Limerick Desmond League 2014/15

[fanaticfan]

Munster junior ..broadford got walk over from kildimo ..ratkeale beat rovers 2 nil ..ballingarry were up 4 nil last i heard against shountrade. Newcastle beat killeaney 4-0

[Langerdan007]

Should have got gaa to change the time of final .. why should football bow down to gaa it's being happening way too long.. IMO great to see the league taking a stance.. more leagues should do it..

The county final wasn't on till Sunday evening (5pm i think or thereabouts) so I dont think time was an issue.
We had 1 lad playing it as well, I imagine it didn't matter when the GAA match was on those players would only have been playing in that game over the weekend - Pallas didn't have a game (could have asked for it off) - main issue was prob that it was Munster so no flexibility - league games can be picked up later in the year

I dont think either side should take a hardline stance being honest - its the same pool of players for the majority of clubs and a bit of flexibility/harmony would go a LONG way

I would temper that though with saying in my experience the GAA are utter c*nts to deal with, ESPECIALLY if they know its due to soccer

Kildimo just unlucky with how the fixtures fell and I'm sure disgusted with having to give the W/O, I would think the majority of games played en route to the final were on a Saturday though! Not sure you'd want to be trying to raise fella's from the dead after winning a county final either though!

[PatRooney]

Great win for Rathkeale over Ncw Rovers yesterday. Hopefully they can get a good run in the competition.

[Good Shout]

The county final I believe was a Junior B football final am I right? Kildimo United are top of division 1 and playing for a place in the 3rd round of a provential competition against one of the best teams in our league and they choose a JUNIOR B FOOTBALL game over it. It probable shows how important soccer is in that neck of the woods, this is also reflected in their facilities. The league were 100% correct not to call off the fixture, there are mickey mouse Ga fixtures left, right and centre including this laughable junior B football. Is it time that players decided between codes, real soccer people are sick of it.

[Crazy Lady]

"Is it time that players picked between codes"?
Are you living in dreamland altogether? A lot of clubs these days are struggling to get a decent squad together every Sunday as it is, so I doubt they are going to force players to choose between codes & risk losing a number of players. This isn't the Champions League, Desmond League football isn't the be all & end all for most lads. Of course they'd rather play a junior b county final ahead of a Munster Junior Cup 3rd round game.

[Good Shout]

Desmond League football is important to alot of lads believe me. So the Junior B footy, I repeat JUNIOR B football in a county dat cant keep the ball kicked out to the likes of Kerry and Cork is more inportant than a Provential competition in soccer, that's what I said so those lads should stick to that game and let the soccer men get on with it. Kildimo will now progress to the JUNIOR B Munster championship, more pressure on the league to give them a free day or hopefully another walkover and more embarrassment and the Ga having a good laugh. And then should they beat the Junior B champions of another county in glorious Knockaderry, the home of galic football, its another day our in their quest for World dsomination at JUNIOR B football. Give me a break please.

[Abbeyman]

Good Shout ... Your a man with issues , hard facts are many clubs are made up of GAA first players and if everyone had your hatred of the Gaa there wouldn't be too many teams left ... In abbey obviously helped by a larger pick its understood that fellows play latter stages of county championship as opposed to early season soccer but at the other end players play latter stages desmond cup & league before early GAA games . Bar the top 3-4 teams in premier and villages like kilcornan and ballyhahill who don't have GAA it's the same all over west limerick like it or lump it !

[Good Shout]

County finals in November? Are they trying to promote Ga or kill soccer? My point is that it is not possible or fair for that matter to try to play both, when there is a clash with the Ga the soccer will usually lose out but what of the soccer lads in the teams who watch their team mates abandon them? Surely they deserve better. Abbeyfeale United should be better placed than most with the population but are they? How many leagues have they won versus leagues they could have won.

[last man back]

So basically lads are ye saying us soccer folk should put up with it and be happy these lads show up when there gaa commitments are finished

[old man]

Was just told glin might have to give kildimo a walk over as they have a county final the weekend

[Abbeyman]

Call a spade a spade winning a county senior title for your parish in front of 3000 people in the Gaelic grounds or Ncw will always win out v winning a desmond cup in Askeaton in front of 200, we can't change that , even glin one of the strongest soccer areas enjoyed tremendous scenes last weekend when they finally won the county junior football , different years bring different scenarios , one year a good run in football or hurling the following you win the desmond cup , just make the best of it , it's normally the same guys .

[Langerdan007]

Last Man, nobody is happy about it but there's defo a lot of teams who would fold without GAA players in their squad, Breska are a team who have always seemed to struggle once the hurling starts in Ballybrown and there's plenty of others out there.

Lot of good points above, Good Shout is right about games still being on in November, the sprawl of the GAA calendar is outa control (End of March-November???) but as someone else said its very hard for fellas not to turn up for their parish at the business end of the GAA, GAA have lads over a barrel and care not about how long things drag on.

[runinglate]

Oldman once again you seem ill informed, Glin won the county final last Saturday,I couldn't see them giving a walkover regardless, they'll find away.

In terms of matches league are right to proceed as normal, I think the players should be pushing for Saturday matches with their gaa clubs.

I think desmond league soccer clubs know they are nothing without there gaa players so they have to try and accomadate them, its what a community is all about.

The last I heard most soccer clubs are community clubs, and I for one would like to see it kept that way.

Rathkeale, Broadford , Abbeyfeale , Glantine, Breska ,Foynes, Shanagolden Kilcornan , Ballysteen all had to deal with it in the past Glin and Kildimo no different this year.

Just a pity County board can't have the fixtures over going in to the second week in November.

[nathanbrown]

I've a few rants in one here. I havent been on in a while and the last time I was I went on a rant defending Kildimo. Im going to do the same again.

First off, to complain because they played Junior B final is a disgrace. You represent your parish regardless of the level and it is an honour. If they didnt bother playing because it was Junior B then they wouldnt win and wouldnt now be Junior A. When I last played, Drom Broadford were Junior B. Should they not have bothered to miss soccer in the 90's because there was no point playing Junior B? Where would they be now if that was the case?

Kilcornan and Ballyhahil I think you will find do have GAA clubs, dont know where that comment came from.

Langerdan, to say the GAA shouldnt run from March to November?? Soccer runs from August to May. By my calculations thats longer, why should GAA be the one to cut down. On your point about GAA being c***s to deal with. You are dead right. In my experience the desmond league have always been accommodating to clubs to call off games for GAA. I have found that if GAA fixtures at junior level are fixed at the start of the season you can be fairly certain they wont be played on any of those fixed days. Soccer matches are half 11 or half 2 on a sunday and always have been (except when they change for the GAA finals). What do GAA do in return only fix a game for 12 on a sunday to interfere with both. It would be in their best interest to have the game on a Saturday to have the GAA lads fresh. They are a joke.

Anyway, rant over. I just dont like the idea of lads complaining about other lads choosing one sport over another. Especially when it is a chance to represent your own parish. Man of the match in the county final was a Rathkeale player.

[Langerdan007]

Comparing the calendars is a little too simply though - there's 18 league games, league cup, Desmond Cup, Hogan, Reidy, Munster Junior, FAI - I know only some divisions play some cups - thats a lot more games in a soccer season and with a couple cup runs it could be up on 30, I had a quick look and Kildimo had 17 competitive games (League/Championship 17 Apr - 02 Nov)
They played 5 games in 3 months, its not the teams fault they play when told but the GAA could tighten up their calendar a lot
Soccer lads also play over winter so games are susceptible to bad weather, there's a break over the Christmas and for the most part the league try and get every team out every week and get it played off as best they can - not the same on the other side of the fence, thats all I was saying really with their calendar

You're right about their fixtures never being played for when their fixed, generally they fix all league games for 12 on a Sunday and invariably they have to get switched to Fri/Sat evening coz shock horror there's a soccer match on at that time Sunday!

[Abbeyman]

The amount of cups we have in the desmond league is a bit crazy really and causes an extremely long season, theres a cup for every team nearly, the Hogan & reidy cup could be dropped, having so many cups takes from the main event the desmond cup.

[nathanbrown]

To be fair Langerdan, dont get me wrong, I dont want to make a thing of this but Kildimo probably also played 15 hurling matches. I know they are different sports technically but its the GAA season we are giving out about. Thats 32 competitive games in about the same amount of weeks. The GAA take a break during inter county championship which is similar to the break at christmas in soccer so I do think it was a fair comparison.

On your point Abbeyman, I agree there is too many cups but I also think they are important in a sense that it keeps teams interested. When you look at the like of Abbeyfeale B usually having 9 or 10 games played compared to others having 15 or 16 towards the end of the season. If none of those teams are in a cup and have nothing to play for in the league its handy points for Abbeyfeale. Happens every year. Even apart from that, there are alot of walkovers towards the end of each season or 'agreed results'. If teams are still in a cup these games become more significant

[Langerdan007]

Thats a fair point on the hurling, jaysus when you think about it, Hurling/Football/Soccer, there's 52 weeks in the year its prob not enough to have 1 game every week

I agree theres a lot of cups, I dont know if you could axe any though. The Hogan cup is a nice cup for the lower Div's (2 and below) - Reidy cup is virtually a dulled down version of the Desmond (Div 1 and below) so maybe that one - League cups being at the end of the season defo do keep some middle table teams interested near the end but the imbalance in league games played cant be fixed by that alone.

I suppose to look at it from a different angle, if so many teams are relying on so few players is their too many teams in the league? Would there be benefit in some consolidation?

[sexyfootball]

Lads with regards to the axing of cup competitions i'd be well against that... it's called the Desmond League - which doesn't just contain the Premier & Div 1... the Hogan & Reidy cups are trophys teams in the lower leagues have a very realistic chance of winning.
We discussed this at the start of the season, more often than not the way a team will perform in their league hinges on how well (or badly) their GAA team is doing... there will always be an ovelap but in th end the GAA will win out!

[Good Shout]

Plenty good points in what is a good debate. However I still feel that the players are at a point where they should really decide between codes and remember we now have to compete with the oval ball. It's physicall not possible to play all these sports and not fair. Yes I agree that Soccer clubs would fold but that may not be a bad thing there probably are too many clubs anyway which effects the standard, less clubs would mean more Soccer players to choose from and in turn this will raise the standard. You never know we might even see another club make a MJ Cup final and hopefully go one better than Askeaton in 1994. Was the FAI Junior Cup draw made last evening? Out of town now I believe.