2012 First Division structure?

At the end of the day this thread is called the "2012 First Division Structure?" and this year it is a load of ********. If we can sustain 500 at our matches this season I'd be very surprised, even if the team are doing well. Most teams will be lucky to have 200, barr maybe Waterford, Harps and Longford I would think and a few will be in the 100-150 range. This will probably be the worst attended First Division in years. If it was a graveyard before and as far as I'm concerned this is one step closer to hell. The only plus side for us is that after 18, nearly 19 years in the first division we should finally get out of the bloody think and be back competing against the best teams in Ireland (no offense to any other team in the First Division intended).

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Originally Posted by sadloserkid

Overall the overwhelming certainty that the One Club of Galway can only take place with GUST (and perhaps their new best friends Corrib for structural purposes in 12 months time) is a bit smug.

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I haven't seen much evidence of "certainty" about this from anyone from GUST. The fact that they are campaigning with such gusto (sorry, couldn't resist) suggests they know they are in for a real battle.

I hope GUST eventually succeed. We now have a league where the national administrators seem happy to rebrand any old team at all in order to "preserve" football in a certain ground. Perhaps it would have been easier to try and preserve the historical club that already occupied it, instead of inviting internecine warfare that will reverborate for generations.

Have many, if any, on here said this? I have very little goodwill towards Salthill Devon as a result of this. They have changed their name, team colours and ground at the expense of another club. In my view, they're no longer Salthill Devon in any meaningful sense. People may take the pi55 out of Cork or whoever when they tried to maintain their history and name through a financial meltdown and new club setup, but this does at least show an allegiance to the importance of a club's history. Salthill seem happy to let theirs go (whilst at the same time aiding the demise of another club's history) to fulfill whatever plan the FAI have. It doesn't exactly cover them in glory.

I'd predict within 3 years SD Galway will follow Kilkenny, Dublin City, Kildare etc…. out of the LOI and will go back to just playing junior soccer under the name Salthill Devon. Lets say they finish bottom again this year, can't see too many new fans arriving and unless they get serious investment to bring in new players that will continue to happen. I don't think they can move up in the table by just relying on local players alone.

Any word on who will back this venture by the way? Maybe there is an investor we haven't heard about yet? Pat McDonagh?? Didn't he start out his business in Salthill?

To a certain extent I admire their ambition but on the other hand at the expense of another club I think it is wrong. I feel like Salthill could be a little naive here and are probably listening too much to what the mighty FAI have to say. If lets say Limerick where to get in trouble and Fairview Rangers changed their name to FR Limerick United FC or something and joined the LOI, i'd be absolutely disgusted and being involved in another junior team already I wouldn't follow them purely because they added Limerick to their name, so I see where the Galway fans are coming from but on the other hand just because I decide not to follow them, doesn't mean a couple hundred other people from Limerick wouldn't decide to follow them and people that wouldn't maybe have followed Limerick previously might decide to follow them.

Salthill have sold their souls on the word of the FAI at the hope of success it seems.

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Originally Posted by nigel-harps1954

Holy christ, it takes some convincing for you guys.

Put it this way, 1000 people turn up for a match. Of that number, a good quarter of that must be kids..at least. Another 200 or so, is people along for the occasion, fair weather fans you may say. Another 50-100 of that is away fans. That leaves 550-600 die hard fans in a way. If you can get 150 of those to turn up for a meeting on a week night, then fair fecks to you.

Let me ask you this, how many meetings for your club do you go to? And if you go, how many other people are there? I'd be most pleasantly surprised if there is ever more than 50-60 people there.

Wind yourself in man, take a look at the work these guys have done at GUST, stand back for one minute and look at the effort put in, the money raised, and the amount of s**t they've had to take over the past few years, which is all turning out for nothing at the minute.

I feel a serious sense of pity for these guys. I watched Harps nearly die this year and that hurt enough coming so close to the brink. Can't imagine what they're going through. But they have done a mammoth amount of work, put in serious amounts of hours and free time to raise money and work toward their own club and it's all been taken away from them. All I can say to Limerick fans is..your time will come.....again. So don't be too quick to judge.

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When have i said anything about the work GUST have done i said that it is ridiculous to claim that NO-ONE IN GALWAT WILL SUPPORT SD GALWAY not once did i say anything bad about he work GUST have done and i have said a few times that i am gutted for them. So you had a lovely little rant there about something that i never said.

And in the middle of your rant you have made the point i was making with the part in bold that is what i was saying is that these fair weather fans may go and support SD Galway there is nothing to say they wont as you say they are only there for the occasion so more then likely have no real allegiance to GUST.

Meetings my club have had are irrelevant as im not claiming that if we went bust and a new Limerick club was formed no-one would support it.

Our time may come again and most likely will but i havent forgotten anything thats why i want SD Galway to stay around i dont want clubs to go under any clubs which is why i have given money to both GUFC and Finn Harps when they were in trouble recently.

Next time you want to get high and migthy and upset at least get upset about what im actually saying.


*Disclaimer: These views are my own and in no way reflect the views of Limerick FC its players,staff or other fans.

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Originally Posted by harpin

If this happened to Limerick would you feel the same, I know I wouldn't.

You've seen yourself the state of Salthill's support if Galway hadn't gone under would they have been sustainable for a few years??maybe

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What does that matter though the fact is Galway have gone under so i for one do not hope SD Galway go under......I hope no other club goes under as unlikely as it is.

Obviously the ideal scenario is that Galway had not gone under as it would have been with Kilkenny, Kildare and any of the other clubs that have gone under in past years but the fact is they did.

If Tralee were to have gotten a licence, I thought it'd have been good for the league to see new regions get involved, Carlow being another. The A Championship is gone but surely it should not be the end of having a level for clubs to work at possibly joining the league in the future.
I hope GUST, Carlow, Cobh and Tralee will lobby the FAI for involvement in the game at some level.

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Originally Posted by Jofspring

I'd predict within 3 years SD Galway will follow Kilkenny, Dublin City, Kildare etc…. out of the LOI and will go back to just playing junior soccer under the name Salthill Devon.

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I'd give it 2 years max. Might even see it fall apart in November. I'm not saying that out of spite or anything, I just think that they have no effin idea what they've signed up for, signing a deal with the devil.

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Originally Posted by Jofspring

Lets say they finish bottom again this year, can't see too many new fans arriving and unless they get serious investment to bring in new players that will continue to happen. I don't think they can move up in the table by just relying on local players alone.

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Galway football will never develop with Devon and Mervue signing players off each other. Galway United didn't generally attract a huge amount of floating punters and Galway football people are not stupid. They will understand the situation on a basic level at least and will not equate SD Galway with Galway United or indeed a representative of the county. It remains to be seen if they will even get permission to play in Terryland. I don't think the members of the District League are too happy about it (the majority of whom I understand submitted letters in support of GUST), although FAI pressure and the loss of revenue from not having GUFC there could end up being too much to bear for the Galway FA. They might be very much against it, but could have no choice.

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Originally Posted by Jofspring

Any word on who will back this venture by the way? Maybe there is an investor we haven't heard about yet? Pat McDonagh?? Didn't he start out his business in Salthill?

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Eh no, Pat McDonagh was selling burgers and chips from a van as early as the 70's and opened his first chipper in Ballinasloe when he was denied planning for a pool/snooker hall. Pat very much supports GUST, despite, how can I put this, very very negative experiences with Galway United FC and its CEO in the past number of years. The thought of any of the clowns that ran United into the ground that are now on the Devon board now putting money in is laughable. They are looking to dump their debts on somebody, not have another crack at running a club. And besides, be it GUST / I Can't Believe It's Not Devon / Mervue, the notion that magical investors are needed to develop is nonsense. Putting money into Devon or Mervue would have short-term benefits but it wouldn't alter the fact that they have limited appeal. In the case of Galway United, some basic cop-on would have gone a effin long way.

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Originally Posted by Jofspring

To a certain extent I admire their ambition but on the other hand at the expense of another club I think it is wrong. I feel like Salthill could be a little naive here and are probably listening too much to what the mighty FAI have to say.

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There are factors other than Salthill at play in this situation. The whole SD Galway and link up with the GUFC directors would never have happened without the FAI pressurising them IMO, who for reasons I better not say, were themselves being pressured by, well I better not say either. As someone else, probably Geezer said, Galway is a small town (shut up Sligo fans) and the truth will probably become common knowledge soon enough.

I can only offer anecdotal evidence of this so far, but a number of members of Salthill Devon who are not on committees etc. are either in the dark completely or have found out and are not happy.

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Originally Posted by Jofspring

Salthill have sold their souls on the word of the FAI at the hope of success it seems.

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I think a combination of incentives from the FAI i.e. threats, not just recently either and the notion the FAI and GUFC have filled their heads with that they can slip happily into the role of being the top dog in Galway has allowed the situation to happen.

I haven't much time for people in charge at Devon, but I fear for them and their membership that they have made a grave mistake and that it could end extremely nastily for them.



And to the Cobh Carlow Tralee guys on here, I think your being denied a place in the LOI is a direct result of the bind the FAI have put themselves in.

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Originally Posted by gormacha

I haven't seen much evidence of "certainty" about this from anyone from GUST. The fact that they are campaigning with such gusto (sorry, couldn't resist) suggests they know they are in for a real battle.

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The GUST lads only have one gear. They have been in a huge battle for a long time and it continues, but Salthill are not it. The FAI and the directors of GUFC are. As long as the GUFC directors are on the scene and trying to pin their debts on somebody, GUST will not get a licence. We're talking about substantial loans they personally guaranteed that were taken out to pay huge wage bills and generally going mad in the "model club" period.

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Originally Posted by gormacha

I hope GUST eventually succeed. We now have a league where the national administrators seem happy to rebrand any old team at all in order to "preserve" football in a certain ground. Perhaps it would have been easier to try and preserve the historical club that already occupied it, instead of inviting internecine warfare that will reverborate for generations.

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I'm afraid that despite all the FAI said, it was all lies. It had nothing to do with preservation of team playing out of Terryland or whatever bull**** he came out with. It was all to do with the crap they are embroiled in with the GUFC directors, with the Salthill Devon club-man Chairman of the League in the middle of it.

An idea for Cobh, Tralee, Fanad, Carlow and Gust would be to have a mini league among themselves till June and then join the Intermediate league Whether it be Ulster Senior League, Munster Senior league, or Galway district league.

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Originally Posted by sadloserkid

Against that this declaration that nobody in Galway wants SD Galway is hyperbole at best.

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You have taken that point literally and ran a marathon with it. What we mean is that the vast majority of fans will not equate SD Galway with what they want us to.

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Originally Posted by sadloserkid

This One City, One County, One Club soundbite is a bit bleh as well. It's a bit exclusionary of all the out of town fans that GUFC fans alluded to when all the clubs supporters had that big dick contest about how far afield they cast their fan net on this site a few months back.

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What in God's name are you on about? "The "One City, One County, One Club" aim/motto, whatever you want to call it... I can't think of one that better illustrates the aims of GUST, the same ones backed by all the clubs in Galway that showed their support for GUST in the past and also more recently during this whole debacle, the business people, politicians etc. that came to speak in support of GUST. It includes the city and the county. What else do you want? What would you call it? "One city, one County, but a bit of Mayo, a bit of Clare, a bit of Roscommon, a few lads in Dublin and a few dotted around England, One Club."

I haven't a notion what you're basing the dig on.

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Originally Posted by sadloserkid

More significantly than that I can only presume that if this brave new dawn of one club is to happen the FAI want to give the opportunity to somebody who hasn't been involved with a club that failed as spectacularly

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GUST had absolutely no say in what Nick and the board of Galway United did. In fact, they had a habit of doing the opposite of what GUST were trying to advise most of the time. Delaney knows damn well this was the case, the dogs on the street know this, it had absolutely nothing to do with the decisions of the FAI.

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Originally Posted by sadloserkid

The fact is that Salthill, miserable support or not, have avoided financial turmoil (publically at least) since taking the ambitious decision to step up to senior football which works in their favour. Sure they were awful on the football pitch last year but so were GUFC/ST.

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GUFC were ****e, but they weren't doing it in front of 50 people. No more than with Mervue, the financial strain of the LOI coupled with very very small gates, will see them finding it more and more difficult to sell to their members, who don't have the same desire to be a LOI team at the expense of the health of their junior and juvenile interests.

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Originally Posted by sadloserkid

Overall the overwhelming certainty that the One Club of Galway can only take place with GUST (and perhaps their new best friends Corrib for structural purposes in 12 months time) is a bit smug.

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Nonsense. GUST have already been working quite a number of clubs in the county and hope to repay the faith and support shown by them and others by working with every club that wants into the shared vision of GUST and the majority of Galway football at this point. Some of the hardest working GUST members have ties with Corrib Rangers from down the years or live in the general area. GUST were there laying out their plans, as they will do for all clubs, but they were also just there as football people seeing the efforts of Rangers' finest being rewards... along with maybe just having a bloody break after the hectic weeks and months they've gone through.

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Originally Posted by sadloserkid

If SD Galway continue to do so (and the quieter the better) I suspect that they meet John Delaney's criteria for choosing clubs (and yes, I can only presume he'd LOVE if he had another Limerick club to stab us repeatedly with, pun intended).

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I hear what you're saying but the wanting a club in Terryland nonsense is just a cover for what is really going on behind the scenes.

My series of rants are finished for a few hours.

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Originally Posted by citybone

An idea for Cobh, Tralee, Fanad, Carlow and Gust would be to have a mini league among themselves till June and then join the Intermediate league Whether it be Ulster Senior League, Munster Senior league, or Galway district league.

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If there was a possibility of any interim league due to logistics etc. involved, Fanad would probably find the cost of travel too much. The other 4 could form a league with the possible inclusion of a few reserve teams. It's not something I want to go on about but it's very disappointing not to have any level at all.

I know for one thing that Fanad will be playing Ulster Senior League this year as they did last year too so I can't imagine them joining any other league now.

salthill fans up in arms this morning when they found out the name is now changing to Galway Devon.

[QUOTE=geezer;1569519]

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Originally Posted by Jofspring

I'd predict within 3 years SD Galway will follow Kilkenny, Dublin City, Kildare etc…. out of the LOI and will go back to just playing junior soccer under the name Salthill Devon. Lets say they finish bottom again this year, can't see too many new fans arriving and unless they get serious investment to bring in new players that will continue to happen. I don't think they can move up in the table by just relying on local players alone.



ALL 5 salthill fans up in arms this morning when they found out the name is now changing to Galway Devon.
Salthill Devon a wonderful club for plans and strategies, they come up with new ones every week have even outdone themselves with this record turnaround it was SD Galway on thursday. The club that never wins anything and couldnt field a junior team some months back in the local leagues have now halved their 10 fans to 5 by ****in off the salthill contingent over the devon celtic crew. Oh lord

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If only they could have hoovered up trophies like GUFC.

[QUOTE=bluewhitearmy;1569521]

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Originally Posted by geezer

If only they could have hoovered up trophies like GUFC.

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Seriously, from a lims fan???

[QUOTE=gordongekko;1569522]

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Originally Posted by bluewhitearmy

Seriously, from a lims fan???

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Your last cup 1997 ours 2002.

Who is Geezer to have a go at a club for not winning anything when the club he supports have been no better recently?
Same as me having a go at someone for not winning anything when we haven't seen as you pointed that out ill take it you agree with my point about Geezer.

[QUOTE=bluewhitearmy;1569524]

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Originally Posted by gordongekko

Your last cup 1997 ours 2002.

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Ye were not around in 1997

Edit: Stupid comment

[QUOTE=bluewhitearmy;1569527]

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Originally Posted by gordongekko

If thats where its going ye are not around now.

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Agreed but at least Pike Rovers did not dance on your grave hence why we are a little touchy atm.

[QUOTE=gordongekko;1569529]

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Originally Posted by bluewhitearmy

Agreed but at least Pike Rovers did not dance on your grave hence why we are a little touchy atm.

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Dont think its Salthills fault though id say they were "convinced" by the FAI somehow.