Re: Junior B Football
Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2010 9:51 am
What I wonder is what model are the management team following? The closest example I can think of is Limerick - a county that offered so much promise with 3 U21 All-Ireland winning teams coming through. All the management achieved there was destroying hurling where there was so much potential. The vast majority of the dual players that had the “one or the other” gun pushed to their heads just picked football even though the likelihood of success was far greater with the hurlers at that time.
Any senior hurler worth his salt should be able to recover from a Junior B football game within less than a week. It’s not like lads are taking the p1ss by not training or getting drunk in the build up to big games – surely the football is an extra form of training, and as such is an addition to the hurling training. It was good for morale to have the hurlers playing something they could enjoy without pressure. It was like a social outlet. One of the players summed it up best for me by saying “if Carlsberg did football teams...”.
I think the football was a great asset to the club, it was no pressure, everybody enjoyed it, and the success was good for morale – ideal in adding to the build up for the hurling.
It’s fair to say that the priority for everybody in the Kinnitty club is winning a senior hurling title (even for the players that played football only), but I don’t think that means players shouldn’t be allowed to win anything else.
As for injury – it is very unfortunate that James Dempsey picked up the injury playing football. It’s obviously an understatement to say that James is a key player, but in my opinion he was no more likely to pick up an injury in a Junior B football game than in a training match played in the dark. If anything, playing training matches in the dark is surely more dangerous.
I wouldn’t like to see a standoff between players and management and would hate to see players threaten to step down. If we look at Cork and Limerick examples, it doesn’t work out well for anybody.
The role of the management team as I see it, is to build morale and to get the best they can out of every member of their panel. I think they've dropped the ball on this one and in order to try redeem the situation they should apologise to all members of the football panel, and to teams beaten by Kinnitty in the football championship.
I think every man should have his choice to play whatever game he wants. If playing two codes reduces his standard of either code to the effect that he is not able to gain his place anymore, then he loses his place to a better player – simple as that. If he wants to concentrate on one code to try secure his place on a team, this should be his decision and his decision alone.
Players should be given places on a team based on what they can bring to that team – regardless of whether or not they play Junior B football in their spare time. Any situation where a palyer is pressured into making a choice between the two - particularly coming up to a big game cannot be the ideal way to get a player in the best possible form of mind ahead of a big game.
The senior hurlers all know what is at stake - none of them want to risk their starting place for Sunday. That said, I doubt any of them were too worried about picking up an injury playing football - a much more real concern was the fear of being dropped as a result of appearing to prioritise football over hurling. The unfortunate thing is there was never a need to make a choice between the two.
Hurling is clearly a priority over football - nobody misses hurling training (let alone matches) due to football commitments. If the county board fixed the football for the same day as the hurling and wouldn't change it - it wouldn't be considered a decision - hurling would take priority. This is not what happened here though - there was no need for a decision between the two. Both could have been played.
I think this was a decision that should have been left to each player as an individual and I believe that football management would have respected the decision of any player that stepped down due to risk of injury before the hurling (they want to see seniors win a county title too). I think it would be unfair of football management to pressure a player into playing against his will just as much as it is unfair of hurling management to pressure a player not to play but as I said, the decision should ultimately be that of the player and management owe the players the respect to accept without intimidation such decisions.
It seems to be forgotten that players are giving a huge commitment to an amateur game and have invested significant amounts of time and money. Many players cover huge mileage to make it to training and matches. I think the decision shows a lack of respect to all members of the football panel - senior hurlers included. The decision may well have been made with the best of intentions but that doesn't make it a good decision. I think it was a poor day for Kinnitty GAA.
If we can learn from this and put the good of the club first, hopefully we can avoid such mistakes in the future. Let's just hope that this doesn’t put a split in the team and damage morale. We all want to see Kinnitty hurling do well – not only would it be good for the club, it would be great for the county too. Hopefully the hurlers will perform to the best of their ability and win the title they're capable and deserving of winning!
Any senior hurler worth his salt should be able to recover from a Junior B football game within less than a week. It’s not like lads are taking the p1ss by not training or getting drunk in the build up to big games – surely the football is an extra form of training, and as such is an addition to the hurling training. It was good for morale to have the hurlers playing something they could enjoy without pressure. It was like a social outlet. One of the players summed it up best for me by saying “if Carlsberg did football teams...”.
I think the football was a great asset to the club, it was no pressure, everybody enjoyed it, and the success was good for morale – ideal in adding to the build up for the hurling.
It’s fair to say that the priority for everybody in the Kinnitty club is winning a senior hurling title (even for the players that played football only), but I don’t think that means players shouldn’t be allowed to win anything else.
As for injury – it is very unfortunate that James Dempsey picked up the injury playing football. It’s obviously an understatement to say that James is a key player, but in my opinion he was no more likely to pick up an injury in a Junior B football game than in a training match played in the dark. If anything, playing training matches in the dark is surely more dangerous.
I wouldn’t like to see a standoff between players and management and would hate to see players threaten to step down. If we look at Cork and Limerick examples, it doesn’t work out well for anybody.
The role of the management team as I see it, is to build morale and to get the best they can out of every member of their panel. I think they've dropped the ball on this one and in order to try redeem the situation they should apologise to all members of the football panel, and to teams beaten by Kinnitty in the football championship.
I think every man should have his choice to play whatever game he wants. If playing two codes reduces his standard of either code to the effect that he is not able to gain his place anymore, then he loses his place to a better player – simple as that. If he wants to concentrate on one code to try secure his place on a team, this should be his decision and his decision alone.
Players should be given places on a team based on what they can bring to that team – regardless of whether or not they play Junior B football in their spare time. Any situation where a palyer is pressured into making a choice between the two - particularly coming up to a big game cannot be the ideal way to get a player in the best possible form of mind ahead of a big game.
The senior hurlers all know what is at stake - none of them want to risk their starting place for Sunday. That said, I doubt any of them were too worried about picking up an injury playing football - a much more real concern was the fear of being dropped as a result of appearing to prioritise football over hurling. The unfortunate thing is there was never a need to make a choice between the two.
Hurling is clearly a priority over football - nobody misses hurling training (let alone matches) due to football commitments. If the county board fixed the football for the same day as the hurling and wouldn't change it - it wouldn't be considered a decision - hurling would take priority. This is not what happened here though - there was no need for a decision between the two. Both could have been played.
I think this was a decision that should have been left to each player as an individual and I believe that football management would have respected the decision of any player that stepped down due to risk of injury before the hurling (they want to see seniors win a county title too). I think it would be unfair of football management to pressure a player into playing against his will just as much as it is unfair of hurling management to pressure a player not to play but as I said, the decision should ultimately be that of the player and management owe the players the respect to accept without intimidation such decisions.
It seems to be forgotten that players are giving a huge commitment to an amateur game and have invested significant amounts of time and money. Many players cover huge mileage to make it to training and matches. I think the decision shows a lack of respect to all members of the football panel - senior hurlers included. The decision may well have been made with the best of intentions but that doesn't make it a good decision. I think it was a poor day for Kinnitty GAA.
If we can learn from this and put the good of the club first, hopefully we can avoid such mistakes in the future. Let's just hope that this doesn’t put a split in the team and damage morale. We all want to see Kinnitty hurling do well – not only would it be good for the club, it would be great for the county too. Hopefully the hurlers will perform to the best of their ability and win the title they're capable and deserving of winning!
