Dublin player “refusing” to play Sigerson Cup quarter-final

This is where we're at with the fixtures in the GAA.

A member of the Dublin senior football panel will not play for his college on Tuesday night because he is said to be focusing on his county. DIT head to Austin Stack Park to take on IT Tralee in the Sigerson Cup quarter-final but they will be without the services of one of their best players. SportsJOE understands that an inter-county footballer with Dublin has told the college team that he won't be making the trip to Kerry. https://twitter.com/Woolberto/status/960564686444998659 It's hard not to see it from the player's point of view too. He's trying to break into one of the most competitive teams of all time in what will go down as one of the most successful eras ever and a midweek game with his college could jeopardise that. You might not take such a sympathetic look at it and you might talk about scholarships and players being brought into colleges specifically to play ball but this is a young man who obviously feels like his place in the Dublin team far outweighs those priorities and neither him, Dublin or the college are helped one bit by the GAA schedule. David Clifford - star of IT Tralee - was playing his third game in seven days when he went off injured in Castlebar against Mayo on Saturday night. The demands on him are as such that he then plays a quarter-final championship match with his college the following Tuesday (four games in 10 days of January/February) before heading up the road to Monaghan at the weekend for a league game with Kerry. The Sigerson Cup is shown no respect by the fixtures co-ordinators and, as such, the players playing in it are shown no respect. Now you have a young man losing out on so many levels so he won't be deterred from his ultimate goal.

• He misses out on that Sigerson bond and those college memories
• Players could lose a scholarship and ultimately put football ahead of education

It's easy to laugh off his fears but missing a training session for Dublin is a frightening prospect when you're not established and you're surrounded by a squad of the best in the country. Risking injury, undergoing even more travel, doing it for what is no longer an important venture isn't worth it - not when it's slap bang in the middle of the national league. The Sigerson Cup is more than worthwhile but, with it's scheduling, with FBD Leagues and O'Byrne Cups given more precedence than it in the calendar, either more young footballers are going to be absolutely f**ked trying to keep up the demands, or some of them will forego scholarships so they can focus on their counties.