Joe Canning has welcomed Galway minors entry into the Leinster Championship - but hit out a rule relating to player eligbbility.
Under GAA player welfare regulations any player who lines out for a county minor side is not allowed to play for the under-16s.
Canning, a minor coach with Galway said the rule “beggared belief.”
Speaking at RTE’s Championship launch the Protumna man said: “It’s huge just to get games (in Leinster) basically, and get them (players) developed as much as possible.
“You go back to last year. We played Clare in the round robin quarter final stages and they had played four or five games before they even met us.
“I think they played seven or eight games last year. We played three.
“So to compare that development that those Clare minors had last year compared to our minors, it’s totally different.
“But yeah, it’s funny, you see one good thing - us getting into Leinster and then you see a bad thing.
“I don’t know if you know this but if you are under-16 now and you play minor, you are not allowed to play under-16 with your county after that.
“It’s the under-20/senior thing like last year that they rectified this year and then they go and introduce this.”
Canning continued: “Under 16s are playing under-17 and maybe they get brought on as a sub for two minutes.
“They are not allowed to play in their under-16 championship for the rest of the year - even though it is not overlapping at all.
“The under-16 championship is on after the minor.
“Just beggars belief that we are trying to develop players and they are held back from actually playing games.
“We only found that out last week before the first round of the Championship against Antrim.
“It is actually very unfair on the players that are trying to push and get on the team, get on the 26.
“It is not good to have a player 16 years of age, maybe a sub and getting five minutes hurling for the entire summer.
“Why can’t he go back to the under-16s when it is on after the minor.
“Sometimes the GAA just does not make any sense whatsoever to me and that is one of the maddest decisions.
“If you compared that to the under-20s and seniors last year and everybody though it was madness, this is even worse again.”
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