over MTU Cork while Walsh, who hit 1-7 in the Round 1 victory in Cork, limped off after 13 minutes of Meath’s weekend win over Clare.
Speaking after the Clare game, Royals boss Colm O’rourke didn’t hold back.
“I think it’s absolutely disgraceful the way these players are being abused,” he said.
“Talk about player welfare.
“There’s no player welfare in expecting lads to do that.”
O’rourke pointed to having six players involved in Sigerson starting line-ups, and that they brought Cathal Hickey and Darragh Campion (both TUD) off because of the load on them.
The double All-ireland winning player is clearly looking after his own interests and those of Meath, as well as the players themselves.
But he has probably done the young stars of the game a favour in publicly shining a light on the issue.
Finding a solution is another matter entirely.
O’rourke outlined the reality of the schedule facing a young player.
“Matt Costello having a hamstring injury, playing last Tuesday night ( for
DCU), after coming home from Cork – a long drive, a hard match, a very fast pitch – these are overuse injuries.”
That’s the reality of life for an elite young player in college.
Throw in college work and trying to forge a career path.
It’s a heavy load and a lot of pressure.
One argument is that O’rourke shouldn’t have played Walsh last Sunday.
He might say DCU shouldn’t have played him last week, but that’s unlikely with Sigerson going to knock out.
The player would want to play and try to help his team win the competition.
The problem for O’rourke and other inter-county managers is that the terms of engagement have changed with the split season and new Championship format tied into the League.
This is particularly true
Division 2, where even a top six spot may not guarantee an All-ireland place this summer.
The stakes have never been higher.
In 21 weeks’ time just four counties will be left in the Allireland football race.
This is a new reality managers are getting their heads around.
Some will say it’s only a handful of hamstring injuries and it will pass – but that’s a dismissive attitude towards players who give a lot to play the game.
The same people won’t be saying it if their star forward tears a hamstring off the bone, misses the season and is never the player they once were again.
Last year Mayo’s Tommy Conroy, playing for NUI Galway and Mayo suffered a ruptured cruciate knee ligament, and it had a profound effect on the county’s fortunes in 2022.
Paul Mannion and Jack Mccaffrey
were injured playing for UCD in 2016.
In 2018 Brian Howard didn’t line out for DIT in the Sigerson Cup.
At the time Dublin boss Jim Gavin expressed his surprise that League games were still being played at the end of January and the first week of February.
Is there scope with the split season to move the start of the
League into February? Probably not.
One window of opportunity, and one precious weekend, closed when counties voted against abolishing the League finals.
Some say moving the Sigerson and Fitzgibbon pre-christmas is the answer.
The difficulty here is that some colleges do examinations at that time of year.
It would also throw university competitions into a head to head with the latter stages of the provincial and All-ireland club championships.
Take Connacht champions, Moycullen for example.
NUI Galway wouldn’t have seen much of the three Kelly brothers – Sean, Paul and Eoghan or Gerard Davoren in a prechristmas Sigerson. Maybe that’s one possible answer.
Knock-out club competitions should take precedence over Sigerson and Fitzgibbon every time.
Paddy Christie (inset), who is managing Longford and DCU, said at the Sigerson Cup launch: “You’ve a condensed season now, so you’re under more pressure to squeeze things in.
“I’m wearing an inter-county hat and a Sigerson hat, but I was also involved for a long time with Ballymun Kickhams.
“From that side of things, I always felt for a number of years that the clubs got very poor treatment.
“So, I mean, you pray for rain, you’ve got to live with the mud.
“If you want a defined club season, a decent club season for footballers or hurlers, something has to give.”
It’s 20 years since the term ‘player burnout’ started to be bandied about by the GAA.
There were reports, studies, inputs from academics and medics, and some horrible pictures of the wear and tear injuries suffered by young players lining out for multiple teams.
We have a split season now, widely heralded by players, but the core group of players – elite young stars – are still in the eye of an annual winter storm.