Patience a virtue with teenage stars, says Hyland

Cavan manager Terry Hyland won't be rushing any young players from the minor grade straight into senior football, he revealed this week. A number of high profile Cavan underage footballers have been thrown in at the deep end at senior level immediately on graduating from minor ranks over the past decade, but Hyland promised to buck that trend, insisting that players of that age “are not physically developed enough for the modern type of gameâ€. “Fellas will stay with the Under 21s. We may look at players in their final year of that grade [for the senior team],†Hyland told The Anglo-Celt. The Lacken clubman also stated that he would rather see a return to the old league format of playing three matches before Christmas and four matches after. Asked about the merits of the ban on collective training, which has drawn considerable criticism recently, Hyland stated that, while the idea behind the banning – protecting young players from burn-out – was a good one, it should possibly be implemented in a more even-handed way. “I would think that it's more dangerous to have guys playing in the McKenna Cup when they haven't been training together for it, I'm not medically qualified to say that but I would think that there is more chance of a player getting injured in that situation,†Hyland said. “The old league system wasn't bad, fellas were playing football and they had longer to get ready. They also had the chance to go back to their clubs when the National League ended for a few weeks.â€