O'Byrne Cup has a future but changes needed: Kildare boss
Glenn Ryan had some very interesting thoughts on this year's O'Byrne Cup, and admitted that Kildare could have fielded a team in Round 3 and would have fielded a team if there had been any sanctions in place if a county failed to fulfil a fixture.
“Can you see a future for the O'Byrne Cup?
I can ye was the quick reply.
“My priority” said the Kildare boss “is the Dublin game, the Cork game, the Leinster Championship; because of Sigerson Cup games and a few injuries we had we would have been in a position of playing some fellas three times in a week or so and if I could avoid that, without any sanctions, I was going to and that is what we did.
“I think if the O'Byrne Cup is going to be taken seriously it has to become a serious competition and by that I mean that if you don't fulfil a fixture there is some kind of sanction or penalty, if there is no penalty...”
The Kildare boss added that “at no stage in any team I have been involved in, or selectors Johnny (Doyle), Anthony (Rainbow) or Dermot (Earley), would you ever have played three games in a week or ten days, as part of any training programme; it is a major thing and it is a bigger issue for some of the smaller teams and if I could avoid that and without it impacting on the county board or indeed where there is no sanctions to be had as a result.
“We didn't do it because we wanted to train, we did it because some fellas who have a history of injuries and playing three games in a week is simply too much.”
Is there a future?
“We are looking at players from October, we could certainly have one or two games before Christmas and that would ease the pressure.”
Asked about moving the Sigerson, the manager replied, immediately, “that seems to be sacrosanct.”
“If you had two games before Christmas would be ideal, then after Christmas you are preparing for the League rather than giving lads a game for the sake of it, as it was we had hardly played a trial game before Christmas, so a couple of games before Christmas would be ideal.”