UCD need to contribute to the debate

LockerRoom: UCD again. The business of their presence within the Dublin championships and the world beyond kept making the news this week. Yesterday they overpowered Oulart-the-Ballagh to move on to a repeat of last year's Leinster club final. The Village versus The College.

So apologies, firstly, to Dave Billings, Colm O'Rourke and Mary Clayton of UCD if they had read into last week's column any inference that the academic bar is lowered for talented hurlers wishing to go on scholarship to UCD.

It isn't. We were never under the impression it was. We never meant to give the impression that it was. We never thought that an officer of the college went around to county minor finals whispering into young fellas' ears, "Psst, over here son. Wanna play hurling and get a free medicine degree?"

Furthermore, we think the scholarship scheme is a fine idea and have been a supporter of it since its launch at a reception in Newman House on Stephen's Green 11 years ago.

The point, which we stand by and reiterate, though, is that the scholarship scheme is one of the factors which have tilted things in UCD's favour in the past few years. It is disingenuous to point to the number of Dublin county titles UCD have won in 30 years or 70 years and to say that they are no threat. Since the scholarship scheme grew, UCD have casually been annexing under-21 (three) and senior titles (four) in Dublin.

UCD may claim that nobody goes to Belfield purely because they get a scholarship. Maybe not, but it helps. All other things being equal, a lad filling out his CAO form and wishing to hurl at a high level will choose the prospect of a scholarship and a college which offers Dublin senior championship action.

According to UCD's website, the following players from yesterday's win over Oulart-the-Ballagh have benefited from scholarships: Redmond Barry, Stephen Lucey, Dara Walton, Colm Everard, Mick Fitzgerald, Brendan Murphy, John O'Connor, Diarmuid Fitzgerald and Tommy Fitzgerald.

In the old days, before 1994, UCD would field a strong team when a cohort of good players arrived in the college at the same time. That's how it works with clubs. It comes in waves.

But the scholarship system helps UCD attract more and better players.

It's not the only factor. Their very presence in the Dublin senior championship, a gateway to a possible All-Ireland, is attractive. As is the presence of top-class operators like Davy Billings and Babs Keating.

It is ludicrous to claim that UCD's current well being in terms of Dublin club hurling and football is in no way connected to the instigation and the expansion of the scholarship scheme since 1994.

As the UCD website states when discussing its scholarships with potential, suitably qualified applicants: "While all Gaelic players are very welcome to play with UCD GAA club, please remember that scholarships will only be considered for players capable of playing at a very high level."

Ordinary clubs don't have that luxury. Good players are coveted property in the colleges game.

Paddy McCormack, who has responsibility for the development of Gaelic games at Tipperary Institute, commented in an interview recently: "We also have a number of scholarships that allows us to match the bigger colleges. In addition, we recently launched a poster campaign with the Mid-Tipperary Board that is in circulation to all the schools and clubs in the catchment area. The success of our teams ultimately will be the biggest marketing tool. I know of so many young people who went to UCC or UCD, purely because of hurling."

UCD have attracted some fine players to the college in recent years. It's of benefit to the clubs they play for, the college itself and the players themselves that they should have been offered scholarships.

Yesterday, in Nowlan Park, when it was announced that Redmond Barry wouldn't be starting the game, he was replaced by Eamon O'Gorman, who was listed as having won a school All-Ireland with St Kieran's. He scored three fine points. Also listed among the subs were Matty White, who has Leinster senior hurling and under-21 medals with Wexford; Pat McIntyre and Bryan Buckley, Offaly under-21 hurlers; David Prendergast, an All-Ireland winning Kilkenny minor; and Diarmaid Corcoran, a Munster minor medal winner with Tipp.

It's one thing (slightly patronising perhaps) to hope that UCD's presence in the Dublin championship would raise the standard - certainly nobody in Dublin hurling is under any illusion that the standard needs raising. It's another thing entirely to ask that other club outfits compete with that sort of strength-in-depth.

Not only do UCD have the players, they have the benefit of a full colleges fixture list. Stephen Lucey said during the week, while asserting that UCD were a club (how do you get a kid into their mini-leagues?), that he has played some 300 games for UCD in the last seven years. Even allowing that Stephen is a dual player, that's an astonishing supplement to a sporting education.

If half of those games were hurling games, Stephen is getting an extra 21 games a year as well as what he gets in Croom and with Limerick.

Tonight in Dublin the captains of the 10 strongest and most influential hurling clubs will meet to decide what to do about the presence of UCD in their championship. Nobody in that meeting will have an agenda against UCD or the people who play or run the games there. Their contribution to football and hurling can't be gainsaid. They are doing their jobs well and doing them as they should do them.

Everyone who meets tonight, though, will have a genuine concern for the future of Dublin club hurling.

There is talk in the air of players perhaps declining to play a club championship with UCD in it next summer.

The feelings of frustration are that high. In at least two clubs moves are afoot to send letters of protest to the county board.

UCD need to make a constructive contribution to the debate. They have a long history in the club championship and in the GAA. Times and circumstances have changed, though. If the college can't suggest modifications to the conditions under which they enter the Dublin championships, other people are going to begin suggesting the ultimate modification, leaving UCD players with just one country championship to play in every year, the one in the county where they were reared and taught how to play the game.

One wonders what AIB (one life, one club) make of the entire thing.