TONY Scullion retired from Derry duty as one of the greatest defenders ever to wear the Oak Leaf on his chest. He retired with an All-Ireland, two Ulster titles and four Allstars.
But he was such a naturally talented footballer that, with Ballinascreen on the edge of glory in the early ’90s, Scullion played the 1994 and ’95 seasons at full-forward.
When Eamon Burns went to America for the summer of ’94, Scullion kicked the frees. In a Championship quarter-final win over Glen, he kicked eight points to salvage a draw. Ballinderry were beaten by 10, but the dream fell apart against Bellaghy in the final.
The Wolfe Tone’s won Derry and went on to win Ulster and reach the All-Ireland final. Tony Scullion went on playing until he could play no more, but he retired with no county medal in either football or hurling. That eats him to this day.
When Dermot Heaney, another of Derry’s 1993 crop, won an intermediate championship with Castledawson in 2010, it allowed him to finally retire from club football in peace.
It was the one missing link for him, and he was fortunate enough to be able to hold on long enough to get it, having lost a senior final in 1997.
There were great Lavey, Bellaghy and Dungiven teams of that time, fierce rivals, all of whom had success. All three won Ulster club titles in the 1990s, with Lavey going on to claim the All-Ireland in 1991.
But even those great clubs were forced to live without their county players for much of 1993. Even in that era, the Derry county final was played in the St Stephen’s Day frost.
By and large though, players then were allowed to love their club and their county in equal measure. Sadly, there is little room for that any more.
At the weekend past, Donegal champions Kilcar took on Monaghan champions Magheracloone in the Ulster U21 club football tournament.
A competition that has grown over the past seven years at Creggan, it has provided some superb games over the past few years.
Saturday marked a sad milestone though, for it and club football as a whole. Kilcar briefly considered the idea of pulling the pin on their involvement because of the unavailability of key players.
Ryan McHugh, Eoin McHugh and Stephen McBrearty were all due to be involved. However, a clash with a challenge game for Donegal seniors on Saturday afternoon meant that the three were plucked from their clubs and taken away on county duty.
For a pre-season challenge game. In January. Outside of Gaeltacht Championships, Kilcar has had no success to speak of at provincial or national level. This was a rare chance for them to compete an Ulster title.
For the trio of lads picked to go and represent their county instead of their club on Saturday, there will maybe be more Ulster titles to fight for in future, with club or county.
But for some of their team-mates, this could be the end of the road. Unsurprisingly, Magheracloone beat them on Saturday. Kilcar made a fist of it but they will not win that Ulster club title.
It’s certainly not fair to blame the three players for going. Anyone with any ambition being handed a Donegal jersey at that age is going to jump. Playing senior football for your county remains the ultimate honour.
And Rory Gallagher only displayed the single-mindedness that every successful inter-county manager has to have. If he hasn’t developed a bench worthy of introduction to an All-Ireland semi-final by August, will people say ‘ah but sure he let the lads play for Kilcar’? They will hardly.
Such competitions have become crucial for clubs, though. It, and the brilliant St Paul’s minor tournament like it, have given aspirations to clubs and players for whom a county title would previously have been the height of ambition.
Glen won four Ulster minor titles in-a-row, and that team won its first U21 title last year. Since the beginning of that cycle, they have lost just one starting player across four years’ worth of footballer. How many would they have lost had those competitions not existed?
Their days are numbered though. It’s been widely rumoured for a while that, when calendar reforms happen over the next couple of years, those Ulster underage club tournaments will be the first thing to go.
The idea is to alleviate pressure on players in that age group at a time when college competitions are also ongoing.
At Donegal AGM in December, Burt put forward a motion that players who were on the Donegal senior squad would not be permitted to play with U21s or minors.
The motion was almost unanimously rejected. But administrators must realise that for all the chat of burnout, they are the only ones who can fix it.
It cannot be left to the players to make these decisions. It’s grossly unfair on lads to be forced to choose between club and county.
The decision cannot be left in the hands of their managers either. Pretty much all managers want to serve their own end before they consider the player. That is nationwide, at club, county, school and everywhere else.
The only way to alleviate the pressure on players – particularly in the 18-21 age group – is to make rules. Croke Park writing reports and making suggestions are no good.
The worry is that if there is a decision to be made in future, it will be the club competitions that go rather than their inter-county equivalents.
