The return of inter-county minor grade to U18 appears a strong possibility at next year\u2019s Congress.<\/p>\n
A host of counties as well as Munster GAA are lining up to put forward motions calling for the change from U17.<\/p>\n
The provincial council had already agreed to put forward a motion to this year\u2019s Congress. However, it could not be discussed as the previous proposal in 2023 failed to receive 33% support and as per rule couldn\u2019t be debated again for three years.<\/p>\n
Munster GAA will be resubmitting the proposal for Congress in Wexford in February and several counties are set to join them. In 2023, Kerry, Longford and Tyrone made the joint proposal to revert minor level to U18 but with no decoupling between minor inter-county and adult club. Kildare had tabled the idea of U18 and U17 championships but U18 as the minor grade.<\/p>\n
It is the province\u2019s belief that there should be decoupling for the duration of the minor inter-county championship. Last December, Munster chairman Tim Murphy explained the motion originated from a review of the academies in the six counties. \u201cWe discussed it in a number of meetings and at our meeting in November we had unanimous support from the six counties who asked us to on behalf of the six Munster counties to bring it forward to Congress 2026,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, the essence of the motion is inter-county minor will go to U18 but this decoupling will also be part of that so that for example an U18 player who is hurling or football can\u2019t play with their club, their adult team for the duration of the county’s involvement, but after that then they can.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Decoupling would be a requisite for the likes of Cork and Connacht GAA chief executives Kevin O\u2019Donovan and John Prenty, who have warned about the potential for burnout without the restriction.<\/p>\n
It is nine years since the last U18 championships when David Clifford scored four goals against Derry in the football final in Croke Park. Cork won the U17 competition that year, which became the standard grade the following season.<\/p>\n
In Munster, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford have adopted U18 as their minor grades. Tipperary were the last of the five to change this year, while Clare may yet join them.<\/p>\n
Meath and Tipperary became the 20th and 21st counties to move back to even grades. Another seven organise theirs at both odd and even grades, while just four apply odd ages. One of them, Laois, could revert to even numbers next year.<\/p>\n
A return to U18 at inter-county level may also see the All-Ireland minor finals played on a bigger stage. Part of the reason why they were removed as senior final curtain-raisers was the fear the deciders were putting too much pressure on 16- and 17-year-olds in what was supposed to be a development competition.<\/p>\n
A proposal by Fermanagh to reinstate them as the undercards earlier this year was defeated heavily and received less than 16% support. In May, Central Council agreed that while they would keep an open attitude to senior final curtain-raisers, \u201cthe possible fixing of minor finals before senior finals, as was previously the practice, is not currently feasible.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, the games may yet form part of each code\u2019s All-Ireland senior semi-final weekend along with the Tailteann Cup and possibly the Joe McDonagh Cup, should the second-tier hurling competition conclude later in the inter-county window.<\/p>\n