1629430 Yes a good win for the U16s; But just pause for a moment and consider the following; The time spent by club coaches in developing these players over a considerable period of time has yet to be recognised; It is not an overnight phenomenomon; The county coach then further facilitates this development. A more worrying aspect at present is the volume of matches that this age group is playing at the minute; There is continuous lip service been played to the issue of player burn out but no action (as usual)
Young players are being taken for granted and severe pressure by many teams is being put on them at an early age. Take for example a talented u16 player who is on the county development squad. He is training and playing with Cavan, Training and playing with his club U16 and Minor Team and Training and playing with his school junior and senior team. All want him to train with them and all want him to play, The greatest volume of games and training occurs in spring when the leagues start, county training starts and school football is still in action.
Move on a year or two and the same player will still train for the school, play for the school, hopefully still play for and train with the county, train and play club minor and train and play club senior and u21
Another year later and he's likely training twice a week with 3rd level teams and playing mid week games, expected to make club training at least once and play club matches at weekend. Its becoming an all year season with no break and no recovery time. One of the most important aspects of training is recovery time. These lads are not getting recovery time.
Club football is one thing but we tend to forget the county and school/college football. All this add's up and the consequence is injury, burn out or bail out !! Something has to be done to moderate and monitor the demands being made on young players.... and not just lip service.
Lip service is the bottom line for sure. Every "manager" demands attendance at his sessions so what can a young lad do? You would need a coordinator to oversee the welfare of elite players and maybe young players generally. It could be done if the County Boards had the will to do it. That doesn't look like happening as long as the lip service is tolerated.