Freshers ruled out of Sigerson Cup

New measures taken by the Higher Education GAA authority mean freshers are no longer eligible to play Sigerson Cup football.

The motion aimed at preventing burnout was voted in at their recent AGM along with a step declaring those over the age of 21 ineligible for freshers hurling or football. Director of the DCU GAA academy Declan Brennan has welcomed the move but denied either of the motions were linked to any eligibility problems that may have clouded the Sigerson in the past.

He said: “I think it’s a fantastic idea. You’ll always have one or two (first years) every year of exceptional quality that will make the Sigerson. It’s a great idea because at that age group you’re getting far too much football and it will give them a breathing space that they need. It has nothing at to do with eligibility.”

A spokesperson for the Higher Education GAA authority admitted however that burnout was only part of the reason for the new regulations. “Basically its to promote freshers football with the underlying point in interest of developing games in higher level education. Burnout was one of the reasons. It was based on recommendations from a burnout taskforce earlier in the year. Eligibility has also been the general crux of the thing. It’s a two-pronged thing. We wanted to level it out. There have been a couple of incidents in the past, we want to make sure competitions are competitive and anyway it gives more guys an opportunity to play football.

You could have a 17-year-old come into college who would be up against a 23-year-old straight away and this might stop him from progressing. There is a review day before colleges come back where colleges have an input and any changes are based on feedback from the review day”.

In 2006 DCU’s recruitment of athletes came under scrutiny when four GAA inter-county stars were given twelve-week suspensions. Westmeath’s Dessie Dolan, Laois’s Ross Munnelly, Dublin’s Shane Ryan and Diarmuid Kinsella of Wexford were deemed ineligible to play for DCU because their post-grad courses were part-time. The GAA’s Central Appeals Committee later quashed these suspensions based on a technicality. Brennan is confident however that DCU now have the right policy in place to ensure future success.

He said: “We have a very clear policy now. Last year we had only one post grad playing, this year we have none so our policy is we’ve won the freshers two years in a row and that’s the way we are going to do it is bring them up through the freshers. We have a short-term plan and a long-term plan. The long-term plan will come to fruition over the next couple of years because it will involve a constant elevator of players.”

He added: “We have a situation where there’s 10 or twelve players for the panel unavailable (for the league) due to injury or county finals but all the lads that will play will come through the system and we have every faith in them, it’s a great time to stake a place on the team because nobody has any divine right to play. We wont be taking the league as serious this year because we have so many players involved in county finals but we intend to take the Sigerson very serious after Christmas.”

Earlier this year there was another row over eligibility when the Garda College were thrown out of the competition for fielding an ineligible player. They were re-instated on appeal and went on to finish runners to UUJ up in the final.