KERRY U20 MANAGER, Tomás Ó Sé, has criticised the competition structures that has left him with just three weeks to prepare his side for a Munster championship tie against Cork.
He might have had even less only for the structure of the Munster championship with Kerry and Cork going straight into Phase 2 of the competition while Tipperary, Clare, Waterford and Limerick played a league section to make it to the second Phase.
“I just find the whole thing… Maybe it’s just me but I find the whole calendar hard enough,” said the former Kerry half-back.
“There are players coming and going and there are schools lads involved. There’s college lads involved.
“Throw into that, there is stuff with the weather and challenges in getting pitches and all that.
“But from here on, these three weeks, (Mercy) Mounthawk reached the schools final (Hogan Cup final) last weekend and we have a few lads involved there. You would have the whole lads for the last three weeks.
“So it is as good as it can. It is always going to be fractured though with the nature of this competition.”
As a teacher, he has a panoramic view of how the various commitments at this time of the year can impose incredible demands on players entering adulthood.
“If you take into account that the bulk of the players involved will be doing exams in the middle of it as well, I think there is no perfect time to play it,” he said.
“But why not when your senior team is playing their championship? There isn’t going to be too many players who are playing both. If they are, they can play on a Wednesday and they would be alright for a game on a Saturday or Sunday.
“But yeah, it’s gone well. You don’t have all your players all the time.”
Should Kerry get on a roll, they will be out for the next six weeks playing games. The regularity of games is not what Ó Sé is disagreeing with, but the commitments they have to juggle in this time.
“I think it is (too tight). I think the way it is ran, when they brought it back to 20s, suddenly you are bringing schools into it then,” he said.
“Where for example this year, we have a young enough team. I don’t know if we have any survivors from last year’s team playing this year. So we will be depending on younger lads.
“It’s just difficult to get to the start line and when we do it’s ‘bang-bang-bang’, straight through.
“Like they go on about player welfare… Limerick played in the championship last weekend in Tipperary, in Fethard and I went up to it.
“There was a young lad playing and I didn’t follow up on it. He had been named to play for Limerick senior footballers at midfield. And he is allowed to do that because it is a league competition, and it’s a league competition that Limerick are fighting on their backs for.”
He added, “I just think we are flah-ing young fellas. There are just too many competitions for them and at least give them some breathing space. Allow them to get the Leaving Cert done, get beyond that, play championship in July and I think you’d have a chance to give teams a break somewhere.
“The young lads to be fair, they like games every week and they get into the routine of it. But as long as you stay away from injuries it wouldn’t be an issue.
“It is what it is, we are not losing sleep over it now. We will get to the start line and see where we are at.”
