Cork GAA clubs to vote on return of minor grade to U18

TUESDAY night sees a special convention for members of the county committee at Páirc Ui Chaoimh, starting at 8pm.

There are several items on the agenda and one that has caused much debate in recent months is the age groups for Rebel Óg next season and going forward from there.

Rebel Óg have made no secret that in an ideal world, the minor age would go back to U18 with full decoupling. That would mean that any player under 18 would not be able to play in adult competitions, except for U21 level.

However, we don’t live in an ideal world and tonight a proposal is being voted on that would see under 18 players play in some adult competitions.

COMPROMISE

In correspondence sent to all clubs in recent weeks, the county board are proposing the following:

“Eligibility – Age Grades: A player shall have celebrated his 18th birthday before January 1 of the championship year in order to participate in Premier Senior, Senior A, Premier Intermediate, Intermediate A or Premier Junior Championships or in Divisions 1 to 7 in the county leagues.

“It was the preferred position of the County Management Committee (County Executive) that full decoupling at 18 should be introduced in order to facilitate a return to primary under age-grades at U18, U16, U14, and U12. This position was endorsed by County Convention 2022 (64.3%), but the relevant motion was then defeated at Congress 2023 (53.5% in support, but 60% required).

“At the recent Special Congress 2023, counties were subsequently given discretion as to whether they chose to decouple adult and underage competitions at either U17 or U18 on a competition-by-competition basis.

Having taken on board the concerns of small clubs that indicated that they could not field adult teams without minors, it is now planned to take a more nuanced approach as per the regulation above.

"Therefore, all players turning 18 would get the opportunity to play league and championship at adult level (Junior A and below).

“In other words, all teams at Junior A level and below (regardless of whether they are first or second teams etc) would have access to all club players in their final year of minor (U18).

“If the regulation is passed, it will remove several clashes between minor and adult teams, particularly at the higher grades. Minor championship games would take precedence in the event of any remaining clashes at lower grades.

“This will facilitate a return to U18, U16, U14, and U12 competitions in 2024, which would simply not be possible otherwise in a dual county of our scale without some form of decoupling.

“This, in turn, will facilitate a later start to Rebel Óg Minor competitions (March onwards) and the return of knockout Divisional U21 football championships on dedicated dates in February with all county U20 players available. 

County U21 hurling and football championships would return later in the year.

“All of the above seeks to maintain the current policy in providing certainty to players within master fixture plans published annually at both adult and underage level.”

Despite it not being ideal all in Rebel Óg hope that this motion is passed.

If it is defeated the picture is unclear as to what the age groups will be in 2024 and how Rebel Óg will be structured. There are two options if it’s defeated and they are that age grades stay as they are at present, ie minor at U17 and other main age grades at U15 and U13.

The second option is that minor goes back to U18 with no decoupling. This will cause lots of complications for clubs at both adult and underage levels. It will lead to clashes of games if clubs are successful and advance and potentially could mean that some games could stretch into November, December, and even January.

This simply can’t be allowed to happen for the sake of the players as those at underage level need time to play with school sides and don’t need this hassle on top of it.

So hopefully the motion will be passed on Tuesday night and while it’s far from perfect for now it’s the best solution to a problem that will never be fully resolved, no matter what happens now or in the future.