The County Board Complaints Thread

[Skinslad]

It makes no real difference to senior/prem inter clubs whether they go for option A or B so there will be a good mix of votes from these clubs. Both A and B (maybe A slightly more so) suits them as it means their second sides that are competing at junior A level will have everyone except the named 15 players available to them for the majority of the junior championship, as this will start earlier in the year now with these new structures.
It’s the intermediate and junior clubs that will ultimately decide how this vote goes, and you would assume most would be in favour of option b.

No, Cork 93. With Option A the junior comp wouldn’t start earlier in the season

 

[Cork93]

No, Cork 93. With Option A the junior comp wouldn’t start earlier in the season

To quote the email sent out to clubs - “Then, the full calendar year could be allocated to Junior A championships for the divisional and subsequent county stages”.
Does that not leave it at the discretion of the divisional boards as to when they play off their divisional junior A championships? Unless there was a junior A club with an inter county player (there was only 2/3 junior A in players last year on the cork senior teams) then what’s stopping them from starting championship in may/June?
I know that imokilly are planning on running off the junior A football earlier in the season as it stands.

 

[fruice]

This rubbish of clubs voting to keep their named status is a joke if it is going on.
Change will never happen if they are worried about the name of the level the club play at just because your competition is named intermediate a or premier junior this will not change the ability of the clubs team.
It will be division 4 of the county championships whatever you call it,they could call it the international cup championship it makes no difference.

 

[Cork93]

This rubbish of clubs voting to keep their named status is a joke if it is going on.
Change will never happen if they are worried about the name of the level the club play at just because your competition is named intermediate a or premier junior this will not change the ability of the clubs team.
It will be division 4 of the county championships whatever you call it,they could call it the international cup championship it makes no difference.

I don’t think the name of the championship will decide how a club is going to vote.

More so the fact that option b gives intermediate A clubs another county board run grade to drop into if things go badly for them and they were to be relegated.

And the fact that it gives junior A clubs a chance to get up to the “Premier junior” grade next season by just winning their division, means that any club with aspirations of rising through the grades of cork football will jump at the chance to do so.

Hurling focused clubs might not be in the same train of thought as there is already a lower intermediate grade that will become the premier junior grade. But football clubs will more than likely jump at the chance of option b for the above reasons, not just because of the name of the grade.

Say they called the top 5 grades senior, intermediate, junior a , junior b and junior c, with junior d downwards being run by the divisions. I would still vote option b even with these names for the grades. The chance to play a structured county run championship is far more appealing than a divisional run one. Seandun was straight knockout last year, imokilly this year want to play football in either may or October/November.

Any club would be crazy not to want to stay up at “premier junior level” or higher, and have a structured season with at least 3 championship games.

Forget clubs/boards/team management/Munster or all Ireland championships and focus on the player. A full season mapped out for the next 9 months, can actually plan holidays and social lives around it, with very little chance of change. It’s great for players and that’s the most important thing at the end of the day.

 

[fruice]

While I agree with you that clubs would like to be run under the guidance of the county board. The grading is ridiculous to call the 5th grade premier junior some of these clubs would hardly be decent junior teams and then to send them out again like lambs to slaughter to the Kerry boys. I understand the need for structure but come on to fuck this grade could be made up of the likes of Youghal who used refuse to travel for league games when they were up intermediate. There should be a carrot for getting your house in order and that should be getting up into the top 4 divisions in the county. If you are good enough you will get there. The path is much easier than before.

 

[Cork93]

While I agree with you that clubs would like to be run under the guidance of the county board. The grading is ridiculous to call the 5th grade premier junior some of these clubs would hardly be decent junior teams and then to send them out again like lambs to slaughter to the Kerry boys. I understand the need for structure but come on to fuck this grade could be made up of the likes of Youghal who used refuse to travel for league games when they were up intermediate. There should be a carrot for getting your house in order and that should be getting up into the top 4 divisions in the county. If you are good enough you will get there. The path is much easier than before.

All good points and I agree that it’s not ideal come Munster championship time. But if you give clubs the option to vote on, (I would think) they’re going to choose the option that gives them the best chance of rising through the cork football ranks. Which in this case is option b, so you’ll have all intermediate A/lower intermediate in hurling and any junior A team probably going to vote for b. Which is the bones of 100 clubs I would guess? Maybe more?

 

[topper]

My 2 cents...
In my opinion it's hugely encouraging that the Co. Board are making the effort to layout a programme of games for the players - without the players we have nothing.

I think Option B is the fairest option and will benefit, clubs, players and the overall standard of games. For what it's worth my own club is more focused on hurling than football and that's where my attention is drawn to.

I think the Munster championship is only relevant to the conversation as a limitation/constraint with respect to playing off competitions. I don't know of any club at any level setting out their stall to win an all-ireland at the outset of the season. At Junior level it's division first and then county. Intermediate & Senior is all about the county.

In hurling, our Senior teams have been weakest performances in Munster/ All Ireland club with the Junior teams and Intermediate teams enjoying the most success. In football I see it as being possibly inverted with more success historically with Senior club teams.

I think we should forget about restructuring anything in order to win more all Irelands at club level. To my mind that is missing the point.


The questions I think we need to consider are
1. are the competitions competitive at club level? for the most part I think so
2. are the competitions capable of being run off in a timely fashion? with option B, I think they will run fine.

As it stands, the Imokilly division will be up in a heap trying to run off games and it is the players & clubs who will suffer.
Option C will not help with straight knockout games and midweek games.

If Option A is selected then I wonder if that will exacerbate the problem for 2023 by adding more teams to the mix?

Option B - renaming the lower Intermediate hurling grade to Premier Junior and maintaining it as it is currently run off is a sensible option. Believe it or not - most of the clubs in the grade are not particularly worried about the label of the grade they are in - they just want competitive games which are run off well and allows them to grow the games in their parish.

It's hard to get the subtleties/nuances across in a message forum rather than explaining face-to-face but this is a fairly important decision for an awful lot of small-medium sized clubs who might have only a few years at a higher level to promote games in their village before dropping down the grades. I think it's hugely important that the decision is given reasoned thought and debate at Co. Board & all clubs level.

 

[Boom Boom Boy]

I don’t think the name of the championship will decide how a club is going to vote.

More so the fact that option b gives intermediate A clubs another county board run grade to drop into if things go badly for them and they were to be relegated.

And the fact that it gives junior A clubs a chance to get up to the “Premier junior” grade next season by just winning their division, means that any club with aspirations of rising through the grades of cork football will jump at the chance to do so.

Hurling focused clubs might not be in the same train of thought as there is already a lower intermediate grade that will become the premier junior grade. But football clubs will more than likely jump at the chance of option b for the above reasons, not just because of the name of the grade.

Say they called the top 5 grades senior, intermediate, junior a , junior b and junior c, with junior d downwards being run by the divisions. I would still vote option b even with these names for the grades. The chance to play a structured county run championship is far more appealing than a divisional run one. Seandun was straight knockout last year, imokilly this year want to play football in either may or October/November.

Any club would be crazy not to want to stay up at “premier junior level” or higher, and have a structured season with at least 3 championship games.

Forget clubs/boards/team management/Munster or all Ireland championships and focus on the player. A full season mapped out for the next 9 months, can actually plan holidays and social lives around it, with very little chance of change. It’s great for players and that’s the most important thing at the end of the day.

This

 

[Boom Boom Boy]

My 2 cents...
In my opinion it's hugely encouraging that the Co. Board are making the effort to layout a programme of games for the players - without the players we have nothing.

I think Option B is the fairest option and will benefit, clubs, players and the overall standard of games. For what it's worth my own club is more focused on hurling than football and that's where my attention is drawn to.

I think the Munster championship is only relevant to the conversation as a limitation/constraint with respect to playing off competitions. I don't know of any club at any level setting out their stall to win an all-ireland at the outset of the season. At Junior level it's division first and then county. Intermediate & Senior is all about the county.

In hurling, our Senior teams have been weakest performances in Munster/ All Ireland club with the Junior teams and Intermediate teams enjoying the most success. In football I see it as being possibly inverted with more success historically with Senior club teams.

I think we should forget about restructuring anything in order to win more all Irelands at club level. To my mind that is missing the point.


The questions I think we need to consider are
1. are the competitions competitive at club level? for the most part I think so
2. are the competitions capable of being run off in a timely fashion? with option B, I think they will run fine.

As it stands, the Imokilly division will be up in a heap trying to run off games and it is the players & clubs who will suffer.
Option C will not help with straight knockout games and midweek games.

If Option A is selected then I wonder if that will exacerbate the problem for 2023 by adding more teams to the mix?

Option B - renaming the lower Intermediate hurling grade to Premier Junior and maintaining it as it is currently run off is a sensible option. Believe it or not - most of the clubs in the grade are not particularly worried about the label of the grade they are in - they just want competitive games which are run off well and allows them to grow the games in their parish.

It's hard to get the subtleties/nuances across in a message forum rather than explaining face-to-face but this is a fairly important decision for an awful lot of small-medium sized clubs who might have only a few years at a higher level to promote games in their village before dropping down the grades. I think it's hugely important that the decision is given reasoned thought and debate at Co. Board & all clubs level.

And this

 

[Skinslad]

My 2 cents...
In my opinion it's hugely encouraging that the Co. Board are making the effort to layout a programme of games for the players - without the players we have nothing.

I think Option B is the fairest option and will benefit, clubs, players and the overall standard of games. For what it's worth my own club is more focused on hurling than football and that's where my attention is drawn to.

I think the Munster championship is only relevant to the conversation as a limitation/constraint with respect to playing off competitions. I don't know of any club at any level setting out their stall to win an all-ireland at the outset of the season. At Junior level it's division first and then county. Intermediate & Senior is all about the county.

In hurling, our Senior teams have been weakest performances in Munster/ All Ireland club with the Junior teams and Intermediate teams enjoying the most success. In football I see it as being possibly inverted with more success historically with Senior club teams.

I think we should forget about restructuring anything in order to win more all Irelands at club level. To my mind that is missing the point.


The questions I think we need to consider are
1. are the competitions competitive at club level? for the most part I think so
2. are the competitions capable of being run off in a timely fashion? with option B, I think they will run fine.

As it stands, the Imokilly division will be up in a heap trying to run off games and it is the players & clubs who will suffer.
Option C will not help with straight knockout games and midweek games.

If Option A is selected then I wonder if that will exacerbate the problem for 2023 by adding more teams to the mix?

Option B - renaming the lower Intermediate hurling grade to Premier Junior and maintaining it as it is currently run off is a sensible option. Believe it or not - most of the clubs in the grade are not particularly worried about the label of the grade they are in - they just want competitive games which are run off well and allows them to grow the games in their parish.

It's hard to get the subtleties/nuances across in a message forum rather than explaining face-to-face but this is a fairly important decision for an awful lot of small-medium sized clubs who might have only a few years at a higher level to promote games in their village before dropping down the grades. I think it's hugely important that the decision is given reasoned thought and debate at Co. Board & all clubs level.

But those clubs you mentioned that are in LIHC have had years to promote games in their village. Why not make them go back to their divisions and add more competition to them. Other clubs currently at junior level deserve the same respect that those LIHC clubs are looking for.