Connacht Junior League ?

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30/03/2005, 11:16 PM
Thunderblaster

Connacht Junior League ?

What would be your opinion of a Connacht Junior League? The province is now entering its 66th season without a finalist in the FAI Junior Cup, and something needs to be done to create a competitive league for these clubs to have a chance of winning the blue riband of junior soccer. Other factors include successful Mayo clubs playing all year round, thus the players suffer more from injuries and burnout, lopsided standards in the leagues, eg Team A 5-0 Team B, increase Connacht's chances of Oscar Traynor Cup success and allow the top players that wish to play junior football to play at a higher standard. My proposals would be a ten team league with eighteen rounds of fixtures which would have three Galway sides (Mervue United, Salthill Devon, Galway Hibs), three Mayo sides (Castlebar Celtic, Erris United, Westport United), two Sligo sides (Abbey United and Strand Celtic) and two Roscommon sides (Castlerea Celtic and Ballinasloe Town). The winners would win a trophy and a financial reward and the runners up would be financially rewarded. The bottom two sides would be relegated and the promoted sides would be the league champions/runners up of the league(s) involving the relegated sides. The facilities criteria would based on the criteria laid down by the Mayo League for the Super League clubs in the county. All the clubs would be seeded in the Connacht Cup draw when they enter at the bye stages with all the top flight clubs in the competition (4th round). There should be a league cup competition involved as well. The season would run from August to May with a break at Christmas with games on Sunday afternoons at 3:00 (2:00 during the winter months). Referees for this would be grade one standard. This would be an ideal substitute for the now defunct Connacht Senior League. Feel free to offer ideas, suggestions or to dismiss the idea. :ball:
31/03/2005, 12:42 PM
Patrick Dunne

Senior League run along the same lines better ..

.. everything you propose is excellent and badly needed, but a senior league is what is needed to bridge the gap between EL and junior. This would give Western sides the added incentive of a much larger entry in the FAI Senior Cup, which has been confined to the two EL clubs, plus two appearances by Mervue, in the past 10 years.
23/04/2005, 10:51 AM
Thunderblaster

As you may remember, there was a Connacht Senior League. The fact that there was no relegation in it meant that there were lots of games just played to fulfill the fixture programme and kind of made it a difficult league to motivate in if your team was out of league contention.
23/04/2005, 2:38 PM
shedhead

why three Mayo teams and only 2 sligo ones. The sligo league is much stronger then the Mayo league.
24/04/2005, 2:57 AM
Thunderblaster

Quote:

Originally Posted by shedhead

why three Mayo teams and only 2 sligo ones. The sligo league is much stronger then the Mayo league.

Mayo sides have done better in the external competitions than Sligo/Leitrim sides over the last three years.
19/05/2005, 2:35 PM
Raheen

Athenry must surely be a candidate for such an imaginary league.

They're top of the Galway Premier, which includes the sides previously competing in the Connacht Senior League, and have a large player base. Their second side is also top of it's division (2B) and it's reserve sides are also near enough top of their leagues. That's four adult teams in all with the possibility of a fifth next season.

In addition underage is going well. They've also done well in the FAI Cup reaching the last 16 on a number of occasions in recent years. The facilities Athenry offer can only be topped by Salthill Devon or Mervue Utd including three pitches, an astro park, clubhouse and gym.

So there ya go...Athenry for inclusion!
19/05/2005, 3:43 PM
swinfordfc

i'm impressed!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raheen

Athenry must surely be a candidate for such an imaginary league.

They're top of the Galway Premier, which includes the sides previously competing in the Connacht Senior League, and have a large player base. Their second side is also top of it's division (2B) and it's reserve sides are also near enough top of their leagues. That's four adult teams in all with the possibility of a fifth next season.

In addition underage is going well. They've also done well in the FAI Cup reaching the last 16 on a number of occasions in recent years. The facilities Athenry offer can only be topped by Salthill Devon or Mervue Utd including three pitches, an astro park, clubhouse and gym.

So there ya go...Athenry for inclusion!

yes, well done and from a big hurling area too :D
17/01/2006, 10:48 PM
A face

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thunderblaster

What would be your opinion of a Connacht Junior League? The province is now entering its 66th season without a finalist in the FAI Junior Cup, and something needs to be done to create a competitive league for these clubs to have a chance of winning the blue riband of junior soccer. Other factors include successful Mayo clubs playing all year round, thus the players suffer more from injuries and burnout, lopsided standards in the leagues, eg Team A 5-0 Team B, increase Connacht's chances of Oscar Traynor Cup success and allow the top players that wish to play junior football to play at a higher standard. My proposals would be a ten team league with eighteen rounds of fixtures which would have three Galway sides (Mervue United, Salthill Devon, Galway Hibs), three Mayo sides (Castlebar Celtic, Erris United, Westport United), two Sligo sides (Abbey United and Strand Celtic) and two Roscommon sides (Castlerea Celtic and Ballinasloe Town). The winners would win a trophy and a financial reward and the runners up would be financially rewarded. The bottom two sides would be relegated and the promoted sides would be the league champions/runners up of the league(s) involving the relegated sides. The facilities criteria would based on the criteria laid down by the Mayo League for the Super League clubs in the county. All the clubs would be seeded in the Connacht Cup draw when they enter at the bye stages with all the top flight clubs in the competition (4th round). There should be a league cup competition involved as well. The season would run from August to May with a break at Christmas with games on Sunday afternoons at 3:00 (2:00 during the winter months). Referees for this would be grade one standard. This would be an ideal substitute for the now defunct Connacht Senior League. Feel free to offer ideas, suggestions or to dismiss the idea. :ball:

Dont you do paragraphs ?? :p
17/01/2006, 11:40 PM
hamish

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thunderblaster

As you may remember, there was a Connacht Senior League. The fact that there was no relegation in it meant that there were lots of games just played to fulfill the fixture programme and kind of made it a difficult league to motivate in if your team was out of league contention.

Actually, there was a second division in it around the mid 90s 'cos we (Beeslow) won promotion one of those years.

Big problem there Thunderblaster are the costs. The lads here told me it cost them �10, 000 (punts not euros) a season on travelling in the Connacht Senior League. And when you have to fund around 40 under age teams on top of that along with everything else, makes it very expensive.

I am in favour of a Connacht League but woudl it be possible to regionalise it a bit with the best clubs from each county playing off in a mini super league of say four teams???

Thinking out loud now about it all right now so open to suggestions.:)
17/01/2006, 11:47 PM
swift

Thats a daft idea. Remember the senior league a few years ago?. It was a joke of a league run by the Galway teams and no-one else and whos to say it wouldnt happen again??. Go back to the drawing board
18/01/2006, 2:07 AM
hamish

Quote:

Originally Posted by swift

Thats a daft idea. Remember the senior league a few years ago?. It was a joke of a league run by the Galway teams and no-one else and whos to say it wouldnt happen again??. Go back to the drawing board

Which of us are you replying to swift???:confused:

Cannot remember much about the Connacht Senior League TBH but there was an oldish (Pascal something or other) bloke in Galway (related to one of the lads in Salthill Devon then I think) who founded the league and wroked his ass of trying to get new clubs in etc etc but I think age and illness meant he had to quit. Nice chap though. Don' recall any hassle between various counties TBH - not saying it didn't happen though - but biggest hassle seemed to be distance and costs for most clubs, no matter where they were from.

I think the secretary was a McLoughlin bloke from around Castlebar - going back over 10 years now and Pat Quigley was also heavily involved - even though he was in the FAI at the time. He used to turn up at a lot of games anyway.

I think Art Freil from Galway was also involved too.

My memory is awful about it all TBH. Longford Wanderers and Longford Town were involved as were St. Peter's Athlone too.

I think the whole shebang fizzled out when the Eircom u-21 League started up.

My suggestion for a super 4 team league would probably not be favoured by the clubs as their fixture lists in their own regional leagues are full to the brim anyway and they'd complain of costs again. - now that I think about it.

Yeah, maybe you're right - it's probably a daft idea.:o :D
18/01/2006, 4:44 PM
Thunderblaster

Paragraphs

Quote:

Originally Posted by A face

Dont you do paragraphs ?? :p

I think you should be nominated for the Guinness Book of Records for your record length of querying paragraphs; 306 days to be exact.;) Remember, Carlsberg don't do paragraphs, because if they did, they would probably be the best paragraphs in the world!!:D
18/01/2006, 9:24 PM
renovater

straight talk

Quote:

Originally Posted by shedhead

why three Mayo teams and only 2 sligo ones. The sligo league is much stronger then the Mayo league.

how many teams have you in the last 16 at the moment mayo has 2 could be be 3 out of ten super League any way mayo grounds are much better thanks to the mayo league and its clubs
18/01/2006, 9:27 PM
renovater

eye this

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raheen

Athenry must surely be a candidate for such an imaginary league.

They're top of the Galway Premier, which includes the sides previously competing in the Connacht Senior League, and have a large player base. Their second side is also top of it's division (2B) and it's reserve sides are also near enough top of their leagues. That's four adult teams in all with the possibility of a fifth next season.

In addition underage is going well. They've also done well in the FAI Cup reaching the last 16 on a number of occasions in recent years. The facilities Athenry offer can only be topped by Salthill Devon or Mervue Utd including three pitches, an astro park, clubhouse and gym.

So there ya go...Athenry for inclusion!

well done anthenry i am l rea man good to see football over come hurling
18/01/2006, 10:34 PM
hamish

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raheen

Athenry must surely be a candidate for such an imaginary league.

They're top of the Galway Premier, which includes the sides previously competing in the Connacht Senior League, and have a large player base. Their second side is also top of it's division (2B) and it's reserve sides are also near enough top of their leagues. That's four adult teams in all with the possibility of a fifth next season.

In addition underage is going well. They've also done well in the FAI Cup reaching the last 16 on a number of occasions in recent years. The facilities Athenry offer can only be topped by Salthill Devon or Mervue Utd including three pitches, an astro park, clubhouse and gym.

So there ya go...Athenry for inclusion!

Way to go Athenry.

Beeslow used to play Athenry loads of times each season in the late 60s and early 70s. Their pitch, as far I can remember, ran parallel to loads of treees - reminds me now of Buckley Park. Like ourselves they had minimal facilities then but when you mentioned all those teams and facilities - WOW!! fantastic.:)

A guy called Dessie Glynn ran the show then - think he's long gone to England now. Ever hear of him?? Sound bloke.
19/01/2006, 8:09 AM
Athenryboy

yea sirhamish, we still have the same pitch in use today, its one of the best surfaces around these days. Dessie Glynn is back on the scene these days, always down to support us, even travelled to Dublin last week to watch us playin Sherriff in the FAI Junior. A real club man if ever there was one.

id say the football was physical enough back in those days? if i know the gents who were playin then!!
19/01/2006, 7:58 PM
hamish

Quote:

Originally Posted by Athenryboy

yea sirhamish, we still have the same pitch in use today, its one of the best surfaces around these days. Dessie Glynn is back on the scene these days, always down to support us, even travelled to Dublin last week to watch us playin Sherriff in the FAI Junior. A real club man if ever there was one.

id say the football was physical enough back in those days? if i know the gents who were playin then!!

Well the footie was a little bit rougher but we didn't know the difference TBH.:o Always get on well with Athenry did us Beeslow boys - tell the truth, there were so few clubs back then (Tuam Town as well) regular matches with them were inevitable and welcomed.

Dessie's back home again???

He might remember me bringing teams over there in the early 70s from Beeslow - tell him I said hello and ask him to give me a shout when he can. How long is he back from England? - I think it was England he went to.

Great news to hear about Athenry - like St. Bernard's of Abbeyknockmoy - another of the many Irish clubs who have made brilliant progress regarding great facilties.:)