*Lissycasey’s Michael Kelly and Michael Nash of St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield in action in last year’s U21A final. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
FORMATS for the U21 championships in hurling and football will change, days before the football competition was due to kick off.
Subject to agreement by the October meeting of Clare GAA next week, the format and number of games in this year’s under 21 hurling and football championships will change from what had been announced.
The football competition (A, B and C grades) was due to start this week but the fixtures were pulled by the Competitions Control Committee which met on Monday night.
A number of clubs had threatened to withdraw from the competition if the fixtures weren’t changed citing involvement in upcoming county semi-finals and finals at junior, intermediate and senior levels over the next couple of weeks.
Fixtures secretary Deirdre Chaplin told the meeting that teams involved in three of the four games scheduled in the A and B football competitions this weekend had indicated that they wouldn’t be able to play.
Arising from that board chairman Kieran Keating wrote to all clubs citing the concerns put to the CCC by the clubs and he put two suggestions to the clubs for consideration as follows with clubs asked to bring their views to a forum at Clareabbey on Wednesday evening. “We concluded that forcing fixtures to remain as scheduled will result in a number of walk-overs in round one that will make it potentially impossible to complete a fair competition,” he said.
Keating told clubs, “The CCC and our Fixtures Analysts were bound by and followed the decision of the Co Board (passed in 2023 but suspended for 2024 after all-Ireland success) that the U21 competitions would be eight-teams per grade, playing in two round-robin groups with semi-finals and finals. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough weekends available to us to follow through with this plan”.
Option A was to proceed with the round-robin format as drawn but the teams will only play two games rather than the three initially intended. This would involve a re-draw to see which team plays which in round one, first team drawn playing at home and round two will then be that team playing away (visiting the other team that played away in round one). After those two pairs of games, top two are determined as per rule; head-to head only applying if the tied teams have played each other, otherwise scoring difference would be used if required. Semi-finals and finals would be held on the same schedule as planned but with one round less, having started two weeks later.
Option 2 was that the groups get redrawn into four knock-out quarter-finals, with the teams in each grade then only having one bite at the championship, and half the teams then only having one game, as per last year.
Wednesday’s meeting drew the biggest attendance since the county convention last December and it led to a good debate on the above two proposals as well as a suggestion from Kilmaley secretary Cathal O’Loughlin that the competition go ahead as planned with three group games after which he top team in each group contest the final (eliminate the semi-finals).
While there was some support for this suggestion it fell well short of the support for the other proposals with some clubs flagging that they would have preferred to have had this idea on the table in advance to consider the matter.
Early at the meeting, Clonlara’s Flan Mullane asked “why change now? The masters fixture plan was adopted last April and all of these dates were on it. If we change now we are setting a dangerous precedent”.
Chairman Kieran Keating pointed out the possible clashes at this time of the year for this particular championship such as third-level college exams in December; Harty Cup, Corn Uí Mhuirí and Munster Colleges B, C & D competition schedules in October and November, preparations for Freshers and other third-level competitions, Munster Club fixtures in November, the recently announced senior and under 20 inter-county return to train date of November 21; the need for our u-20 intercounty panelists to have some down-time in December; and the difficulty in getting games played in November due to weather and pitch issues.
A proposal from Lissycasey’s Eamonn Finnucane for a straight knockout format was supported by Kilmurry Ibrickane, Éire Óg, Ennistymon hurling, and the Banner clubs. Corofin’s Fergal Neylon sugested a knock out format with a shield for the teams beaten in their first rounds.
Amongst those speaking in favour of the two game option followed by semi-finals and final were Anthony O’Halloran, (St. Joseph’s Doora/Barefield), Shane Talty, (Ennistymon football), Michael O’Regan (Ruan). Karl Quinn (Tulla) Fiona Whelan (Ballyea) and John Riordan (Wolfe Tones).
Subject to approval at the county board meeting the football competition will commence on the weekend of October 18/19. Games in both codes will go ahead over the October Bank holiday weekend and the games will continue on alternate weekends until conclusion.
