Limerick Desmond League 2016/17

[Johnnie C]

Well done to them, fine achievement.
Came across this website recently.
http://www.ferryrangers.ie/index.php

[nathanbrown]

First post in a while. I've been off the grid for a while. Ive been following proceedings from the beaches of Australia. Came back last week and went to see the first game on the new AstroTurf in Adare. A mighty fine facility, pity the same can't be said for the soccer played on it. St Itas beat AK 4-0. No point giving a description of what I saw, lets just say it was not great. Some good finishes but 2 very poor sides.
Got me thinking, what are peoples opinions on amalgamations? AK are amalgamated under age but not at Junior level. Adare seem to be going quite well in division 2 and AK look to be doing just enough to possibly survive in division 1. If they joined at junior level surely they would be competitive. Their under age teams are unbelievably successful and this will surely feed top players into the junior team in time. I see their under 17 team are in the last 8 of the FAI and they are winning leagues at under 16, 15, 14 and 12 and very successful girls teams (including a national cup final) with the ladies winning their league also. Surely a big future for the junior club if Adare were on board. Anyone know why they aren't? GB Rovers another example of underage working, not to the same extent as AK Utd but going well. Surely if they joined at junior level it would make another competitive team in the premier.
I guess the question im asking is, should more teams be amalgamating? There are some obvious amalgamations that are working in GAA that should work in soccer. Granagh/Ballingarry, Kildimo/Pallaskenry,, Feenagh/Broadford, Askeaton/Ballysteen being some examples. Shannonside enjoyed brief success and seem to be on the way back to premier at least. The likes of abbeyfeale and NCW being big towns should need no amalgamation being big towns but the league would surely benefit hugely. If nearly every team amalgamated (I know its unlikely) but you would end up with half the amount of clubs but the same amount of teams as each team would have a B team. It would improve participation at munster and national level, it would mean much more competitive and enjoyable games in the premier and could only be good for the league. It would also massively improve the quality of the lower divisions
Best example for me would be Granagh Ballingarry. 2 very good junior teams, both will likely be in premier next year. 2 excellent underage set ups, they would surely excel at underage and junior and make the league representation far superior on both levels

Thoughts??

Sorry for long post, its been a while

[Langerdan007]

Welcome back Nathan, the short answer to why the junior teams arent amalgamated is that the Adare Junior team in the end refused to join at Junior level (the reasons for that I have no idea, you hear bits and pieces but to be fair only someone involved with the team could say why). The plan had been an across the board merge, that was how plans were progressed through the process and it was late in the day that the Juniors finally said they wouldn't join, at that point the underage plans had to proceed as planned. As you stated the underage teams are having some good success which is good to see.

League wide I think we probably have a division too many - lot of teams teetering on the edge numbers wise and I'd agree the days of each parish having a team might be coming to an end BUT there's always people who find it hard to let go. There would definitely be merit in some more teams merging - it would strengthen the first team and would surely allow them to have a relatively strong second team as well.

[fanaticfan]

And the reason AK are doing well underage is because they are hounding players from other clubs (especially the 14 and 16 girls team)

[Shoot]

I don't not about clubs joining but if they do they definitely should merge across the board ie: Junior and underage. What happens with Ak United when their schoolboys/girls from Adare progress to the junior ranks, I bet they go back to Adare. So you have one club feeding another that can't be right can it?

[Langerdan007]

Fair point Shoot, one that cant be ignored - this offseason should be interesting. I would agree with your across the board merge, one party was willing the other was not, there was still merit with the underage merging so it proceeded.

fanatic I wouldn't even touch that with a 40 foot barge pole I'm not involved with either setup

[Abbeyman]

AK underage teams seems to feature a lot more parishs than Kilcornan and adare , seem to have players from Askeaton , cappagh , ballysteen , pallaskenry , kildimo .
Bringing amalgamations to new levels .

[Cruyff]

AK Utd are hated unanimously across the schoolboys/girls league. This year's league AGM was hilarious, anyone that was at it will know what I'm talking about with regard to AK Utd. I however don't mind clubs joining I think it's a good thing, provided you take from your own catchment area within fair reason. AK are probably fairly singled out for taking players from other clubs, I know several clubs have complained to the schoolboys league about them, however and believe me when I say this that they were far from the first club to take players from other clubs, I think it's just that they're an easy target for criticism. I for one think they've done great things for the children that play for them by providing good coaching and facilities for them. GAA traditions will be too hard to break for a lot of clubs, Newcastle AFC and Rovers are in serious discussion to join from top to bottom at the moment.

[Langerdan007]

Thats very interesting Cruyff that Rovers and AFC are in talks - I know going by results AFC seem to have some issues currently but if a place the size of NCW have teams merging what hope for the small parishes

A soccer equivalent of St Kierans Abbeyman - I would agree with Cruyff though that the facilities provided is a draw, the astroturf in Kilcornan is excellent and as nathan mentioned the new one in Adare is another excellent all weather facility and I think there is good coaching/structure provided at the underage level. We might need a better publicist but we also need to ensure we have somewhere for our local kids to play

[nathanbrown]

I cant really defend AK as I dont know what goes on there but it seems to me that fanaticfan has personal experience with the girls teams, cant tar all other underage teams with the same brush. Girls is difficult, theres not many teams and when 2 good teams (like adare and kilcornan were at u14) join up, girls are gonna wanna play with the best. If there was poaching involved in getting other girls there then thats wrong but it doesnt explain how the boys teams are so successful.
As regards other parishes, theres no club in the league that doesnt have players from neighbouring parishes. Cappagh have no soccer, ballysteen have no underage soccer, Askeaton are traditionally under some sort of dictatorship who noone wants to play for, so you cant blame players from those parishes for playing for them.
Langerdan compared it to St Kierans, what about Rathkeale? Successful junior team this year, how many are from rathkeale? very few. Abbeyfeale always draw from a different county, despite being a rather large town with huge catchment area. It goes on everywhere lads

Nice to have opened a can of worms. Keep it coming

[Shearer]

First post in a while. I've been off the grid for a while. Ive been following proceedings from the beaches of Australia. Came back last week and went to see the first game on the new AstroTurf in Adare. A mighty fine facility, pity the same can't be said for the soccer played on it. St Itas beat AK 4-0. No point giving a description of what I saw, lets just say it was not great. Some good finishes but 2 very poor sides.

With a scoreline like that I think there was only one poor side.

Got me thinking, what are peoples opinions on amalgamations? AK are amalgamated under age but not at Junior level. Adare seem to be going quite well in division 2 and AK look to be doing just enough to possibly survive in division 1. If they joined at junior level surely they would be competitive. Their under age teams are unbelievably successful and this will surely feed top players into the junior team in time. I see their under 17 team are in the last 8 of the FAI and they are winning leagues at under 16, 15, 14 and 12 and very successful girls teams (including a national cup final) with the ladies winning their league also. Surely a big future for the junior club if Adare were on board. Anyone know why they aren't?

I'm very pro-amalgamation. If you want to improve then joining up and getting the opportunity to play at a higher level is a great way to do so. It makes it harder to get on the starting team and makes training hard and commitment a must. Amalgamation is fine when it's solely two parishes with players from both those parishes but not when you're using it as a method to poach players as previously mentioned with the girls teams.

GB Rovers another example of underage working, not to the same extent as AK Utd but going well. Surely if they joined at junior level it would make another competitive team in the premier.

With Glin being mid-table in the Premier and Bally Rovers being in a similar position in Division Two I don't think it would be of much benefit at Junior level to Glin.

I guess the question im asking is, should more teams be amalgamating? There are some obvious amalgamations that are working in GAA that should work in soccer. Granagh/Ballingarry, Kildimo/Pallaskenry,, Feenagh/Broadford, Askeaton/Ballysteen being some examples. Shannonside enjoyed brief success and seem to be on the way back to premier at least.

I think that when Summer Soccer does eventually come in at Junior level that there will be a lot more amalgamations occurring due to people committing solely to either GAA or Soccer. Wouldn't see Granagh/Ballingarry happening, I don't think Granagh will last long in the premier and I don't think Ballingarry would have anything to gain nor would they want to unless things went very bad. Considering their league positions at the moment, Kildimo/Pallaskenry is a logical one. Feenagh and St. Ita's are joined underage under the name Bluebell United and would be a probable amalgamation at Junior level if needed in the future. Broadford have no need to join. They have twenty players togged out each Sunday and as with Ballingarry, they would have nothing to gain. Askeaton would have no need to join.

The likes of abbeyfeale and NCW being big towns should need no amalgamation being big towns but the league would surely benefit hugely. If nearly every team amalgamated (I know its unlikely) but you would end up with half the amount of clubs but the same amount of teams as each team would have a B team. It would improve participation at munster and national level, it would mean much more competitive and enjoyable games in the premier and could only be good for the league. It would also massively improve the quality of the lower divisions
Best example for me would be Granagh Ballingarry. 2 very good junior teams, both will likely be in premier next year. 2 excellent underage set ups, they would surely excel at underage and junior and make the league representation far superior on both levels

Thoughts??

Sorry for long post, its been a while

Never say never on a Newcastle West amalgamation. Despite not being a town, Broadford could be thrown in there with the likes of Abbey and both NCW sides as cases of not needing to amalgamate. People fail to realise that Broadford have a huge area to pick from including all of North Cork with the nearest club being Charleville as well as areas like Castlemahon, the parishes of Dromcollogher and Broadford and that's before you get to poaching from other clubs.

[The Enforcer]

With a scoreline like that I think there was only one poor side.


I'm very pro-amalgamation. If you want to improve then joining up and getting the opportunity to play at a higher level is a great way to do so. It makes it harder to get on the starting team and makes training hard and commitment a must. Amalgamation is fine when it's solely two parishes with players from both those parishes but not when you're using it as a method to poach players as previously mentioned with the girls teams.


With Glin being mid-table in the Premier and Bally Rovers being in a similar position in Division Two I don't think it would be of much benefit at Junior level to Glin.


I think that when Summer Soccer does eventually come in at Junior level that there will be a lot more amalgamations occurring due to people committing solely to either GAA or Soccer. Wouldn't see Granagh/Ballingarry happening, I don't think Granagh will last long in the premier and I don't think Ballingarry would have anything to gain nor would they want to unless things went very bad. Considering their league positions at the moment, Kildimo/Pallaskenry is a logical one. Feenagh and St. Ita's are joined underage under the name Bluebell United and would be a probable amalgamation at Junior level if needed in the future. Broadford have no need to join. They have twenty players togged out each Sunday and as with Ballingarry, they would have nothing to gain. Askeaton would have no need to join.


Never say never on a Newcastle West amalgamation. Despite not being a town, Broadford could be thrown in there with the likes of Abbey and both NCW sides as cases of not needing to amalgamate. People fail to realise that Broadford have a huge area to pick from including all of North Cork with the nearest club being Charleville as well as areas like Castlemahon, the parishes of Dromcollogher and Broadford and that's before you get to poaching from other clubs.

Has poaching not stopped in the Desmond league in recent years. I could be wrong but I couldn't think of any player playing in the premier at the moment that has been poached

[Abbeyman]

Has poaching not stopped in the Desmond league in recent years. I could be wrong but I couldn't think of any player playing in the premier at the moment that has been poached

Whats Rathkeales story , how many of them are from rathkeale eg is Declan Nash not from Kilcornan or Ballysteen?

think that when Summer Soccer does eventually come in at Junior level that there will be a lot more amalgamations occurring due to people committing solely to either GAA or Soccer. Wouldn't see Granagh/Ballingarry happening, I don't think Granagh will last long in the premier and I don't think Ballingarry would have anything to gain nor would they want to unless things went very bad. Considering their league positions at the moment, Kildimo/Pallaskenry is a logical one. Feenagh and St. Ita's are joined underage under the name Bluebell United and would be a probable amalgamation at Junior level if needed in the future. Broadford have no need to join. They have twenty players togged out each Sunday and as with Ballingarry, they would have nothing to gain. Askeaton would have no need to join.

This Soccer Summer is going to really put a gun to fellows head, are they going to play senior football championship or hurling with their club or play Desmond league,2/3 of clubs be ok, wont affect Abbey too much but still lose some but definitely non town teams will struggle. Granagh, Rockhill, Ferry rangers be wiped out. Your right Broadford have big pick , Ballingarry be ok, Askeaton the club who have really plummeted but looking at the crew playing with them, they have bigger problems than other sports.

[The Enforcer]

Whats Rathkeales story , how many of them are from rathkeale eg is Declan Nash not from Kilcornan or Ballysteen?

[/I]
This Soccer Summer is going to really put a gun to fellows head, are they going to play senior football championship or hurling with their club or play Desmond league,2/3 of clubs be ok, wont affect Abbey too much but still lose some but definitely non town teams will struggle. Granagh, Rockhill, Ferry rangers be wiped out. Your right Broadford have big pick , Ballingarry be ok, Askeaton the club who have really plummeted but looking at the crew playing with them, they have bigger problems than other sports.

Declan Nash as well as his brother played all their under age soccer with Rathkeale. Same story with Abbey and Broadford, picking lads from their localities and bringing their underage players through. I've no problems with tiny clubs having a moan but let's keep it factual. There seems to be a lot of jealousy here towards the teams that are doing their best to improve the standards of the league

[nathanbrown]

Fairly sure neither Declan Nash or his brother played any underage soccer with rathkeale.
The rules of soccer means you can play with whoever you want, every year the same lads are being hounded by different clubs to get them to transfer, that's how it works, that's how you win from the bottom right to the top. If you do it you're poaching if you don't you lack ambition.
The reason we don't get any players making it at the top is because players are pressured into playing with their parish. I admire AK for showing ambition and recruiting top coaches to coach their kids on the best facilities in the league and they are reaping rewards from it. I am originally from just outside Adare and if i had a child that wanted to play soccer i would send them to AK for that reason. But everyone else sees this as taboo and as poaching

[The Enforcer]

Fairly sure neither Declan Nash or his brother played any underage soccer with rathkeale.
The rules of soccer means you can play with whoever you want, every year the same lads are being hounded by different clubs to get them to transfer, that's how it works, that's how you win from the bottom right to the top. If you do it you're poaching if you don't you lack ambition.
The reason we don't get any players making it at the top is because players are pressured into playing with their parish. I admire AK for showing ambition and recruiting top coaches to coach their kids on the best facilities in the league and they are reaping rewards from it. I am originally from just outside Adare and if i had a child that wanted to play soccer i would send them to AK for that reason. But everyone else sees this as taboo and as poaching

I'm fairly sure Peter Nash captained Rathkeale to a youth league

[Shoot]

I don't see what all the the fuss with players playing for clubs outside of their parish, its been happening since I was playing underage in the early 80s and I bet before that as well after all isn't it a international sport for everyone ��

[CraftyToePoke]

Newcastle AFC and Rovers are in serious discussion to join from top to bottom at the moment.

Very interesting, I had no idea this was afoot. I wonder where home would be ? The relatively new Rovers facility or, the AFC ground which is to many the home of soccer in the town having been a LOI ground for a spell.

[Shearer]

Very interesting, I had no idea this was afoot. I wonder where home would be ? The relatively new Rovers facility or, the AFC ground which is to many the home of soccer in the town having been a LOI ground for a spell.

Personally I think having Woodfield for schoolboys and the Demesne for Junior would be ideal.

[CraftyToePoke]

Personally I think having Woodfield for schoolboys and the Demesne for Junior would be ideal.

You know now you say it, yes. The Demense has something lovely about it I think when you go to a match there, but then I grew up seeing LOI there which are special memories. That's a history no one else around can boast and it would be a shame to lose it.

It does seem there isn't space for two sides to do well n the town, Rovers were always in lesser shape but their emergence has seen AFC fade.