Replying To StoreysTash: "Got that, but colleges chase down the top players in every county to try to get them to go there to play Fitz. The real reason is, like it or not, Wexford are not producing top hurlers at the rate of any Munster county and colleges are not hunting down our players like they were even 5 or 10 years ago. But yet again, I know also Fitz is for universities but how the heck have Leinster GAA allowed SETU Carlow and DIT not to be in it when CIT, WIT LIT and GMIT are in it. They used to be because we played them. I guess its to do with university accreditation but yet again we are letting ourselves be rode roughshod over while the Munster counties and Galway have their colleges in it? 2 of the major colleges in the province not playing top level hurling, who makes this stuff up. So in Leinster all there is is UCD, DCU, Maynooth?"
Yes. Trinity haven't hurled Fitzgibbon in a good while either. I did a bit of digging and apparently Carlow pulled out themselves. Noone knows why. Carlow and DIT were both flying in the Ryan Cup, were raging hot favourites, but the Gards won the final!
Replying To StoreysTash: "Got that, but colleges chase down the top players in every county to try to get them to go there to play Fitz. The real reason is, like it or not, Wexford are not producing top hurlers at the rate of any Munster county and colleges are not hunting down our players like they were even 5 or 10 years ago. But yet again, I know also Fitz is for universities but how the heck have Leinster GAA allowed SETU Carlow and DIT not to be in it when CIT, WIT LIT and GMIT are in it. They used to be because we played them. I guess its to do with university accreditation but yet again we are letting ourselves be rode roughshod over while the Munster counties and Galway have their colleges in it? 2 of the major colleges in the province not playing top level hurling, who makes this stuff up. So in Leinster all there is is UCD, DCU, Maynooth?"
Maybe things have changed significantly since my own student days (which admittedly was quite a while ago!), but can anyone explain to me how "colleges chase down the top players"? Are there ways round the whole CAO & Leaving Cert points system for sports scholarships?
Say UCC identify the best hurler in the country doing his Leaving Cert this year. They want him to go there and play Fitzgibbon Cup for them. But he's not exactly a gifted scholar, and he gets nowhere near the points needed for any course there that interests him. Are they allowed to springboard him into such a course anyway?
And if they are - if he's academically so far behind everybody else on that course, surely he'd struggle there, and possibly face failing exams and having to drop out after a year or two anyway?
Replying To Pikeman96: "Maybe things have changed significantly since my own student days (which admittedly was quite a while ago!), but can anyone explain to me how "colleges chase down the top players"? Are there ways round the whole CAO & Leaving Cert points system for sports scholarships?
Say UCC identify the best hurler in the country doing his Leaving Cert this year. They want him to go there and play Fitzgibbon Cup for them. But he's not exactly a gifted scholar, and he gets nowhere near the points needed for any course there that interests him. Are they allowed to springboard him into such a course anyway?
And if they are - if he's academically so far behind everybody else on that course, surely he'd struggle there, and possibly face failing exams and having to drop out after a year or two anyway?"
The only Wexford hurler that I heard was on a hurling scholarship was Sam Audsley at UCD. Really not sure how it works, but I might be able to find out 2moro night as I will likely be talking to someone who was at college with him. That's if what I was told was true in the 1st place.
Replying To Pikeman96: "Maybe things have changed significantly since my own student days (which admittedly was quite a while ago!), but can anyone explain to me how "colleges chase down the top players"? Are there ways round the whole CAO & Leaving Cert points system for sports scholarships?
Say UCC identify the best hurler in the country doing his Leaving Cert this year. They want him to go there and play Fitzgibbon Cup for them. But he's not exactly a gifted scholar, and he gets nowhere near the points needed for any course there that interests him. Are they allowed to springboard him into such a course anyway?
And if they are - if he's academically so far behind everybody else on that course, surely he'd struggle there, and possibly face failing exams and having to drop out after a year or two anyway?"
What has changed is the amount of courses available and the similarity of them between them at different Universities.
Look how hard the Cork and Limerick forwards are working to stop easy ball coming out. That's where defending starts. Not a sweeper and backing off like Wexford use and allowing good quality ball to be delivered into inter County forwards. Think back to the Dublin game. If we were man on mam and working like dogs our backs wouldn't be under bombardment and constant pressure.
Replying To WEX98: "Look how hard the Cork and Limerick forwards are working to stop easy ball coming out. That's where defending starts. Not a sweeper and backing off like Wexford use and allowing good quality ball to be delivered into inter County forwards. Think back to the Dublin game. If we were man on mam and working like dogs our backs wouldn't be under bombardment and constant pressure."
Replying To Viking66: "We haven't played a sweeper in years"
Call it what you want. Either way, it's passive, it's soft, and it's killing us. Cork and Limerick hunt in packs. We wave lads through like a nightclub bouncer on his phone.