Third-level boys pass secondary tests

Provincial competitions: With the pre-season business nearly complete, the Connacht and Leinster councils have expressed themselves happy with the expanded formats and admission of third-level colleges to both football and hurling competitions.

The pre-season tournaments have so far been a great success for the third-level colleges. In Connacht NUI Galway and Galway-Mayo IT will contest both the football and hurling finals while the weekend's McGrath Cup final in Cork sees Cork IT play Limerick.

In Connacht and Leinster the provincial councils have organised both hurling and football competitions with considerable third-level involvement. Whereas the colleges were surprisingly low-key in Leinster's O'Byrne Cup in which all of the eight quarter-finalists were counties, UCD hurlers are currently the holders of the Walsh Cup and begin their defence of the title this weekend against Wexford.

"The students have taken over," according to Connacht Council secretary John Prenty. "We started off taking them into the FBD and last year into the Knock Airport hurling league. Maybe they are a bit strong for the hurling but Roscommon and Mayo are both tier-two teams and should be able to compete at that level. We're happy enough with the whole thing and the sponsors are delighted the colleges are there. The counties are glad of the opportunity to look at players."

Availability of players is weighted in the colleges' favour with Connacht allowing them retain their county players up to a maximum of four from any one panel. In Leinster the colleges get first choice on any common players.

"The request came from the colleges and was first granted in Connacht and we followed," says Leinster secretary Michael Delaney. "We were happy to facilitate them once we had established that our fixtures had priority. It provides a good grounding for the Sigerson and Fitzgibbon. To many of the counties it's a bit of a nuisance but the view in Leinster was that it benefits the colleges. It's not a major promotional thing although bringing the ITs into the Kehoe Cup was seen as a favour to counties like Louth and Longford."

Connacht and Leinster are the most active of the provinces at this time of the year with the latter also taking Ulster hurling counties Antrim and Down into the Walsh Cup. Leinster's O'Byrne Cup is the highest-profile competition at this time of the year and last Sunday saw over 10,000 attend the final between Westmeath and Laois.

"When the O'Byrne Cup gets down to the nitty-gritty it attracts good crowds now that it's established a place in the calendar," says Delaney.

"It gives teams a chance to develop players and even if Mick O'Dwyer might say it's only the O'Byrne Cup, you don't get 10,000 coming out unless it's genuinely competitive. Four or five years ago Longford and Westmeath drew a big crowd of about 10,000. It was a major thing for them at the time and since then there's been good crowds."

Connacht has been affected financially by the success of the third-level teams but Prenty is hoping that inter-college rivalry can be tapped for the finals.

"It was good financially last year because Mayo and Sligo were in the final and we'll have to wait and see how this year goes. We've fixed the hurling for Thursday (tomorrow) to see if we draw a student crowd. There are 15,000 between the two colleges."

Although there isn't an Aladdin's cave in gate receipts in even good January crowds the money raised has its uses. "This year's quarter-final money went to the tsunami relief but the rest will mostly go into the Accident Tournament Fund," according to Delaney. "We will also be making a contribution to the Cormac Trust (established in memory of the late Cormac McAnallen to aid research into sudden cardiac death among athletes).

"There are always serious situations that aren't quite covered by the Players' Injuries Fund and each year we top up funds for players who are recovering from major injuries."

Prenty says the story is similar in the West. Receipts from the weekend before last went to the south-east Asia disaster and the rest goes towards a players' injury fund.

Meanwhile Antrim hurling manager Dinny Cahill has appointed Gerard Holden (Gort na Móna) and Malachy Elliott as selectors for the coming season. Noel Brick will be the new trainer.

The death has taken place, after a short illness at the age of 26, of Castledawson's Adrian Heaney who played for Derry minors and under-21s and, during the management of Brian Mullins, at senior level. A cousin of All-Ireland winner Dermot, he is survived by his wife Clare, parents, brother and sisters.