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Club Under 17 / 18

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I was just wondering in what counties is minor Under 17 or is it 18 at club level I'd appreciate if countries could post on here which it is ,in Galway at present is under 17 but in my opinion it should go to 18 as clubs loose to many players after 17 what is a player to do if they just overage for under 17 basically no football for 12 months a fair chance they stop playing,, hopefully posters from most of counties on here will let me know thanks Kickitout (Galway) - Posts: 952 - 18/10/2023 15:43:30 2509080 Link
Replying To Kickitout: "I was just wondering in what counties is minor Under 17 or is it 18 at club level I'd appreciate if countries could post on here which it is ,in Galway at present is under 17 but in my opinion it should go to 18 as clubs loose to many players after 17 what is a player to do if they just overage for under 17 basically no football for 12 months a fair chance they stop playing,, hopefully posters from most of counties on here will let me know thanks" Went back to u18 in Wexford this year. Think it did in Cork too. Kilkenny are still on the new system with odd years. Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 13783 - 18/10/2023 17:19:59 2509110 Link
Sligo is at 17 but clubs discussing what to do for next year now. Sligoman1234 (Sligo) - Posts: 426 - 18/10/2023 17:27:27 2509111 Link
Replying To Kickitout: "I was just wondering in what counties is minor Under 17 or is it 18 at club level I'd appreciate if countries could post on here which it is ,in Galway at present is under 17 but in my opinion it should go to 18 as clubs loose to many players after 17 what is a player to do if they just overage for under 17 basically no football for 12 months a fair chance they stop playing,, hopefully posters from most of counties on here will let me know thanks" Here in Wicklow it is u17. I haven't heard any rumours of any changes to that, or the u19. All down the line then it's the odd numbers. There is some obscure league brought in towards the end of the year at u13 level - u14. I'm told it's to get youngsters ready for the step up to u15. In fairness, for the majority of young players the transition from u13 to u15 is a massive step. Freethinker (Wicklow) - Posts: 1261 - 18/10/2023 17:34:00 2509114 Link
Replying To Kickitout: "I was just wondering in what counties is minor Under 17 or is it 18 at club level I'd appreciate if countries could post on here which it is ,in Galway at present is under 17 but in my opinion it should go to 18 as clubs loose to many players after 17 what is a player to do if they just overage for under 17 basically no football for 12 months a fair chance they stop playing,, hopefully posters from most of counties on here will let me know thanks" Westmeath reverting to U18 next year. A genuine question but are clubs actually losing more players? I'd love to see official figures, players at 18 and 19 have also drifted away for years when it was U18. I know the argument is that they play an extra year but I'll bet the same lads will still pack it in a year later, they go off to college etc and lose interest regardless of whether it's U17 or U18 in my opinion. The situation now in Westmeath is that they can't play until they are U19 which makes it so difficult on some clubs having no players come through in 2024. With U17 there's usually less clashing with state exams and leaving cert holidays etc but the narrative out there seems to be that the drop out rate is increasing but like I said I'd love to see facts backing that up TigerWoods90 (Westmeath) - Posts: 155 - 18/10/2023 17:48:32 2509121 Link
Sligo were at U.17, vote next week to decide if it returns to U.18. Hopefully it will eoinog (Sligo) - Posts: 1954 - 18/10/2023 17:56:44 2509124 Link
It was under 17 in Longford last year but voted to change back to even numbers at the beginning of this year. Frank74 (Longford) - Posts: 187 - 18/10/2023 18:19:07 2509130 Link
Replying To Kickitout: "I was just wondering in what counties is minor Under 17 or is it 18 at club level I'd appreciate if countries could post on here which it is ,in Galway at present is under 17 but in my opinion it should go to 18 as clubs loose to many players after 17 what is a player to do if they just overage for under 17 basically no football for 12 months a fair chance they stop playing,, hopefully posters from most of counties on here will let me know thanks" We went back to U18 which has caused issues with the U20 fixtures and games getting rearranged. Our Div 1 minor final was to be played last Sunday but pushed back a week, Connacht U17 championship starts at the end of this month, our reps Div 1 and 2 winners are up against Galway and I'm not sure how that will work when we have U16 and U18 grades. The_analyser (Roscommon) - Posts: 3907 - 18/10/2023 18:22:42 2509131 Link
Carlow is still on odd years, I believe we are waiting to see what kilkenny are doing as our hurlers do kilkenny league Barrowsider (Carlow) - Posts: 1658 - 18/10/2023 18:54:02 2509137 Link
Limerick definitely played the odd year ages this year and last..think it's a disaster myself..players now have to go from under 17 to under 21 which is huge,also some lads now can play adult hurling before they turn 18..what I find very hard to understand is the senior secondary competitions are under 19 and a half..also minor(under 17)is run by bird na nog. CTGAA10 (Limerick) - Posts: 2373 - 18/10/2023 19:07:18 2509138 Link
Replying To Viking66: "Went back to u18 in Wexford this year. Think it did in Cork too. Kilkenny are still on the new system with odd years." Any of the Kilkenny lads on here that could confirm if they also intend to change or remain as they are?? Skippy2 (Carlow) - Posts: 68 - 18/10/2023 19:50:11 2509142 Link
Carlow still on odd years, haven't heard anything about changing for next season Skippy2 (Carlow) - Posts: 68 - 18/10/2023 19:52:54 2509143 Link
Replying To Kickitout: "I was just wondering in what counties is minor Under 17 or is it 18 at club level I'd appreciate if countries could post on here which it is ,in Galway at present is under 17 but in my opinion it should go to 18 as clubs loose to many players after 17 what is a player to do if they just overage for under 17 basically no football for 12 months a fair chance they stop playing,, hopefully posters from most of counties on here will let me know thanks" Roscommon has went to u18s at club level. The GAA made a silly mistake by changing the age groups from the even ages. These changes cause untold damage at club level, smaller clubs were particularly affected. imformed (Roscommon) - Posts: 184 - 18/10/2023 20:37:47 2509145 Link
As pointed out above, Wexford went back to U18 and the corresponding 'even' ages this year (U16, U14, U12), after operating the 'odd' ages for five years before that. I think myself it's the appropriate level for club action. I think in particular of somebody with a birthday at the 'wrong end' of the year, and I don't mind admitting I've a personal interest in that one, since my own young lad was born in the middle of December. If the age grade was U17, he'd be overage at just 17 years and three weeks. Or when the March would come round, the only games available to him would be the adult county leagues here, instead of the start of the minor competitions. Some lads might be able for adult teams at the age of just 17 years and three months, but many wouldn't. However, having it at U18 also brings a whole other world of problems, if minors are allowed to also play in the adult grades. You're into a situation where minor and adult competitions have to be worked around each other, particularly from around early September onwards, when you can't really play minor matches midweek any more. The most straightforward solution is to not allow lads play the adult grades until they're overage for minor, but then you get many clubs (and particularly smaller clubs) saying they have difficulty in fielding second or maybe third teams if they can't use their 18-year-olds. I expect there to be a lot of debate about this when it comes up for discussion in Wexford in the next month or two, and I expect it'd probably be the same in many other counties too. Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 2615 - 19/10/2023 12:01:43 2509217 Link
Replying To Pikeman96: "As pointed out above, Wexford went back to U18 and the corresponding 'even' ages this year (U16, U14, U12), after operating the 'odd' ages for five years before that. I think myself it's the appropriate level for club action. I think in particular of somebody with a birthday at the 'wrong end' of the year, and I don't mind admitting I've a personal interest in that one, since my own young lad was born in the middle of December. If the age grade was U17, he'd be overage at just 17 years and three weeks. Or when the March would come round, the only games available to him would be the adult county leagues here, instead of the start of the minor competitions. Some lads might be able for adult teams at the age of just 17 years and three months, but many wouldn't. However, having it at U18 also brings a whole other world of problems, if minors are allowed to also play in the adult grades. You're into a situation where minor and adult competitions have to be worked around each other, particularly from around early September onwards, when you can't really play minor matches midweek any more. The most straightforward solution is to not allow lads play the adult grades until they're overage for minor, but then you get many clubs (and particularly smaller clubs) saying they have difficulty in fielding second or maybe third teams if they can't use their 18-year-olds. I expect there to be a lot of debate about this when it comes up for discussion in Wexford in the next month or two, and I expect it'd probably be the same in many other counties too." Many mightnt be ready for adult at 17 but couldnt counties put in an under 20 competition run through the summer with more strict ruleqs around elqigibility andq playerqs playing sqenior could be ineligible or something similar. If some smaller clubs cant field year on year without some minors then other things should be tried. 13 a side. or other things. KillingFields (Limerick) - Posts: 3669 - 19/10/2023 13:37:32 2509235 Link
Under 18 only works if those players do not play adult. I remember in wexford when the minor was held up because of one or two players also playing on adult teams. The rest of us were training for a co final for 6 weeks. There has to be a separation bhetween minor and adult either at 17 or 18. wexfordwin (Wexford) - Posts: 185 - 19/10/2023 13:49:34 2509240 Link
Mayo under 18 as well I'd say next few weeks there probably be a lot discussion about it unfortunately what I find in Galway is most club delegates just say nothing at meeting and are not in tune at all with what's actually happening Kickitout (Galway) - Posts: 952 - 19/10/2023 13:58:21 2509242 Link
Replying To wexfordwin: "Under 18 only works if those players do not play adult. I remember in wexford when the minor was held up because of one or two players also playing on adult teams. The rest of us were training for a co final for 6 weeks. There has to be a separation bhetween minor and adult either at 17 or 18." I remember being involved myself with a minor (U18) team that reached a county final, almost ten years ago, when minors were allowed to play in the adult grades. Our final group game was the first week of August. We had to wait more than a month until the middle of September for our quarter-final, then another six weeks until the October Bank Holiday weekend for our semi-final, and then a fortnight until the middle of November for our final. All because a few clubs still in the minor championship had one or two 18-year-olds also playing in Senior/Intermediate/Junior. I also remember a case from about 15 years ago, when we in Wexford used to play a couple of rounds of the adult hurling and football championships in April. The county minor hurling team was playing on a weekend that also had a round of adult club hurling championship games. It meant that all clubs who had somebody on the county minor panel but who also wanted them for a senior/intermediate/junior team didn't play that weekend, and those fixtures ended up going in as midweek ones sometime around July instead. Two examples of why no matter whether minor is U17 or U18, it's absolutely crucial that a minor player isn't also allowed to play club adult competitions, for the sake of having all competitions run properly. Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 2615 - 19/10/2023 16:01:58 2509271 Link
I believe the move to U17 a few years back was to address the issue of payer burnout. Similar to the introduction of the split season which really only benefits the county player imho the GAA took a very narrow view and the amount of players this impacts i.e the star U18 player when Minor was also playing adult hurling and possibly intercounty for 1 year(U17s could not play adult previously either). In effect for 1 year they will play alot of matches. Lots of less talented players are giving up the game because once they finish playing U17 they do not feel they are good enough and possible mature enough to be playing on an adult team. Once they are out for a year they don't come back, So the question is do you protect the talented player or lose alot of less talented players? journeyman (Limerick) - Posts: 140 - 19/10/2023 16:10:35 2509272 Link
I'm actually enjoying this forum post..a lot of people from different counties having meaningful input..it shows how difficult it is to try and organise the 17/18 age groups..another thing now is most of 18/19 year olds going to college and involved in freshers at least..were any people who have commented on this ever asked by a county board member their opinion on this subject?? CTGAA10 (Limerick) - Posts: 2373 - 19/10/2023 17:46:20 2509307 Link