The GAA is increasingly concerned about demands on young players in third-level education. Association president Nickey Brennan, speaking at the draw for next year's Sigerson and Fitzgibbon Cups, said that the matter would be on the agenda when Páraic Duffy takes up his new role as full-time player welfare manager in Croke Park next month.

"It's got to the stage now that third-level teams are comprising a lot of inter-county players and that creates challenges for our fixtures and, as I have previously alluded to, the difficulty of demands on players, who are being pulled and dragged all over the place."

Some students experience problems in the early months of the year when training with their third-level teams for competitions that reach their final stages in late February and early March, because at the same time county panels are in full session at a completely different time of the preparation cycle. Not all managers make allowances for this and young players can find themselves subject to unreasonable demands. Characterising this as "the over-use and abuse of players", Brennan said there had to be better liaison between inter-county managers and colleges.

Brennan suggested that Croke Park would be an ideal venue for third-level finals, particularly now that floodlighting had been installed. "I know it's traditional that colleges host the finals but why not use Croke Park . . You have as much right as anyone else to be here and it's yours if you want it."

Next year's competitions are being hosted by Queen's Belfast (football) and for the first time Carlow IT (hurling).

SIGERSON CUP 2007

(2pm unless stated, extra time if necessary)

ROUND ONE (February 7th): A: UL v DCU; B: NUI Maynooth v IT Tallaght; C: Dundalk IT v Galway IT; D: IT Sligo v IT Tralee; E: Waterford IT Bye; F: NUI Galway Bye; G: St Mary's Bye.

ROUND TWO - (by February 14th). H: UCD v St Mary's; I: UL/DCU v UUJ; J: ITS/ITT v DIT; K: DKIT/GMIT v NUIM/IT Tallaght; L:

Cork IT v Waterford IT; M: Athlone IT v NUI Galway; N: Garda College v UCC.

QUARTER-FINALS (by February 21st): W : H v QUB; X: K v L; Y: N v J; Z: M: v I;

SEMI-FINALS (March 2nd): W v X; Y v Z.

FINAL: March 3rd

FITZGIBBON CUP 2007

(2pm unless stated, extra-time if necessary)

ROUND ONE (February 15th): A: Limerick IT v Waterford IT; B: St Pat's v Galway IT; C: Garda College v UCC. QUARTER-FINALS (by February 27th): W: Winners A v UCD; X: UL v Cork IT; Y: Winners B v DIT; Z: NUI Galway v Winners C.

SEMI-FINALS (March 9th): W v X; Y v Z.

FINAL: March 10th.

More fixtures in SPORTS ROUND-UP