Reason Roscommon Cork under-20 challenge game was called off is as bad as you’ll hear

Niall McIntyre

This under-20 championship hasn’t even started yet but it’s not going down too well already.

Shane Curran and Billy O’Loughlin, the respective managers of the Roscommon and Laois teams that will take part in the competition over the next few months appeared on Monday’s GAA Hour Show with Colm Parkinson.

The pair spoke about their issues with the competition, and they had quite a few of them.

First of all, both were in agreement that the clashing of the games with the Leaving Certificate is senseless and showed of a complete lack of vision by the GAA’s fixture planners.

"You couldn't make this up if you tried now, this is beyond incredulity," https://t.co/QELvwk2PdP

— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) April 30, 2018

The fact that the best players in many counties won’t be able to play – if a player plays for his county seniors in the championship, he can’t represent his under-20 team – doesn’t make much sense either.

Another is that the squads weren’t allowed to convene collectively until April for the first time, less than one month before the championship would begin.

But the best (worst) of all came to light at the weekend when an arranged challenge match between the Roscommon and Cork outfits was cancelled by the GAA due to a bizarre rule.

The Rossies’ manager Shane Curran explained his frustration at the decision to Colm Parkinson.

“Not only that, yesterday, we had a game arranged with Cork and their manager Sean Hayes. I received a phone call on Saturday that the game couldn’t go ahead because of some ridiculous, obscure rule that some idiot in Croke Park looked up and took out of a rule book and decided he was going to implement this weekend.”

That rule, according to Curran was that under-20 games can only take place on the days Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.

“Some of these fellas are in colleges all over the country. So as management, you’re not going to ask lads who are in the middle of their Thesis or final exams, to come down of a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday night for a challenge or training game. So Sunday is the only day really that you can do so.”

“The Cork manager Sean Hayes was absolutely livid. It was John Horan who said the game couldn’t go ahead, that was despite the fact that other games went ahead yesterday but some obscure rule only allows the players to play on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday – now this is clownology of the highest order.”

It doesn’t seem to make much sense at all.

You can listen to this discussion and much more from Monday’s GAA Hour Show here.