TYRONE great Peter Canavan has blasted the GAA’s decision to scrap the U21 inter-county football championship as "ludicrous".
Canavan, a member of the Red Hand's U21 management team, claimed the decision taken at the annual congress was not based on proper reasoning. The competition will be replaced by an U21 grade from 2018 on, but the All-Ireland winning captain and six-time Allstar accused delegates of pressing the panic button over the issues of fixture congestion and player burn-out.
“It’s hard to believe, hard to fathom, especially with the drop-out rate in Gaelic football," said Canavan.
"Young lads in their early 20s, that’s the time that the majority of lads drop out of football and here we have a very good competition that has stood the test of time. It’s the perfect blooding ground for getting players ready for senior football and, yet, they’re doing away with it. I’m extremely disappointed, I think it’s change for the sake of change and not based on proper reasoning.”
Canavan accepts the problem of fixture congestion must be tackled, but argued that the axing of the U21 championship will not address the issue in any meaningful way: “There’s no doubt that fixture scheduling is a major problem in the GAA," he said.
"But I think that, by doing away with the U21s, they have pressed the panic button. There were other options and ways in which they could have got around that. They talk about player burn-out, but it’s only a very small percentage of the players at U21 level that we’re talking about in terms of player burn-out that have other commitments, be it with the county team or colleges.
“The majority of our players, for example, will not be suffering from player burn-out because they’re not drawn here, there and everywhere. You’re talking about five per cent of the team, possibly. It’s one of a number of very strange decisions that have come out of congress this year.”
Canavan also challenged the stipulation that any player who is named on a senior inter-county team will be ineligible for the new competition: “How serious can you take a competition whenever your best players can’t play in it?
“It just doesn’t stack up, it doesn’t make sense and it would make you wonder are they trying to do away with this level of football altogether when they have come up with this ludicrous decision.”
Canavan stressed the importance of the U21 grade in providing a bridge for young players to progress through to senior level, as evidenced by the promotion of several members of last year’s All-Ireland winning team to the Tyrone senior squad.
“There’s no doubt about it, that for young lads that are hoping to represent their county at senior level, it’s the perfect stepping stone," he said.
“There’s a massive gap from minor to senior football at club level, never mind inter-county level. We have had a number of players who, through their performances with the U21s and how they progressed, they were able to make that step up.
“Most of those lads that Mickey [Harte] has brought in have performed very well for him at various stages of the McKenna Cup and the National League. That would indicate that a lot of them are well fit for it, so it’s a good blooding ground and hopefully we can unearth another few this year.”
The penultimate Ulster U21 Football Championship gets under way on Wednesday night when Derry take on Antrim in a preliminary round tie at Celtic Park. Defending champions Tyrone begin the defence of their provincial and All-Ireland titles next Wednesday when they travel to Kingspan Breffni Park to face Cavan.
