The County Board Complaints Thread

[topper]

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.

Clubs at all levels deserve the same opportunities and respect.

I think the fundamental problem here is that the Junior clubs are not being afforded this by shoehorning multiple competitions (divisional & follow on county) into a tight window.
Option B removes this by decoupling Munster championships from the fixtures nightmare that is Junior.

By their nature, Junior clubs are going to be relatively tight for numbers and dependent on having a few handy players who might be far ahead of their colleagues.
Briginging in straight knockout and midweek games will not help smaller clubs.
What typically happens is the better players will be wondering are far away fields greener and the moderate club player won't be too inclined to be travelling home mid week for training etc when there is a short season with no guarantee of a few meaningful games. Most Junior clubs are Junior as a function of population - yes, there are the odd exception where soccer or rugby may be the dominant sport in an underperforming urban area but the reality is that Junior clubs need to hold all their players.

I think this struggle would be compounded by adding another 12 or so clubs to these competitions in future years by disbanding LIHC and trying to compress even more games into a confined 7 odd week window.

The restructured Co. championships we have at the moment appear to be working well - the clubs not capable of performing at a grade are getting moved down the grades and the capable ones have a pathway up.

I'm not sure what the rationale is for changing apart from giving the divisions the opportunities to ensure they can run off competitions this year and the next?

I've though about this a fair bit over the past week or so and tried to look at it from perspective of all grades and whilst not ideal, I can't see any better option out there now than B...

 

[fruice]

You see the problem here is they are offering two sets of rules in the same option.
In that option B might be better for hurling clubs but it’s certainly not for football clubs.

Also this new premier junior grade will be a bad mix of a grade unless there is two up
And two down.
Because once you are in there it will be very hard to get out of it.

Some teams will just be shoe horned into it just to make the division and have no real desire to be in it.
That does nothing for any team.

The problem here is they should just scrap the divisions as in Duhallow etc

And create more realistic levels ie junior d, e etc and move up along those lines with two up two down.

Them you would be in a grade appropriate to your teams ability, you would have something to strive for and you can run the competition off in timely and structured manner.

 

[Skinslad]

Clubs at all levels deserve the same opportunities and respect.

I think the fundamental problem here is that the Junior clubs are not being afforded this by shoehorning multiple competitions (divisional & follow on county) into a tight window.
Option B removes this by decoupling Munster championships from the fixtures nightmare that is Junior.

By their nature, Junior clubs are going to be relatively tight for numbers and dependent on having a few handy players who might be far ahead of their colleagues.
Briginging in straight knockout and midweek games will not help smaller clubs.
What typically happens is the better players will be wondering are far away fields greener and the moderate club player won't be too inclined to be travelling home mid week for training etc when there is a short season with no guarantee of a few meaningful games. Most Junior clubs are Junior as a function of population - yes, there are the odd exception where soccer or rugby may be the dominant sport in an underperforming urban area but the reality is that Junior clubs need to hold all their players.

I think this struggle would be compounded by adding another 12 or so clubs to these competitions in future years by disbanding LIHC and trying to compress even more games into a confined 7 odd week window.

The restructured Co. championships we have at the moment appear to be working well - the clubs not capable of performing at a grade are getting moved down the grades and the capable ones have a pathway up.

I'm not sure what the rationale is for changing apart from giving the divisions the opportunities to ensure they can run off competitions this year and the next?

I've though about this a fair bit over the past week or so and tried to look at it from perspective of all grades and whilst not ideal, I can't see any better option out there now than B...

All good points topper. Although, putting those extra teams into junior would add to the comp in my opinion. Also just to note, if Option A was selected these teams would return to junior but there wouldn’t be a compressed window of 7 weeks as Junior champs wouldn’t be required to go out into Munster. So the season wouldn’t be short.

I think an extra grade would dilute our County championships and take the prestige out of winning one. If Option B is selected as I expect, I would hope a 2 up 2 down system could be implemented to allow greater movement through the grades. I’m also not a fan of what would be a Premier Junior under Option B. In hurling, the teams have had enough of a chance to progress at higher grades, they should come back down to their divisions. And in football, you will have teams put into it that are simply not good enough. No disrespect to certain divisions, but the winners of some would struggle to win a game in others. That means there will be discrepancies in quality in a new Premier Junior in Option B.

 

[Boom Boom Boy]

Am I missing something here, loads of people on about clubs in lower grades just 'surviving', 'not being successful', 'not improving themselves' - is that not the same for the majority of all other teams in every other grade, only one winner and one relegated every year??? What should be done to 7 or 8 teams in every grade in both codes that have zero chance of winning a County, are they all only 'surviving' too?

PS, firmly believe it should be two up, two down, in every grade, every year

 

[red&blue]

A lot of ye are missing the point on the grades, most of the divisions are a disaster at organising regular competitive games for their clubs and they have serious issues in trying to run off their championship programme in time for the county quarter finals. Look at Imokilly, who in all probability are going to shoe horn their premier football championship into early or late in the year. Players deserve better than this and that is why the Board have these proposals before the clubs. However turkeys don’t vote for Christmas so we may end up with the wrong structure for the county as a whole. The board should have been stronger and just put the right proposal to the clubs

 

[Boom Boom Boy]

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.

What about respecting those clubs that actually won/earned their right to play at that level by actually winning a Junior/Intermediate County at some stage and send down those second teams from the bigger clubs that just fancied it for a start, let them make the Divisional comps they walked away from without coming through stronger for a start.

The majoirty of those clubs in Lower Grades have had to amalgamate with neighbouring 'villages' over the past few years to keep the games going, or 'promote' as you like to put it - it has worked and some clubs already have had rich dividends on the back of it - winning counties, etc like Dungourney, Castlemartyr, while others have developed some top class under age players that will benefit their adult team eventually.

It sounds like some on here think teams in the lower grades just leave the pub on a Sunday morning, gather 15 and go play, snobbery alive and well in Cork GAA still, and we all know how well that has worked for us over the past decade!

And from what I've heard, teams have not got a major issue being re-labelled Premier Junior from Intermediate once there is fair play involved and their achievements for reaching that grade and 'surviving' in it by not being relegated back to Divisional Junior grade at any stage, are respected. Two up two down, both Divisional Junior Co finalists get a crack at it then.

 

[Skinslad]

What about respecting those clubs that actually won/earned their right to play at that level by actually winning a Junior/Intermediate County at some stage and send down those second teams from the bigger clubs that just fancied it for a start, let them make the Divisional comps they walked away from without coming through stronger for a start.

The majoirty of those clubs in Lower Grades have had to amalgamate with neighbouring 'villages' over the past few years to keep the games going, or 'promote' as you like to put it - it has worked and some clubs already have had rich dividends on the back of it - winning counties, etc like Dungourney, Castlemartyr, while others have developed some top class under age players that will benefit their adult team eventually.

It sounds like some on here think teams in the lower grades just leave the pub on a Sunday morning, gather 15 and go play, snobbery alive and well in Cork GAA still, and we all know how well that has worked for us over the past decade!

And from what I've heard, teams have not got a major issue being re-labelled Premier Junior from Intermediate once there is fair play involved and their achievements for reaching that grade and 'surviving' in it by not being relegated back to Divisional Junior grade at any stage, are respected. Two up two down, both Divisional Junior Co finalists get a crack at it then.

Agree with your point on second teams. They should not have been promoted in the first place. What was it, five years ago? Kick in the teeth to a lot of junior teams who were trying hard to play at a higher level. I’m fairly sure most of those second teams are not in that LIHC grade anymore so while I agree they shouldn’t have been in there, that ship has probably sailed. They are nearly all competing well in Intermediate A.

Of course clubs would have no issue being re-labelled ‘Premier Junior’ under Option B when the alternative is to be labelled ‘Junior’ under Option A!

The way some people are going on, they’d lead you to believe going back to the divisions would be the death knell of a lot of clubs. Too good for the ‘pub teams’ that currently ply their trade there. Snobbery alive and well etc. Not the case at all. LIHC teams shouldn’t get preferential treatment over Junior clubs and that Option B is giving it to them in my opinion. They’ve had more than enough time to get out of the grade. The creation of another grade in football is also going to cause quality problems imo.
Either way 2 up to 2 down is badly needed as you said!

 

[Boom Boom Boy]

Agree with your point on second teams. They should not have been promoted in the first place. What was it, five years ago? Kick in the teeth to a lot of junior teams who were trying hard to play at a higher level. I’m fairly sure most of those second teams are not in that LIHC grade anymore so while I agree they shouldn’t have been in there, that ship has probably sailed. They are nearly all competing well in Intermediate A.

Of course clubs would have no issue being re-labelled ‘Premier Junior’ under Option B when the alternative is to be labelled ‘Junior’ under Option A!

The way some people are going on, they’d lead you to believe going back to the divisions would be the death knell of a lot of clubs. Too good for the ‘pub teams’ that currently ply their trade there. Snobbery alive and well etc. Not the case at all. LIHC teams shouldn’t get preferential treatment over Junior clubs and that Option B is giving it to them in my opinion. They’ve had more than enough time to get out of the grade. The creation of another grade in football is also going to cause quality problems imo.
Either way 2 up to 2 down is badly needed as you said!

Yeah but their invited presence into the IAHC has caused teams that earned the right to be there not to come out of their groups and progress, or worse, to be relegated over the years, they have had a direct consequence on the teams in the LIHC.

Two up two down vital, will catch up on the teams that are treading the shallow water in each grade but the 2nd teams of the bigger clubs must not be treated differently to the smaller ones that got their by right.

 

[Skinslad]

Yeah but their invited presence into the IAHC has caused teams that earned the right to be there not to come out of their groups and progress, or worse, to be relegated over the years, they have had a direct consequence on the teams in the LIHC.

Two up two down vital, will catch up on the teams that are treading the shallow water in each grade but the 2nd teams of the bigger clubs must not be treated differently to the smaller ones that got their by right.

Completely agree with you on the second teams. They’ve received preferential treatment in the past few years. I also take your point that it’s had a knock on effect on those now currently in LIHC grade. Second teams beating them early in the comp when they were at their strongest when they were all previously in the one grade a couple years ago. I think we’ll just agree to disagree on our opinion of keeping a LIHC grade as Premier Junior. Either way, hope whichever option is selected is of benefit to the smaller clubs.

 

[red&blue]

Oh the big bad Senior clubs are the cause of all our woes

You’d swear there is no relegation from lower intermediate the way some of ye are going on. Clubs get weeded out if they are not good enough, they stay up if they are and they get promoted if they are the best team. And yer still not happy