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The Under 20 championship has been changed to Under 19 this year (which begins in October).
This ludicrous decision seems to have been made without any discussion at Co. Board level, without any dialogue with the clubs, without any dialogue with the players and management of the club teams involved and conflicts with the approved Meath GAA 2023 Bye Laws. There is no rationale to the decision as Inter County football and Hurling stays at U20 and the club hurling in Meath stays at U21.
A lot of 2023 born lads (approx. 400) were looking forward to the 2023 U20 championship and are hugely disappointed that the rules for a championship designed specifically for their age group have changed and they can no longer participate and are being excluded without any replacement championship. It shows total disrespect for those lads.
This change was inserted into the County Regulations dated July 2023 and it has come as a shock to people in clubs I have spoken to over the last few days who were totally unaware of the change.
For this decision to be reversed, clubs must make sure the issue is brought up at this Monday night's County Board meeting and make sure that the decision is overturned. Immediate action is required by all clubs who wish to have the decision overturned.
For delegates who are against the u20 championship been changed to U19, among the points they should be highlighting in relation to this bonkers decision are
▪ How a large group of players have been badly treated by a decision taken by a small group of people which is contrary to Young Adult Player Retention & Young Adult Player Development.
▪ it eliminates all 2003 born players in Meath (approx. 400 +) out of a championship they were looking forward to, with no replacement championship.
▪ it discriminates based on age and code as the hurling championship remains at Under 21 level. Why is Under 21 suitable for hurling but football goes back to Under 19?
▪ Next year's inter county championship remains at Under 20 level, so what is the benefit of having the Meath competition at Under 19 level?
▪ There are also other technical (rules) issues against an Under 19 competition, that have a major impact on small clubs which could also exclude clubs wishing to amalgamate for the u19 championship.
If this decision is not overturned, we are letting down a large group of young adult players, many who had an opportunity to travel on J1's this summer for the first time since covid and were looking forward to returning and playing in the under 20 Championship. For this group of players their Minor and Under 20 championships were greatly curtailed during covid. Others who were among 2nd and 3rd teams eliminated from the reserve cup last night have no further football for the rest of the year (and it is only August).
I urge people who are concerned to contact their club delegate and request that they make sure it gets an airing and support delegates who are seeking to have the competition remain at Under 20 and not Under 19 level.
Meathball (Meath) - Posts: 140 - 23/08/2023 17:56:56
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It makes total sense to run a under 19 competition now as these players will be under 20 when the Meath team will be in action next year
This is an opportunity for the county to have a look at all the players that will be involved
Under 20s right now cannot play next year for the county
It is unfortunate for the players missing out but this also happened when they moved minor to u17
Awaywin (Meath) - Posts: 116 - 24/08/2023 12:19:20
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Replying To Awaywin: "It makes total sense to run a under 19 competition now as these players will be under 20 when the Meath team will be in action next year
This is an opportunity for the county to have a look at all the players that will be involved
Under 20s right now cannot play next year for the county
It is unfortunate for the players missing out but this also happened when they moved minor to u17" Well if that is the reason, God help us!
Any players who are anyway near contention to be making next year's Meath U20 panel would be playing under 20's club this year. If they can't make their U20 club team at 19 years of age, how are they going to make Inter County U20 next year?
So we decide to exclude up to 400 players born in 2003 playing U20 club championship this year so that an elite group of next years Meath under 20 players can be assessed by Meath U20 management without having to play alongside/against lads who are a year older than them.
Surely it would be better for any 19 year old aspiring to be on next years Meath U20's to be playing in an a club U20 championship this year?
Will someone please tell me, there is a less daft reason than this !
Meathball (Meath) - Posts: 140 - 24/08/2023 13:35:53
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Replying To Meathball: "The Under 20 championship has been changed to Under 19 this year (which begins in October).
This ludicrous decision seems to have been made without any discussion at Co. Board level, without any dialogue with the clubs, without any dialogue with the players and management of the club teams involved and conflicts with the approved Meath GAA 2023 Bye Laws. There is no rationale to the decision as Inter County football and Hurling stays at U20 and the club hurling in Meath stays at U21.
A lot of 2023 born lads (approx. 400) were looking forward to the 2023 U20 championship and are hugely disappointed that the rules for a championship designed specifically for their age group have changed and they can no longer participate and are being excluded without any replacement championship. It shows total disrespect for those lads.
This change was inserted into the County Regulations dated July 2023 and it has come as a shock to people in clubs I have spoken to over the last few days who were totally unaware of the change.
For this decision to be reversed, clubs must make sure the issue is brought up at this Monday night's County Board meeting and make sure that the decision is overturned. Immediate action is required by all clubs who wish to have the decision overturned.
For delegates who are against the u20 championship been changed to U19, among the points they should be highlighting in relation to this bonkers decision are
▪ How a large group of players have been badly treated by a decision taken by a small group of people which is contrary to Young Adult Player Retention & Young Adult Player Development.
▪ it eliminates all 2003 born players in Meath (approx. 400 +) out of a championship they were looking forward to, with no replacement championship.
▪ it discriminates based on age and code as the hurling championship remains at Under 21 level. Why is Under 21 suitable for hurling but football goes back to Under 19?
▪ Next year's inter county championship remains at Under 20 level, so what is the benefit of having the Meath competition at Under 19 level?
▪ There are also other technical (rules) issues against an Under 19 competition, that have a major impact on small clubs which could also exclude clubs wishing to amalgamate for the u19 championship.
If this decision is not overturned, we are letting down a large group of young adult players, many who had an opportunity to travel on J1's this summer for the first time since covid and were looking forward to returning and playing in the under 20 Championship. For this group of players their Minor and Under 20 championships were greatly curtailed during covid. Others who were among 2nd and 3rd teams eliminated from the reserve cup last night have no further football for the rest of the year (and it is only August).
I urge people who are concerned to contact their club delegate and request that they make sure it gets an airing and support delegates who are seeking to have the competition remain at Under 20 and not Under 19 level." I Completely agree with all of this. A lot of players in my own club were very annoyed with this, think it's a ridiculous decision to make at this stage of the year where lads were looking forward to it. The Meath set up isn't the end all and be all. the club players have to be thought of as well. If they wanted to put it to U19 then they should at least do an under 21's also so the players that were looking forward to it could still be involved and could include more players rate than less.
de_man (Meath) - Posts: 192 - 24/08/2023 13:49:41
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This is the right decision and was voted in by clubs earlier in the year, I assume to give more games to players coming out of U17
Right or wrong we went to odd ages and 19s makes sense, not just for the county team.
A 19 year old, 20 in the new year, would be playing adult football for 2 years already. By making it 20s you squeeze a number of 18 years olds from the group, who need the game time, in place of adult footballers, who already have plenty of game time.
Otherwise we lose too many U18s and U19s. Rural clubs in particular need to give these players games or we lose them by the time they are adult. We cannot afford to lose them.
Goldback (Meath) - Posts: 58 - 24/08/2023 14:31:31
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Replying To Meathball: "The Under 20 championship has been changed to Under 19 this year (which begins in October).
This ludicrous decision seems to have been made without any discussion at Co. Board level, without any dialogue with the clubs, without any dialogue with the players and management of the club teams involved and conflicts with the approved Meath GAA 2023 Bye Laws. There is no rationale to the decision as Inter County football and Hurling stays at U20 and the club hurling in Meath stays at U21.
A lot of 2023 born lads (approx. 400) were looking forward to the 2023 U20 championship and are hugely disappointed that the rules for a championship designed specifically for their age group have changed and they can no longer participate and are being excluded without any replacement championship. It shows total disrespect for those lads.
This change was inserted into the County Regulations dated July 2023 and it has come as a shock to people in clubs I have spoken to over the last few days who were totally unaware of the change.
For this decision to be reversed, clubs must make sure the issue is brought up at this Monday night's County Board meeting and make sure that the decision is overturned. Immediate action is required by all clubs who wish to have the decision overturned.
For delegates who are against the u20 championship been changed to U19, among the points they should be highlighting in relation to this bonkers decision are
▪ How a large group of players have been badly treated by a decision taken by a small group of people which is contrary to Young Adult Player Retention & Young Adult Player Development.
▪ it eliminates all 2003 born players in Meath (approx. 400 +) out of a championship they were looking forward to, with no replacement championship.
▪ it discriminates based on age and code as the hurling championship remains at Under 21 level. Why is Under 21 suitable for hurling but football goes back to Under 19?
▪ Next year's inter county championship remains at Under 20 level, so what is the benefit of having the Meath competition at Under 19 level?
▪ There are also other technical (rules) issues against an Under 19 competition, that have a major impact on small clubs which could also exclude clubs wishing to amalgamate for the u19 championship.
If this decision is not overturned, we are letting down a large group of young adult players, many who had an opportunity to travel on J1's this summer for the first time since covid and were looking forward to returning and playing in the under 20 Championship. For this group of players their Minor and Under 20 championships were greatly curtailed during covid. Others who were among 2nd and 3rd teams eliminated from the reserve cup last night have no further football for the rest of the year (and it is only August).
I urge people who are concerned to contact their club delegate and request that they make sure it gets an airing and support delegates who are seeking to have the competition remain at Under 20 and not Under 19 level." Great post Meath ball. How many young lads have we already lost as the step up from minor is far too great into adult football. The CoBoard should be ashamed of themselves. This grade should never have even been changed from u21, it served no sense at the time and that still remains the same, I see a lot of counties resorting minor back to u18 and bringing back the u21 grade.
Genuinely would like someone to break down the last few gerry reilly squads and see how many of the young lads are playing football in their club. i would say it would be a shock how big a drop there has been
COUNTYTOCOUNTY (Meath) - Posts: 30 - 24/08/2023 16:56:22
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Replying To Goldback: "This is the right decision and was voted in by clubs earlier in the year, I assume to give more games to players coming out of U17
Right or wrong we went to odd ages and 19s makes sense, not just for the county team.
A 19 year old, 20 in the new year, would be playing adult football for 2 years already. By making it 20s you squeeze a number of 18 years olds from the group, who need the game time, in place of adult footballers, who already have plenty of game time.
Otherwise we lose too many U18s and U19s. Rural clubs in particular need to give these players games or we lose them by the time they are adult. We cannot afford to lose them." Two wrongs do not make a right.
Up until about 2 months ago very good proposals to address and look after all 18 year olds (including that group of 18 year olds which you say some rural clubs are afraid of losing), looked like they were going to be implemented for 2024.
The juvenile board had indicated that it would go even ages next year and that Minor would be U18.
Then the proposal to change the U20 to U19 arrived and took precedence over the proposed Juvenile even age competitions proposals. Enquiries were made to the Minor Board 3 weeks ago about what age Minor in Meath would be in 2024 and the answer still given, was no decision was taken yet.
This U19 championship was not introduced to look after 18 year olds in rural clubs, the Minor going to U18 would have taken care of losing lads at that age and also took care of another negative issue of introducing lads aged 17 to adult football.
It would also have been a better solution to give lads coming out of 17 football as they would be playing football at their own level and more importantly, would have been and still is the best solution for that age lads health & well being and their development.
The proposal for Minor to be changed to U18 losing out, to the proposal of U20's been changed to U19, was certainly not to benefit of or to give more football to lads coming out of U17.
The question delegates should insist on getting a clear answer to on Monday night is; By getting rid of the Under 20 Championship this year who exactly are we catering for (or catering to)?
No reasons given on here apart from one other poster (which although mad, may be right) who said the decision (to deprive 400 players of playing U20 championship this year) was because it is an opportunity for next years U20 county management to have a look at all the players that will be involved at U20 next year.
I went to all of Meath's U20 championship & league games (home and away) again this year and I can say with 100% confidence that the reason that Meath did so bad in Leinster had absolutely nothing to do with us having an under 20 club championship last year instead of U19.
Even if this decision was not disappointing to so many U20 lads in 2023 who are losing out, If the powers that be think that, if we had staged an U19 club championship last year and it would have addressed even 1% of the issues that culminated in a poor
U20 Leinster campaign, then we truly are in a worse place than I imagined.
It is disingenuous to say the clubs voted for this earlier in the year. It was one line buried in a 21 page Meath GAA regulations document and from what delegates are telling me, they missed reading that one line.
No one has yet addressed the negative implications or the justification of the decision which I highlighted. It should be a concern for people to witness a large group of our young adult players losing out and not been given an equal opportunity regardless of whether they play football or hurling.
Meathball (Meath) - Posts: 140 - 24/08/2023 17:41:52
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Replying To Meathball: "Two wrongs do not make a right.
Up until about 2 months ago very good proposals to address and look after all 18 year olds (including that group of 18 year olds which you say some rural clubs are afraid of losing), looked like they were going to be implemented for 2024.
The juvenile board had indicated that it would go even ages next year and that Minor would be U18.
Then the proposal to change the U20 to U19 arrived and took precedence over the proposed Juvenile even age competitions proposals. Enquiries were made to the Minor Board 3 weeks ago about what age Minor in Meath would be in 2024 and the answer still given, was no decision was taken yet.
This U19 championship was not introduced to look after 18 year olds in rural clubs, the Minor going to U18 would have taken care of losing lads at that age and also took care of another negative issue of introducing lads aged 17 to adult football.
It would also have been a better solution to give lads coming out of 17 football as they would be playing football at their own level and more importantly, would have been and still is the best solution for that age lads health & well being and their development.
The proposal for Minor to be changed to U18 losing out, to the proposal of U20's been changed to U19, was certainly not to benefit of or to give more football to lads coming out of U17.
The question delegates should insist on getting a clear answer to on Monday night is; By getting rid of the Under 20 Championship this year who exactly are we catering for (or catering to)?
No reasons given on here apart from one other poster (which although mad, may be right) who said the decision (to deprive 400 players of playing U20 championship this year) was because it is an opportunity for next years U20 county management to have a look at all the players that will be involved at U20 next year.
I went to all of Meath's U20 championship & league games (home and away) again this year and I can say with 100% confidence that the reason that Meath did so bad in Leinster had absolutely nothing to do with us having an under 20 club championship last year instead of U19.
Even if this decision was not disappointing to so many U20 lads in 2023 who are losing out, If the powers that be think that, if we had staged an U19 club championship last year and it would have addressed even 1% of the issues that culminated in a poor
U20 Leinster campaign, then we truly are in a worse place than I imagined.
It is disingenuous to say the clubs voted for this earlier in the year. It was one line buried in a 21 page Meath GAA regulations document and from what delegates are telling me, they missed reading that one line.
No one has yet addressed the negative implications or the justification of the decision which I highlighted. It should be a concern for people to witness a large group of our young adult players losing out and not been given an equal opportunity regardless of whether they play football or hurling." In October, is it U19s or U20s??
TownJohnT (Meath) - Posts: 86 - 10/09/2023 14:25:42
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Replying To TownJohnT: "In October, is it U19s or U20s??" Unfortunately it still hasn't been made clear! Clubs were informed I believe 2 months ago that it was U19 but speaking to two members of the Meath committee yesterday they said it's been changed again back to U20… very confusing set-up
redracoon (Meath) - Posts: 57 - 11/09/2023 11:47:00
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The U19 was agreed back in April or so with clubs informed. The thinking is that the age grades are U13, 15, 17 & 19. That's the model that Croke Park are still pushing. At intercounty level they want to remove U20 and go with U19, turning the minor (U17) All-Ireland into a a regional competition. That was intended to come in next year but has been bumped back.
There has never been any discussion to move back to even age groups within the county board, A survey was sent to clubs at the year start and there was no great desire to change back.
Word is that Dunshaughlin are furious and pushing hard against it. That's understandable as they won the MFC (U17) in 2020 and probably wanted to try and add an U20FC.
Roger (Meath) - Posts: 479 - 11/09/2023 14:01:16
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A request came today from CB to clubs to enter teams in U19 competition.
TownJohnT (Meath) - Posts: 86 - 11/09/2023 17:42:49
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Does anyone know if u16 players are allowed to play in the u19 competition ?
ManicAggression1 (Meath) - Posts: 4 - 22/09/2023 14:18:48
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Replying To ManicAggression1: "Does anyone know if u16 players are allowed to play in the u19 competition ?" Normally a 4 year gap is required, so as long as there 15th birthday falls in 2023, they should be OK. I could be corrected.
Stiofan (Meath) - Posts: 67 - 22/09/2023 15:31:31
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Replying To ManicAggression1: "Does anyone know if u16 players are allowed to play in the u19 competition ?" Kids born in 2008 are eligible for U19s this year.
TownJohnT (Meath) - Posts: 86 - 22/09/2023 15:43:03
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Replying To ManicAggression1: "Does anyone know if u16 players are allowed to play in the u19 competition ?" I am pretty sure a new rule was brought in where in underage you can only play at 2 levels.
So if you played U 16 & Minor you cant play u 19/u 20
thelutch (Meath) - Posts: 1073 - 22/09/2023 18:17:38
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Replying To ManicAggression1: "Does anyone know if u16 players are allowed to play in the u19 competition ?" Once they are on last year U16 then yes they can
Analyst (Meath) - Posts: 1494 - 22/09/2023 18:32:41
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Replying To Analyst: "Once they are on last year U16 then yes they can" Hope this clarifies:
6.17 Age Grades
CLUB
Adult:
A Player shall have celebrated his 17th birthday prior to January 1st of the Championship Year.
Under Age Grades
A County shall determine its internal Under Age Grades for competition purposes within the parameters of Under 21 down to Under 11, subject to Central Council policy and the following eligibility criteria:
Under 21: A Player shall have celebrated his 16th. birthday prior to January 1st. and his 21st. birthday on or after January 1st. of the Championship Year.
Under 20: A Player shall have celebrated his 16th. birthday prior to January 1st. and his 20th. birthday on or after January 1st. of the Championship Year.
Under 19: A Player shall have celebrated his 15th. birthday prior to January 1st. and his 19th. birthday on or after January 1st. of the Championship Year.
Under 18: A Player shall have celebrated his 14th. birthday prior to January 1st. and his 18th. birthday on or after January 1st. of the Championship Year.
TownJohnT (Meath) - Posts: 86 - 23/09/2023 13:38:23
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So the proposal to move U19 to U20 was defeated last night which I think is shocking to say the least. Why wouldn't clubs get behind this and make the correct move for the better? Feeling very sorry for any young lads missing out on their last year and lads who just wanted more games… Poor decision
redracoon (Meath) - Posts: 57 - 03/10/2023 18:50:27
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Replying To redracoon: "So the proposal to move U19 to U20 was defeated last night which I think is shocking to say the least. Why wouldn't clubs get behind this and make the correct move for the better? Feeling very sorry for any young lads missing out on their last year and lads who just wanted more games… Poor decision" From what I heard the clubs didn't get a chance to vote or support it. Sounded like it was shot down the CB said it wasn't been discussed.
Blackspot09 (Meath) - Posts: 1012 - 04/10/2023 12:11:29
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Replying To redracoon: "So the proposal to move U19 to U20 was defeated last night which I think is shocking to say the least. Why wouldn't clubs get behind this and make the correct move for the better? Feeling very sorry for any young lads missing out on their last year and lads who just wanted more games… Poor decision" Dunshaughlin were the only ones pushing this
Under 19 makes more sense re county as the 19s are the ones eligible next year
It is unfortunate for some lads but having said that if it moved to 20 then some 18s would miss out in clubs
TBH it was quite obvious that Dunshaughlin pushing it because the had a really good group at that age and would most likely have won it
Awaywin (Meath) - Posts: 116 - 04/10/2023 15:53:04
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