National Forum

U20 Championships

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Replying To WanPintWin:  "There was more than the odd good team. There's nothing ad-hoc about 4 All-Ireland winning U21 teams in just over a decade. More than any other county won over the same period. It's some record for a county that supposedly stopped development at that age group.
A lot of your points are speculation with very little fact. Assertions that a lot of money was spent or not spent on various groups at different periods. You'll have to provide a bit more detail than stories you heard walking around UCG.
Galway absolutely should have achieved more after 2001, given that most of the 98-01 group were still relatively young and we had a good few batches of quality players who won U21 All-Irelands coming through in the 5 years after.
Underage development wasn't the issue, given that we had those successful teams and talented players breaking through, but we certainly took a long time to adapt to how the game was evolving. A lot of players from that era have made the same point."
Galway won one provincial U21/20 title between 2003 and 2010 - That's 1 win in 8 years in a province where only 3 counties compete regularly. Mayo won 6 and Roscommon won the other. Galway only made 3 finals in that time, one more than Sligo.
That isn't good underage work from a county with 80 clubs (Mayo and Roscommon combined = 82)

tirawleybaron (Mayo) - Posts: 1316 - 24/04/2025 17:47:51    2604098

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Replying To Fionn:  "Oh I think Donegal who already beat Tyrone by 8pts, might win Ulster.

I agree, I think Meath, Kerry & Mayo will win their provincials."
Tyrone was missing a few players for that match including their best forward who was away on senior training champ. Donegal a good team and will push Tyrone hard in the Ulster final. if we had All Ireland Quarter finals like we do at U17 level I think it would be a Donegal v Tyrone All Ireland,

Drax_the_destroyer (UK) - Posts: 386 - 24/04/2025 20:53:31    2604120

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Replying To Drax_the_destroyer:  "Tyrone was missing a few players for that match including their best forward who was away on senior training champ. Donegal a good team and will push Tyrone hard in the Ulster final. if we had All Ireland Quarter finals like we do at U17 level I think it would be a Donegal v Tyrone All Ireland,"
You're right Tyrone were missing McElholm not sure if there were many others. Donegal were missing Finbarr Roarty but he made an appearance last night which I was surprised at despite been named on the bench. Donegal have pushed both Tyrone and Derry at underage in recent years without getting over the line. Tyrone are the benchmark given their recent success at the age group and they'll be very hard beat. However this is a very strong Donegal squad who are extremely well coached and don't give much away defensively. They play very like the senior side in terms of how they defend and the speed of transition. They can kick pass too if needed. They have pedigree too as the team is backboned by some of the Four Masters/Abbey VS lads. For those that don't know they are one of the big success stories in underage football in Ulster the last few years winning back to back club Ulster titles with Four Masters and winning the intermediate schools All Ireland (quite easily) before moving up to the top grade and getting to the Ulster final before losing a close game to the eventual Hogan Cup winners St Pats. I'm pretty hopeful they can get one over Tyrone but it'll be a battle. Plus not overly pleased at the choice of venue for the game but what can you do.

panamasam (Australia) - Posts: 2849 - 24/04/2025 21:39:09    2604128

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Replying To tirawleybaron:  "Galway won one provincial U21/20 title between 2003 and 2010 - That's 1 win in 8 years in a province where only 3 counties compete regularly. Mayo won 6 and Roscommon won the other. Galway only made 3 finals in that time, one more than Sligo.
That isn't good underage work from a county with 80 clubs (Mayo and Roscommon combined = 82)"
A very convenient cut-off period for your date range, given we won U21 All-Irelands in both years either side of it. Also the provincial win you refer to was converted into an All-Ireland, which would indicate a higher quality team than usual.
Your grasp of facts is letting you down again with your reference to 80 clubs. Given we're talking about football, a large proportion of those 80 aren't relevant, as they're hurling only. You might as well throw in the amount of rugby clubs while you're at it.
Galway has 36 football only clubs, and 11 dual. So 47 football clubs in total. Mayo has a very similar number, slightly more I believe. Since we're talking about underage development specifically, Mayo has more registered underage club football teams than Galway, which basically means more underage players to pick from.

WanPintWin (Galway) - Posts: 2286 - 25/04/2025 00:45:39    2604146

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Replying To WanPintWin:  "A very convenient cut-off period for your date range, given we won U21 All-Irelands in both years either side of it. Also the provincial win you refer to was converted into an All-Ireland, which would indicate a higher quality team than usual.
Your grasp of facts is letting you down again with your reference to 80 clubs. Given we're talking about football, a large proportion of those 80 aren't relevant, as they're hurling only. You might as well throw in the amount of rugby clubs while you're at it.
Galway has 36 football only clubs, and 11 dual. So 47 football clubs in total. Mayo has a very similar number, slightly more I believe. Since we're talking about underage development specifically, Mayo has more registered underage club football teams than Galway, which basically means more underage players to pick from."
Thats exactly the point - Galway football isn't getting enough players from their population.

tirawleybaron (Mayo) - Posts: 1316 - 25/04/2025 11:42:34    2604193

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Replying To tirawleybaron:  "Thats exactly the point - Galway football isn't getting enough players from their population."
Trying to develop football in hurling strongholds is essentially a non-runner. It's like saying Mayo aren't getting hurlers from most of their clubs. Football just isn't a traditional sport there, in the same way hurling isn't in most of Mayo.
It is absolutely the case in the city, however and is something I've mentioned plenty of times. There are many reasons for that however. That warrants a debate in itself.
In rural football areas, participation rates are very high. We're as close to being a 50/50 split county as can be. In terms of number of clubs, registered teams and players underage etc, the numbers are remarkably close between both codes. But unlike Wexford for example, where most players play both, it's essentially two separate playing pools in Galway.
It means we're not a big as some people seem to think in terms of playing numbers in both codes, but it does mean we're relatively big enough to be competitive in both. In terms of underage success, minor and U20/21 over the past 30 years, Galway has won more All-Irelands than any other county in hurling and are second to Kerry in football. Underage has not been the issue in general, but converting that into more success at senior level certainly has.

WanPintWin (Galway) - Posts: 2286 - 25/04/2025 12:45:57    2604212

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The minor and u20 championships are development grades. I think some people get far too wound up about underage success or lack of it. It's about brining through players. If you win the odd title it's a massive bonus.

yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11540 - 26/04/2025 07:48:33    2604325

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Replying To yew_tree:  "The minor and u20 championships are development grades. I think some people get far too wound up about underage success or lack of it. It's about brining through players. If you win the odd title it's a massive bonus."
Said the exact same thing in a post years ago

ForeverBlue2 (Cavan) - Posts: 3735 - 26/04/2025 09:33:41    2604330

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