Poacher stresses Leitrim U20 players deserve to have their chance as workload threatens player welfare

Leitrim manager Steven Poacher insisted that the counties’ U20 players deserved to have their chance to impress at their own age group while also highlighting the workload these young players have been working through in recent weeks.

With Leitrim facing Galway in the Connacht U20 Championship tonight (Wednesday March 19), the Observer asked the Senior team manager if there has been a clash over the availability of players that might have allowed last Sunday’s Allianz NFL Division 3 clash with Fermanagh go ahead.

But the Senior team boss defended the decision to withdraw the U20 players from the Senior team: “You're damned if you do, damned if you don't - if you play them and they don’t get a fair crack at their own competition. They are a group that believes they can progress in Connacht, and possibly win Connacht, and you have to respect that. 

“They have a lot of potential, there's no question about it so if you play them and  the result doesn't go well on Wednesday, then who's the fall guys? We're the fall guys for playing the young lads, then you don't play them - it really is hard to know what the right thing to do. 

“Hindsight, it's a wonderful thing but we weren't going to have Ben Guckian anyway for Fermanagh, because he was carrying an injury, we wouldn't even have dreamt of chancing him. Eanna McNamara was a major doubt because he had picked up a hand injury on Tuesday night against Dublin.”

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Voicing concerns over the workload faced by the young players, Poacher revealed that the six U20s on the Senior players could potentially have played six games in 14 days: “The U20s played three games in six days, so it took a toll on the lads too as well, I don't think anyone probably on the outside realised that those lads played Sunday against Offaly, Wednesday against Donegal, Saturday against Antrim, Tuesday against Dublin.

“Then you're asking them to play Sunday against Fermanagh, and Wednesday against Galway in the Championship. That conceivably would have been six games, six games in just over 14 days, absolutely madness at this level, so, I don't think they could have facilitated that.”

The Leitrim manager also insisted that he is paying no attention to criticism on social media and a backlash directed against him specifically: “The grief that comes my way, I'm going to be totally honest when I say this and I'm not trying to brush it off, but it does not phase me in the slightest. 

“I’ve thick skin, I’ve been through the mill myself so nothing at this stage phases me - this is football, it's not life or death and that's the reality of the situation. There's people that I know very, very well at home who are struggling at the minute with cancer diagnosis and things like that - that's life and death we're talking about. 

“It's a game of football and it gave people a bit of hysteria, a bit of crying and whatever over the weekend but the reality of the situation is it's not life or death, and whatever abuse or flack comes my way, I have no issue at all.”

The Leitrim manager insisted that he will continue to fight for the best of Leitrim GAA: “I don't take the opinions of somebody just sitting on a keyboard at home who's trying to fulfill his life through social media or whatever. If that's what makes them happy, that's what makes them happy, but it certainly doesn't make me happy - we're the men in the arena, we're fighting the good fight. We'll continue to do that for Leitrim and the benefit of Leitrim GAA.”