The Leinster Council has cracked down on the number of players eligible for third-level colleges in their pre-season football and hurling competitions, which get underway across all four provinces this weekend.

No more than 10 players can be nominated for third-level eligibility by any given college throughout the course of the competition, a move partly designed to ease any tension between college and county managers, and also limit the scenario whereby players are actually pulled between college and county over the course of the competition.

County conflict

In the past, the general stipulation was that third level colleges had first choice on any player who was eligible for both the college team and the county team: inevitably this caused some conflict between college and county, particular when it came to the Dr McKenna Cup in Ulster, where, two years ago, Queen’s University withdrew from the competition after a row with several county managers, who refused to give the college first pick.

Tyrone also caused controversy in the 2007 Dr McKenna Cup, when they fielded four players who had already been selected by college teams: Tyrone went on to win the competition outright, were briefly stripped of the title, before being reinstated on appeal.

"It has been a bone of contention in the past," explained Leinster press officer John Greene, who added that agreement on the continued participation of third-level colleges in both the Bord na Móna O'Byrne Cup (SF) and Walsh Cup (SH) was "virtually unanimous" when it went before the Leinster Council convention earlier this year.

Under the current guidelines, “a panel of 10 county players can be nominated by each college, but no more than 10, who are then committed to playing for the college for the course of that competition; the remaining players from the student body are free to play for their county”.

However, as those 10 players can be drawn from any county, not just those in Leinster, this still leaves the minor loophole whereby college players can still line out with county teams from another province, should their interest in their own provincial competition be ended.

Provincial basis

“All the pre-season competitions are run on a provincial basis,” added Greene. “So, for example, if one of the 10 DCU players nominated by them was from a county outside the province, he would still be eligible to play for the county in FBD League, or Dr McKenna Cup, because they are run outside the province.

“Obviously most people feel they bring something to it,” says Greene. “Because it was put to the test earlier this year, at our Leinster Council convention, and the decision to allow them to continue to take part was virtually unanimous.

Still, the continued participation of the third level colleges in the pre-season football and hurling competitions hasn’t impacted on spectator interest, least of all in the O’Byrne Cup, which for the third year will be run on a round-robin basis, which means a programme of 27 games, including the final on January 25th.

“It’s amazing,” said Greene, “in that the first round nearly always draws the biggest crowds, and the crowds tend to lesson somewhat after that.”