I thought that each club was free to decide on which day they play their home games
Cant say Im disappointed on that, mixed memories if Mon Utd, not ones id like to revisit and I think Dundalk should be working that catchment for the academy with a lout of Easy Monaghan already more Dundalk than whomever plays in Gortakeegan.Originally Posted by culloty82
Fair point bucket, Sligo and Longford play Saturdays at home so assume the same rules will still apply. I think it would benefit the league greatly however the league mandated a Sat or Sun as the days, travelling 300 mile round trips every few weeks, or even once a month to play away games on a Friday evening will still result in players having to take significant time off work and maybe deciding to opt out accordingly. For the 3rd tier to thrive, the quality will have to be maintained, and therefore opening up the opportunity to the maximum pool of capable players by mandating it to weekend days would be a positive move.
Would surely be no point these games going up against the main LOI fixtures?
I heard that they would likely be Saturday afternoon or Sunday afternoon games as a lot of the players who would be playing LSL or MSL would be used to playhing those times.
Great spot culloty82, I hadn't heard anything for a while and was keen for an update.
Very interesting point about CK United. I thought there might be something on there Twitter mentioning SETU but could only find this post, advertising for a course at the place:
https://x.com/ckutdfc/status/1913223129037422693
Update from Fran Gavin on the National League - the whittling down process continues, but no specifics on how many clubs are currently involved, focus now on facilities and community engagement, mentions that the focus has been on clubs engaging with the FAI on the process rather than the reverse:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OB6xzezjUUM
At what point does the 'Having a slick DVD' round come into the filtering process?
Some of the clubs that have been mentioned in previous posts already have some great facilities in place and have plenty of support and engagement with their communities. I think it's a great option for these clubs who are looking for a new platform that will help and encourage their playing pool to reach.
Yeah, yeah - but have they made a fancy DVD as part of the process?
Now now, its only Dundalk fans that are allowed snipe at fancy DVDs as nauseum every ossible opportunity....we reserve that right!
LTFC looking about 80% likely to be demoted to the 3rd league. Sad as I grew up with LTFC in Europe and winning trophies. If worst come to worst, at least we will have an active X account which will provide solace to our fan base.
There's no relegation this year though, is there? Who would you promote?
(That's even assuming the third division gets up and running next year. There's certainly progress towards it but you'll forgive me for being sceptical still)
No not this year, but there will be soon I would be almost certain it's going to happen.. tbh a 10 team premier is getting too small, they will need to start increasing it (albeit slowly) as to give clubs more of a chance to consolidate their position when there
Whoever wins the third division will get promoted.. Klub Kildare have been beating LTFC academy for years (not the year 2022 when we won the league by a goal with them second), so they will probably be strong. Mayo FC could turn out to be strong too. But clearly hard to predict as we don't even know what clubs are involved yet. LTFC getting 200 to games currently and wasting so much time and money on an academy that is no way linked to the first team who train in Dublin with Dublin managers and coaches - a complete anomaly in world football. This complete failure to progress local players in the midlands is fast catching up on us, but unfortunately in the club there doesn't seem to be many or any football people that see this as an issue - it's a huge issue and goes against the spirit in which LTFC was founded.
Sorry that should have been LTSMC, not LTFC. My apologies
So you are concerned that a team like Klub Kildare will pass you because they are doing so well in the underage leagues. Your solution to this is to play more of the players who are regularly beaten by Klub Kildare underage teams. I think that may accelerate your clubs demise. If the lads aren't good enough at their current age level why would you promote them to the senior team to get a pasting every week. I'm all for more local players getting game time but they still need to be good enough to earn that game time. Can you say with confidence that these lads are good enough because your own merit based arguments point to them not being up to the level needed?
We've always had Dublin based players and managers going back well before joining the LOI. Albeit they'd usually have a core of locals too. But as said above if there was enough talent coming through to sustain a team based on locally based players then the Academy sides would be doing better. And if it was just down to poor coaching then they'd be signed up by other teams and show their ability there. These kids are seen by coaches all over the country from a very young age so there's no secret hidden superstars. I'm sure there have been a few that might have done a job but you need 25 players all able to compete to some extent at a national level. Every time the club has struggled there have been cries about playing the locals and too many Dublin players. But you can count on one hand the number of Longford born or based players who've made any kind of a go of LOI football in the last 25 years.
Upwards to the vanguard where the pressure is too high.
Tbh going back years there has always being a huge disconnect between the local soccer leagues, local schoolboy leagues and LTFC. Even with the local schoolboy leagues. Im pretty sure if club looked hard enough if there wasnt enough talent in Longford area try Cos Roscommon,Westmeath, Cavan or Meath. Strangely enough only 25 miles up the road in Athlone there seems to be more locally based players playing. I know that Athlone is a much bigger town but it shouldnt stop us tbh
Gary Cronin is he the right man to manage Longford Town?
John Caulfield feels strongly that there is no point in having a 3rd division at this time. The premier division is too small and 4 provincial clubs are at present fighting to avoid relegation. As he points out 2 of them could go down this year, meaning they have to go part-time, how is that going to help grow soccer around the country? he asks. His suggestion is that there be no relegation this year (so the investment by clubs is not wasted), and promote 2 teams from the 1st division, giving a more balanced top tier next year. You would also take in 2 new teams from the "3rd level" into the first division, thus spreading the LoI more, and looks like a more realistic and less risky from of expansion that the current proposal.
I think his suggestion/idea has a lot of merit and hopefully will be supported by more people within the senior soccer community.
Didn't we have a 12 team premier division in the recent past? I believe each team played each other 3 times which is awful imo. Also if teams are overextending themselves trying to stay in the premier division a one year reprise isn't going to solve their problems, it's going to kick the can down the road and make any bill that's coming due even worse.
Posting Permissions
Quote
Bookmarks