Womens National League - Munster Region

[olegunnar]

I am undertaking to run a forum, aimed at looking into WNL. I am inviting replies to discuss a Munster section. Clubs, venues they'd play at, and their underage structure are the 3 factors that should be discussed.

So, if you want to have your say on this topic, please do...

I will forward details to FAI to set ball in motion (hopefully)

[olegunnar]

Maybe Limerick 37, Cobh Ramblers, Lakewood, Lifford, Benfica, Wilton, Nenagh Town...

[ramladies]

would be great to have national league for womans soccer..but at cobh we have no underage structure at all which i personally think is a disgrace as so many people now living in the town and alot of young players going out of the town to play or not playing at all

[olegunnar]

In order to get something started, get into local schools and ask girls to join a Soccer Sisters programme, aimed at getting 7-12 year olds into soccer. Your best bet is to get an interested Volunteer w/ Kick Start 1, and use soccer sisters to start a u12 & u10 team. contact local league about putting the team in.

there is a womens dev officer in the area, eithne.lydon@fai.ie as well as rdo colin.obrien@fai.ie, and 3 other community dev officers in cork, not yet announced. So there is support there for ye if the club is interested in putting a structure in place!!

Personally, I think any WNL club would have to show a structure for girls to start as early as possible and have a pathway to WNL team!!:)

[pool 7]

National League teams !!!! Maybe Cork City, Waterford, Limerick 37,Cobh,etc Eircom league teams.or maybe Cork league,clare league,limerick league,kerry league,etc countie teams

[pool 7]

Ithink the wfai/fai need to give a list of pointers/standards to see if clubs can meet them.They just can let teams enter a league to have numbers in it!!!

[olegunnar]

hey pool7,maybe the league should be composed of club sides,and eircom clubs have to cater for ladies/girls as per club licensing(although i'm open to correction)

I agree that a template should be put together to advise clubs what is necessary to gain entry, especially to give them time to get up to standard!! but as i said,facilities and underage structure should be high on that list

[chick]

i think the current senior cup structure shows that there's quite a bit gap in the standard of club teams around the country. therefore, at first, in order to get it up and running, it may be better to enter representative sides from weaker footballing areas. i.e players would play with their own clubs in local leagues and then with the rep. team in the NWL. obviously there's the exception of clubs like wilton and lifford who've held their own in the senior cup.

[olegunnar]

hey chick,ur on the right track i think! maybe in munster, we'll have limerick league represented by lim37, lifford,wilton, cork league (or maybe as cork city??), Benfica from waterford. and players could play for their own club, and also join their nearest WNL team!!

good input

[Number9]

hey chick,ur on the right track i think! maybe in munster, we'll have limerick league represented by lim37, lifford,wilton, cork league (or maybe as cork city??), Benfica from waterford. and players could play for their own club, and also join their nearest WNL team!!

good input

...and what about Ballincollig, Annacotty, Tipperary League, Kerry League, Desmond League...or are they not strong enough???

[olegunnar]

hey number9, not trying to knock any club, but if option A was to have a munster section with 10 clubs, thats a lot of matches and travel, whereas if option B was a munster section with 5 strategically placed teams, it might be more feasible(as a starting point). Also, the quality of the section with 5 teams would be higher than group of 10.

if someone like annacotty found that 8-9 of their sqaud were in the lim37 team in WNL,thet might go out on their own the following season.they have the facilities!! but as a starting point, fewer teams, teams selected that cover a particular area, and less travel to keep costs down.

ultimately if its a success, there may be expansion which would see more club involved.

wotu think??

[Number9]

olegunner,
so what would annacotty and ballincollig do? they are classified for national competitions as "senior" - do they play against intermediate clubs in local leagues and then try and compete in the senior national cup? its a big ask raise your game. you mention annacotty players turning out for limerick, are you suggesting that ballincollig players turn out for cork?

[olegunnar]

hi number9, imagine that all clubs currently competing in their current league, e.g. Ballincollig in Cork, Annacotty in Limerick, Raheny in DWSL, Benfica in DWSL.... they remain as club entrants in the Senior Cup. no change.

but maybe, no more league sides compete in Senior Cup.

Then as a winter league, the fai runs a regional WNL, and looks for entries from Munster/Conn/NE & SE, but has a limit of 5 teams in each section, or 4 or 6, whatever the case may be. Then players from Limerick would have oppertunity to play in SEnior Cup, then for their club side as normal, but now also have the oppertunity to play in an elite level WNL.

Does that make sense?? also im only looking for suggestions,yours are as good as mine, so whatever you think
, please add......

[Number9]

So....the DWSL, Cork and Limerick Leagues run as normal - 5 "teams" selected for Senior League (4 or 8 matches) - Benfica, Wilton, Lifford, Cork League and Lim League. Munster Senior Cup and National Senior Cup.

Ballincollig compete in the Cork League, Munster Senior Cup and National Senior Cup. Only Ballincollig's better players represent the Cork League in the new National League.
Wilton compete in the Cork League, Munster Senior Cup and National Senior Cup. Wilton play as a team in new National League.
Ballincollig as a team could end up playing only 2 matches against senior teams in senior competitions.
Wilton as a team are guaranteed at least 6 competitive senior matches (possibly minimum of 10).
As a club in Cork, Ballincollig will feel that they are not being allowed to grow and their players not given the same opportunities to progress as Wilton and their players are.

Annacotty compete in the Limerick League, Munster Senior Cup and National Senior Cup. Only Annacotty's better players represent the Limerick League in the new National League.
Lifford compete in Limerick League, Munster Senior Cup and National Senior Cup. They play as a team in new National League.
Annacotty as a team could end up playing only 2 matches against senior teams in senior competitions.
Lifford as a team guaranteed at least 6 competitive senior matches (possibly minimum of 10).
As a club in Limerick, Annacotty will feel that they are not being allowed to grow and their players not given the same opportunities to progress as Lifford and their players are.

There should be no exclusions - if clubs qualify to compete at senior level, then they ALL should be allowed the opportunity to do so.

Assuming therefore that there will be no exlusions -
Benfica
Ballincollig
Wilton
Annacotty
Lifford

This would mean home and away 8 matches or one round of 4 matches.

other possible teams - again - there should be no exclusions - each League should have the opportunity to enter a team -
Cork League
Desmond League
Kerry League
Limerick League
Tipperary League

This would mean a possible 10 teams - home and away 18 games or one round of 9 matches.

or 2 leagues - a club league and a representative league.

[olegunnar]

some excellent points there number9, exactly what this forum was to have happen, an open discussion on WNL...

I'd not thought about it the way you set it out!!

I dont see 10 teams being part of it myself, too much travel, question marks over the quality of teams involved. I do not mean this in a bad way for any club, but in County Cork, only 2 teams compete in Mens NL, 1 in Limerick, 1 in Galway, 1 in Sligo etc... So,in a 1st year or so, it would more likely be League sides, or a League side "as" their local Mens Eircom club. This still gives ALL players the oppertunity to play in WNL.

Maybe with the growth of a WNL, club sides might want to enter themselves, but we are not even close to that stage yet!!!

Would Tipp/Kerry league be able to compete?

[Number9]

Tipperary League - Nenagh and Borris St.Kevins contested the National Junior Final earlier this year, so both teams must go to Intermediate at National Level next year. The quality of Nenagh's underage teams has improved in the last couple of years. Killenaule have had some strong underage teams in recent years - good enough to compete against anyone in Munster. These 3 clubs would be the basis of a Tipperary League team.
The Kerry League scene is not known to me so I can't comment on it's strength/weakness.
The Desmond League is also a bit of an unknown to myself - they played in the Senior Cup this year and St. Ita's won the National Junior Cup last year. There doesn't seem to be much activity in underage.
Clare League - there is no womens soccer currently in Clare. Lifford are based in Ennis but play in the Limerick League.
Waterford League - don't know much about womens soccer in Waterford except that Benfica are based there.
But like I said before - they (the League representative teams and all bone fide Senior club teams) should be given the opportunity to compete. If they don't wish to enter, then that decision should be respected, but the door should be left open to them to join (in the future) any competition where other League representative teams or fellow Senior teams are competing.

[Number9]

National League - who would actually manage/administer it - FAI or WFAI? - also when it comes to Regional management/administration - the Munster branch of the FAI or the Munster branch of the WFAI?

[olegunnar]

another good point, but i think the way things are going, with FAI taking over eircom league, that they will also administer a new WNL, wouldn't ya think??

another reason why it'd be 4 small sections rather than having 10 clubs in it??

[Shankly]

Number9, Don't quite see how your idea for a 10 team league would work.

If you include the League representative teams (Cork League,Desmond League,Kerry League,Limerick League,Tipperary League ) then does that not mean that the some of the better players from the club teams (Benfica,Ballincollig,Wilton,Annacotty,Lifford) will end up playing for 2 teams in the same league?

How would that work? What happens when their club team plays their League team?

[CollegeTillIDie]

The League team would in that instance have to be made up from the member clubs not participating individually , which is the same situation which currently pertains in the WFAI Senior and Intermediate Cups

[Number9]

So supposing we decide on 5 club teams - are these then fixed in stone. Is there promotion/relegation? Or does the league simply grow? Or a combination of both?

Lets say that St. Itas in the Desmond League enters the National Intermediate Cup and wins it. Under current rules they would be deemed "Senior" when entering any National competitions. Would they then join the 5 original clubs in the National League?

The issue of promotion/relegation - if a Cork team ends up last in the league are they replaced by another Cork team? Perhaps there would be some kind of playoff - the best club teams from each "local" league play each other and the winner goes into senior league?