Underage grades row now brewing as new information comes to light

Donegal GAA could yet bring underage brackets within the county back into even line this season.

On Tuesday night and in light of their interpretations of Central Council’s recent policies - county committee voted unanimously to retain the current status quo before reverting back to even numbers in 2024.

However, new information which Competitions Controls Committee (CCC) secretary Ed Byrne says wasn’t made available to Donegal at the time, means that vote could well now have to be revisited.

The three options put in front of Donegal clubs on Tuesday were that they could choose to stay as they were in 2022, with one age grade between under 17 and adult level, or choose from two further options.

They could also decide to run their competitions at even ages (under 12, 14, 16 and 18), but with under 18s not permitted to play at adult level. Counties opting for that would also have had to organise another competition between under 18 and adult football or hurling.

The third and final option was for counties to return to even age grades, with one further grade to be organised before adult level. And in this instance, the 18-year-old, with their parents/guardians’ written consent, may train with adult teams from March 1 on.

Donegal clubs though had real concerns about Central Council’s stance that 60 hours had to be left between minor and senior games. And that was why their vote, which at the time was unanimous, decided to swing the other way for the time being.

But speaking to DonegalLiveSport on Wednesday, Byrne says Donegal didn’t have all the required information when they cast their original vote.

“I’ve been on to other counties all day,” he said. “My understanding now is that they were privy to information that simply wasn’t available to Donegal yesterday (Tuesday) or last night. Other county fixtures secretaries I’ve spoken to today have informed me that they were informed there is no penalty around the 60 hours and no sanction can be put on countries if it’s broken.

“We were told that was policy, and therefore it had to be implemented. Others were told it was simply a recommendation.

“We had originally hoped to vote on this on February 20 at our regulations meeting. That would have allowed more time for some clarification. Some clubs, under the understanding of the information we had to hand, understandably felt the vote could go ahead last night”.

An angry Byrne said the ambiguous manner in which the above age bracket recommendations were furnished to the various counties, leaves a lot to be desired.

“I’m not sure if the people in Croke Park making these recommendations have any clue just how difficult a job it is to make fixtures and get players out on the field at local level. Speaking to other counties this afternoon, and to be told there are grey areas in this, it’s really disappointing.

“How Donegal didn’t have the same information is absolutely beyond me.”

If Donegal are to revise their original decision, all it will take, the CCC secretary says, is for one club to request that the process be revisited.

“The clubs have been completely messed about here. They have put in place their underage managers. This would be asking them to do a complete upheaval. The people who voted on Tuesday night felt they were voting in the best interests of their clubs at the time.

“This isn’t fair on the people that voted on Tuesday night, it’s not fair on the people in the clubs who have been trying to get the age grades changed and it’s not fair on fixtures makers either.

“For Coiste na nÓg and the regional boards now, to try to rejig things under these circumstances is really unfair. The GAA really has some serious questions to answer here with how they are treating their volunteers”.