National Forum

Club Under 17 / 18

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@formertownie - your post above wasn't there when I started writing my last one, but was there by the time I'd finished. Anyway....

Yeah, the change from U18 to U17, or back again, creates a different situation from normal in the year the change takes effect.

When Wexford voted to go to U17, the main reason was so that minor (U17) and adult could be completely decoupled - i.e. nobody had an issue with somebody who was only 16 at the start of the year not being allowed to play adult in that year. It was also felt that lads in their 18th year would be mostly ready for the adult grades and would have ample opportunity to play them.

Last year, when the decision was made to go back to U18, the main feeling was it was necessary because too many were drifting away after U17, as it turned out they weren't yet ready for adult level after all.

The real situation of course is that some lads are ready for adult grades in the year that they're 17 going on 18, but many are not. And the big question now is whether we allow the closing stages of the entire U18 championships to be affected for the sake of these some lads.

I still maintain that the greater good and the lesser of two evils is to keep things such that minors can't also play adult.

Pikeman96 (Wexford) - Posts: 3289 - 26/10/2023 11:48:37    2510401

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Replying To Mountainside07092:  "Club Minor Competition for 2024.
Where are county at to date.
Correct if wrong.

Galway U17
Kilkenny U17
Leitrim U17
Louth U17
Offaly U17
Tipperary U17
Waterford U17
Wicklow U17
Antrim U18
Armagh U18
Cavan U18
Cork U18
Derry U18
Donegal U18
Down U18
Fermanagh U18
Kerry U18
Limerick U18
Longford U18
Mayo U18
Meath U18
Monaghan U18
Roscommon U18
Tyrone U18
Westmeath U18
Wexford U18
Carlow ???
Clare ???
Dublin ???
Kildare ???
Laois ???
Sligo ???"
Monaghan are U17…

Monaghan ran an U18 competition this year with poor up take from clubs..
The U18 comp was finished before May!

U17 comp then ran from June to October!

For me the issue with drop off is not the amount of games it's the amount of sacrifice players are making to play GAA… even at U17 level it's got very serious

farneygossip (Monaghan) - Posts: 48 - 26/10/2023 12:33:56    2510422

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Replying To Mountainside07092:  "Club Minor Competition for 2024.
Where are county at to date.
Correct if wrong.

Galway U17
Kilkenny U17
Leitrim U17
Louth U17
Offaly U17
Tipperary U17
Waterford U17
Wicklow U17
Antrim U18
Armagh U18
Cavan U18
Cork U18
Derry U18
Donegal U18
Down U18
Fermanagh U18
Kerry U18
Limerick U18
Longford U18
Mayo U18
Meath U18
Monaghan U18
Roscommon U18
Tyrone U18
Westmeath U18
Wexford U18
Carlow ???
Clare ???
Dublin ???
Kildare ???
Laois ???
Sligo ???"
Meath is under 17 currently. Any update on any changes I know walterstown put a vote in to change it in meath to u18.

Opal1902Mcl (Meath) - Posts: 6 - 06/11/2025 13:24:59    2643265

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Replying To Opal1902Mcl:  "Meath is under 17 currently. Any update on any changes I know walterstown put a vote in to change it in meath to u18."
Kilkenny u18

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 17683 - 06/11/2025 14:06:10    2643273

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Replying To Opal1902Mcl:  "Meath is under 17 currently. Any update on any changes I know walterstown put a vote in to change it in meath to u18."
Waterford also

Viking66 (Wexford) - Posts: 17683 - 06/11/2025 14:07:50    2643274

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Carlow u18

Unusedsub (Carlow) - Posts: 137 - 06/11/2025 15:38:27    2643283

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Replying To farneygossip:  "Monaghan are U17…

Monaghan ran an U18 competition this year with poor up take from clubs..
The U18 comp was finished before May!

U17 comp then ran from June to October!

For me the issue with drop off is not the amount of games it's the amount of sacrifice players are making to play GAA… even at U17 level it's got very serious"
The drop off problem hasnt got better.

Weather anyone likes to admit it or not, adult men who treat underage football as the be all and end all are the problem.
Not the kids, not the rules, not the parents.

Its the gombeen coach who demand U16/17/18 player train 2 months before the season starts, fixes training at the same time as other sports and moves matches around to suit himself or to make sure certain players can play.

The coach who cuts kids from the A/B team because he cant be bothered to coach them the skills (likely doesn't know the mechanics of any particular skill). Same coach then goes to the age group below for players because he wasn't able to coach the ones he had since U8's.

Even worse is the coach who only focuses on the team his kid is on, nominates his kid for player of the year and plays his kid over kids that are clearly better.

Any serious coach, who knows what he is doing, alters his demands on a player to suit the player, not the coach.

If you have kids who play hurling & football, then the coaches should be working together to ensure the dual players train once with each team per week and that session is wholly skills based.
Two nights a week is for the kids who don't do any other sport.

IN Mayo, during the summer, the urban clubs have hurling, soccer and gaelic, with Rugby and basketball during the winter.
Any coach worth his salt knows that the more sports a kid plays, the better they will be, as they learn the skills they need to deal with any situation that arises in a gaelic football match when they get to U20/adult footballer.

Most kids start off playing multiple sports but start dropping out from one or two generally because an adult male coach demanded to much too soon or doesn't give a chance to late developers.

If you get to U18 level and you have a squad with 50% born in Q1, 30% born in Q2, 12% in Q3 and 8% in Q4, you did it all wrong. Especially if you started with a squad of 25% in each and lost 50% of our players along the way.

tirawleybaron (Mayo) - Posts: 1647 - 11/11/2025 10:08:18    2643947

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