Meath clubs voted to maintain their underage grades at uneven levels, under-13, 15 and 17 at last night’s county committee meeting in Dunganny.

Delegates voted by a large majority to retain the status quo with decoupling remaining at minor (under-17 level). A counter proposal from the Wolfe Tones club that the county revert to under-12, 14, 16 and 18 for competitions did win some support but not nearly enough to warrant a count following a show of hands.

There was some confusion with the Wolfe Tones proposal as it didn’t state when decoupling would take place but when the Tones delegate said they were proposing that decoupling take place at 18 a number of delegates pointed out that a lot of players would be lost to the game if they were unable to play adult football until they reached 19.

Coaching officer Eamonn Barry said it was GAA policy that counties work with uneven ages and while a number of counties had gone against that in general it had worked well over the past few years.

The Kilbride delegate pointed out that his club would not have won the junior football championship in 2023 but for the number of 18 year olds they had on their team. A number of other delegates pointed out that if the Wolfe Tones proposal was passed it would cause chaos within clubs who were already preparing for the season ahead.

Liam Keane who is chairman of the Rules Advisory Committee in Croke Park and also a member of the Meath CCC guided delegates through the various regulations.

Delegates were generally in favour of a proposal that the junior championship be increased from 11 teams to 12 but how to get to 12 teams proved problematic. Following a long discussion it was decided that it would remain at 11 for this year but could increase in 2025.

A Navan O’Mahonys proposal that only the bottom placed team in each group in the senior championship contest the relegation play off was also lost.

Conor O’Donoghue chairperson of the football development committee said that the games in the relegation play off were some of the best matches in the championship and that doing away with relegation quarter finals would also impact finance as between €20,000 and €30,000 was generated from the relegation matches.

Dunshaughlin wanted the under-19 football championship to be changed to under-20 but their proposal didn’t win sufficient support.

Dunshaughlin also proposed that when the CCC appoints referees for adult championship matches the referee must always have their own four umpires. Most delegates were of the opinion that it was unworkable and that games would fall by the wayside if a referee was unable to get four umpires for a particular game. A recommendation was reached that the club hosting the match would provide umpires in the event of the referee not having enough.

A number of regulations involving hurling were deferred until after the hurling forum which takes place next week.

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