When Ger Robinson manages his Meath U-20s against Dublin in the EirGrid Leinster U-20 football championship on Saturday, he will be thankful to have his three rising senior stars available.
Meath are already considerable underdogs for the semi-final tie but with Shane Walsh, Jack O’Connor and Mathew Costello on board, all of whom have played in this season’s Allianz League Division One campaign, Robinson may privately fancy his team’s chances.
The eligibility picture looks certain to change for 2021, however, as Congress will vote later this month on a motion to restrict players who have competed in the Allianz League from playing in the U-20 competition.
Backed by GAA central council and the fixtures calendar review taskforce, it stands a good chance of being passed though it would have a considerable impact on the U-20 grade, potentially denying underage managers such as Robinson of more rising stars than would have been the case in previous seasons.
The U-20 championship of 2019 was played during the summer and the rule then was that anyone “who plays an inter-county senior football championship game at any stage in a current” season couldn’t compete in the U-20 competition, until the senior team had finished its campaign.
Motion 39 to the GAA Annual Congress seeks to restore the ruling that if you’re already a senior player you can’t play for the U-20s too though, in practice, with senior managers more likely to give young players a chance in the league than in the championship, this may lead to an increased number of players becoming ineligible for the U-20 grade.
Put simply, if this was 2021, Robinson would be leading out a seriously depleted Meath team against Dublin who don’t have any senior crossover.
“That’s three of our best players, it would affect us massively,” said Robinson, a former Meath senior forward himself who had a spell as a soccer player with Middlesbrough.
“For me, what they’re proposing is not the way to go. Hopefully they might revisit it because in practical terms, Jack O’Connor came on as a sub for Meath in their first national league game against Tyrone for 10 or 15 minutes. He hasn’t played for them since. Andy McEntee is only too happy for Jack to be getting U-20 championship football. Look, I get what they’re trying to do, to protect young players, but I think they might be going too far.”
Good communication
For Robinson, it all comes down to good communication between managers. He’s a Dunboyne club-mate of senior manager McEntee so they’re in regular contact, making sure the U-20 players on McEntee’s panel are carefully managed.
“Our senior lads trained with the seniors last Monday night, I rang them all and I said, ‘I don’t want to see you training with us on the Tuesday night, take the evening off’,” said Robinson. “I think when everyone involved sees the bigger picture for players and for the county, it’s straightforward enough.”
In Meath’s case, they’ve recorded a number of wins over underage Dublin teams in recent seasons and see Saturday’s U-20 game as a potential landmark occasion for the county.
“It would be massive for the group, for the county, if we could get the win fellas could say, ‘well, we did it as minors and U-20s’,” noted Robinson.
A change to the eligibility ruling wouldn’t just affect Meath of course. Galway wouldn’t have had Oughterard sensation Matthew Tierney available for their Connacht U-20 clash with Mayo – he scored 1-2 that day – if the proposed new rule had been in place.
“I think Wexford might have had one or two senior guys the last day, from speaking to Monaghan they have a couple of guys, Louth I believe the same,” said Robinson.
“The Dublins and Kerrys mightn’t be affected because they have the numbers but definitely the vast majority would feel the pinch if they’re told they can’t have their senior players.”
