Posing the question - Should Senior inter-county be for players over the age of 21?
Firstly I know that people will read this and be think "We can't take our U21s out of the panel are you mad".
Senior inter-county has reached a level of physicality that many younger players find it takes 2-3 years to get to grips with it. While I acknowledge there is lads out there who have taken to it like a duck to water their is a huge portion who have not. We don't see these guys of course because they don't get anywhere near the match day panels or in a lot of cases past the league campaign.
I know in Galway alot of U21's are dropped into the senior and based on their success's and exploits at 18-19 great things are expected. By 22-23 a lot of these guys haven't had the desired impact and there on the scrap heap. I think Kilkenny have it spot by bringing players in at 23 or 24. Anthony Cunningham recently spoke about the physical hits that go in and how his younger players found it hard to recover from them in games which ultimately affected performance.
I'm simply posing the question not saying its right or wrong just starting a discussion.
Also before lads tell me about Wexford's Under 21s and the Clare senior team of last year... I know I said there were exceptions.
28/07/2014 18:20:42 crossfieldball Posing the question - Should Senior inter-county be for players over the age of 21? Firstly I know that people will read this and be think "We can't take our U21s out of the panel are you mad". Senior inter-county has reached a level of physicality that many younger players find it takes 2-3 years to get to grips with it. While I acknowledge there is lads out there who have taken to it like a duck to water their is a huge portion who have not. We don't see these guys of course because they don't get anywhere near the match day panels or in a lot of cases past the league campaign. I know in Galway alot of U21's are dropped into the senior and based on their success's and exploits at 18-19 great things are expected. By 22-23 a lot of these guys haven't had the desired impact and there on the scrap heap. I think Kilkenny have it spot by bringing players in at 23 or 24. Anthony Cunningham recently spoke about the physical hits that go in and how his younger players found it hard to recover from them in games which ultimately affected performance. I'm simply posing the question not saying its right or wrong just starting a discussion. Also before lads tell me about Wexford's Under 21s and the Clare senior team of last year... I know I said there were exceptions Is it needed? Physicality has went up hugely in recent years but its not like its rugby. You pick them If theyre good enough. Kilkenny have had such a settled successful side which is why it was taken players longer to emerge onto the first strength side. Maybe in some places players are dropped in too early to senior level but they can always go back to intermediate team/club team and move up to senior inter county team in future if and when they do reach required physical level.