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It looks like by the time the u20 championship concludes there will be more games conceded than played in it. One would wonder what sort of thought process goes into the planning of this championship. It was U-21 last year and U-20 this year. Played at the same time as one of the most competitive teams in the competition (coolera/strandhill) are also competing in the Connacht Championship, as well as our other county representatives (Easkey and Owenmore Gaels) whom also had key players on the county U20 team this season. Games also scheduled at 2pm on Saturdays, when most lads within that age cohort are working.

Serious consideration needs to be given to the scheduling & grading of underage competitions within the county going forward. I am reading about many productive debates in other counties of comprehensive discussions taking place around underage competitions and the format they should take going forward - yet there is total silence on this matter in Sligo. It would appear that we have to accept what the CB deem best. I know that one club within the county asked for a discussion on reverting to even grades last season, just a discussion, and the suggestion was shot down completely by the CB.

The scheduling of underage competitions this season was also a total farce as some lads who were playing both codes could be playing up to 4 games one week and then not have a game for over 4 weeks. Certain teams in the U17A competition were suddenly regraded after round 1 down to B - despise coiste na nog initially standing firm that their grading was final. A circus.

Underage results at a county level over recent years have, in my opinion, glossed over a lot of serious cracks in the administration and set up of underage competitions within the county. Unless these problems get addressed sooner rather than later, I think it has the potential to set us back in the future. Here's hoping for a decent sake up at convention. Whenever the convention will take place or get advertised. It's occurrence appears to be shrouded in more secrecy than the last secret of Fatima.

benbulbingael (Sligo) - Posts: 9 - 11/11/2023 02:30:45    2512416

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Was just wondering for 2024 is Sligo underage even ages 14 :16 18 or 13 : 15 17 ,, ? lots counties gone back to even ,

Kickitout (Galway) - Posts: 966 - 11/11/2023 17:58:29    2512445

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Asking for a friend how did Coolera perform today?

leyny (Sligo) - Posts: 71 - 12/11/2023 17:08:52    2512564

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Replying To leyny:  "Asking for a friend how did Coolera perform today?"
Let's just hope our other champions at intermediate and junior level can manage a better outcome. To not score in a whole half of football is dire stuff.

Sligoman1234 (Sligo) - Posts: 434 - 12/11/2023 23:06:46    2512620

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Poor performance from Coolera/Strandhill yesterday. Fortunately for them Brigids seemed to take the foot of the pedal and got 3 big injuries in the second half. In mitigation Coolera were without 3 of their starting forwards from the county final. Coolera backline too slow and immobile for the pacy Brigids attack. Niall Murphy well marshalled - first time i can remember that he was held scoreless.

Anto (Sligo) - Posts: 369 - 13/11/2023 10:22:33    2512638

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Ocean joined second half with 10 minutes left tells the story of the 1st half. Think it was 0-0 to 0-10 before CSH got off the mark. Obviously they had no interest after county final.

MrUnderhill (Sligo) - Posts: 73 - 13/11/2023 12:10:42    2512680

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It was a poor weekend on the football front. Terrible performance from Coolera. And as other posters have alluded to, the amount of walk overs are embarrassing. Why the need for an U.20 competition in the month of November.? There was an U.19 competition in the summer that didn't work either. At least with the U.19 competition lads got an opportunity to impress County mgt as they would be in the U.20 category for next year.The format for the U.20 didn't help either. Basically if you lost your first game you were probably out as there was nothing for coming second in the group.

eoinog (Sligo) - Posts: 1996 - 13/11/2023 14:57:35    2512734

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Replying To Kickitout:  "Was just wondering for 2024 is Sligo underage even ages 14 :16 18 or 13 : 15 17 ,, ? lots counties gone back to even ,"
I have no idea. Most clubs want it back to evens. The Co board keep kicking the can down the road. We were promised that clubs would be allowed a vote, that must be 2 months ago and it has never happened. The Co Board themselves rarely meet so club delegates don't get an opportunity to voice their concerns on any matter. On the field of play we have improved considerably but at boardroom level we are very weak

eoinog (Sligo) - Posts: 1996 - 13/11/2023 15:02:30    2512735

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Thanks for update unfortunately most county boards are same all they say we look at again which never happens all there interested in is running competition and getting them out of the way with no real thought what clubs actually want and long term what's best for the players to give them chance to improve,, I know majority of counties have gone back to even ages ,,

Kickitout (Galway) - Posts: 966 - 13/11/2023 15:37:25    2512756

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Well given the shambles of a Connacht campaign our senior champions had how will our others perform this weekend? Owenmore Gaels will be favourites to win their semi final but its a tag that hasn't suited them too well in the past. I'd expect though that their opposition won't have too much heart for the battle and wouldn't have been training too hard over the last month since their county final loss, so I do expect them to win but don't see them lifting a Connacht Junior cup.

As for Easkey it's certainly not a bad draw to get a home game against Castlerea. I know nothing of them so had a look at their results online. They seem to average around 11/12 points total score which is nothing to fear. Easkey averaged 15 and I know that is no real indication on how games outside the county will go but what else have I to work with! It will be a good match for both and I'll back Easkey for a home win.

Sligoman1234 (Sligo) - Posts: 434 - 16/11/2023 19:14:52    2513410

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Replying To Sligoman1234:  "Well given the shambles of a Connacht campaign our senior champions had how will our others perform this weekend? Owenmore Gaels will be favourites to win their semi final but its a tag that hasn't suited them too well in the past. I'd expect though that their opposition won't have too much heart for the battle and wouldn't have been training too hard over the last month since their county final loss, so I do expect them to win but don't see them lifting a Connacht Junior cup.

As for Easkey it's certainly not a bad draw to get a home game against Castlerea. I know nothing of them so had a look at their results online. They seem to average around 11/12 points total score which is nothing to fear. Easkey averaged 15 and I know that is no real indication on how games outside the county will go but what else have I to work with! It will be a good match for both and I'll back Easkey for a home win."
Castlerea won the Intermediate county championship against the odds 3 or 4 teams were more fancied than them including Eire OG who they beat in the final. A Young team with around 10 of their starting team aged 23 or under.

Castlerea have been been scoring on average 13 points per match, under their new management this year their main strength/focus has been defensively whereby the conceded just 1-42 in 6 games. I would expect a competitive match tomorrow unlike last Sunday's in Hyde Park between St. Brigid's and Coolera-Strandhill.

The_analyser (Roscommon) - Posts: 3926 - 17/11/2023 19:31:46    2513548

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Replying To The_analyser:  "Castlerea won the Intermediate county championship against the odds 3 or 4 teams were more fancied than them including Eire OG who they beat in the final. A Young team with around 10 of their starting team aged 23 or under.

Castlerea have been been scoring on average 13 points per match, under their new management this year their main strength/focus has been defensively whereby the conceded just 1-42 in 6 games. I would expect a competitive match tomorrow unlike last Sunday's in Hyde Park between St. Brigid's and Coolera-Strandhill."
Thanks for the info. I see Easkey conceded 3-49 in six games so average of 10 points as opposed to Castlereas 7.5. Should be a good even match. Easkeys Connacht and All Ireland experience a few years ago might be a beneficial factor to them, but as you say it can't be any worse than what played last week!

Sligoman1234 (Sligo) - Posts: 434 - 18/11/2023 11:22:49    2513604

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Replying To The_analyser:  "Castlerea won the Intermediate county championship against the odds 3 or 4 teams were more fancied than them including Eire OG who they beat in the final. A Young team with around 10 of their starting team aged 23 or under.

Castlerea have been been scoring on average 13 points per match, under their new management this year their main strength/focus has been defensively whereby the conceded just 1-42 in 6 games. I would expect a competitive match tomorrow unlike last Sunday's in Hyde Park between St. Brigid's and Coolera-Strandhill."
Have no doubt about it ,castlerea are going to win here

Timmy86 (Sligo) - Posts: 308 - 18/11/2023 14:12:11    2513623

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Good win for OMG in Junior, will need to fire on all cylinders if they are to be competitive in final. Good performance from Easkey in intermediate, hard to battle on two fronts. EOH and Mohill , will rue what might have been as they gave St Brid a real scare.

MrUnderhill (Sligo) - Posts: 73 - 20/11/2023 15:55:45    2513892

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Replying To MrUnderhill:  "Good win for OMG in Junior, will need to fire on all cylinders if they are to be competitive in final. Good performance from Easkey in intermediate, hard to battle on two fronts. EOH and Mohill , will rue what might have been as they gave St Brid a real scare."
Well done to Owenmore and hard luck Easkey. If Owenmore fire on all cylinders, I would give them a chance of being more than just competitive. They are as good as most intermediate teams in Sligo on their day and their pace will test any team.

ShellyGael (Sligo) - Posts: 106 - 20/11/2023 21:17:49    2513936

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Well done Owenmore Gaels and good luck to them in two weeks time in Castlebar. It would be great to have Sligo clubs regularly in Connacht club finals no matter what grade. Easkey gave it a good shot too but may have left too much for themselves to do conceding the two goals in the first half.

Can anyone explain the story about the u20 championship? There are fixtures down for this weekend but if ya scroll down to the finals the only one that matters is the Marys v Harps game as I doubt Easkey/Farnan's are going to play when they're in the connacht hurling final.

Sligoman1234 (Sligo) - Posts: 434 - 21/11/2023 11:50:45    2514000

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Replying To Sligoman1234:  "Well done Owenmore Gaels and good luck to them in two weeks time in Castlebar. It would be great to have Sligo clubs regularly in Connacht club finals no matter what grade. Easkey gave it a good shot too but may have left too much for themselves to do conceding the two goals in the first half.

Can anyone explain the story about the u20 championship? There are fixtures down for this weekend but if ya scroll down to the finals the only one that matters is the Marys v Harps game as I doubt Easkey/Farnan's are going to play when they're in the connacht hurling final."
Sometimes I get things right. I predicted before this competition started that it was going to be a farce and that's how it's turning out to be. When the senior championship season is done, there's no point in Starting a new competition. It's always a failure. Well done to Owenmore Gaels. It would be great if they could pick up a Connacht title. Easkey won the Connacht Club Junior a few years ago and they will be playing senior championship next year which shows great progression. Unfortunately Easkey this year got nowhere in Connacht the same as Coolera which was very disappointing. I thought our club football was better than that. It doesn't auger too well for our senior team in the short term

eoinog (Sligo) - Posts: 1996 - 21/11/2023 14:22:42    2514030

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Replying To eoinog:  "Sometimes I get things right. I predicted before this competition started that it was going to be a farce and that's how it's turning out to be. When the senior championship season is done, there's no point in Starting a new competition. It's always a failure. Well done to Owenmore Gaels. It would be great if they could pick up a Connacht title. Easkey won the Connacht Club Junior a few years ago and they will be playing senior championship next year which shows great progression. Unfortunately Easkey this year got nowhere in Connacht the same as Coolera which was very disappointing. I thought our club football was better than that. It doesn't auger too well for our senior team in the short term"
So much for suggestions that players with Junior clubs in Sligo should transfer to "serious" football clubs within the county if they want to progress. Our senior club champions would struggle to make the top 6 in Roscommon, Bridgets, Boyle, Pearses, Faitleach's, Clan would all win Sligo and a few more there or there abouts.
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sligo joe (Dublin) - Posts: 823 - 21/11/2023 22:15:22    2514104

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Looks like a lot of movement in managers this year. Anybody heard of any clubs on the hunt or managers moving anywhere?

Looking forward to the return of the county teams after Christmas. Hopefully we can push on after our league campaign last year and try be in the top half of division 3 pushing for promotion. I don't think it's an unrealistic target. I've still not heard of a whole amount of lads getting called in to the squad. Are they back training yet and if so is there any word on newcomers to look out for. Looking forward to seeing if Kevin McLoughlin can bring his experience as a Mayo player to the Sligo team and hopefully have valuable input. I'd imagine this will be McEntee's last year and he will be eyeing up the Armagh job so a solid campaign this year would do him the world of good for that.

Disappointing to see the lack of games played in the u20 club championship. But it's not unexpected. It's a competition that I don't think clubs or players buy into and doesn't fit in to the calendar.

The standard of club football in Sligo unfortunately isn't where it needs to be if we want to be progressing up the divisions. A hammering from Roscommon champions who then had a tight match against the Leitrim champions doesn't look great for us. Is our senior standard that far behind or was it just a bad day for Coolera/Strandhill?
I wasn't at the Easkey match but by all accounts they put in a good performance and weren't far away.
Hopefully Owenmore Gaels can bring home a cup in the Junior A, if they get it right on the day I don't see why they can't.

Sligeach Abú

Sligobuck21 (Sligo) - Posts: 115 - 24/11/2023 16:01:19    2514497

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Replying To sligo joe:  "So much for suggestions that players with Junior clubs in Sligo should transfer to "serious" football clubs within the county if they want to progress. Our senior club champions would struggle to make the top 6 in Roscommon, Bridgets, Boyle, Pearses, Faitleach's, Clan would all win Sligo and a few more there or there abouts.
,"
You seem to be a little besotted by that post. Get over it. Tune into the toy show , it might take your mind off it

eoinog (Sligo) - Posts: 1996 - 24/11/2023 20:54:38    2514522

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