Originally Posted by
Cruyff
This is a bit long winded but here we go,
Population is a lot of it, take the generation of adults who would now be 27-32 years old, wind the clock back to 2009-2012 when the recession was at it's worst, those people would have been around 18-23 at that time.
Just finished school/college/apprenticeship or whatever, where did they all go?
Abroad
Many never came back, so now you go to watch most of the premier league games and teams are backboned by a half dozen or more 30+ year olds and a lot of under 25/26 lads.
That's a common enough thread around the league based on my observation.
That's not a big deal in terms of fielding a team but if you're trying to field 2 it's a problem, off the top of my head I can think of Carrig, Ballingarry, St.Itas, Pallaskenry, Askeaton, Killeaney, Glantine, Feenagh who all had B teams in the past 10 years but since the recession this has slowly died. Not the club's fault really, if numbers aren't there they aren't there.
Count in the Old Mill and Kilcolman who were premier and first division sides at one time, possibly at the same time even but I'm open to correction.
To be honest I think the old standard dropping thing is a little overblown. I respect all opinions to the contrary but in fairness I see the Desmond League's top teams getting about as far as they ever did in FAI and Munster Junior 20 years ago.
With the exception of the old NCW AFC teams in the mid 2000s I don't remember any Desmond League teams in recent history doing any better than the current groups. Obviously I'm open to correction, but one good year in 10 isn't really a good sample size, we're talking about showing consistently better or worse results to make an argument.
Maybe the bottom 5 of the premier is a little weaker than it used to be, I actually think that the bottom of the premier is like a strong first division standard if I'm honest.
But you're in rural West Limerick and talking about small villages in the main during a time when employment is mainly in towns and cities, I don't know what people expect from a Carrig or Granagh when their population wouldn't be massive and they are in staunch GAA areas also, of course they are not going to be able to compete every Sunday over an 18 game season. Add to it the best players will always want to group together to give themselves the best chance to win, meaning that a top side have 12-14 premier quality players whereas others have 8-9 and if they're both missing 2-3 it hurts the weaker team much more.
But, they can conceivably win a Desmond Cup like Glin did, and that's the aim if you're not in the top 5. Nothing at all wrong with it.
It's the exact same reason why the top Desmond League teams would struggle in the city because the top city teams have a squad of 17-18 top quality players so if there's a county final on it doesn't hurt them like it would hurt even the top Desmond League team.
Any one of the top 3-4 in the Desmond could match the city teams on a given day, but over a 18-22 game season it's a different story. Little fish < Big fish < Bigger fish.
I think there's great credit due to rural club's given the circumstances, I'm gone from the local scene a while now but I remember the struggle. It's a lot easier in a big club or at inter league level when you're dealing with a bunch of people that probably don't play much else and are keen.
I 100% that the standard outside the premier in particular has dropped but then again clubs have just gotten weaker and that's it, I don't see what can be done about this really.
I'd be interested in hearing other opinions....
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