DONEGAL minor manager Declan Bonner has welcomed a proposal to bring a back door system into the Ulster Minor Football Championship - but said that plans to change the schedule are 'crazy'.
A report released yesterday by the GAA's Minor Review working group made several recommendations about the future of football and hurling at minor level.
Among the ideas put forward by the task force were plans to even up the All-Ireland Minor Football Championship by bringing a back-door system into all four provincial championships.
At present, a back door exists in the early stages in both Munster and Leinster, but only the provincial losers in Ulster and Connacht get a second bite at the cherry.
Bonner, who guided Donegal to a first ever All-Ireland final last September, is firmly behind the idea of giving teams a second chance.
"You take from an argument's point of view, this year, May 17, a few weeks prior to the lads doing their exams and you have two teams already out of Ulster.
"Those lads are looking to get their Leaving Cert done and it's very difficult to get them to focus on it [football]. To be thrown out of the Championship at that time of year, when the summer hasn't even really started, and you look down the country where teams can get beat and come back in?
"Kerry and Cork know they're going to be there in July time anyway, because they know they'll get in the back door.
It's not a level playing field at minor level," said the Donegal boss.
However, the Dungloe man believes that the proposal to begin the minor championship at an earlier date than at present, and consequently separate them from the senior Championship, is not viable.
"That's going to be even more crazy. That's where you're going to hit exams. You look at the geographical spread of Donegal, taking them away midweek to play a Championship game and trying to have them back at school. If they were to change that, I'd be looking for them to be starting after the exams are over.
"I'd be very reluctant to take it away from the senior games. It's part and parcel of all the big days, even your Ulster final, that you have the minor teams playing before the senior game."
The review committee made a total of 19 proposals, another of which is that players eligible for minor duty would no longer be allowed to play for county U21 or senior teams.
There have been recent high-profile conflicts over the availability of Patrick McBrearty and Darach O'Connor to Donegal's senior side while they were still minors. Bonner is in favour of the new proposal.
"I think it's only right that they play within their own age group.
"There are very few players that it will affect but it takes it out of everybody's hands if the decision's made on it. I'd be in definite agreement with that decision."
KEY PROPOSALS
m Players eligible for minor competition should not play U21 or adult inter-county m Schools to have 'first call' on players involved with inter-county minor or U21 teams m Provincial minor championships to begin between mid-April and May 1, and be played in midweek, separating them from senior championship fixtures until provincial final m A player must be aged 17 to play in an adult club competition m A back door system to be introduced across all four provincial minor football championships m All-Ireland minor football quarter-finals to be discontinued from 2016 m Hurling Development Committee should consider how Galway and Antrim can be accommodated in an equitable system