John Fogarty, GAA correspondent
THIS TUESDAY, UCD launch a book to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Sigerson Cup, the finals of which the college will stage next week. Irial Glynn’s “UCD and the Sigerson” is believed to be a fine tome. Dublin manager Pat Gilroy has even sponsored the publication.
In light of the Belfield university’s deep attachment to the annual event, it seems an appropriate gesture to record the history.
What isn’t so appropriate – quite far from it, actually – is the decision to stage the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final over the course of three days. A normal Sigerson Cup weekend incorporates the semi-finals and final but they’ve pushed the boat out for the centennial this year.
Asking young players to line out twice in two days was asking more than too much but the prospect of over 30 teenagers and early 20-somethings having to play over 180 minutes of football over three days is a frightful one.
No other sport would expect so much from their players. But this is the GAA and anything will go – not least sense - in the name of celebrating history.
Some will view it as a feast of football. Others will argue it is only a once-off but it is actually an insult not only to the players but to the competition (do the organisers really believe that the quality of football won’t wane in such concentrated and demanding circumstances?).
The Sigerson Cup is regarded as the closest thing to senior inter-county fare – even more so than the All-Ireland under-21 championship. However, next week’s staging and the seemingly necessity to run off the business end of the competition in three days ridicules its importance.
Don’t expect any player to complain about the high volume of games, though. Several of them are on scholarships and are bound to bat for their colleges.
But have no doubt the physios of the most successful teams will be working overtime. We can also expect at least a couple of inter-county managers to be cursing this year’s structure by the end of it – and who could blame them given the lengths their players are being asked to go to (it will be worth counting how many inter-county players on the final teams line out for their counties in the Allianz League the following week).
It’s events like next week’s that really undermine the GAA’s insistence that they care about players. On one hand, Croke Park extols the need to give footballers and hurlers a break. The next, they allow something like next week’s Gaelic football ultra-marathon to take place.
GAA officials have long pointed out that burnout is more than a buzz word. A medical and player welfare committee has been established and have come up with some interesting findings and recommendations.
There have been no ends of measure suggested to curb players overdoing it. There’s the winter training ban and remember the proposal to replace the under-21 championship with an under-19 competition?
But why didn’t someone shout stop when it was proposed that players putting their bodies on the line three days-in-a-row was a good idea?
The GPA should have. They should be concerned about these huge demands being placed on their members but have they raised it with their paymasters?
Factor in club and county commitments on a number of player set to place in Belfield and the structure of the finals appear even crazier.
Kilmacud Crokes’ players Craig Dias, Mark Coughlan (both UCD) and Eoin Culligan (DCU) already have this Saturday’s All-Ireland club semi-final against Crossmaglen. They have been released by Dublin under-21 manager Jim Gavin from duty in the Leinster FC opener against Wexford tomorrow night.
Should they win in Navan on Saturday, Paddy Clarke could be forgiven if he was reluctant for them to play for their colleges with an All-Ireland final on March 17th in mind. Three days of non-stop football would be torture.
Dias, as it is, has back problems and has been involved in a tug of war between club, college and county. Last month, he admitted it hung heavy on him. “I try to keep everyone happy but it just can’t be done. There is a lot of hostility between the teams and that brings pressure.”
The format of next finals would be wrong at any time of the year but the competition has a place in the calendar – just not in February and March.
As Donegal captain and DCU star Michael Murphy pointed out at the start of this month, there is little reason for it not to be played off before Christmas when there is no conflict with inter-county competitions.
Neither should they permitted to play in the pre-season competitions. Not only do they have an unfair advantage in the early stages over inter-county teams because they have been allowed to train in November and December but they also deprive some counties of their young stellar players.
And how preposterous is it that inter-county teams have to play second fiddle to the colleges when their raison d’etre, the Sigerson Cup, is run off over three days like it’s something that has to be got out of the way. A point made already but worth making again.
UCD won’t see it like that, though. Having said that, what they might regard as an occasion worthy of celebrating their long-standing contribution to the Sigerson Cup could actually turn out to be a huge sacrifice for some of the players given how much is being asked of them.
This is no anti-colleges rant. This writer is hoping his alumni NUI Maynooth, managed by Galway’s 1998 All-Ireland winner John Divilly, will progress in their quarter-final against UL on Thursday week. But at the expense of players’ health? No. Definitely not.
Let’s not kid ourselves. Three games in as many days is a flagrant abuse of player welfare. No anniversary, no matter how proud, should be an excuse to flog players. But that is exactly what will happen in UCD next week.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/EGp1fl-RGDU/post.aspx
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