Cork AUL 2010/11

[skippy7]

Leeside 1 Kinsale 2 kinsale (3 leeside 2 on agg). in the first half Kinsale had a few half chances a header going just wide a shot and a header saved by keeper,leeside had a half chance from a corner but headed straight at the keeper.The second half began with kinsale pushing for the opening goal and should have taken the lead after a long throw went through to the forward he finished it well from an accute angle ,but the linesman to flagged for offside even though he couldnt have been offside from the throw!Kinsale did take the lead soon after a corner went straight in.Leeside equalised from a corner.Kinsale got the winner with about fifteen minutes to go when a shot was spilled by the keeper the ball wasnt cleared by the leeside defence fell for Derk mc who blasted it past the keeper for a deserved win.

[skippy7]

congrats to innishvilla on winning the league!
well done to sharpshooter as well tonight ye are definetly safe now

[JRyno]

Congrats on the league innish from yer neighbours de courcey Albion.. Went to see your last game last season and must have been gut wrenching to miss out on the league like that! Fair play for coming back stronger this year! Leeside pipped us by a point to div 3 title but can't say they don't deserve it. They've been there or thereabouts the last few seasons and were unlucky not to go up last year.. We will feel like we let the league behind us but are still delighted to be playing div 2 football next season... First time in 8 seasons out of div 3!

[Innishvilla]

Congrats on the league innish from yer neighbours de courcey Albion.. Went to see your last game last season and must have been gut wrenching to miss out on the league like that! Fair play for coming back stronger this year! Leeside pipped us by a point to div 3 title but can't say they don't deserve it. They've been there or thereabouts the last few seasons and were unlucky not to go up last year.. We will feel like we let the league behind us but are still delighted to be playing div 2 football next season... First time in 8 seasons out of div 3!

Thanks JRyno - Ye ran it very close Congrats on the promotion. Didn't look like it at the time but the draw against Innishvilla was costly. That said I though Cork Road Celtic had it in the bag - but they lost their last 2 games to go from 3 point clear to not even in the top two. It was a cracking league - with the top 5 seperated by no more than 5 points all season until parkview lost a few on the trot in the last few weeks...

I would also like to say well done to churchvilla on securing their survival in Division 2 - after seeing them in the Saxone Cup final I was surprized that they were down there struggling for survival.

On the promotion point - the AUL really needs to look at the 2nd divisions. Only one team going up is really punishing on teams. Hibernians in AUL 2 have gone the season losing 1 league game, 3 draws they will finish runners up and get nothing... I know AUL 1 & 1a are only 1 up as well but I think that is a bit fairer as the prize there is premier football - it should be really difficult and has to be when 2 divisions go into 1, it would be bad to have 4 teams relegated from Prem A. But AUL 1 & 1a are big divisions why not have 3 coming down with 2 coming up from 2, 2a & 2b?

[Inswinger]

Congrats Innis on the league win, its obvious that the club is on the way up and it wo nt be long in my opinion that ye will be playing at a much higher level. There must be great work being done behind the scenes and at underage level so kudos on that front, hopefully our paths will cross next season. Being biased great to see our fellow culchies going great guns, great achievement for Leeside's 3rd string to win their league and their second team reaching county cup semi final, managed by ex player Jeremy O Sullivan. A player with great experience and a nice lad too could be a contender for the 1st team. Will we see him being promoted boo and bluey?

[sharpshooter]

BALLYVOLANE 0 MACROOM 2

started off well went one up after 10mins from mackie,then got a pen very harsh to be honest i steped up 2-0.ballyvolane got on top they hit the post twice should ave scored really.2nd half it was all ballyvolane and if im honest they prob could ave won the game if they took their chance but their was no getting past our keeper he was in fine form last night....best of luck to ballyvolane next year.premier football for macroom again next year so cant complain,kinsale next for us at home sunday goona be very tough but we will give it a go and try to be the 1st to beat ye in the league shilts

[bluey]

Thanks for all the Congrats on winning div3. Great achievement all right and I'm delighted for the group of lads who kept going throughout a tough season, some great teams in that div and v hard to get out of, so to win it where delighted. The month of april done it for us really taking 13 out of 15pts available. Bar 3 players over 25 the rest of the 18-20 man squad are all under the age of 22 with 3 17yr olds. All of whom have come through youths in the club in last 3/4 years.

[Shilts]

BALLYVOLANE 0 MACROOM 2

started off well went one up after 10mins from mackie,then got a pen very harsh to be honest i steped up 2-0.ballyvolane got on top they hit the post twice should ave scored really.2nd half it was all ballyvolane and if im honest they prob could ave won the game if they took their chance but their was no getting past our keeper he was in fine form last night....best of luck to ballyvolane next year.premier football for macroom again next year so cant complain,kinsale next for us at home sunday goona be very tough but we will give it a go and try to be the 1st to beat ye in the league shilts

Glad to see that ye are safe now Sharpshooter.
We had a good close game last time out, but hopefully we won't have to rely on our elderly/ancient players anymore this season

Interesting comments from Innish about the country teams doing better than the city teams this year.
Also, 2 northside teams have been relegated from the Premier Division.
I wonder is this related to the recession, with "the soccer-playing areas" of the city suffering more from emigration than most other areas.
Could this be a factor?!

[casilles]

Interesting comments from Innish about the country teams doing better than the city teams this year.
Also, 2 northside teams have been relegated from the Premier Division.
I wonder is this related to the recession, with "the soccer-playing areas" of the city suffering more from emigration than most other areas.
Could this be a factor?!

Ya all in all it doesnt look to been a good year for us City teams, bar Wilton who are still fighting yerselves for the 2 top honours and either Kilreen or Douglas taken the 1a title. fairview took the St Michelals alright too. The recession has hit everywhere wether you are from Gurranabraher or from Union Hall , id say nearly ever team has had at least 1 player emigrate.Where it really hurt us is if a fella has work there is no way you can ask him to take it off and we have seen that on the mid week games. On the relegation of Grattan and Ballyvolane it is sad but take a look at the Premier A, there will be 6 Northside teams in the division next year. I do believe the old cliche of come March the county teams will have no one cause of the Gaa is gone. Nearly all village/parish teams are well run and the facilities have come on leaps and bounds, Buttervant,Inishvilla, Coachford,Macroom ect. Where us city teams are struggling if we dont already own our pitch is bettering our facilities. Some of ye on this will point out ye ran fundraisers and got grants but that is the great thing of been the parish team, you are the only team there. Take a look at the northside of Cork there is in total 22 teams in the Aul and 6 senior teams and 2 MJl teams. That is a lot of players and finding finance is getting harder and harder. Of that 15 of the aul teams do not own there own grounds. We Blarney St Ath will be the only Northside team in the Premier next year but i do believe it wont be long before a few more rejoin us.

Inishvilla, congads on yer league win, oh and too you too Bluey!!! On the matter of teams coming second and not getting promoted take alook at our good friends Cresent Ath, Played 18, won 12, drew 5 , lost 1. now that is a great season no ,atter who you are .This point has been brought up every year, I do believe the leagues need a bit of reorganising, just something that i was looking at and throwing my 2 cents at it, would apreciate a bit of feed back on it too plaese

Premier 14 teams, 3 down,
1st Div 2 sections of 14 teams, 2 winners up with the 2 2nd places having a playoff to go up. 2 down from each
2nd div 2 sections of 14 teams 2 up, 2 down
3rd div 2 sections of 13 teams, 2 up
There would be no premier A as seen above but that division has a 50% turn over rate every year, the above numbers are what is activley in the Aul at the moment, Ballyvolane b are not included as they pulled out earlier in the season, Passage are included as im not 100% certain if they are still there or not.

As sais earlier Id love to hear and see other opionions on this and expect oa few raised eyebrows from a few premier A followers!!!

[thebooboys]

Generally a team thats top of their league goes on to have a cup run also. ie 1st division champs generally do well in Michaels, same can be said for league winners involved with Corinthians, Saxone and Presidents cup. A Premier with 14 teams would not work if said pemier team went on a run in the FAI and the Munster. Not unless you could play a certain level of games midweek during the darker months. That would require floodlights etc which most teams dont have unfortunately.

And yes, Jeromy O Sull has done a very good job with the B team. 2 legged semi vs Ballincollig then a final against Glanworth/Hibs A i think. Best of luck to em.

[Shilts]

Generally a team thats top of their league goes on to have a cup run also. ie 1st division champs generally do well in Michaels, same can be said for league winners involved with Corinthians, Saxone and Presidents cup. A Premier with 14 teams would not work if said pemier team went on a run in the FAI and the Munster. Not unless you could play a certain level of games midweek during the darker months. That would require floodlights etc which most teams dont have unfortunately.

And yes, Jeromy O Sull has done a very good job with the B team. 2 legged semi vs Ballincollig then a final against Glanworth/Hibs A i think. Best of luck to em.

Have to agree with you there booboys
Last year Leeside got to the open rounds of the munster and fai cups - they also got to the finals of the AOH and Mossie Linnane Cup.
If they had to play another 8 games on top of that they could not have been finished before July 1
Similarly this year after our (Kinsale) good cup runs we now have 8 league games and the AOH Cup Final to play as it stands.
An extension of the Premier Division is not practical in my opinion.

And next year, the MFA are running a cup for all their junior league champions (Premier) so that will only add to the present backlog for the better teams.

How about have a 12 team Premier A and relegate 3 to the first Divisions.
They could be replaced by the winners of the first divisions and the winner of a playoff between the runner-ups in the first divisions?

I do agree that something must be done to cater for the runner-ups though.

Also to keep more teams involved for longer I would reccommend some type of play-off system as per the lower leagues in England. This would reduce the amount of mid-table nothing games that occur at the moment and it would also keep teams honest when playing the teams fighting for honours and against relegation.

[Inswinger]

As regards to having only one northside team in the Premier next year I think Cas hit the nail on the head, there are probably too many teams in the Northside at the minute for them all to be competing at the very top, personally i can t see why some teams cant pool their resources, alot of these clubs do nt have a feeder club at underage level and may have a better chance of long time survival. From the top of my head i can think of Villa, Rockville, Ballypheane who would have had been in the premier but ultimately disbanded because of the club being run by a small few hardworking club men, a club in my opinion needs to be more than that. Maybe and this might be controversial but if a team is nt doing particularly well a lack of loyalty comes into play with regard to players with a neighbouring club reaping the benefits.

I think the premier as it is with 10 teams is more than adequate with all the cups these teams are involved in, certainly the fact only one team from the 1st divisions get promoted is a problem maybe increasing the number of teams in the Prem A or having play offs for the runners up and maybe the 4th bottom in Premier A could be looked at.

[blackiegray]

Also to keep more teams involved for longer I would reccommend some type of play-off system as per the lower leagues in England. This would reduce the amount of mid-table nothing games that occur at the moment and it would also keep teams honest when playing the teams fighting for honours and against relegation.

Playoffs seem like a great, sensible idea Shilts. There are some divisions where since Christmas most matches have had nothing of consequence on them. Stick second place into a playoff final and 3rd and 4th into a semi. Or even drag the second or third bottom team in the league above into the same playoffs.

Two or three more games won't be the end of the world, even two-legged ties. And it could make so many more matches more interesting.

[thebooboys]

in my opinion the main thing to be changed is the 1st division promotion..u can have excellent teams coming second that will get discouraged by the lack of progression...has to be playoff with 3 2nd placed theams and team from 4th bottom in premier a...its a no brainer really...

having watched the aul this year i think the standard is drastically decreasing and the league need to try and do something quick to increase the level....maybe make premier an 8 team league with everyone playin 3 teams....grattan ballyvolane knocka villa macroom are not premier teams on the basis of what i saw...

as for premier i think the lack of progress in national cups was clear for all to see and kinsale waltzing through the league is not great recognition either....

Silly comment. Kinsale haven't strolled league this year and their posters here will be the first to agree with me there. Indeed coachford+blarney st improved this year to make it much more competitive. As for FAI and Muster Junior we(leeside) have had very good record reaching last 16/32 regularly over last few seasons. Wilton also had good run in senior cup recently too

[Inswinger]

as for premier i think the lack of progress in national cups was clear for all to see and kinsale waltzing through the league is not great recognition either....

I think you ll find Red and White that the failure of the Aul teams to challenge at the later stages of the FAI Junior amd MJC has more to do with the fact that we are competing against teams who are only a Junior team by name only, most of the top Junior teams in Tipp, Limerick and Waterford regularly hand out beatings to the top MSL teams. They do nt have a Senior League in these counties, the likes of Pike, Fairview, Clonmel. St. Michael's and Carrick are as good if not better than what we have in the MSL. It goes to highlight what a great achievement it was for leeside to win the MJC a few years back.

The league tables do nt lie, Kinsale are the best team and have been in the AUL for a number of years and they have consistently done well in the FAI. What i would like to see next year is a number of rounds of league fixtures in the Premier league being run off from the very start of the season and that we all play our games on the same week end avoiding teams having to play several games at the end of the season. Also that Premier teams not to play until the 3rd round of the Aoh.

[Innishvilla]

I must disagree a bit there too - Kinsale will be pushed all the way by Wilton this season I feel. Looking around the country, in Limerick Pike & Fairview are out of sight (13 points clear) in the premier division. In Tipp St Michael's and Clonmel Town are 10 & 14 points clear of the rest respectively, in Dublin AUL Sheriff are cruising the league title with a 4 point lead with 4 games in hand.

[thebooboys]

I think you ll find Red and White that the failure of the Aul teams to challenge at the later stages of the FAI Junior amd MJC has more to do with the fact that we are competing against teams who are only a Junior team by name only, most of the top Junior teams in Tipp, Limerick and Waterford regularly hand out beatings to the top MSL teams. They do nt have a Senior League in these counties, the likes of Pike, Fairview, Clonmel. St. Michael's and Carrick are as good if not better than what we have in the MSL. It goes to highlight what a great achievement it was for leeside to win the MJC a few years back.

The league tables do nt lie, Kinsale are the best team and have been in the AUL for a number of years and they have consistently done well in the FAI. What i would like to see next year is a number of rounds of league fixtures in the Premier league being run off from the very start of the season and that we all play our games on the same week end avoiding teams having to play several games at the
end of the season. Also that Premier teams not to play until the 3rd round of the Aoh.

Further evidence for your point, pike beat avondale 3-2 recently in Munster if memory serves me correct. And yes leeside did well a few yrs back to win the munster, albeit thanks to a decent draw with lots of home ties.

Would also agree with not entering premier teams in early rounds of AOH. In recent yrs we've thumped douglas, ucc, and a few more in early stages of cup. Pointless exercise.

[Shilts]

I think if you look at the tables you'll find that Kinsale are doing the chasing at the moment and have a lot of work to catch up with Leeside and Wilton especially.

[sharpshooter]

in my opinion the main thing to be changed is the 1st division promotion..u can have excellent teams coming second that will get discouraged by the lack of progression...has to be playoff with 3 2nd placed theams and team from 4th bottom in premier a...its a no brainer really...

having watched the aul this year i think the standard is drastically decreasing and the league need to try and do something quick to increase the level....maybe make premier an 8 team league with everyone playin 3 teams....grattan ballyvolane knocka villa macroom are not premier teams on the basis of what i saw...

as for premier i think the lack of progress in national cups was clear for all to see and kinsale waltzing through the league is not great recognition either....

knockavilla grattan ourselfs and ballyvolane are just they their make up the numbers every week ,sound

[sharpshooter]

well the proof is in the table....grattan got battered right left and centre..a situation like that is a DISGRACE for a premier league to be in...be interested to see how many points macroom ballyvolane and knockavilla took from the top 3 of leeside wilton kinsale....my point is not to offend clubs but gettingto the premier league should be a huge achievement but staying there should be even harder..u can now survive by being fairly average in my opinion which in turn does not help the bigger teams which in turn has led to a downturn in the quality of football being produced...

this year is the 1st year in a few the grattan havent been fighting for the league only for them losing half their team and the manager they prob be still up their..knockavilla won the aoh cup last year beating leeside.u saying so that macroom winning the premier A last year to get into the premier wasnt a big achievement.