2024 Junior A Football Championship

[JimmyBarrySmurph]

100% Junior A counties should be aiming to finish around same time as the higher grades. Junior Clubs going 12 months is Bonkers for the level

Yep. I was talking to a manager of a Junior club side at the weekend. He said the divisional boards are a joke when it comes to fixtures. Some clubs ended up playing championship 4/5 days apart after months of no activity

 

[bluesball]

it is all the divisions faults some more than others,had the misfortune to attend the south east final in Belgooly 2 or 3 years ago ,no scoreboard 1 linesman and 1 umpire missing. They dont care about football down there.

 

[Keeks]

I don't think people fully understand the nightmare that the CCB and Divisional boards have trying to arrange these games - Now I am not trying to defend what they are doing.....just giving an idea of the problem they have. They could do to better - a lot better.

There is about a 14 week window from the last week of July to the Last week in October for the CCB to run off its championships.

So they run 3 groups games, QF, SF and Finals Weekends so 6 games per championship

Now remember this is a Dual county and have multiple Dual clubs so that is another 6 possible games

Add in the 2 Divisional games this year and playing and games fixed every weekend, you have your 14 weeks.

Now some (not all) Divisions follow the same format and play Football and hurling championships the same weekend as the CCB fixtures.

Why is this? Mainly because of Clubs second teams and to try an limit stacking the second team with players who wont finish the championship and just using it as prep for their first team.

But surely that can't happen when you have to name 15 players for your first team. Well it can and does happen. Look Johnny could come back from backpacking in the amazon, or injured last year or released from Jail or just put in a massive preseason, and end up scoring 700 goals and 1500 points during the league campaign and the first round opposition team will just know he is not going to play rounds 2 and 3 of the Junior and immediately stat the first round on the county also, so they will do everything to complain about that, so starting a divisional championship early is tricky.

I don't know what the solution is to this, but the CCB and Divisions need to look at it

 

[JimmyBarrySmurph]

County board do a good job on this I think. The issue arising now is Junior 1 teams playing their divisional finals almost into November and then county finals almost into December. I can’t think of any reason why divisional championships down at Junior 1 level cant be run off properly from the start of August.

 

[Keeks]

County board do a good job on this I think. The issue arising now is Junior 1 teams playing their divisional finals almost into November and then county finals almost into December. I can’t think of any reason why divisional championships down at Junior 1 level cant be run off properly from the start of August.

Because a club could be playing senior football and junior hurling. You can't run the hurling off on football weekends to speed things up for example....the division generally have to follow the CCB schedule. That means divisional finals are on Weekends around the County Finals with the interdivisonal finals after

 

[St fachtna]

County board do a good job on this I think. The issue arising now is Junior 1 teams playing their divisional finals almost into November and then county finals almost into December. I can’t think of any reason why divisional championships down at Junior 1 level cant be run off properly from the start of August.

One of the big problems for divisions is if cork are going well in hurling or football and a county player is in that grade it can hold up the whole divisional championship

 

[JimmyBarrySmurph]

Because a club could be playing senior football and junior hurling. You can't run the hurling off on football weekends to speed things up for example....the division generally have to follow the CCB schedule. That means divisional finals are on Weekends around the County Finals with the interdivisonal finals after

Too many meaningless group games in junior 1 divisions in my opinion. The county grades are competitive, the divisional junior 1 mostly not. Maybe 4 possible winners out of 12-16 teams
I think the county board need to be brave again and have a Junior 1 South and a Junior 1 North grade of about 8 teams each and semis and a final for an overall county J1 winner.
I’d have at the very minimum 2 finalists going up into premier 2 and 2 coming down. The reason for that is half the clubs in the county play J1 grade or lower.. thats circa 75 clubs are going for just the 1 promotion spot at the moment and that’s indefensible nonsense.
Let the divisions run off their own J1 comps and have a county section to that too with promotion to the county grade

 

[Cranky Corner Forwar]

Semi final venues fixed:

Castlemaytr v Ballgarvan on Sunday 1st Dec at 2pm in Cobh

Inniscarra v Kilmacabea on Sunday 1st Dec at 2pm in Ahiohill

 

[Indazone]

Semi final venues fixed:

Castlemaytr v Ballgarvan on Sunday 1st Dec at 2pm in Cobh

Inniscarra v Kilmacabea on Sunday 1st Dec at 2pm in Ahiohill

Similar to the hurling junior semi-finals this weekend, to me it's strange these games which will draw large attendances, are being played in smaller county grounds like these. Nothing against Cobh or Oliver Plunketts, but surely for big games like these on the 1st of December it should be a pre-requisite that there is stand or roofed terrace of some form to cover people from the elements.

 

[Cranky Corner Forwar]

Similar to the hurling junior semi-finals this weekend, to me it's strange these games which will draw large attendances, are being played in smaller county grounds like these. Nothing against Cobh or Oliver Plunketts, but surely for big games like these on the 1st of December it should be a pre-requisite that there is stand or roofed terrace of some form to cover people from the elements.

Think pitch availability is a big issue at this stage of the year..not many clubs want games played on their pitches at this time of the year..also it's great to play these semi finals at smaller venues, gives the teams a huge incentive to get to the final in PUR...makes it abit more special rather than playing them both in PUR