WHILE attending a prizegiving at an all girls' grammar school in Belfast recently, i was astonished at the exam results. Girls who had received three Grade As in their A-levels were just about scraping a prize. The top of the list was dominated by pupils who had received a plethora of A stars (whatever they are).
When one of the award winners received her trophy, the man-with-the-mike noted that she also played soccer for Northern Ireland. Evidently, she was one of the few top achievers who combined studies with sport. Think now of your average county minor footballer. He will spend September to February training with his MacRory Cup team. When that competition is over, he'll hook up with the county minor squad.
As he prepares for the most important exams of his life, he will be expected to train two or three times a week with the county panel. While our minor footballers are spending three hours at a training session, those Belfast girls will be bent over their books. Is it any surprise that so few doctors have played inter-county football? The only ones i can think of are Paul John McCormick (Derry), Gerry Mcentee (Meath), David hickey (Dublin) and Noel McCaffrey (Dublin).
To use some old school maths terminology, well-paid medical careers and inter-county football don't seem to go.
So, the question that needs to be asked is this: is it fair of the GAA to demand such a commitment from boys who are sitting exams that will dictate the rest of their lives?
Of course, it's not the same everywhere. For instance, by way of recognising the pressure on leaving Cert students, Donegal, Monaghan and Cavan do not play Ulster Minor Championship games in June. In Connacht, leinster and Munster, there are back doors in the provincial minor Championships. Losing a first round game isn't a massive deal. Teams get another chance.
The exception, as always, is the good old six counties, where absolutely no accommodation is provided for the lads who are sitting A-levels. However, Croke Park wants to change this situation. GAA President Liam O'Neill is a strong advocate of reducing the age level of the minor grade to U17. The change would allow final year students, both north and south, to concentrate exclusively on their coursework and exams A motion, which proposed this alteration, was withdrawn from Congress recently. It was believed the idea hadn't been discussed enough and that a wider, more intense debate was required. Congress made a good decision. To date, the standard of the debate has been deplorable. Typically, Ulster is saying 'no'.
But that notion is based on sound bites in the media. Last week, The Irish News canvassed the views of a few county players. Tyrone minor manager Mickey Donnelly has also voiced his opposition.
But the debate needs to be widened. More voices need to be heard.
We need to hear the opinions of parents. If a particular university course required four A stars, would you encourage your son to spend two evenings a week with a county minor squad?
Those who are against reducing the age to 17 have claimed the move would leave too big a gap between minor and U21 grade. i have one question to the people who expound this nonsense: what parallel GAA planet are you living on?
Down here on earth, U21 football is a joke. In fact it's a fallacy. At club level, it doesn't really exist. Clubs don't have U21 squads. They don't train during the year. The competition is run off as an afterthought at the tail end of the season.
At inter-county level, the Ulster U21 Championship is a Wednesday night affair, which is run-off in the space of four weeks. The minor and senior Championships take at least nine weeks to complete.
The guff about the gap between minor and U21s is best ignored. The major problem facing the GAA is the high drop-out rate which occurs once players reach 18 year of age.
Too old for the minors but not good enough for the club senior team, thousands of players drift away from the GAA. Many who move away from home to study or work never kick a ball again. Reducing the minor age to U17 would exacerbate this problem.
That's why the GAA must put a lot more thought into this proposal. If the GAA wants to limit the minor grade to U17s, then it needs consider introducing an U23 grade. This would serve all the young players who aren't making the senior team. For this idea to work, the U23 grade would have to replace reserve football.
Unless the GAA is prepared to countenance new, properlyrun competitions which will accommodate players who are too old for an U17 grade, then it should abandon this proposal immediately.
That is not to say that everything should be left untouched if the minor grade remains at U18 level. Major reforms are still required. Strictly speaking, this is a player welfare issue. With the exception of people who own property or land, education still remains the best route to higher wages and better job security.
At present, the GAA is giving huge prominence to a competition which is played at a time of the year when most of the participants are involving in the most important exams they'll ever do. That doesn't make much sense. Even if the minor grade remains at U18, the competition should be shifted to a different place in the calendar. If the provincial U21 Championship can be played over four weeks, surely the minor Championship could be completed during July when the exams are over? Remove some of the prestige that is attached to the minor Championship and it will not take long before the commitment that is asked of the players is also reduced.
We live in a competitive world. The best universities and the best courses require the highest grades. If the GAA genuinely cares about its young players, then it should design its minor competition in a format which will allow them to represent their counties and flourish at their exams. In Ulster, that's not happening, and it is time those who are opposed to the status quo entered the debate.