Underage Hurling and Football 2025

[frankthetank]

A couple of question upon looking at a few underage results:

Why are St Rynaghs hurling in Division 2 U16 league when they’ve won their 3 league games by on average 24 points?

Why are Rhode playing in Division 2 U14 football league when they’ve won their games by on average 22.5 points?

I would hope both clubs would be placed into the A championships if they are that far ahead of the B teams. They clearly have no business playing in Division 2/B championships at these age grades.

[del]

They both are in A championships and the leagues in Offaly are mix of seedlings from last year and some leagues are geographical to keep clubs playing teams nearer each other . Don’t read too much into the league names . Rynaghs while winning easily vs Tullamore in the U 16 would be on a par with each other but Tullamore have lads on county minor panels in football and hurling that weren’t allowed play
Leagues across the board are a bit scewed this year as clubs at minor are missing lads involved in Offaly u 20 panels and u 16 teams are missing lads involved in u 17 Offaly minor teams so wouldn’t read too much into results at 16/18 leagues

[Pat Mustard]

I'm hearing that the county board are no longer allowing dual players on development squad's and kids at 12 & 13 are now been asked to choose between hurling and football, I think that's madness

[del]

Correct they are making kids choose which one they want to be involved in even if they are good enough to be on both . It’s starting to affect clubs too in that kids are picking one code for their clubs if they have picked one code for the county which is far from ideal

[frankthetank]

I'm hearing that the county board are no longer allowing dual players on development squad's and kids at 12 & 13 are now been asked to choose between hurling and football, I think that's madness

The Declan Kelly Effect

[Thomas mc]

I'm hearing that the county board are no longer allowing dual players on development squad's and kids at 12 & 13 are now been asked to choose between hurling and football, I think that's madness

I doyn see much wrong with this, can't play all sports and become top class at then all (ok in some cases but most cases not), they have plenty for doing anyway and better a player concentrates on one and become top class at it than play both and be middle of the road at both, at county level anyway.. dual player may also take the spot of someone else and a squad who just wants to concentrate on one and deny them the chance to develop.

[Thomas mc]

I'm hearing that the county board are no longer allowing dual players on development squad's and kids at 12 & 13 are now been asked to choose between hurling and football, I think that's madness

The Declan Kelly Effect

Won an all ireland u20 championship with offaly, maybe it worked.. a lot of people crying about lads not being involved because of hurling or whatever else. I think it benefits a team and improves them when everyone is for the one cause and with the team full time

[Pat Mustard]

I'm hearing that the county board are no longer allowing dual players on development squad's and kids at 12 & 13 are now been asked to choose between hurling and football, I think that's madness

I doyn see much wrong with this, can't play all sports and become top class at then all (ok in some cases but most cases not), they have plenty for doing anyway and better a player concentrates on one and become top class at it than play both and be middle of the road at both, at county level anyway.. dual player may also take the spot of someone else and a squad who just wants to concentrate on one and deny them the chance to develop.

If a kids good enough for both they should get a fair chance at both and let them make that decision when they get older not at 12 or 13

[private joker]

Is this true or a rumour? Dublin have it now as a policy. No duals at development squads level is somthing I would encourage. Play dual with club but not county. Your just wasting your time.

[Pat Mustard]

No it's true and Dublins policy is you can do both until under 16 which is about right. But if it's affecting the clubs here with players dropping out it's not good

[del]

Its a ridiculous route telling kids to pick and choose look at our u 20 hurling team at the moment a lot of those players played up to minor in both codes Ter Guinan Donal Shirley Shane Rigney etc and a lot played football in Kk up to minor and nearly won a minor football it didn’t halt their development playing both
Christ playing a variety of sports is proven to help players development in different aspects be it vision and quickness of feet from soccer and basketball or physicality and lines of running from rugby now we aren’t even letting kids play hurling or football saying they can only play one. By making this rule at development squad level 13/14/15 yrs of age kids are invariably gonna stop playing the other code at club level . We do not have the population to be doing this .

[Thomas mc]

Its a ridiculous route telling kids to pick and choose look at our u 20 hurling team at the moment a lot of those players played up to minor in both codes Ter Guinan Donal Shirley Shane Rigney etc and a lot played football in Kk up to minor and nearly won a minor football it didn’t halt their development playing both
Christ playing a variety of sports is proven to help players development in different aspects be it vision and quickness of feet from soccer and basketball or physicality and lines of running from rugby now we aren’t even letting kids play hurling or football saying they can only play one. By making this rule at development squad level 13/14/15 yrs of age kids are invariably gonna stop playing the other code at club level . We do not have the population to be doing this .

Best we let them burnout and never fullfil their potential in either? While taking up a place of another young player dedicated to just one who gets annoyed at not making the squad and thus never fulfils their potential? Where do you get the idea that they are invariably gonna give up the other code at club level? Any actual evidence of this? There are no duals players at senior county level anymore

[feckinfaithfulrahan]

Is this true or a rumour? Dublin have it now as a policy. No duals at development squads level is somthing I would encourage. Play dual with club but not county. Your just wasting your time.

Not true, the Dublin minor goalkeeper last year played for Bohemians and Northern Ireland during the championship campaign.

[private joker]

Dublin have it as a policy starting at u15- 16 in 2025. No one on a hurling squad can play on a football squad and vice versa. It's been done on a two year trial. You'll will have to continue playing dual for your club to make a squad in either code.

[Lone Shark]

I'll be honest, I'm kinda torn on this. It's easy to look at an issue like this from the perspective of the child who is good enough to be selected for both panels, but if we assume for the purposes of this exercise that there are 30 players in a development panel and five players are selected for both the football and hurling panels, allowing those five players to do both means that there are five other players who miss out on being involved at all.

And since the name of the game is development, and I would imagine that a lot of the work that is done across the two panels in terms of conditioning, nutrition, recovery work, stretching etc. would be repeated, then it stands to reason that having more involved is better.

And crucially, these are development squads - the name of the game is not winning U-15 challenge matches and tournaments.

Now that being said, there is a strong dual culture in large parts of Offaly, and that's a good thing, which is worth preserving. Of course you're going to have to specialise at senior intercounty level and most likely U-20 as well, but that shouldn't have to be necessary before then, and even aside from my own club loyalty, it's great to see Eamon Maher and Rúairí Woods thriving with both panels this year - and the fact that they're being enabled to do so is a testament to Brian Carroll, Roger Ryan and their respective coaching teams.

But if our clubs are doing their jobs right and they are being facilitated by good games programmes that don't force club-only players to sit on the sidelines for long periods in order to make space for Offaly intercounty U-14/U-15/U-16 teams, then I don't think it's necessary that those players would have to play on both development squads the whole way up. My gut instinct is that if you're looking at it through the wider lens, having them choose one panel and thus make space on the other for a player who is committed to one sport, might be the better thing for Offaly as a whole in the long run.

But it's not cut and dried, there are arguments to be made for both sides.