In my final years of bluffing trying to play football I played in the CBL. The Cow were exceptional. There were 2 or 3 more decent teams.
Them teams are now gone as strong contenders for trophies. Yes this happens in every level of football but the standard of the top of the CBL back then was stronger than it is today. The Cow were also all 5 or 6 years younger. Now if a team ages 5 or 6 years and a league is progressing at the rapid rate as which we are lead to believe the top dogs historically will be pegged back to the racing pack. THAT HASNT HAPPENED. That is no disrespect to The Cow but to me it is a clear indication that this league is not progressing as a competitive league.
It is progressing as a league for very very poor footballers who aren’t good enough to play at a higher level or players who haven’t the drive to fight for a first 11 spot in a higher league to go play a game of ball.
And any club with 50 years history in a league should be ashamed of themselves for jumping ship for easier opportunities of success.
Big shock in the 3rd division cup tonight, Harp 1 Boher 0
Nobody here seems to be able to make an argument for the AUL being a better league outside of standard of player. What do the well paid and well embursed AUL members do to progress the league? 41 teams this year. It will be into the 30s soon and inevitably 20s.
The standard of player is despite the AUL being so badly run. The administration have in fact over the years, had a negative influence over the standard of the league.
It's managers, friends and loyal club men who keep good players in the league and also attract them. In rural clubs it's the local pride. It's not the AUL who are the attractive pull.
There is in fact an MSL club who have asked to put a junior team in to the CBL because of the AUL for 2024/2025. There are in fact MSL clubs who have contacted the AUL to join and have received no reply over several recent summers.
People here give out about favouritism, fixtures, lack of clarity, draws not updated, poor communication, pulled games. Where does it come from? The administration. Another league is doing well, people criticise. Another club does well, people criticise. We have a good product this year and fair play to those clubs for making it as good as they can.
Put the CBL committee in charge of the AUL and it would be far better.
If clubs and players leave, so be it, their choice. It's not as if much is on offer to keep them. Certainly not a well run league.
People criticised Park Utd, Kinsale, Wilton and more going MSL. Yet forget those clubs set themselves up for long term futures.
Many AUL clubs need the leagues best effort and effort is lacking.
If you're honest, I bet almost everyone here who is still in the AUL has major grievances for their team and club against how they are treated by their own league be it long term or a few occasions even this season.
I personally think Aul committee needs big overhaul same men sitting at the table 30 years and their attitude never change I know from past experiences with them especially one man that sits at that table and weather he’s President chairman secretary or fixture secretary what he says goes I won’t mention his name but anyone involved with Aul will know who I’m on about it does matter if you had player sent that shouldn’t have being your wasting your time talking to him cause all they care about is money for fines I know a lot of times players deserve ban and fines but nothing changes with him doesn’t matter how innocent your player is clubs still hit with fines and player still suspended and it’s made clear to your appeal if you want but that will cost another 300 to do so ridiculous carry on that will never change in my opinion so I personally can see why teams are leaving Aul if rumours or right Grattan won’t be hanging around much longer either that will be another massive loss to league.
We’ve had good years in the AUL but have been failed time after time by the administration. We are not the only club leaving the league. But I’ll let them tell you for themselves. Other leagues will get stronger with ex- AUL clubs. And we will have an administration in the league that are transparent and fair! We will see cup draws happen. And we will have clarity around when we actually play and not have 3 week gaps between games.
It might be a lower standard. But that will rise with more and more AUL and MSL teams joining. Let’s be honest anything under League 1 in AUL is an awful standard!
All the best
Kevin I’m hearing it’s all in place to go Msl watch this space
Grattan never cease to amaze me they compete at the top level the majority of time.
Their A and B teams squads are largely independent of each other with the odd one dropping to the B team.
Their A team is a relatively old squad would they really be able to compete in the MSL with out an underage system to feed from.
And as said above I thought it was a stipulation of joining MSL you had to have an underage system.
To be honest the higher standard of player should be enough of a reason for any player worth their salt in my own opinion.
And better surfaces? You mean Astro right? Trust me when I say a LOT of players wouldn’t never play on Astro again, if they had the chance, so if clubs want to spend 100 quid a week to play on it then fine all to their own but it isn’t exactly sustainable
and as for the senior player thing, if I recall correctly Murphy and O Reilly with Doolans are the only two I know of that had any success as senior level, ironically they’re the two that seemed to change the cow from another team to the dominant force they’ve been the last 6/7 years, Keegan centr half is a fine player as well I must say
we’ve all had our say on it either way, be sad to see cathedral go but if they think it’s best for them
I’ve had enough of hearing about the shipping league on an AUL thread for one week anyway lads I don’t know about ye
MSL came to us too offering a place in the Munster Junior League. We refused.
We’ll be going to the CBL with at least two other AUL teams.
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