Colm Parkinson: How can you blame Brian Howard? Treatment of college players is a joke

Marc Ó Sé told a story recently on SportsJOE Live about the time we arrived back in Maynooth after beating St Mary's in the Sigerson Cup up in Belfast.

The team was going to the Roost Bar, the main sponsors, when I pulled Marc aside.

"Do you know what we’ll do, the two of us, we’ll go to the students union."

Marc wasn't interested and just replied with a simple, "ah no we’ll shoot in here for a few, there'll be a bit of craic in here".

I had to come out and just say it.

"I can't go in here," I said. "I'm barred."

Marc felt bad so he offered me a compromise.

"Do you know what we’ll do, we’ll go up the road to Brady's."

"Sorry, Marc," I replied. "I’m barred from there too!"

Alan Dillon joined me on The GAA Hour before Christmas, after he retired from the game, and referenced the same night. We were drinking cans on the way down from Belfast, just having the craic in general. I was older than all the rest and had played International Rules and was slagging a cocky young fella called Alan Brogan about not having achieved as much in the game as me (It didn’t take him long to catch up).

All harmless stuff but the point is that despite everything the two lads achieved in the game - numerous All-Stars, provincial titles and, in Marc's case, All-Irelands, they both fondly remembered a simple night out with college teammates, having few cans and bonding after a good win on the road.

We had a great team in Maynooth - Brogan, Marc and Alan, Rory Kavanagh, John Keane and Barry Cahill were just some of the top class players on that side. While we don’t meet up as much as we should, when we do bump into each other you can be sure there’s a few stories of matches we played or nights out after those games with a few laughs.

I won a Sigerson Cup with Tralee IT in 1999 and have some fantastic memories - some wild nights, early morning training sessions before they were in vogue and lots of wins.  There is a bond with all the lads on that team despite not seeing them very often.

The news thet Brian Howard is refusing to play Sigerson Cup for DIT against Tralee IT today is very disappointing on a number of levels.

Look what he’s missing out on.

The win, the bus journey home, stopping off in a pub or two to buy cans, the songs, the craic when the team lands back, the stories and the memories. Friendships strengthened and memories that will last even when he finished playing.

Having said all that, I can see all of this from Brian’s point of view. He is desperate to play with Dublin and that’s his priority and that’s understandable - miss a league game on a squad like Dublin’s and he might not get another shot and that's the bottom line.

Remember, this is a player that passed up on the team holiday so he could prove himself in the O’Byrne Cup.

When I went to DIT back in 1998, I didn’t play Sigerson. My focus was on the Laois U21’s at the time even ahead of the Laois senior team. I was commuting from Portlaoise and DIT was a disaster back then for training facilities. The night before a Sigerson Cup game against Athlone IT, I got a phonecall from the manager asking me if i’d come the following day. I reluctantly told him I would, thinking how strange it would be to just land into the dressing room after not training and take someone else's place on the team.

I went the next day, togged out, the team was named and I wasn’t picked. So I thought, 'fair enough, he’ll bring me on pretty soon. Surely after ringing me to come, he’s going to use me'. I stood in the freezing cold watching Athlone win and wasn’t even given a minute playing time. I was livid so I went into the dressing room after the game and took two jerseys off the ground, put them in my bag and went home, never to return.

Obviously the difference with Brian’s situation is that he’s on a scholarship and might lose it for refusing to play. It might seem drastic but when your dream is to play for Dublin, then of course nothing else matters.

What’s most disappointing is that the young man should never be put in this position.

It really bothers me when I hear the GPA talk about player welfare when this is a major issue facing young players in college. It occurs year after year. They’re being asked to play midweek for the college and then tog out for their counties at the weekend, then repeat the same schedule the following week. Either they are forced to choose between college and county like Brian or they risk injury playing twice per week on heavy pitches, like David Clifford.

It’s grossly unfair and is happening all over the country. Seven of the Kerry and five of the Mayo players had the same issue on Saturday night in Castlebar. Clifford went off injured and Sean Ó Sé was taken off.

Maybe these high profile cases will force the GAA into action. The Sigerson and Fitzgibbon Cups are important to players and their development on the field and in life and should be given a slot in the calendar where it’s not clashing with senior intercounty matches. Give it January, cut out the intercounty pre-season competitions and start the league in February.

But I think this column has been down this road before and I’m starting to sound like a broken record.

When will the GAA listen?