Colleges facing chop in Dublin

The controversial issue of college teams participating in the Dublin championships is to be raised once again, this time with a vote on their immediate exclusion appearing likely.

The St Vincent's club earlier this week submitted a motion which proposes that all third-level colleges be excluded from both football and hurling competitions in the county and this will go before the next meeting of the Dublin County Board on February 5th.

It's been an annual debate for the past number of years, but things heated up significantly two years ago when UCD captured the Dublin senior hurling title, and again last year, when their footballers beat St Vincent's to take the county football title. According to Dublin chairman Gerry Harrington the issue continues to cause much debate although it's still unclear just how strong the opposing view will be.

"The motion was submitted to our county board meeting last Monday," he confirmed, "and will now be raised for a full debate and discussion by the county committee at out next meeting, which is the Monday, February 5th. And that includes taking a vote on the issue if that's decided.

"It's hard to know exactly what the mood is at the moment. A similar motion came to the county board last year, and that led to a three-hour debate on the issue. It was decided no vote would be taken, as another solution was suggested, but so far that hasn't materialised."

The solution suggested at the time was that Croke Park had set up a committee to examine the issue, with particular regard to hurling, but it would also deal with divisional sides competing in the various club championships, and look at the role of third-level colleges in general. The committee's findings are expected to come before congress in April, but in the meantime Dublin are poised to address the issue again, possibly for the last time.

"I actually expected another motion would be presented at our county convention before Christmas," added Harrington, "and that wasn't the case. But it's back before the county committee now so we'll just have to wait and see what happens on the night. I certainly can't predict what will happen at this stage."

This latest debate comes at a time when the presence of third-level colleges in the various pre-season football competitions has triggered angry reactions, some regarding the sudden withdrawals by college teams and, as with Tyrone football manager Mickey Harte, disputing the right of first pick accorded to them.

Dublin will fall under the spotlight in more ways than one for their opening Allianz National Football League match against Tyrone on February 3rd, the first game to be played under Croke Park's newly-installed floodlights - as the game will also mark the start of Setanta's live coverage of the 2007 league.

Setanta's schedule was launched yesterday by Moran and Tyrone's Cormac McGinley, with live coverage of that clash starting at 7pm, on the back of an hour's build-up and analysis.

Six other National Football League matches will be broadcast live throughout February and March, including Kerry against Cork in Austin Stack Park (February 10th); Cork against Tyrone in Páirc Uí Rinn (February 24th) and Dublin against Cork in Parnell Park (March 24th).

Sligo manager Tommy Breheny believes the McKenna, O'Byrne and McGrath Cups and Connacht League have a key role to play in the GAA calendar despite criticism from some of his managerial brethren.

According to Breheny, these tournaments serve an important function in terms of experimentation, something he feels there won't be too much of in the National League because of the impending change of structures in the latter competition.

With the National League returning to a four-tier structure next year, finishing positions in this season's competition will decide the composition of the four divisions and that will leave managers taking very few chances, he maintains.