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Coming from an outside perspective, I have never seen such a difference in standard of football in Longford between Intermediate and Senior Longford club football. I have attended a number of games (at both levels) and the difference is shocking. Ballymahons result was a long time coming and I would be surprised if any team that wins the Intermediate championship (Connolys, Drumlish, Cashel) would want to go up to senior level after seeing how Ballymahon have faired this year, averaging a score of 4 points per game and conceding an average of 24 points.
While Killoe, Mullinaghta are obviously strong teams, even Rathcline Abbeylara and Slashers fall far short when it comes to quality of the next best contenders. Its a strange one on how to fix the problem, as their should be a natural progression from an intermediate team coming up the ranks challenging to stay up and make quarter finals/semi finals. Not just a conveyor belt of coming up, getting hammered and getting relegated straight to intermediate.
Jut as an example, the last 3 winners of the Intermediate championship in Roscommon (Oran, St. Dominics, St. Faithleachs) have all stayed in the Roscommon senior championship the last 3 years and all are safe from relegation this year, while 2 of the 3 are in a position to make quarter finals this year. This is even with only 6 teams coming out of the groups as Roscommon has brought in the divisional system this year (2 divisional teams guaranteed quarter final spots).
Its a strange one to see and was disheartening being at the Ballymahon game last weekend. Genuinely felt uncomfortable watching and coming away from the game. Also speaking to some players and managers currently playing with Intermediate teams there is genuine concern, as none of them want to be part viral whatsapps/tweets going around the county and country of a humiliating scoreline next year.
As a huge fan of club football (and Longford club football), its a hard one to now how to fix and make the intermediate championship a stronger competition to prepare for senior championship standards
Rossfan93 (Roscommon) - Posts: 60 - 29/08/2023 10:44:16
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Replying To Rossfan93: "Coming from an outside perspective, I have never seen such a difference in standard of football in Longford between Intermediate and Senior Longford club football. I have attended a number of games (at both levels) and the difference is shocking. Ballymahons result was a long time coming and I would be surprised if any team that wins the Intermediate championship (Connolys, Drumlish, Cashel) would want to go up to senior level after seeing how Ballymahon have faired this year, averaging a score of 4 points per game and conceding an average of 24 points.
While Killoe, Mullinaghta are obviously strong teams, even Rathcline Abbeylara and Slashers fall far short when it comes to quality of the next best contenders. Its a strange one on how to fix the problem, as their should be a natural progression from an intermediate team coming up the ranks challenging to stay up and make quarter finals/semi finals. Not just a conveyor belt of coming up, getting hammered and getting relegated straight to intermediate.
Jut as an example, the last 3 winners of the Intermediate championship in Roscommon (Oran, St. Dominics, St. Faithleachs) have all stayed in the Roscommon senior championship the last 3 years and all are safe from relegation this year, while 2 of the 3 are in a position to make quarter finals this year. This is even with only 6 teams coming out of the groups as Roscommon has brought in the divisional system this year (2 divisional teams guaranteed quarter final spots).
Its a strange one to see and was disheartening being at the Ballymahon game last weekend. Genuinely felt uncomfortable watching and coming away from the game. Also speaking to some players and managers currently playing with Intermediate teams there is genuine concern, as none of them want to be part viral whatsapps/tweets going around the county and country of a humiliating scoreline next year.
As a huge fan of club football (and Longford club football), its a hard one to now how to fix and make the intermediate championship a stronger competition to prepare for senior championship standards" the solution is easy its getting it done thats the problem. To many teams senior how many off them will agree to relgating themselves and 3 or 4 others
slasher9 (Longford) - Posts: 248 - 29/08/2023 11:22:57
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Replying To Rossfan93: "Coming from an outside perspective, I have never seen such a difference in standard of football in Longford between Intermediate and Senior Longford club football. I have attended a number of games (at both levels) and the difference is shocking. Ballymahons result was a long time coming and I would be surprised if any team that wins the Intermediate championship (Connolys, Drumlish, Cashel) would want to go up to senior level after seeing how Ballymahon have faired this year, averaging a score of 4 points per game and conceding an average of 24 points.
While Killoe, Mullinaghta are obviously strong teams, even Rathcline Abbeylara and Slashers fall far short when it comes to quality of the next best contenders. Its a strange one on how to fix the problem, as their should be a natural progression from an intermediate team coming up the ranks challenging to stay up and make quarter finals/semi finals. Not just a conveyor belt of coming up, getting hammered and getting relegated straight to intermediate.
Jut as an example, the last 3 winners of the Intermediate championship in Roscommon (Oran, St. Dominics, St. Faithleachs) have all stayed in the Roscommon senior championship the last 3 years and all are safe from relegation this year, while 2 of the 3 are in a position to make quarter finals this year. This is even with only 6 teams coming out of the groups as Roscommon has brought in the divisional system this year (2 divisional teams guaranteed quarter final spots).
Its a strange one to see and was disheartening being at the Ballymahon game last weekend. Genuinely felt uncomfortable watching and coming away from the game. Also speaking to some players and managers currently playing with Intermediate teams there is genuine concern, as none of them want to be part viral whatsapps/tweets going around the county and country of a humiliating scoreline next year.
As a huge fan of club football (and Longford club football), its a hard one to now how to fix and make the intermediate championship a stronger competition to prepare for senior championship standards" This has been in the making for at least 10 years with the way the County Board have run things.
They are running club football in Longford into the ground at lower level.
Even in Junior, I do not agree with second string senior teams.
If they want to have a second or third team, these should have their own Senior B or whatever.
Even looking through results in the underage in Longford, it's not promising.
A lot of one sided games and Clonguish handed out huge hammerings in the Minor A last week and Under 16 A last night, both sides scoring double figure goals.
The meeting now and the end of the year will be interesting to see what measures they will take to rectify this.
And the measures need to be drastic and immediate, not spread out over a 2 to 3 year period.
Oddball (Roscommon) - Posts: 925 - 29/08/2023 11:24:13
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Replying To Rossfan93: "Coming from an outside perspective, I have never seen such a difference in standard of football in Longford between Intermediate and Senior Longford club football. I have attended a number of games (at both levels) and the difference is shocking. Ballymahons result was a long time coming and I would be surprised if any team that wins the Intermediate championship (Connolys, Drumlish, Cashel) would want to go up to senior level after seeing how Ballymahon have faired this year, averaging a score of 4 points per game and conceding an average of 24 points.
While Killoe, Mullinaghta are obviously strong teams, even Rathcline Abbeylara and Slashers fall far short when it comes to quality of the next best contenders. Its a strange one on how to fix the problem, as their should be a natural progression from an intermediate team coming up the ranks challenging to stay up and make quarter finals/semi finals. Not just a conveyor belt of coming up, getting hammered and getting relegated straight to intermediate.
Jut as an example, the last 3 winners of the Intermediate championship in Roscommon (Oran, St. Dominics, St. Faithleachs) have all stayed in the Roscommon senior championship the last 3 years and all are safe from relegation this year, while 2 of the 3 are in a position to make quarter finals this year. This is even with only 6 teams coming out of the groups as Roscommon has brought in the divisional system this year (2 divisional teams guaranteed quarter final spots).
Its a strange one to see and was disheartening being at the Ballymahon game last weekend. Genuinely felt uncomfortable watching and coming away from the game. Also speaking to some players and managers currently playing with Intermediate teams there is genuine concern, as none of them want to be part viral whatsapps/tweets going around the county and country of a humiliating scoreline next year.
As a huge fan of club football (and Longford club football), its a hard one to now how to fix and make the intermediate championship a stronger competition to prepare for senior championship standards" This has been a huge concern the last 8-10 years in Longford, if you go back over the past intermediate winners, its very few survive the year after! and its all down to have 12 senior teams in the senior championship, take this year for example... ballymahon, Carrick, Mostrim, even abbey or rathcline are no more that a strong inter team with Ballymahon at the moment probably would not win a junior championship just look at their Div 2 results this year! the whole championship needs a re structure and the sooner it is done the better!! it will give teams a chance to survive at senior level! 8 Senior teams 8 Inter teams and 8 Junior teams!!!
At present:
Senior
Killoe
Mull
Slashers
Dromard
Granard
Comcille
Clonguish
Rathcline
Inter
Connollys
Kenagh
Drumlish
Ardagh
Carrick
Abbey
Mostrim
Killashee
Junior
Ballymore
Cashel
Ballymahon
Legan
Grattans
KIlloe 2
Slashers 2
Clonguish 2
Don't shot me if you Club is not in the right championship I am just going from this years results as a starting point!!
The last 2 seasons has been laughable to watch the inter winners play senior championship and no fault to the clubs, Ballymahon has a fair few lads retire since last year and the year before Killashee could not even pull 15 lads together to paly a game!!
Garmin (Longford) - Posts: 96 - 29/08/2023 11:47:06
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Replying To Oddball: "This has been in the making for at least 10 years with the way the County Board have run things.
They are running club football in Longford into the ground at lower level.
Even in Junior, I do not agree with second string senior teams.
If they want to have a second or third team, these should have their own Senior B or whatever.
Even looking through results in the underage in Longford, it's not promising.
A lot of one sided games and Clonguish handed out huge hammerings in the Minor A last week and Under 16 A last night, both sides scoring double figure goals.
The meeting now and the end of the year will be interesting to see what measures they will take to rectify this.
And the measures need to be drastic and immediate, not spread out over a 2 to 3 year period." With there only being 2 genuine junior teams, who do you suggest they compete against if they cannot play senior clubs B teams
ballymore1967 (Longford) - Posts: 65 - 29/08/2023 14:37:25
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Replying To ballymore1967: "With there only being 2 genuine junior teams, who do you suggest they compete against if they cannot play senior clubs B teams" Simple.....change the amount of teams in Senior like a lot of people have been asking to do.
4 teams down from Senior means there will be extra clubs in Intermediate so the weaker teams there will go to Junior.
You could have 8 Senior clubs, 7 Intermediate and 6 Junior.
Oddball (Roscommon) - Posts: 925 - 29/08/2023 15:05:12
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Replying To ballymore1967: "With there only being 2 genuine junior teams, who do you suggest they compete against if they cannot play senior clubs B teams" Ya that's not going to work! every county has senior clubs with the B team playing in the junior championship!
Roscommon actually have Clann na gael B and Brigids B playing intermediate championship , the same in Galway with Corofin B!
Garmin (Longford) - Posts: 96 - 29/08/2023 15:07:33
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Would agree with the senior/intermediate/junior split by Garmin above. Just doing that would be a significant step in the right direction. At least try it - what's the worst that could happen. It's a shame it won't happen because of vested interests. Being a senior club should be a privilege, not a right. Removing the lobbying is the big challenge!
LongfordgaaAbú (Longford) - Posts: 571 - 29/08/2023 18:17:31
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Would two groups of 6, Senior A and Senior B work?
Senior A would have the 6 highest seeded teams and Senior B the rest.
Top 4 in Senior A and top 2 in B would qualify for quarters/semis with bottom 2 in Senior A relegated to Senior B for the following season. Bottom 2 in Senior B demoted to Intermediate.
It would reduce the chance of hammerings and prevent bottlenecks with regard to promotions.
Leitrim2024 (Leitrim) - Posts: 61 - 29/08/2023 20:41:22
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I think 8 would be too few in a senior championship. The format would likely be 2 groups of 4 straight to semi finals afterwards, or an example where 2 teams are knocked out after a group stage.
10 would be good, with 2 groups of 5 similar to the Westmeath format.
easycowboy (Longford) - Posts: 28 - 30/08/2023 08:09:19
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Replying To Garmin: "This has been a huge concern the last 8-10 years in Longford, if you go back over the past intermediate winners, its very few survive the year after! and its all down to have 12 senior teams in the senior championship, take this year for example... ballymahon, Carrick, Mostrim, even abbey or rathcline are no more that a strong inter team with Ballymahon at the moment probably would not win a junior championship just look at their Div 2 results this year! the whole championship needs a re structure and the sooner it is done the better!! it will give teams a chance to survive at senior level! 8 Senior teams 8 Inter teams and 8 Junior teams!!!
At present:
Senior
Killoe
Mull
Slashers
Dromard
Granard
Comcille
Clonguish
Rathcline
Inter
Connollys
Kenagh
Drumlish
Ardagh
Carrick
Abbey
Mostrim
Killashee
Junior
Ballymore
Cashel
Ballymahon
Legan
Grattans
KIlloe 2
Slashers 2
Clonguish 2
Don't shot me if you Club is not in the right championship I am just going from this years results as a starting point!!
The last 2 seasons has been laughable to watch the inter winners play senior championship and no fault to the clubs, Ballymahon has a fair few lads retire since last year and the year before Killashee could not even pull 15 lads together to paly a game!!" Not too many could argue with those rankings, even though Granard are in the quarters I think Mostrim are more of a senior team than they are. Hopefully clubs and the county board can see the light that this is for everyone's benefit.
Quarter finals are going to be interesting but Killoe and Mullinalaghta are still that bit ahead of the rest of the pack. Hard to see it being anything other than those two in a final should they not meet in the semis
liosbreac6265 (Longford) - Posts: 254 - 04/09/2023 11:08:37
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So it looked like all Quarter-Final pairings were sorted but the CB decided otherwise! I can't see a play-off taking place as neither team like to play an extra game that they feel they shouldn't have to! (Leader Cup final 2022).
So it looks like a toss of a coin or maybe Colmcille have agreed to let Mullinalaghta take 2nd spot with their superior score difference.
I also noticed on the Longford GAA discussion board that a Mostrim poster put up that a few of the Mostrim players refused to travel to play Slashers on Saturday.
Anyone shed any light on whether this was true and if so why?
Spinx (Longford) - Posts: 1326 - 04/09/2023 11:41:11
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Into the quarters we go
Will be interesting to see if mullinalaghta and Colmcille play a playoff game or just toss a coin. Neither team will really want to chance any injuries
easycowboy (Longford) - Posts: 28 - 04/09/2023 11:55:26
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Replying To easycowboy: "Into the quarters we go
Will be interesting to see if mullinalaghta and Colmcille play a playoff game or just toss a coin. Neither team will really want to chance any injuries" Ridiculous situation, Mullinalaghta have a far better score difference. Would it not make sense to go with that rather than a coin toss?
maximus02 (Longford) - Posts: 211 - 04/09/2023 12:17:23
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Coin toss done. Quarters as follows...
Saturday 16th:
Killoe v Longford Slashers (4:45pm)
Granard v Colmcille (6:30pm)
Sunday 17th:
Dromard v Rathcline (4:45pm)
Mullinalaghta v Clonguish (6:30pm)
Hands up if (like me) you were yesterday days old when you found out there was a county board rule which meant that overall points difference didn't matter in the Mullinalaghta/Colmcille situation? The obvious question is why deviate from the rule here? And if it is the CB's own bye-law why weren't they prepared to have this decided and coin toss done yesterday directly after the game? All seems a bit unnecessary.
LongfordgaaAbú (Longford) - Posts: 571 - 04/09/2023 14:16:07
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Mullinlaghta won the toss and play Clonguish.
Colmcille play Granard.
So it is as it should have been!
Spinx (Longford) - Posts: 1326 - 04/09/2023 14:17:41
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Replying To LongfordgaaAbú: "Coin toss done. Quarters as follows...
Saturday 16th:
Killoe v Longford Slashers (4:45pm)
Granard v Colmcille (6:30pm)
Sunday 17th:
Dromard v Rathcline (4:45pm)
Mullinalaghta v Clonguish (6:30pm)
Hands up if (like me) you were yesterday days old when you found out there was a county board rule which meant that overall points difference didn't matter in the Mullinalaghta/Colmcille situation? The obvious question is why deviate from the rule here? And if it is the CB's own bye-law why weren't they prepared to have this decided and coin toss done yesterday directly after the game? All seems a bit unnecessary." County board are backwards in everything they do. Reactive nor proactive.
Anyone else disappointed about the lack of social media presence around games and scores. Look at surrounding counties and they are in a different league.
It's great for promotion of the games
williesboy (Leitrim) - Posts: 418 - 04/09/2023 18:44:51
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Replying To LongfordgaaAbú: "Coin toss done. Quarters as follows...
Saturday 16th:
Killoe v Longford Slashers (4:45pm)
Granard v Colmcille (6:30pm)
Sunday 17th:
Dromard v Rathcline (4:45pm)
Mullinalaghta v Clonguish (6:30pm)
Hands up if (like me) you were yesterday days old when you found out there was a county board rule which meant that overall points difference didn't matter in the Mullinalaghta/Colmcille situation? The obvious question is why deviate from the rule here? And if it is the CB's own bye-law why weren't they prepared to have this decided and coin toss done yesterday directly after the game? All seems a bit unnecessary." I think everyone was surprised at this law. If it was made aware before the championship then Ballymahon would not of got such a beating from Clonguish. The only reason we kept the foot on the gas was that there was still a chance our group was going to come down to score difference. But not the score difference everyone though it was going to be!!
Frank74 (Longford) - Posts: 187 - 05/09/2023 09:58:43
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Some County Boards (Offaly, Meath, Clare) seemingly didn't update their championship regulations to reflect the new rule and some of their clubs are now challenging the application of the new rule. I assume Longford avoided that mess by adopting the new rule, but then bizarrely introduced a bye-law to override the section where overall score difference is counted, and then seemed completely unprepared when their bye-law needed to be invoked!! And as for any of us knowing what our championship rules are.... forget about it! I wish they would publish them online each year. It is such an easy thing to do. Someone enjoys the power of having that info to themselves a little too much. Hardly surprising given the personnel in question.
Social media updates are poor, in both frequency and format. Again, easy to fix.
LongfordgaaAbú (Longford) - Posts: 571 - 05/09/2023 11:35:36
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Replying To Frank74: " Replying To LongfordgaaAbú: "Coin toss done. Quarters as follows...
Saturday 16th:
Killoe v Longford Slashers (4:45pm)
Granard v Colmcille (6:30pm)
Sunday 17th:
Dromard v Rathcline (4:45pm)
Mullinalaghta v Clonguish (6:30pm)
Hands up if (like me) you were yesterday days old when you found out there was a county board rule which meant that overall points difference didn't matter in the Mullinalaghta/Colmcille situation? The obvious question is why deviate from the rule here? And if it is the CB's own bye-law why weren't they prepared to have this decided and coin toss done yesterday directly after the game? All seems a bit unnecessary." I think everyone was surprised at this law. If it was made aware before the championship then Ballymahon would not of got such a beating from Clonguish. The only reason we kept the foot on the gas was that there was still a chance our group was going to come down to score difference. But not the score difference everyone though it was going to be!!"
ballymore1967 (Longford) - Posts: 65 - 05/09/2023 12:44:27
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