Cork GAA vote to back move to restore U18 minor grade with decoupling from adult games

UNDERAGE grades was a big talking point at the annual county convention at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Sunday evening. 

Back in October at a special county board meeting, the majority of clubs were in favour of minor returning to U18. Many club delegates expressed the positives and negatives of minor at U18 level. 

After a tense discussion, the motion from county board executive to return minor to U18 at club level with full decoupling received a 64% support, passed by 4%. The pass rate was set at 60%. 

The motion will go to the GAA congress in February 2023. The decision to change minor to U17 a couple of years ago was viewed as a backward step.

The first speaker at the convention was John Feeney from the Dripsey club who made his feelings known about the proposal from Cork GAA that divisional U21 competitions start in the Autumn. Over the last couple of years, it was down to each division with regarding the U21 championships. 

Take the 2021 Muskerry U21 championships, for example. The football was run at the start of the year and the hurling at the end of the year. Feeney said that it worked well and it shouldn’t be changed. 

Chairperson Marc Sheehan replied saying that while a proposal has been made, no decision has been forthcoming on this matter.

John O’Flynn from the Freemount club spoke at length with regards the underage issue. He spoke passionately that decoupling should be down to each club in the county. 

O’Flynn said that if there was no decoupling, minors will be able to play during the week and play again at the weekend and that the clubs will be able to handle it. A shortage of games at underage would mean younger players would be eager to play again at the weekend at adult level and that there would be no cherry-picking.

DISGRACE

St Michael’s were winners of the Cork U19 Premier 2 football championship this season, and it was revealed at the convention that at U19 level, clubs have to supply the medals themselves, which St Michael’s delegate Frank O’Connell called “disgraceful”.

Kinsale delegate Dermot Collins called on the Cork GAA board to erect a statue of the late great Michael Collins. The Kinsale club man called Collins a great GAA man, and made the point that the Cork City council are making good progress on erecting one in the City, with Patrick Street being touted as a possible location.

The naming rights of Páirc Uí Chaoimh is ongoing according to the Cork GAA treasurer Diarmuid Gowen, which Sheehan adding that it is “commercially sensitive” and that it will take time for a resolution.