Jack Sheedy thinks college teams shouldn't be allowed into the O'Byrne Cup.

The Longford boss will be missing up to one-third of his starting XV for next month's subsidiary provincial competition due to those players' college commitments.

"Colleges have first call on five of our lads plus some of our U21s who would be on our panel, or on the fringe of our panel," the former Dublin midfielder says in The Irish Independent.

"It's not ideal, because it's an intercounty competition and realistically it's your pre-season for the national league.

"I'd be honest with you, I would prefer to see them not in it, because we're going to play three games in the O'Byrne Cup and it's a great opportunity to get competitive games in January as a prelude to the league.

"But when you're missing four or five players, that's a third of our team. It's not ideal preparation to be missing those guys.

"The smaller counties, we all need our players. There are very few counties who can facilitate that type of disposition of playing resources."

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