Junior B Football

[JuniorB]

What I wonder is what model are the management team following? The closest example I can think of is Limerick - a county that offered so much promise with 3 U21 All-Ireland winning teams coming through. All the management achieved there was destroying hurling where there was so much potential. The vast majority of the dual players that had the “one or the other” gun pushed to their heads just picked football even though the likelihood of success was far greater with the hurlers at that time.

Any senior hurler worth his salt should be able to recover from a Junior B football game within less than a week. It’s not like lads are taking the p1ss by not training or getting drunk in the build up to big games – surely the football is an extra form of training, and as such is an addition to the hurling training. It was good for morale to have the hurlers playing something they could enjoy without pressure. It was like a social outlet. One of the players summed it up best for me by saying “if Carlsberg did football teams...”.

I think the football was a great asset to the club, it was no pressure, everybody enjoyed it, and the success was good for morale – ideal in adding to the build up for the hurling.

It’s fair to say that the priority for everybody in the Kinnitty club is winning a senior hurling title (even for the players that played football only), but I don’t think that means players shouldn’t be allowed to win anything else.

As for injury – it is very unfortunate that James Dempsey picked up the injury playing football. It’s obviously an understatement to say that James is a key player, but in my opinion he was no more likely to pick up an injury in a Junior B football game than in a training match played in the dark. If anything, playing training matches in the dark is surely more dangerous.

I wouldn’t like to see a standoff between players and management and would hate to see players threaten to step down. If we look at Cork and Limerick examples, it doesn’t work out well for anybody.

The role of the management team as I see it, is to build morale and to get the best they can out of every member of their panel. I think they've dropped the ball on this one and in order to try redeem the situation they should apologise to all members of the football panel, and to teams beaten by Kinnitty in the football championship.

I think every man should have his choice to play whatever game he wants. If playing two codes reduces his standard of either code to the effect that he is not able to gain his place anymore, then he loses his place to a better player – simple as that. If he wants to concentrate on one code to try secure his place on a team, this should be his decision and his decision alone.

Players should be given places on a team based on what they can bring to that team – regardless of whether or not they play Junior B football in their spare time. Any situation where a palyer is pressured into making a choice between the two - particularly coming up to a big game cannot be the ideal way to get a player in the best possible form of mind ahead of a big game.

The senior hurlers all know what is at stake - none of them want to risk their starting place for Sunday. That said, I doubt any of them were too worried about picking up an injury playing football - a much more real concern was the fear of being dropped as a result of appearing to prioritise football over hurling. The unfortunate thing is there was never a need to make a choice between the two.

Hurling is clearly a priority over football - nobody misses hurling training (let alone matches) due to football commitments. If the county board fixed the football for the same day as the hurling and wouldn't change it - it wouldn't be considered a decision - hurling would take priority. This is not what happened here though - there was no need for a decision between the two. Both could have been played.

I think this was a decision that should have been left to each player as an individual and I believe that football management would have respected the decision of any player that stepped down due to risk of injury before the hurling (they want to see seniors win a county title too). I think it would be unfair of football management to pressure a player into playing against his will just as much as it is unfair of hurling management to pressure a player not to play but as I said, the decision should ultimately be that of the player and management owe the players the respect to accept without intimidation such decisions.


It seems to be forgotten that players are giving a huge commitment to an amateur game and have invested significant amounts of time and money. Many players cover huge mileage to make it to training and matches. I think the decision shows a lack of respect to all members of the football panel - senior hurlers included. The decision may well have been made with the best of intentions but that doesn't make it a good decision. I think it was a poor day for Kinnitty GAA.

If we can learn from this and put the good of the club first, hopefully we can avoid such mistakes in the future. Let's just hope that this doesn’t put a split in the team and damage morale. We all want to see Kinnitty hurling do well – not only would it be good for the club, it would be great for the county too. Hopefully the hurlers will perform to the best of their ability and win the title they're capable and deserving of winning!

[gunnerman]

A thundering disgrace... I hope the players make some sort of stand against the decision even though it wont do any good to them now, but even just for the principle of it..
Anyone at the Ferbane v Ballycumber semi final yesterday? just saw the score 2-11 to 3-8 a draw. seems like a decent game anyway

[Lone Shark]

Anyone at the Ferbane v Ballycumber semi final yesterday? just saw the score 2-11 to 3-8 a draw. seems like a decent game anyway

Good game definitely, some very nice spells of play for Junior B football. Ballycumber were up by a point at half time, they started the second half with a goal when Simon Casey got in behind our back line and fielded a long ball, but then Alan Egan responded with a goal straight away. Ballycumber went a goal in front again when a long range shot dipped under the crossbar, and we missed a plethora of chances throughout the second half. Had a goal (rightfully) disallowed for being handpassed into the net, but then at the very death Davy Cox hit a goal to level it.

Draw was fair enough I reckon, though whoever makes the final will probably be glad of the extra game.

[bracknaghboy]

I wouldn't agree with Bracknaghboy since I'm not a fan of cutting off your nose to spite your face

Thats fair enough if you operate on the basis that 2 wrongs don't make a right! I'd feel sorry for the 6 (or whatever number it is) lads who are footballers only. There is obviously no point in the club entering any football competition next year if the 'Committee' won't allow them take part in a county semi-final this year. So in all likelyhood there are 6 lads that will probably never play GAA again because of the narrow mindedness of a few. I assume the football manager, selectors etc will also be lost. I think its a great shame. If for any other reason 6 - 10 GAA people were brushed aside like this there would be uproar but because its footballers in a so called hurling club there will be little else about it outside of Kinnitty. Shameful times for Kinnitty and sad times for the club scene in Offaly at a time when we should be encouraging as many lads as possible to be involved in football and hurling.

[JuniorB]

Tullamore let Shane Dooley play Junior B football last weekend - didn't look to have too negative an effect on him

Kinnitty made a pharse of the Junior B football championship (which they had a good chance of winning) so we could focus on the hurling

You wouldn't need to go to Specsavers to see who that worked out better for!

Good management of a bad time will never guaruantee winning, but bad management of a good team might well guarantee losing

It was never going to be easy against Coolderry, and Kinnitty would need all players on top form to have a chance against them

To suggest that Kinnitty's effort yesterday was the best performance that could have been gotten out of that panel is an insult to each and every one of them - they're better hurlers than that

[Lone Shark]

Only Kinnitty players and management know the real reason why things went so badly wrong yesterday. It may have been the football, it may have been other reasons that most people wouldn't be clued into, but the overall aspect is that Kinnitty were not well served by that decision. A junior B football championship might not mean much to the old guard of Kinnitty parish, but it would mean a lot to the players and management involved and that in itself would have been worth something.

I suspect that the Kinnitty AGM might be a colourful gathering now too. As was pointed out here, there are a lot of players who would be well within their rights to demand new faces and a return of membership monies.

[Georgio1]

I think the whole thing leaves a very sour taste in terms of GAA management of the situation. If a team pulls out like Kinnitty did, then the team they have beaten should be reinstated. I think it really demeans football, and was sickened to hear some of the comments around me from Kinnitty supporters that the lads must have been taken the football really seriously.
I dont know what the solution is now, as I can understand most people in kinnitty cant understand some lads wanting to play football. I know it would have meant a lot to Daingean to go a stage further in the football!

[TRUEGAEL]

i would never wish a club bad luck,but im sort of delighted they got murdered in the hurling they deserve no luck for making a mockery of this championship.junior final would be nice to go to next week.but to all the players stand up to your club and never let this happen again no players no club always remember that.

[bracknaghboy]

i would never wish a club bad luck,but im sort of delighted they got murdered in the hurling they deserve no luck for making a mockery of this championship.junior final would be nice to go to next week.but to all the players stand up to your club and never let this happen again no players no club always remember that.

Can you not see Truegael that they got murdered because of all the football they were playing this year
Never mind football...the bucks on the sideline for Kinnitty didn't look like they know much about hurling either. Its the players (hurlers and footballers alike) I feel sorry for here because I think the clowns that pulled the plug on the football team should have known that it had the potential to cause the hurlers to implode. That was the first time I seen Kinnitty hurl this year and they looked to me like a team that if they are as bad as last Sunday suggests they will be intermediate in the not too distant future....however I suspect the performance and lack of fight on the day was down to the internal mess. One thing I've learned in GAA is that wounds never properly heal and clubs should be very careful in making any decesion that can alienate players or groups of players because it will usually have long term consequences. When all is said and done wouldn't Kinnitty be far better off preparing for a Junior B county final now (assuming they would have won the semi)?

[uimhir a cuig]

Junior B Football Final
Ballycumber 0-16
Erin Rovers 0-06

[ballymanabroad]

Congratulations to everybody involved in Ballycumber. Fantastic effort against our old rivals from down the road. There will be a few sick heads this morning.

Club S management will be delighted with this result!