Meath Forum

New A Football League format

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What do people make of the new restructuring of the a leagues. Find it strange looking at the divisions that some teams are below others even though they had a better year than them in the league last season

Meath4Sam2020 (Meath) - Posts: 141 - 19/02/2024 22:59:12    2527106

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When will the actual fixtures for A Leagues and premier competitions be released? The league had started this time last year. It's now mid February, is it that difficult a task?

BigJoe14 (Meath) - Posts: 998 - 20/02/2024 09:19:14    2527140

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Replying To Meath4Sam2020:  "What do people make of the new restructuring of the a leagues. Find it strange looking at the divisions that some teams are below others even though they had a better year than them in the league last season"
Where are you seeing this ?

Readyplayer1 (Meath) - Posts: 4 - 20/02/2024 09:39:02    2527142

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Where are you seeing this ?

Readyplayer1 (Meath) - Posts: 4 - 20/02/2024 09:40:00    2527143

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Replying To Readyplayer1:  "Where are you seeing this ?"
https://cdn.fbsbx.com/v/t59.2708-21/428548890_1118286566051533_3678660720849496204_n.pdf/2024-Meath-GAA-Adult-Football-League-Grading-Version-1-19-02-24.pdf?_nc_cat=102&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=2b0e22&_nc_ohc=i5bjDBV-wNsAX8hRXDS&_nc_ht=cdn.fbsbx.com&oh=03_AdR7Xo868lbnjs5lkaMupd5c7uejynp6DPaIbFGANOs9SQ&oe=65D5AA8B&dl=1

Meath4Sam2020 (Meath) - Posts: 141 - 20/02/2024 10:28:39    2527156

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Replying To BigJoe14:  "When will the actual fixtures for A Leagues and premier competitions be released? The league had started this time last year. It's now mid February, is it that difficult a task?"
Premier Competitions is not starting until August as per the planner

199710 (Meath) - Posts: 120 - 20/02/2024 11:01:26    2527161

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Replying To Meath4Sam2020:  "What do people make of the new restructuring of the a leagues. Find it strange looking at the divisions that some teams are below others even though they had a better year than them in the league last season"
What teams are you referring to? Id say with any restructuring there will be some curve balls seeing the senior clubs are entering in their second teams. There were a lot of walk overs in some of the divisions last year and it did effect some of the league standing come the end of the year. I just looked the link that was posted and Div. 1 to 5 seems fair. I know a lot of clubs have lost players who have gone travelling so this might have influenced some of the gradings?

199710 (Meath) - Posts: 120 - 20/02/2024 11:06:32    2527163

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Replying To 199710:  "Premier Competitions is not starting until August as per the planner"
Good to see they've ended the ridicululous practice where they started in March.

Meath must have been the only county in Ireland to play our 2nd team competitions off early, so that the players could also play for their 1st teams.

CastleBravo (Meath) - Posts: 1668 - 20/02/2024 11:40:06    2527168

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Replying To CastleBravo:  "Good to see they've ended the ridicululous practice where they started in March.

Meath must have been the only county in Ireland to play our 2nd team competitions off early, so that the players could also play for their 1st teams."
Are there not to be more lower leagues introduced for teams to enter 2nd/3rd teams which will begin in March. The premier competitions will run in parallel with the championships. Don't know why the reserve cups played so early. These were not completed until October last year and should be run off in the summer months with more participation likely.

winatallcost (Meath) - Posts: 594 - 20/02/2024 13:15:52    2527184

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Replying To 199710:  "What teams are you referring to? Id say with any restructuring there will be some curve balls seeing the senior clubs are entering in their second teams. There were a lot of walk overs in some of the divisions last year and it did effect some of the league standing come the end of the year. I just looked the link that was posted and Div. 1 to 5 seems fair. I know a lot of clubs have lost players who have gone travelling so this might have influenced some of the gradings?"
Syddan finished mid table in what is now Div.2 last year and have been relegated back to Div.3b instead of Rathkenny. Makes for interesting reading

ladshey (Meath) - Posts: 5 - 20/02/2024 13:35:51    2527192

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Replying To ladshey:  "Syddan finished mid table in what is now Div.2 last year and have been relegated back to Div.3b instead of Rathkenny. Makes for interesting reading"
Id say its because Rathkenny won the inter championship and that Syddan struggled a bit and didn't make the knock out stages. They will be missing Daire Rowe now that he is in with the county so they might be happy enough with that but that's for them to decide.

199710 (Meath) - Posts: 120 - 20/02/2024 15:21:14    2527214

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Replying To ladshey:  "Syddan finished mid table in what is now Div.2 last year and have been relegated back to Div.3b instead of Rathkenny. Makes for interesting reading"
Are the new league division formats available on the meathgaa website or where?

winatallcost (Meath) - Posts: 594 - 20/02/2024 16:00:25    2527221

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Replying To ladshey:  "Syddan finished mid table in what is now Div.2 last year and have been relegated back to Div.3b instead of Rathkenny. Makes for interesting reading"
I am totally speculating here but surely Syddan requested this ? Don't care what kind of restructuring is being done you can't just relegate a team who finished mid table in DIV 2 unless they requested it . With Daire Rowe missing and possibly other lads unavailable it might have been their request ?

Blackspot09 (Meath) - Posts: 1012 - 20/02/2024 16:03:15    2527223

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Where are the divisions? Can't find them on Meath website

seasiderblues (Meath) - Posts: 353 - 20/02/2024 16:27:12    2527229

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Lots of good in these new league divisions. Putting Eastern Gaels and St Pauls in Division 10 means they can be competitive hopefully. Second and third teams getting nine league games is good, if perhaps a little hopeful as the spectre of the dreaded 'walkover' hangs in the air and might be a common occurrence.
Kilbride lost the Division 3A final (Division 5 in the new naming system) to St Brigids last year. Yet Kilbride have jumped two Divisions from 5 to 3, and Brigid's who won that final only move to Division 4. St Ultan's who topped Division 4 last year but lost the final have had their promotion taken away from them to facilitate Kilbride's two division jump. Ultan's probably can't complain having got a reprieve from their JFC B relegation.
You'd wonder who makes these decisions, is it a single individual or a committee? I know clubs were none the wiser.

Roger (Meath) - Posts: 479 - 20/02/2024 16:57:09    2527235

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How are all these fixtures going to be fixed? Will committee ensure 1st and 2nd/3rd team games will not be fixed on same night or at least a few days apart?

winatallcost (Meath) - Posts: 594 - 20/02/2024 19:15:07    2527262

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Replying To winatallcost:  "Are there not to be more lower leagues introduced for teams to enter 2nd/3rd teams which will begin in March. The premier competitions will run in parallel with the championships. Don't know why the reserve cups played so early. These were not completed until October last year and should be run off in the summer months with more participation likely."
There's league football alright for 2nd/3rd teams (as there should be). I'm referring to the ridiculous state of affairs we had last year where the Premier championships were started in March and finished before the 1st team championships started. This meant that clubs could field a "2nd" team which contained a lot of their 1st team, without ever losing any players to a higher grade.

The reserve cup being a waste of time was a direct result of this. Since 3rd team (and for all bar a dozen clubs, 2nd team) football was wrapped up by June, it left the entire summer free of meaningful football for huge swathes of players. Their pretty weak effort to solve this was to play reserve cup for a second time in the same year. We're probably the only county to play the same competition in its entirety twice in one calendar year too.

CastleBravo (Meath) - Posts: 1668 - 20/02/2024 20:00:19    2527271

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They made a fair mess of things when they did away with B Leagues and instead had a few reserve cups or something.

I can see lower divisions being a total mess with walkovers galore and some of the junior B clubs in mid divisions getting good hidings from big clubs 2/3rd teams.

The B Leagues should have been brought back and the likes of Paul's and Eastern gaels or any other struggling Junior team allowed enter Division 4 or 5 of B league and the old plan of 4 or so 2nd teams allowed into A leagues with winners of B League Div 1 promoted to replace the 2nd team who finished lowest was never given a chance to develop.

glenny (Meath) - Posts: 1116 - 21/02/2024 08:01:43    2527310

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New league format looks very solid. It will take a couple of years to get the second and third teams to the correct level and expect some hidings at the beginning.

Now will tell how St.Pauls are going to get on in the next couple of years. If they don't win games in division 10 then I can see them folding.

Good to see a number of clubs getting 4 teams in as well, they use their 3rd and 4th strings for the social aspect but also to blood younger players into adult level.

Disappointing the likes of Seneschalstown, Skryne, Wolfe Tones and Simonstown not fielding a 3rd team.

UsernameInvalid (Meath) - Posts: 409 - 21/02/2024 08:38:39    2527315

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Replying To UsernameInvalid:  "New league format looks very solid. It will take a couple of years to get the second and third teams to the correct level and expect some hidings at the beginning.

Now will tell how St.Pauls are going to get on in the next couple of years. If they don't win games in division 10 then I can see them folding.

Good to see a number of clubs getting 4 teams in as well, they use their 3rd and 4th strings for the social aspect but also to blood younger players into adult level.

Disappointing the likes of Seneschalstown, Skryne, Wolfe Tones and Simonstown not fielding a 3rd team."
Strange that these large clubs are not fielding 3rd teams. Oldcastle don't have a 2nd team or 3rd team or am I missing something? There is hardly a numbers issue with such a large population for them unless there is a mistake. Hard to understand how a Div.2 team wouldn't have at least a 2nd team.

winatallcost (Meath) - Posts: 594 - 21/02/2024 09:25:51    2527323

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