MTU unlikely to return to county championships unless rules are altered

The GAA development officer of MTU Cork fears that the college side will remain absent from the county championships unless the rules around eligibility are changed.

MTU, then under the Cork RTC banner, first competed in the Cork SFC and SHC in 1995. The institution was known as Cork IT when it almost won the hurling in 2011, losing the final to Carrigtwohill.

The Covid-19 pandemic precluded participation in both 2020 and 2021 but, while MTU returned to the divisions/colleges section of the Premier SFC and Premier SHC in 2022, that was the last such instance.

Both MTU and UCC are restricted to choosing a maximum of four players per division for the championship. In his annual report, which appears in abridged form in the 2025 Cork GAA Yearbook, MTU’s GAA development officer Kevin O’Callaghan outlined the challenges involved.

“Without doubt the largest single factor remains the continued tightening of restrictions around the number of players available from divisions,” he wrote.

“The MTU GAA development officer straw-polled players in January to assess the viability of putting a team in either code forward for the club championship. While some players were interested in playing with MTU, almost none could guarantee their involvement due to club commitments or in certain cases, divisional teams and uncertainty around their summer travel plans.

“Even with third-level matches being held in MTU, we tend to have one or two players dropping out near the fixture time and we certainly didn’t have any buffer with the number of players making themselves available for either hurling or football championship in 2024. The irony in this, however, is that we had about eight hurlers from the Imokilly division who could have played for MTU and who would benefit from this experience but the restrictions around numbers per division meant we could only use a maximum of four of these players.

“We therefore had a straightforward decision in opting out of both championships.”

Given the difficulties currently in place, O’Callaghan does not expect a reversal of the current situation unless selection parameters are widened.

“While some club members are deeply unhappy with this situation, I don’t see it changing in the near future unless the rules are amended,” he wrote.

“Our neighbours UCC did manage to get teams out in both codes, but they are working from a much larger student population and they still really struggled to get a team together for both codes this summer.

“The GAA split season continues to impact on third level with players often very late returning to play with MTU and some declining to come back at all as they may be playing in to November in some cases and feeling they need a break from GAA before they go back training with their club after Christmas.

“While there are benefits to the split season, the GAA needs to give some thought as to where third level fits into the year. As it stands, clubs can stop students from playing league before Christmas and inter-county U20s and senior managers can refuse to release them after Christmas, so it is extremely difficult right now to get serious momentum preparing a third level squad.

“The inter-county U20 panels continue to intersect with the MTU fresher panels and this has resulted in some players being forced to choose between Cork or MTU at times. This is not ideal and communication between managers of both teams is critical.

“Meetings at the start of the semesters are critical and regular and meaningful planning must be considered. In MTU, we will continue to liaise with whoever oversees county teams and do so with the players best interests at heart.”