Originally Posted by
EalingGreen
Fair dues, I had misunderstood your meaning.
That's one route, but is a brand new entity, where even adult players face enough problems making the step-up, the best proving ground for promising teenagers or 20 y.o.'s? The model is still unproven and so far at least, Kerry have much ground to make up to be competitive. And as for Mervue and Cabo, well, look at them now.
I guess what I'm saying is that isn't it better that promising young players make the breakthrough to adult football via established adult clubs, whether coming through the clubs' own Academies, or scouted from Intermediate (adult) clubs, or signed from youth leagues eg the DDSL?
I'll take "evangelical" allright - tbh, "Nerdy" would have been fair enough!
As for Marketing (Promotion), obviously that's important, and Kerry seem to be doing well on that front. But even assuming the "product" (i.e. team) you're promoting is doing ok, there's still a whole lot more to establishing a club in Senior football than that. Finance and Facilities/Infrastructure are at least as important, also having fixed your place in your local community (sponsors, media, local businesses etc). And a hard core fanbase, who'll continue to support the club regardless is also vital, should a club go through a bad patch. Above all, to achieve all these things you need "proper football men" (and women!) who've all previously volunteered their time and effort to carry out all the million things that need to be done to establish a club and progress through the different levels of the game, from local to regional, and from there (hopefully) to national.
If results don't pick up for Kerry, and once the novelty has worn off, will their impressive crowds to date hold up next season and the season(s) after? And if they don't, how will the club make the next step up to paying players on p-t contracts etc, or risk losing the best of them? At which point, will the new guys running the club still have the same enthusiasm and commitment of long time club stalwarts who've done the hard yards down the years? (Btw, I'm not saying Kerry FC won't make it, but even assuming they do, how many others are there out there to follow in their tracks?)
But that's my point. For clubs like eg Castlebar, Tralee Dynamos or Mullingar Celtic, it shouldn't have to be an 'Either/Or' between being a Community club or a Senior professional club, it should be possible for such clubs to be both i.e offering LOI football from the foundation of their roots in their local community.
You may be right, but it seems to me that this new County/U-19's model is at best a distraction from the need to build a proper pyramid, and at worst will make it even harder. That is, if County teams should get established in Kerry or Mayo etc, then that would end any chance for another ambitious club within that county or region ever to make the step-up. After all, if you'd originally had eg a "Louth FC", would the towns of Dundalk and Drogheda ever have seen Senior football for themselves? Or if a "Donegal FC" had been located, say, in Letterkenny (the obvious centre), would Finn Harps ever have achieved Senior status? Cork City alongside Cobh Ramblers?
As a fan of IL football, I think there is a lot we can learn from our LOI neighbours (eg your increased crowds) and vice versa (expanding the game). Indeed as a football obsessive generally, I can assure you I'm not solely interested in Irish football, North and South, either - I mean, you don't want to get me onto the European Super League, or VAR, for instance!
But either way, I've tried to be respectful in my comments, hope I don't come across as condescending, and on a football forum which is uncommonly civil and generally welcoming etc, I would certainly never use a term like "muck savages".
UTG!
Bookmarks