Congrats to watergrasshill on securing the division 1 title and a double for the season. Nice to see a club that hung in there when it would have been easy to fold getting their rewards.
Interesting most of the trophies won this season across the AUL have come from clubs with an underage set up.
It’s 10 out 13 or 77% great to see clubs own hard work coming through at adult level.
Another interesting fact is that 9 out of 13 trophies have been won by county based teams 69%
4 by city based teams 31%
But in reality it’s 8 out of 11 73%
And 3 out of 11 27%
As the County and City Cups aren’t played by all teams.
That is absolute rubbish, Jamie isn’t AUL standard, he’s MsL/intermediate standard at least, Keegan, O Reilly, Hennessy, and Ian McCarthy are all good enough players to get a game with any team in the AUL premier, as their victories in the FAI and MJ cups attest to, let alone village, it’s not La Liga at all, the premier is a poor as it’s been in years, and village didn’t even finish top half last time out. Village or a club close to home I hope they go on to win a lot this year, but some of the talk on here will really turn fellas against them, it’ll be like castleview this season or John Corcoran, there’s other teams and players in the leagueOriginally Posted by AULBUSTER
FairPlay to Hill winning double but my god wouldn’t be going mad personally think they took easy way out refusing to go premier u can bet your bottom dollar their gaffer thought it was easy treble to me personally not doing treble is fail even grangevale would of done treble if they were in that league shocking
Thats great news, good to see underage structure coming through junior level again and not just senior. Many clubs are interested in just feeding the senior teams and that's how players drop off and stop playing.
Great post Fruice. Love to see some stats like that on here instead of all of our silly opinions for a change. There’s definitely a lot to be said for putting effort into an underage setup with a long term plan for adult ball. Interesting alright with the country teams being successful this season when a lot of talk is that soccer is dying a death in the countryside.
If Village played the Cow tomorrow Village would beat them easily. Cow are in a novice league. Can’t compare. Villages back four are far better fitter and younger .
Craig Keegan is a better defender than any of the village back four, including Gurta, both gurtas in fact now that the brother has signed. You’d know if you watched him play and not judging him off the fact he plays cbl. Realistically Gurta is the only one who gets into the cow back four, they’re folding in any case so time will tell and if they decide to go to village we will have our answer
Murphy, Hennessey and Cotter would all be assets to Premier sides from Cow. Rest if them, not so much anymore. Keeper Scanlon decent too. There's all levels to it and MSL would look down terribly on AUL too. Considering you look down on Cow.
Good going underage by Watergrasshil and Coachford. Any club that can, should go MSL. Imagine AUL in 10 years when an 8 year old now is 18. What will be left of it?
You can see across soccer in Cork that it's the underage clubs are thriving. And it's the southside clubs have invested in coaching and facilities who are thriving. 10-15 years ago Castleview, Leeds & Mayfield were the top dogs underage with kids out playing more too. Now kids play more in coached settings and likes of Carrigaline, Corinthians, Hall, Ringmahon, etc. are flying. They're big clubs with big effort in the past bearing fruit for their communities today and to the future. Its not just facilities, its coaching.They are some machines.
Grattan, Village, Glenthorn and any other one team clubs will rely on their neighbours to produce teams for them and those neighbours are falling behind rest of county. So, a decline in standards will continue and continue.
FAI Pathway plan will then have more challenges for everyone and rural sides with GAA in particular.
FAI pathway is another interesting discussion some leagues such as mayo are summer soccer and they think it has worked well.
With that being said the Cork AUL voted against summer soccer at their recent AGM.
And weren’t the 1st to do so.
There is an argument for staying and going MSL.
Im of the opinion that while you are heading to better facilities and standards.
It might not be for everyone it’s very hard for a lot of clubs to compete with the Machine of clubs that you have mentioned and can actually lead to problems at adult level.
All the clubs with underage structures in the AUL are competing with MSL Clubs but in the main its against their 2 or 3rd team but you highlight coachford at underage level but they are competing in the lower levels of school boy football competing with 3rd and 4th teams of the big clubs.
So what business have they making the switch at adult levels.
A properly functioning AUL should be a fantastic home for these clubs.
You would hope these clubs will improve their facilities and thus bring up the standards of the clubs in the AUL.
Last edited by fruice; 18/06/2024 at 10:21 PM.
Gorta was on the Cork AUL team at 19 . Keegan would never get near a team like that . I played with Keegan and both gortas. The young center half for village will make a fine player too better then Keegan . If the cow had any balls they would have moved to the AUL ages ago . They would have one div 3 and 2 . Nothing after that .
Then tell me why they’ve went further than village ever have in the fai cup? Narrowly losing out to a brilliant Westport side? Most AUL teams get absolutely tonked as soon as they leave cork, the cow and coachford are the only ones who had any sort of respectable runs in those cups in recent years, and if you’re talking about Thompson being better than Keegan then I’m finished replying because that’s a mad statement at best, lunacy hahaha
Though I do agree they should have went AUL it was there choice, doesn’t take away from the fact they are/were a credit to junior football in cork the last 6/7 years
Laughable comment to be honest, a team that was last in division 2B two years ago, they had a great year last year and go skip a division. Are we going to see rathcormac skip a division because they won a double? We are all quick to throw the finger and say teams took it easy when they must be the first team I can think of skipping a division in the AUL
Can't win either way..skip a division and taking shortcuts.
Don't skip a division and winning easy trophies.
Killumney skipped a division the previous season and folded.
Wgh already skipped 1 league this year..skipping 2 makes a mockery of promotion/relegation and why shouldn't they want to win leagues/trophies along the way to Premier.
They were bottom division 3 a few years back and stuck at it...getting the rewards now and a good underage structure coming through.
The only big question is 3 league games played by april,aul need to have a long look at how that happened.
But congrats to them and looks like they will finish season with 100% record.
Last edited by Broadway Joe; 19/06/2024 at 7:42 AM.
Thompson is going to be a fine player for village for the next few years. Never kicked a ball until 19 I was told and is after playing in an AOH final already. He was outstanding in that game probably Villages best player .
Keegan played on Cork MJC teams at around the same age 19/20 I remember watching him v Kerry, Cork Aul & the Defence Forces.But sure must of been a poor team to get on I suppose. I agree Cow should of moved up but why move to satisfy others? Park, Kinsale, Leeside, Wilton, all moved up to senior when people kept saying they should have. Most of them are now struggling in second div senior. Young Centre half for Village you have to be talking about Gurta ya he's a fine player time will tell, you couldn't be talking about the rest of them because they are poor. Conceded 38 goals in just the league, Grattan and Coachford only conceded 11 each now that's two very good strong premier teams. Village we were well beaten by Ash and Jaybazz in pre season friendlies and beaten by UCC CBL in the MJC 4-1. You wanna come down off your Village high horse because there an average bottom half okay Premier team. Don't think Lenny be too happy you turning everyone off Village before pre season even begins
leeside back in the 1st division for next season + they've good facilities out there now with the astro it'll be a good draw for players out that side. Wilton just short of getting play offs for msl prem + had 2 good cup runs this season. they lack the facilities though. its worked out for a handful of clubs. Park had a decent run of it but their team got older and no players to draw from out there, again theyve a savage set up. MSL problem was letting in too many. the couple ive mentioned worked - jury is still out on the likes of buttevant , kinsale , temple , macroom.
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