Meath Forum

Junior Contenders

(Oldest Posts First) - Go To The Latest Post


Replying To Goldback:  "The junior championship is very poor now but when all these intermediate teams come down it will be very strong.

I assume they will have to do a junior B with weaker teams because some of them will struggle badly if they were playing v those teams now in IFC."
Well said and hopefully those Junior clubs will get rid of the people ha are holding them back , stop the "Old Fiefdom" culture in many of the club that exist and allow new members contribute positively to the search for success.

2021 (Meath) - Posts: 11 - 17/09/2021 10:56:27    2381269

Link

Replying To BigJoe14:  "Yes, I agree the senior club second teams will still be strong, but they should be in the Junior A, B and Intermediate championships mixing with first teams, not just walloping other second teams. This all came about because a few Junior teams were unhappy about not being able to win a championship with strong second teams in the way. Its up to the Junior teams first teams to get their house in order and strive to beat these teams and improve standards. Not just complain and win a handy championship in a poor competition. And ironically a lot of the teams who were complaining about the second teams in the Junior A championship have been relegated now anyway or are still fighting down the wrong end of the championship."
It's been well documented at this stage that the issue with the Senior second teams being Junior A was the lob sided nature of when you faced them i.e. round 1 or round 5. There was inequality across the group and that was the issue. Nobody had an issue with the best team winning the competition over the course of the season like Don/Ash and Dunboyne did in the past.

The "get their house in order" and "…get their act together and work even harder" 'advice' is patronising and pathetic to be honest. Every small club is trying hard amidst falling rural demographic numbers. Take a trip to any of the National Schools in some of these parishes and tell me where the numbers are and how getting their house in order actually works in practice. Many of the smaller clubs are unable to field second teams anymore and would have done so over the years by blooding 15/16/17 year olds which is an avenue now closed to them.

For the record I'm not claiming the Premier Competitions are a success but some of the bile being released on this thread from people living in ivory towers is astonishing and out of touch.

The_Ripper (Meath) - Posts: 183 - 17/09/2021 12:17:02    2381287

Link

Replying To The_Ripper:  "It's been well documented at this stage that the issue with the Senior second teams being Junior A was the lob sided nature of when you faced them i.e. round 1 or round 5. There was inequality across the group and that was the issue. Nobody had an issue with the best team winning the competition over the course of the season like Don/Ash and Dunboyne did in the past.

The "get their house in order" and "…get their act together and work even harder" 'advice' is patronising and pathetic to be honest. Every small club is trying hard amidst falling rural demographic numbers. Take a trip to any of the National Schools in some of these parishes and tell me where the numbers are and how getting their house in order actually works in practice. Many of the smaller clubs are unable to field second teams anymore and would have done so over the years by blooding 15/16/17 year olds which is an avenue now closed to them.

For the record I'm not claiming the Premier Competitions are a success but some of the bile being released on this thread from people living in ivory towers is astonishing and out of touch."
No one is trying to be patronising to anyone here,

So cool the jets , the discussion in on Junior contenders and the widened out.

There are no ivory towers , we all did the club and school gig I assume for years , to help grow the passion and love for the game , nothing else .

Playing numbers is an issue , agreed , one can't blame the larger clubs for that ?

But don't say people are out of touch , it's the exact opposite .

2021 (Meath) - Posts: 11 - 17/09/2021 14:13:20    2381316

Link

Totally agree. The big clubs have no idea the difficulties a small club faces. There are in some instances more houses in some estates in the bigger towns than in some small parishes. Fund raising proves very difficult and with smaller family sizes and incoming planning laws rural clubs should be given more assistance.

Foley91 (Meath) - Posts: 418 - 17/09/2021 14:13:52    2381317

Link

Replying To 2021:  "No one is trying to be patronising to anyone here,

So cool the jets , the discussion in on Junior contenders and the widened out.

There are no ivory towers , we all did the club and school gig I assume for years , to help grow the passion and love for the game , nothing else .

Playing numbers is an issue , agreed , one can't blame the larger clubs for that ?

But don't say people are out of touch , it's the exact opposite ."
You were one of the naysayers saying the 'smaller' clubs should "get their act together and work even harder". Seriously?
You're also talking about clubs getting "rid of the people ha are holding them back"! I don't know where you think all these new committee members are. A lot of clubs just don't have the numbers to have big committees and what you have are lads being cajoled to stay on and help out when they'd rather take a break after years of service.

If you're not being patronising please pad out your argument. My counterargument was that 'small' clubs are working equally if not harder than the 'bigger' clubs but are operating off a far smaller pool of players/members. Nobody is blaming 'larger' clubs for that as it's a bigger societal issue and every 'small' club is just getting on with it. These are the facts.

Regards how this fits into the JFC is that the argument for putting the 2nd teams in their own group was to achieve equality across the competition and eradicate the issue of teams facing varying strengths of starting 15s depending on what round it was. There's a bit of lazy narrative that the 'small' clubs just wanted rid of the senior teams altogether so they could win a handy championship. Each club and club member but will have their own opinion but in my opinion this is nonsense and equality is all that was sought.

While maybe still imperfect, I personally preferred the previous format of all the second teams in the same group and in fact Dunboyne came through to win the JFC in this format which nobody had an issue with. I'd no issue with Dunboyne & Don/Ash plying at Intermediate level once past the Junior as I see no sense in holding players good enough for that level back playing a watered down Premier comp.

The_Ripper (Meath) - Posts: 183 - 17/09/2021 15:27:29    2381342

Link

Maybe perhaps a way of solving the smaller club vs bigger club debate is by allowing transfers to go more freely to smaller rural clubs e.g. strong second team players in big urban clubs transferring to smaller local rural clubs to help improve numbers, quality and also getting themselves first team football. I feel this could be an avenue explored more by clubs. Meath is not a massive county travel wise.

BigJoe14 (Meath) - Posts: 998 - 17/09/2021 17:16:18    2381367

Link

Replying To The_Ripper:  "It's been well documented at this stage that the issue with the Senior second teams being Junior A was the lob sided nature of when you faced them i.e. round 1 or round 5. There was inequality across the group and that was the issue. Nobody had an issue with the best team winning the competition over the course of the season like Don/Ash and Dunboyne did in the past.

The "get their house in order" and "…get their act together and work even harder" 'advice' is patronising and pathetic to be honest. Every small club is trying hard amidst falling rural demographic numbers. Take a trip to any of the National Schools in some of these parishes and tell me where the numbers are and how getting their house in order actually works in practice. Many of the smaller clubs are unable to field second teams anymore and would have done so over the years by blooding 15/16/17 year olds which is an avenue now closed to them.

For the record I'm not claiming the Premier Competitions are a success but some of the bile being released on this thread from people living in ivory towers is astonishing and out of touch."
Don/Ash didn't win the junior,, promoted as runners up,

otherlad (Meath) - Posts: 139 - 18/09/2021 01:22:05    2381420

Link

Replying To BigJoe14:  "Maybe perhaps a way of solving the smaller club vs bigger club debate is by allowing transfers to go more freely to smaller rural clubs e.g. strong second team players in big urban clubs transferring to smaller local rural clubs to help improve numbers, quality and also getting themselves first team football. I feel this could be an avenue explored more by clubs. Meath is not a massive county travel wise."
That then leaves the window open for clubs to pay players to come to them. Will definitely not happen. If the smaller rural clubs want to improve they need to do it through developing their players. The rural club standard is terrible because these guys play division 5 or 6 all underage and when you look at the top clubs they play division 1 2 all the way up. The standard of football all the way through the underage process is the difference when they get to adult level. They need to look at joining rural clubs to improve the standard.

CMAN1570 (Meath) - Posts: 56 - 18/09/2021 11:41:00    2381443

Link

Replying To CMAN1570:  "That then leaves the window open for clubs to pay players to come to them. Will definitely not happen. If the smaller rural clubs want to improve they need to do it through developing their players. The rural club standard is terrible because these guys play division 5 or 6 all underage and when you look at the top clubs they play division 1 2 all the way up. The standard of football all the way through the underage process is the difference when they get to adult level. They need to look at joining rural clubs to improve the standard."
Top clubs tend to have the population to pick from, they can field 2 or 3 teams across various divisions in some age groups because of the amount of children that fall into that age bracket in the area. Rural clubs do not have that luxury end up joining up to be able to field one team. A rural club may lose 4 or 5 players from that group to disinterest or to other sports and therefore will not benefit from the work put in at underage by the coaches. 4 or 5 players in some clubs are nothing when you have the population to pick from but for rural clubs it can be massive.

Clubs do they're best with what they have but your statement shows a lack of understanding for the work that goes on in these clubs. Get off your high horse.

glover (Meath) - Posts: 24 - 19/09/2021 00:43:57    2381551

Link

Dunsany look very good , gave Kilbride some hammering last night. Some excellent score taking.

2021 (Meath) - Posts: 11 - 09/10/2021 09:35:59    2384976

Link

Four 1 sided JFC Q/Fs... can't happen quick enough that 6 IFC sides get relegated to improve the standard

Brownepat (Meath) - Posts: 532 - 10/10/2021 18:29:03    2385134

Link

Replying To Brownepat:  "Four 1 sided JFC Q/Fs... can't happen quick enough that 6 IFC sides get relegated to improve the standard"
One of the four teams that were well beaten at the weekend was a intermediate team from last year,ok when 6 come down it will be stronger but its not a given

royal1967 (Meath) - Posts: 293 - 11/10/2021 12:54:34    2385229

Link

Replying To royal1967:  "One of the four teams that were well beaten at the weekend was a intermediate team from last year,ok when 6 come down it will be stronger but its not a given"
think it is bound to be better,,.... Castletown on the wane

glenny (Meath) - Posts: 1116 - 11/10/2021 20:16:56    2385290

Link

One-sided games are generally a sign of improving standards rather than the opposite. 10 point + wins have become a bigger feature of gaelic games at all levels in the last ten years because of improved fitness. You only have to look at Dublin and Mayo to see how a well trained team can put up big scores in a short space of time. I would say the standard at junior in Meath now is as high as it has ever been.

SmoothRoad (Meath) - Posts: 19 - 12/10/2021 11:19:06    2385333

Link

Replying To 2021:  "Dunsany look very good , gave Kilbride some hammering last night. Some excellent score taking."
You must be from dunsany . Kilbride a very poor side at the minute.

Joe_soap1 (Meath) - Posts: 84 - 12/10/2021 11:55:36    2385346

Link

Replying To SmoothRoad:  "One-sided games are generally a sign of improving standards rather than the opposite. 10 point + wins have become a bigger feature of gaelic games at all levels in the last ten years because of improved fitness. You only have to look at Dublin and Mayo to see how a well trained team can put up big scores in a short space of time. I would say the standard at junior in Meath now is as high as it has ever been."
Wouldn't agree at all that junior is as strong as it has been in say 5/6 years ago

royal1967 (Meath) - Posts: 293 - 12/10/2021 15:24:38    2385391

Link

Replying To Joe_soap1:  "You must be from dunsany . Kilbride a very poor side at the minute."
I agree kilbride are a poor side and should probably be in junior b . But Dunsany still the team to beat as they gave serious forwards that can score . I

2021 (Meath) - Posts: 11 - 12/10/2021 20:54:34    2385428

Link

Replying To 2021:  "I agree kilbride are a poor side and should probably be in junior b . But Dunsany still the team to beat as they gave serious forwards that can score . I"
Dunsany not a bad side but one forward really which will be the Achilles heal. Solid at the back and midfield. Their build up play is way too cumbersome. St Vincents will have the drive, may not have better footballers, big year for Junior teams as it will be too hard to win next year with the intermediate teams coming down

TheBong1 (Meath) - Posts: 18 - 13/10/2021 09:39:23    2385440

Link

Replying To royal1967:  "Wouldn't agree at all that junior is as strong as it has been in say 5/6 years ago"
Agree with '67 on this.
How can it be as strong as it has been, when all the second teams are in the Premier Competition…

Up4deMatch (Meath) - Posts: 20 - 13/10/2021 13:39:18    2385511

Link

Replying To Up4deMatch:  "Agree with '67 on this.
How can it be as strong as it has been, when all the second teams are in the Premier Competition…"
A second team has won the junior championship on just one occasion since 2000. Their importance to the overall standard is exaggerated, since the strength of the teams varied wildly even within a season.

As well as that, if the standard in junior had been getting lower, the teams coming down from intermediate would surely then have won it with relative ease, but I can't remember the last occassion that happened.

SmoothRoad (Meath) - Posts: 19 - 13/10/2021 15:22:25    2385544

Link