Excellent post. It is presented far better than I could put into words but everything in this is bang on correct.Lone Shark wrote: ↑Tue Nov 05, 2024 2:50 pmI would love for the GAA to adapt this philosophy and not have this idea that players should make themselves available for every "championship" team for which they are eligible. I think we can all agree however, that as an association, they don't. What you're talking about there is a soccer or rugby style system, where someone plays with youth/U-19/development teams until the senior squad comes looking for them. We're in an association where like it or not, underage titles are celebrated for generations. Will any of the 2024 Longford minor footballers ever do anything bigger in football than beating Dublin to win a Leinster title? In the majority of cases, probably not.private joker wrote: ↑Mon Nov 04, 2024 5:18 pm Putting under 20 ahead of liam mcarthy hurling? The priority is to stay in the leinster senior championship and liam mcarthy. That's what all the development squads etc are geared towards. No point in winning underage titles if your seniors are floundering. I don't know how offaly will work it, but senior will get the first call on players. Too much at stake.
The fact of the matter is that underage titles do make a difference. Players experiencing big days and memorable wins over teams like Galway, Tipperary and Kilkenny does make a difference to their long-term development and mindset, and it's all very well to declare what should be more important to supporters, but people vote with their feet. And in both 2023 and 2024, supporters voted overwhelmingly to say that an U-20 All-Ireland final is a much bigger deal to them than the senior team playing in a Joe McDonagh final.
Would an U-20 All-Ireland final be bigger than a Leinster senior title? No, but the fact of the matter is that even if we pulled out of the U-20 championship entirely in 2025, allowing all the "born in 2005" lads to concentrate entirely on senior, we still have a lot of work to do before winning four games out of five in a Leinster SHC round robin stage (as you probably have to do to get to a final) is realistic. In contrast, we will start the 2025 U-20 championship as the slight favourites to win Leinster, maybe a tick or two ahead of Galway, and probably joint favourites for the All-Ireland alongside Tipperary.
So you're not comparing like with like.
Secondly, for Offaly to compete at the level we all want the county to compete at, we have to continue to punch well above our weight. We have a much smaller population than every other county that will play Liam MacCarthy Cup hurling in 2025 - and the only two counties that aren't at least double our size are Kilkenny and Clare, where there's absolutely no doubt as to what sport is number one, unlike Offaly, where we are genuinely dual.
That can only happen in the long run if we have a better culture and a deeper affinity to hurling than is the norm. Now I firmly believe we do, but if that is to continue for the next 20 years, we need to seize this rare opportunity to keep providing our young supporters with these magical, incredible occasions where packed houses of Offaly supporters roar on teams to victories that are truly special, taking on the top teams in the country. I'm a 46 year old man and the emotions I felt in Nowlan Park five months ago, or in Carlow for the 2023 Leinster final, or in Portlaoise for the 2022 minor final - they'll stay with me forever. You can't tell me that selling hurling to primary school children in Offaly hasn't got a hell of a lot easier over the last three years, we all know it has. For feck' sake, I was at the Tullamore vs Edenderry semi-final this year and more of the kids that went out on the field at half-time had hurls than footballs, even the ones in red gear. You can't tell me that's unrelated to the journey that we've all been on with the Offaly minors and U-20s for the last three seasons.
The 2005-born hurlers will, if we're lucky, have at least another decade of hurling senior for Offaly, but they need more equally talented and inspired young lads coming up behind them. For that reason, I would hope that whoever is in Michael Duignan's shoes next Spring sits down with LOC and JK and makes it clear that we want the lads to continue their development, but with the possible exception of the Antrim game, the training and match plan for these hurlers should be geared towards making sure they're at their best for the U-20 championship, not for mission-impossible style tasks against Kilkenny and Galway.
These are 19/20 year olds with years of hurling ahead of them if they are managed right. They are in the elite mix at their age category and I personally think it would be selfish and short sighted to dismiss the u20 championship and throw these youngsters into senior intercounty hurling before they are ready for the sake of hoping we can survive and placing that hope in younsters to carry. If anything, even if you managed to survive in Liam McCarthy there is alot of damage that could be done long term by heavy defeats to teams that are 4 or 5 years and more ahead of these lads in development and losing becoming the norm.
At U20 level there is nothing between ourselves and Galway and Kilkenny for example and both of them wont be throwing in many if any u20s.
Cork who were physically far superior to our lads in 2023 have not thrown in those players and will only gradually drop them in and assess how they go.
Bottom line is we need to be patient. The lift the last two seasons watching the run of our U20s has given the county has been a tonic, and that feeling can only help inspire the kids coming up behind this u20 group.
The right thing is to leave them at their U20 grade as priority and anything they can contribute outside that should only be a bonus. U20 is is going to be a massive battle in itself and they will need to be at their best as margins are small.
