Juvenile player selection

Unless it was a county semi final or final i would say no- bring him on as a sub in other matchs yes

A player shouldnt be brought in from another age group panel if there are enough players on the panel to play the fixture. Should only happen in emergencies where a match would otherwise be cancelled due to too few players.

At that age as you have enough players for your panel I'd leave him out. Kids come along at different speeds at that age. He could be average in 6 months....or head & shoulders above them all.

The absolute worst thing for him is to be brought along to make up numbers and not get any game time.....and miss out at his own level.

Maybe U16 onwards it might be something to look at bringing him in. But only bring him in on the basis he's a squad player not making up the numbers.

Also I'd talk with his parents to guage their level of interest (assuming you haven't already). Some parents are happy to play up a year..some aren't.

Why?

I would say no, you probably shouldnt.

But here's the thing:

The GAA gives damn all guidance on these things so it is left to the mentor to decide.

Mentor is another word for 'Parent who gives up their free time to coach other peoples kids'. They are not full time at this business, though it often feels that way. They dont have capacity to analyse each and every decision, and they dont have much of a guidebook to help them along.

If the Mentor decides that they should do this, there may be good reasons. Not sure what they are, but there may be good reasons..... for example, 5 of the 22 only show up intermittently, are constantly late for games or training, their parents dont respond to notifications, they show up for games without having confirmed.

You are into the realm of what is fair and what is not fair, and its hard to say for sure based on what you've told us.

How are the slow developers to progress if they are not getting the chance in their own age group? If this chap is 11 already, the odds are he is only a couple of months younger that some of the U13's he will be taking the place of. He will get loads of opportunities to play and develop while the November / December boys need game time to both develop and not risk being lost to the game.

A top inter-county footballer born at the back end of the year is relatively rare. Not because of ability, but because they are just less physically developed than their team mates at a young age and therefore overlooked for the club team, overlooked for development squads and ultimately hindered in becoming the best that they can become. Lee Keegan is a rarity int that he was a top player born near the end of the year. And even then he never played minor for Mayo and could have been lost to rugby.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_age_effect

And the impact is not just on young peoples potential to become top athletes, it also impacts their long term health in that those who remain within their sport(s) throughout their youth are much more likely to maintain their physical fitness in adulthood.

I would suggest that up to 15's at least organisations should run 2 age groups in a given year. One with age groups from January to January and the other from July to July

I would say no, you should be considering player retention, those older, poorer lads may improve, may be a mainstay of the club committees, junior b team ... in future. But if they see the younger kids being picked they are more likely to quit. I've seen younger brothers played ahead of siblings, caused mayhem.

As a coach your goal should be to improve the players individually and as a team, make sure they enjoy it and player retention.

Its not the mentors responsibility, its the responsibility of the Childrens officer, juvenile secretary and ultimately chairman to set the tone within the club with respect to inclusion.

its a difficult balance to maintain between inclusion and success at a young age, but success is not success if it marginalises 12 year olds