Roscommon boss Davy Burke has added to calls for third level competitions to be played before Christmas in order to prevent players “getting absolutely destroyed”.
Meath manager Colm O’Rourke cried foul following his side’s win over Clare last Sunday as injuries among players that are also playing in the Sigerson Cup mounted up. The Sigerson started last month with the semi-finals taking place on Wednesday night, when UL and UCC qualified for next Wednesday’s decider in Waterford.
In hurling, the Fitzgibbon Cup has just moved past the quarter-final stage.
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Third level competitions cutting across the inter-cout pre-season competitions and early stages of the Allianz Leagues has been a vexed issue for a number of years now but, with League placings now influencing whether counties can compete in the All-Ireland SFC or not, it’s become more controversial than ever.
Burke has a better informed take than most given that he has managed Maynooth University in the Sigerson Cup in recent seasons, including this year, and had 14 Roscommon players involved in the competition across various colleges over the past month or so. He feels that taking the Sigerson out of conflict with inter-county fixtures is a no brainer.
He said: “I think it’s the only option we’re left with at the minute in that it’s the players who are getting absolutely destroyed here.
“The players are really being taken advantage of and it’s not fair on them. The majority of them are scholarship students which means that they have to turn up and they have to produce for their college.
“But obviously young lads, generally in their early 20s, are trying to impress the inter-county manager and they want to do everything, they don’t want to say no to anyone and they’re serving too many masters at the same time.
“I have a foot in both camps and I can see both sides. When you’re with the college lads you’re saying, ‘You’re a scholarship student, we need you’ and then when you’re with the inter-county team, yes, we have decent sized panels but, ultimately, the way the National League is now, it’s absolutely ruthless.
“We literally cannot afford to go out without your best players and so then you end up in a situation where you’re playing Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday - it’s ridiculous.”
Pointing to DCU, who suffered a heavy defeat to UL on Wednesday night, Burke said: “I’d say the DCU team that took the field wasn’t a relation of their real team. Shane Walsh, Rob Finnerty, Conor Brady from Cavan, a lot of their top players weren’t available so that’ll just tell you.
“At the end of the day, they’re serving no one now. To me, it has to move forward (to before Christmas),” added Burke, who is also in favour of pre-season inter-county competitions being axed.
One argument against playing the third level competitions before Christmas is that an overlap with exams would be problematic but a number of colleges currently hold their exams in January when the Sigerson and Fitzgibbon are getting underway, Maynooth among them.
“Speaking from experience, our lads get on with it, there’s very little problem there. The exams office are very flexible, in fairness.
“There were a number of times this year we asked could we start an exam early, could we finish it at a different time, and they were very accommodating. Once we played ball they were very accommodating.
“I think October is too early to be honest with you because every county final will be in the first, second or third week of October so I do think October is too early because, for me, you can’t mess with the senior club, the junior or intermediate club, you can’t mess with a young fella’s first club team.
“When the county final is played, then you’re down to a very limited amount of fellas that you’re dealing with. Just step aside and don’t partake in it at all.
“Continue with your club and then as you’re beaten in the club, then you can join your Sigerson team.”
If playing the Sigerson in that window, Burke agrees that a rule would need to be introduced so that players still involved with their club cannot be called upon to play at third level but cautioned: “I know counties throw in an under-23 club and an under-20 club championship in October/November and then you’re getting really messy.
“The rule needs to be very clear - your senior club or first team in your club at whatever level you’re playing at.”
Despite Burke having so many players from his Roscommon squad involved in the Sigerson, they came through relatively unscathed injury-wise, which he puts down to a combination of luck and protecting them to a degree that almost brought him into conflict with his own management team.
“Being honest with you, I think some of my selectors were probably frustrated with me in how much I was looking after some of our guys because of my understanding of the college and really protecting them, really looking after the guys are NUIG, UCD and Maynooth, etcetera, because I know they’re going to be central players for us in Roscommon for the next couple of years.
“I wanted them to be looked after and I wasn’t really risking them getting broken down, as much as you can protect lads from it.
“I’d say there was a frustration probably around some of my team, ‘Why aren’t these boys doing as much as us?’ but I was fully aware of what they were doing every night and I was very, very cautious with them and yeah, there was an element of luck.
“We probably got a little bit lucky with a couple of knocks here and there but we minded them well too.”
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