Replying To Pikeman96:  "Teams would have been graded by recommendations of the CCC. They would have looked at the U17 competitions of two years ago to get an idea of who should go where, and there's generally an opportunity for clubs to speak up at a County Board meeting if they feel they haven't been graded fairly.

As regards promotion/relegation....I don't think that's ever applied in U19/20/21 in the same way it applies at adult level. There's definitely no relegation playoffs anyway. And even winning Div. 2 (for example) wouldn't necessarily mean you'd be promoted to Div. 1 the following year, because most of your winning players might be going overage, and you might have a weaker group coming along behind them. So again, grading the following year would be based on the relevant results from the younger age group in an earlier year."

Replying To Viking66:  "I think minor should be back at under 18 and they should be allowed to play adult if they want. If they are good enough they are old enough. As regards "burnout" if they are playing more games they will obviously have less time to train. Nearly everyone u18 won't be playing Fitzgibbon. Maybe have the minor at a different time of year to the adult championship too."

Replying To Pikeman96:  "And I'm totally in favour of it, because I believe it's absolutely essential to allow both U18 and adult championships to be run properly. Otherwise we'd be back to the bad old days of minor championships being held up because a relatively small number of minor players (in the grand scale of things) are also lining out at adult level, or even adult championships being held up because minor championships are at a certain stage.

But I'll give you the opportunity to change my mind, by answering this - when or how would you actually play the minor championships, if minor players are allowed to play adult grades too?

Bear these things in mind:
- Can't play minor club championships during March/April/early May, because that's when the county minor teams are in action.
- Can't play it during late May/June on account of the Leaving Cert.
- July through to October is taken up with the adult championships.

So what would you do? Play minor games midweek between July and October?

Bear in mind that minor championships generally involve up to five or six group games in hurling and the same in football. So you'd be horsing these young lads with at least 10 or 12 matches in between the adult matches they're also playing. Not to mention the impact it would have on their training with minor & adult teams. And also bear in mind how some are uneasy even with the U19 Hurling being played midweek this year during the adult hurling, even though U19 only involved three (at most) group games.

You'd probably have to drastically reduce the number of games in the minor championships, which would hardly be fair to the vast majority of minor players who don't also play at adult level.

So, after all that.....what would you do?"

Replying To Doylerwex:  "Not sure how true it is but rumour has is mogie and Morris are done.

Perhaps Egan can convince them otherwise."

Replying To Pikeman96:  "Maybe my post above wasn't yet published when you wrote this one about maybe having minor at a different time of year to adult. But I'd ask you the same question - bearing those things in mind, when would you actually play minor?"

Replying To TerribleFootwork:  "Yeah there is definitely valid points to what you're saying, but ultimately I think this would punish clubs and players which is the last thing that should be happening. Perfect example Fethard started 4 u18s against Greystones last Saturday I was at the game myself and none of the 4 looked out of place there is a club and also players being punished if this rule came in. Luke Murphy was outstanding for the Harriers in this year's hurling championship and I think it's served him well in his development I was at 4 of their 6 championship games and the improvement in him from game 1 vs Glynn to their last 2 group games and QF was obvious to see, to depreive him of that opportunity is wrong in my opinion. Further afield players like Shane O'brien with Kilmallock, Ben O'Connor with St Finbarrs, Patrick Fitzgerald with Ballygunner all made a splash at national level during their club championship or continue to in Fitzgerald and O'Connor's case, I think to deprive them of that would be wrong.

I could forsee some ludicrous situations which will annoy the gaa public at large, Cillian Byrne was probably the best player for the county minor hurlers this year and in all likelihood would have started for Fethard adult team if the rules permitted it, if he can't play adult next year that's a bit crazy, looking historically they were operating at Intermediate or Intermediate A at the time but Conor Mac was Gorey's best player at 17, if he had to wait another 2 years at that stage to play adult I could only imagine the commotion. It could lead to some utterly bizarre situations too, its rare but occasionally if someone doesn't do transition year in secondary school they might do the leaving cert in their 17th calendar year if they have a birthday early in the year, 1 scenario I know as he's of a similar vintage to myself is Brendan Maher, I think he was born in January 89 and did the leaving cert in 2006. If this proposal existed back then he would probably have made his 1st club championship appearance for Borrisoleigh in the summer of 2008 but the 2 years prior played minor for tipp in 06 and 07, played freshers for mary I in early 07, played Fitzgibbon for Mary I in early 08 and played u21 for tipp in 08, hypothetical I know but just the most extreme example of a mad situation this proposal could lead to.

I do agree with you in that's it an unbelievably tough situation and fixtures committees are under enough pressure as it is but the examples I gave above would be worst possible outcome. It might have to be midweek minor games during adult championship but young lads would surely love going game to game in summer weather with little training. I think clubs should try accomadate too, on this year with adult and u19 if clubs are happy to let a talented u15 to play u17 on Monday nights and u15 on Thursdays then 18-19 year old are capable of playing midweek then weekend for about a month of the year. Stating the obvious here but ultimately the proposal would prevent adult players from playing adult gaa which is principally wrong too. Realistically whatever age group set up is there will upset someone but I think this proposal is the worst of the lot."

Replying To Doylerwex:  "Not sure how true it is but rumour has is mogie and Morris are done.

Perhaps Egan can convince them otherwise."

Replying To Wexfordgaa:  "I have heard movie is given up and heard it from one of the players. The legs I would say are given up on him a lot of injuries and he owes nothing to wexford gaa. Morris has been around a while and again owes wexford nothing. If true all the best to them and good luck to Morris and ferns at the weekend"

Replying To james2011:  "the only thing about that is the numbers game. are we going to sacrifice properly arranged fixtures and meaningful games for the 95% of minors who wont be playing adult level, or are we going to make a mess of fixtures for the very few top quality players who will end up playing adult level anyway? Of those players who arent good enough to play adult at 17/18, we are being told now that the drop out is huge. Surely we should be more accommodating to the bigger numbers and what will help retain players.

Thise very good/elite players will be playing colleges/schools or county level also."

Replying To Wexfordgaa:  "I have heard movie is given up and heard it from one of the players. The legs I would say are given up on him a lot of injuries and he owes nothing to wexford gaa. Morris has been around a while and again owes wexford nothing. If true all the best to them and good luck to Morris and ferns at the weekend"

Replying To Doylerwex:  "Here here.

They've both been amazing for us.

That group at 21 was the beginning of our revival from nowhere.

Mogie ran the show against Clare in 14. They were petrified every time he got the ball in his hand. Motm in leinster final 19 too. Always raised his game for the cats in particular which is the mark of a true wexford warrior. Reinvented his game after the two knees and did incredibly well to stay at that level.

Morris was immense in the aisf vs tipp. He's often overlooked but his scoring average per game is insane. 0-3 per game in all his starts from under 14 to senior. Not always a match winner, but outrageously consistent.

Both of these men will be tough to replace."

Replying To Doylerwex:  "Here here.

They've both been amazing for us.

That group at 21 was the beginning of our revival from nowhere.

Mogie ran the show against Clare in 14. They were petrified every time he got the ball in his hand. Motm in leinster final 19 too. Always raised his game for the cats in particular which is the mark of a true wexford warrior. Reinvented his game after the two knees and did incredibly well to stay at that level.

Morris was immense in the aisf vs tipp. He's often overlooked but his scoring average per game is insane. 0-3 per game in all his starts from under 14 to senior. Not always a match winner, but outrageously consistent.

Both of these men will be tough to replace."

Replying To TerribleFootwork:  "That's a valid point again but there's no easy answers on this, as I said I could see some mad situations if u18s couldn't play adult, it's a no-win situation really."

Replying To Pikeman96:  "At least we agree it's a tough one.

In fairness, you make a good argument for allowing minors to play adult level, and give a few good examples of the sort of players in question. On the other hand, would like to think myself and James2011 make a good argument the other way, about how it would be unfair on probably the 95% or more of minors who don't play adult, if the minor championships have to be truncated or re-arranged to accommodate the few who are playing adult.

I can see your point of view all right....but I haven't changed my mind!"

Replying To TerribleFootwork:  "Given your feelings on it would you see any merit staying at u17? I know this isn't popular among many."

Replying To Pikeman96:  "My own preference would be to play U18, but to keep it decoupled so that minor players can't also play adult, for all the reasons outlined above.

I thought that originally, one of the big ideas of moving to U17 was so that the championships could continue during late May & June, as not many of that age are doing the Leaving Cert, but this doesn't seem to have been happening. So, I'd move it back to U18, but keep it so that the running of minor championships isn't affected by the running of adult championships, and vice versa."

Replying To Viking66:  "Might be a problem for smaller clubs and particularly advanced or gifted minor players. When do you propose running the minor championship? If midweek during the adult club championship why couldn't they play adult at the weekends? There would be no clash with intercounty minor or Fitzgibbon during those months."

Replying To Afinestick:  "I see Tipp have released their 40 man training squad to begin training in 2 weeks . Are we likely to see a squad list for Wexford . Really forward to seeing can the likes of Ian Carty make an impact"