Boundary and underage motions should make for lively GAA Convention

The annual Donegal GAA Convention, set to take place in the Mount Errigal Hotel, Letterkenny on Wednesday, December 14, is likely to see some debate on two motions from the Killybegs and Ardara clubs.

The motion from Killybegs centres on a boundary issue, which has been ongoing for a long number of years. The issue relates to people from the town moving outside the boundary area to live and their children wanting to continue playing with the Killybegs club. The motion being put forward would see underage players with a grandparent who had been a resident in the town becoming eligible.

The Killybegs clubs have submitted a motion for Convention which seeks to amend the existing bylaw to include:

(a) A sibling of the player in question is already registered and is currently eligible to play in official competitions for the club which the player wishes to become a member of.

(b) That the parent(s) of either parent of the member were at the time of his birth resident in the catchment area of the club which the player wishes to become a member of.

The boundary issue between Killybegs and Naomh Ultan has been a thorny one for some time now and it will be interesting to see how this motion is debated and whether, if passed, the change would have any effect on other clubs.

The other interesting motion on the clár comes from Ardara who want the underage structure to be reversed to its original format with competition at U-14, U-16 and U-18.

The Ardara motion seeking change to the bylaw is:

“A county shall determine its internal Under-Age Grades for competition purposes within the parameter of Under 21 down to Under 11, subject to the stipulation that competitions at Under 14, Under 16 and Under 18 must take place within each County together with one further underage competition above the Under 18 grade. The rest of the Rule to remain unchanged.”

The change to U-13, U-15 and U-17 in recent years has been the subject of much debate and again this motion is likely to create some debate on the night of the Convention.