Conor Laverty: Down boss says GAA seven-day rule on senior and U20s games is 'a disgrace'

Laverty is the manager of Down's senior and U20s sides

Down boss Conor Laverty has labelled a GAA rule that prohibits players playing for Under-20 and senior teams within a seven-day period as "a disgrace".

Laverty hit out after leading Down's U20s to Ulster title success with a win over Derry in Wednesday night's final.

Four members of his senior squad will now not be available for Sunday's Ulster semi-final against Armagh.

"I think it's a disgrace that the young fellas are not able to play," Laverty, who also manages Down U20s, told TG4.

• Laverty's 'steely' Down subdue struggling Donegal

"Earlier in the year the lads could play in different competitions night after night, and come to training, then when it comes to the biggest days of the year, that they have worked hard for all of their lives, these young players are deprived."

He added: "I feel that the GAA have put in a rule there that they haven't put much thought into and it is really, really disappointing."

The ruling that prevents players playing for senior and U20 teams within a seven-day period, introduced at this year's GAA Congress in February, has been criticised by other county managers.

Odhran Murdock, Ryan Magill, Paddy McCarthy and Oisin Savage have all been part of Down's senior squad, but will not be included on Sunday after playing in their impressive 2-11 to 0-9 U20 final win over Derry at the Athletic Grounds.

Odhran Murdock scored 1-1 in Down's U20s final win over Derry

Laverty explained how the rule meant that he had a difficult decision to make as to whether to play them in the U20 decider - a decision which he said he made in consultation with the players.

"It was a very, very hard decision. We asked the players themselves and took their thoughts into consideration," he continued.

"Probably only one of the lads would have been in the mix to start [on Sunday]. But we asked their opinion and felt that, when they came back with that answer, we had to be true to them and let them play out maybe their last time at underage."

'It doesn't make sense to me'

While the seven-day ruling will have been designed to safeguard young players' conditioning, Laverty believes strongly that he and his fellow managers will do what is right for their players.

"I just feel that any young lad at 19 or 20 years of age will be able to play two games in one week," he said.

"It happens through universities and in the early stages of different competitions so why, whenever it comes to the dry sod and the sunny evenings, can they not go out and play two matches? They are training three or four times a week but they cannot play two matches?

"I am sure all of the other managers in the other teams that have the same conflict, they would do their utmost to protect those players, they would wrap them up in cotton wool, they would look after them recovery-wise and hydration-wise.

"They would get the best treatment possible for them to be available, they wouldn't be training. The boys will be back in the gym over the next number of days, they will be back on the field at the weekend but yet they can't go to play a game - it just doesn't make sense to me."

The Down senior and U20s manager added that he hopes that using "common sense" can mean that the rule can be changed for next year's championship.

"I understand this split season and I think it is a brilliant idea. It think it really works but I think there is a window where you can maybe go [with] an Under-20 championship that bit earlier and take the sting out of whenever the main championships are on.

"Or else just have a bit of common sense. I think managers nowadays have a lot of sports science behind them and the best people around them, and I think we would all use our own common sense around when lads can play and when they can't."