THE GAA has to find a way to protect the endangered Sigerson Cup, says former Donegal All-Ireland winner and two-time Sigerson champion Paul Durcan.
Durcan can see the appeal of the blue-ribbon colleges’ football competition he won with Sligo IT in 2004 and 2005 from a players’ perspective and, as part of the Sligo backroom team, he can see the issues it causes from a management view now too.
He suggests using a window in the National League to bring back the Sigerson Cup weekend as a possible solution to the question of where the under-fire third level competition fits into the crowded GAA fixture list.
This year, the early rounds of the Sigerson were played in the week’s leading up to National League games and Mayo’s Tommy Conroy suffered a career-ending cruciate injury playing for NUI Galway who beat University of Limerick in the final on Wednesday night.
“It was tough on my mum and dad. I knew I was self-destructing. And I also knew the next phase of that, if I had carried on, it was not being here. I was in a very dark place...” - the life and times of Caolan Mooney
‘If you’re still in it when the Christmas tree is up then you’re not going too badly’ - Tommy Coleman’s minors striving for more Clann Eireann success
Sligo’s Nathan Mullen and Conan Marren featured in the final and Sligo also had players on duty with DCU and Letterkenny IT.
“Giving the Sigerson a window where games aren’t played in the week before National League fixtures is important,” says Durcan.
“Maybe we could try and organise it for the week when there’s a break in the League – we’ve just had a break for the last two weeks - could they have run the semi-finals and final last weekend? It’s a possibility.
“Maybe that’s a question for player-welfare but for me there was always something about the Sigerson weekend.
“Would it be better to go back to that weekend system or trying to have it run off before the National League starts? I’m involved with Sligo now so I’ve seen the other side of it and it’s tough on inter-county managers who are trying to put a big shift in for the League when they’re losing three or four players every week.”
Stripping the competition of its inter-county players isn’t an option as far as Durcan is concerned. The Sligo IT side he won with in 2005 was captained by Christy Toye and included Eamonn McGee (Neil McGee played in 2004) and Mayo’s Andy Moran. Others to feature in those back-to-back success over Queen’s University included Ger Cafferkey, Karl Lacey, Paul Finlay, Rory Gallagher, Keith Higgins, Kevin Cassidy and Michael Moyles.
“Some of the best football I ever played in or experienced was at Sigerson Cup,” said Durcan.
“Tactics go out the window sometimes with Sigerson which is sometimes a good thing. When you have such quality on the pitch it’s a great competition to watch.
“Losing the county players would ruin the competition because that’s the whole beauty of Sigerson – seeing players from each county coming together. I played with a lot of guys from other counties – Paul Finlay from Monaghan would still be a very good friend and guys from Mayo, Sligo and Roscommon. That was the whole beauty of it.
“They were brilliant years in Sligo. Sligo won it in 2002, I went there in 2003 and we made the quarter-finals and it was my first experience of the weekend around the Sigerson.
“It was a good introduction to Sigerson and in ’04 and ’05 we played two very good Queen’s University teams in the finals and came out on the right side of them.”
