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leonard sheahan(balla, from pallaskenry.) Danny Fitz(regional, askeaton) Mike Behan(regional, shanagolden) Shane O connor(regional, kildimo) Declan Nash(regional, kilcornan) Anthony Ryan(regional,askeaton)Joe Normoyle(pike, adare) Owen Lynch(fairview, Breska) keith hartnett and liam costello(limerick). just to mention a few. also there are a number of top quality youth players plying their trade in the city. regional seem to be the main culprits!!
played against the regional players several times and to be honest they are nothing to write home about, leonard sheehan is an excellent squad player to have with his versatility but can say anything great about the rest
thats joe normoyle that cant get into the pike team? fair enough with lynchie but he is playing in town 6/7 years now and the 2 lads with limerick are really setting the eircom league on fire arent they?
what do ye think of the oscar traynor panel announced last night couple of strange heads in it, only one from balla? is there anyone on the panel you wouldnt have there? is there anyone not there that you would?
In Fairness Limerick Boy the Clare League suffers from losing players to Limerick as well every year Davy Wall being a prime example.
And in general in the FAI Junior cup the Clare teams nearly always knock Desmond teams out. Case in point being Newmarket stuffed Rathkeale 4-0 & their not exactly doing great in the Clare league.In contrast last I heard Rathkeale were ****ing the Desmond league.
The Desmond league isn't a patch on the Clare League not to even talk about the Limerick league so regardless of whether you think players have been poached or not there is no way that any Desmond team can take on any of the top Limerick teams.
If you look at Ballingarry (Premier Desmond Winners) last year they were only able to scrape a bare 2-1 win against Kilkishen Celtic in the Munster Junior cup by scoring a last minute goal & they were only a 2nd division Clare side so I believe your statement that Desmond teams would be able to challenge the top Limerick teams to be well off the mark.
in fairness paul your dead right however i would still say that the Limerick District League is still stronger than the Clare League despite the fact that the Clare League won the Oscar Traynor last year but there is a lot of quality players from Clare playing in the Limerick league way more so than the Desmond League
the problem with the desmond league is that the good players are scattered around. many of the best players play in the 1st and 2nd division. transfers are practically non existent. if the larger clubs like ncw and rathkeale put as much effort into signin players as the fairviews and pikes than they would be well up there wit the top teams. they are happy to concentrate on winning their own league rather than compete nationally, i do not condone this, it is one of the many faults in the desmond league
InExile I totally agree with you about the Limerick District league being stronger than the Clare League. There can be no doubt about that.
The fact that Fairview have won the FAI Junior cup so many times is testament to that. I think the best a Clare side have done is Avenue getting to the Final in the 80's.
Also I have played in both & while the style is alot different theres no doubt that Limerick has the stronger league. The facilities of course help alot as well. The Limerick League teams play a nicer brand of football than the Clare league teams who have alot more physical an approach to the game.Not saying of course by that there isn't good football played as well in Clare.
Outside of Clare players playing in Limerick there are also 2 Clare teams plying their trade in Limk (Park Rangers & Shannon Town). As far as I know Newtown also tried to join the Limerick league this year as well but their application was stifled by the Clare League.To be honest this all hurts the Clare League alot & it probably should never been allowed to happen at the time.
That said the 2002/2003 Clare Oscar Traynor team lost 6 players to Limerick after getting to the semi final of the competition but were still able to replace them & go on and win the 2003/2004 competition.
If there were ever an amalgamation between league it would be interesting but obviously that will never happen.
As for the Desmond League I'm afraid everything I have seen tells me that the standard isn't great in it but as you say Limerick Boy if clubs took the National comps more seriously there is no reason why it can't improve cause it certainly has a big enough catchment area.
By the way why was Limerick split into 2 different leagues in the 1st place.
Was it simply a distance thing ??
Not too sure about the distance thing, if you consider that a club like Shannon Town or Park Rangers would have to travel 40 odd miles to get to places like Charleville or Ballylanders for potential fixtures and then back home again, whereas Mungret would only have to go 10 miles to play Rathkeale who are in another league.......
Id say that there could be too many teams...As it is in my Opinion there are too many teams in the LDL..not sure of the exact amount but there are 9 divisions with an average of 10 teams i presume...I havent got a clue how many are in the Desmond but im sure there are plenty...I just think that there would be too many teams if the 2 were to join together
Listen,first of all let's get something straight about that result. Fair enough Rathkeale were beaten 4-0 but I was at the game and watching it. They outplayed the "home" side (considering it wasn't even on in their own field) for the first 30 mins. 3 individual mistakes cost them 3 of the goals and even the players themselves will tell you it was an absolute brutal performance against 12 men including the guy in the middle with the whistle. A few of the boys said it was even embarassing, but you get days like that in football as I'm sure you're all aware.
Secondly to say that the Clare League is physical is an understatement...I haven't seen alot of it but from what I have......they're muckers and hoofers with very few exceptions....
As for Ballingarrys result in the FAI, well any team will raise it's game against the current champions of another league. I'm sure it's not the first time Kilkishen came close to causing an upset or any other "lower" team for that matter. That's what makes football and especially Cup football the game it is.
To summarise, I don't think it's fair to judge an entire league on 2 results and in my opinion the Desmond League is a very strong one and I watch games every weekend. Fair enough, the best teams in the league NCW/Rathkeale/Ballingarry/Broadford mightn't be a match for the View or Pike, but after that they'd have every chance against the rest of the teams in the Premier (who don't seem to be anywhere near a match for them too).
This brings me to my next and final point, if the View are going around thrashing teams in the Premier then maybe the LDMC Premier isn't as strong as everyone says it is. Afterall at the end of the day it's 11 v 11 on the field, BUT the View are still destroying teams week in-week out :confused:
Shauntrade F.C. 3-4 Cratloe Clt.
Bunratty F.C. 3-0 Newcastle West
Newtown 2-1 Pallaskenry
Shannonsider69
Theres just a few more results that I know of (thats just this year) and pretty much every CFL team that played a Desmond team knocked them out maybe with 1 or 2 exceptions so I'm not judging the entire league on 2 games.I'm judging on experience of playing & watching down through the years.
If you take into account that the Clare League are Oscar Traynor cup holders & results between teams from the respective leagues I think I have a valid arguement when I state that I believe the CFL to be a stronger league than the Desmond.
Your statement about CFL being full of muckers and hoofers with very few exceptions.... is just plain ridiculous.It is a physical league no doubt & teams are well matched but I've been involved in plenty just as physical in the LDMC.
I stated that the football in the LDMC is of better quality no doubt but the CFL still has alot of quality players rather than muckers & hoofers as you say.
There are plenty of lads who have played in both over the years & I've never heard them complain of the physicality in the other.
Look at the end of the day I'm not going to have an arguement with you about it. You obviously follow the Desmond League & are entitled to your opinion but the original arguement here from Limerick Boy was that if Desmond
players wern't lost to the LDMC they would be a match for any the top LDMC teams which I was stating was highly unlikely.
I have backed that assumption up by using the CFL as an example of a weaker league than the LDMC which regurlarly knock out Desmond teams from the national comps.
My final point is that Fairview at this point in time are the most exceptional Junior team in the country so its obvious they will give the odd team a hiding but there are alot of other strong teams in the premier (Balla,Boro,Pike,Park Rgs,Mungret Reg,Star & Charleville)
And to throw everything up in the air again Fairview were beaten 5-0 by Carew Park the weekend...Funny old game eh??
Quote:
Originally Posted by shannonsider69
cant quite agree with you there you would have to inlcude boro there especially since they have got a few players back, balla are current league champions and are still strong and so far this season carew pk and park rangers are unbeaten so they seem to have improved somewhat
Park Were Beaten this Season Twice Balla Beat them in the League 2-1 and Boro beat them in the MJC at the weekend.Carew are still the only unbeaten teamQuote:
Originally Posted by inexile
your dead right clownboy i sit corrected however i wouldnt really count last sunday as it was on penalties, but basically my point is that they have come on from last year they have beaten pike already this season, and as u said carew park have beaten fairview and are unbeaten so far this season so obviously they have improved
desmond league is no where near the standard . most of the players are just off season gaa players.playing soccer just to keep fit during winter. all the top clubs in munsters players are just dedicated to one code thats why the likes of st michaels ,fairview,clonmel town, pike and carrick are all successful in all competitions.
:D pauliwallinuts, its obvious ur out of touch wit the league, especially since u mentioned star as a strong premier team?? were dey not relegated last year?
regional loose again? they must now be one of the contenders for relegation, pity after their 3consecutive promotions and their explosive start to the year! any opinions on eventual champions?
I dont think that they will get relegated Though..It is very tight at the bottom but I think that Summerville and Hill Celtic will go down..One of three to win the League Balla, Fairview, or Pike