The draw for the Fitzgibbon and Sigerson Cups was made at Croke Park yesterday. Both competitions represent the peak of third level colleges GAA and walking through the halls of any education institution will show how much they mean.
This is the second year of sponsorship by Independent News and Media and a glance across the shirts of the teams involved shows that there is plenty of appetite among corporates for supporting elite sport in colleges. These are the leaders of the future after all so it makes sense.
There is similar appetite for under age games at inter county level with Bord Gais Energy keen sponsors of the U21 Championships and Electric Ireland maintaining one of their main sporting investments in the Minor Championships.
That’s three of the biggest brands in Ireland then all looking for a piece of youth gaelic games.
But what of the changes to the structure of tournaments currently under discussion at senior level within the GAA. It’s been prompted by fear of player burn out and rightly so. The timing of the competitions mean that there is less crossover at this stage than might be imagined but the Colleges and the Inter County managers do need to maintain a degree of cooperation to avoid players themselves having to make an either / or call.
The transition from minor to adult is one of the areas under the spotlight in this year’s Liberty Insurance sponsored GAA Games Development Conference in January.
Add in clubs and secondary level schools, as well as the desire among many players to play both hurling and football and it’s clear action needs to be taken.
If it comes to a lottery decision as to which grade or which tournament has to give way though there are more questions to be answered than those of history.
Sponsors do not buy a right to determine the future of sports or the futures of those who play them. Exploring the reasons why they are involved though is likely to be of real interest and should be factored into the debate before any final decisions are made.
Image credit: Sportsfile
