If you love playing football it's great news. Most good players keep fit over winter anyway

flyer (Meath) - Posts: 815 - 14/01/2015 19:37:22    1683299

Fixing league matches for winter months make little sense- when will we learn?. Most pitches in the county are un-suitable for winter football

browncows (Meath) - Posts: 2342 - 14/01/2015 19:42:05    1683304

To be fair, there's a grand total of 6 matches being played in January. Didn't the leagues begin on Valentines in 2014? While playing matches in january isnt ideal, it's only a 2 week difference to previous years. I'd be more annoyed at the way last year where there was maybe 2 matches played in all of May and June but 3 or 4 of the last league fixtures were quickly ran off in the "holiday period".

14 teams is too much for each division, they should do the same thing as they are planning to do in the hurling leagues and have more divisions of fewer teams. There are 52 football teams in the county, a division 1 of 12 teams, and 4 divisions of 10 would be a lot more suitable.

CastleBravo (Meath) - Posts: 1647 - 14/01/2015 20:43:11    1683342

Its a bit early but a week or 2 doesn't make much difference. There'll probably be a few teams who haven't done much yet and could be under pressure in the first few rounds.
Does anyone know the reason for the earlier start this year? I'd imagine it is to remove the need for games over the August bank holiday weekend like last year, or perhaps its to get the finals played before championship resumes in August rather than leaving them till after and face the same problem we had with the div 2 final played in December 2014.

Fixtures committee doing a very good job in my view, in very difficult circumstances.

There'll not be too many Meath fans in Galway though!

GoalsWinGames (Meath) - Posts: 303 - 15/01/2015 10:17:01    1683403

I'd be surprised if there's one other county in Ireland who are starting their leagues on 1st February?

Bread (Meath) - Posts: 53 - 15/01/2015 13:11:30    1683481

absoulute joke that the leagues are starting so early with the logic they want all the leagues finished by august once again the ccc make a shambles of fixtures if anything they should be on the 1st of march

srgt_slaughter (Meath) - Posts: 462 - 15/01/2015 14:14:14    1683508

Bread: "I'd be surprised if there's one other county in Ireland who are starting their leagues on 1st February?"

I would say that you are correct Bread. The League in Kildare starts in March and finishes in late July early August.

lilywhite1 (Kildare) - Posts: 2991 - 15/01/2015 14:52:26    1683525

Jan/Feb A-League = 2 Games
March A-League = 2 Games
April A-League = 0 Games + 2 champ games
May A-League = 4 Games + 1 champ game

This is crazy four games in Jan,Feb & March, Why the early start?
As usual the county board are let do what they want without any club challenging them on this crazy decision.
Then five games in May no consideration for players at all!
And then they wonder why Meath football is so poor!

hitmenow (Meath) - Posts: 11 - 15/01/2015 15:13:53    1683536

Hitmenow - where are you getting that fixture schedule from? Is the fixture planner out?

Belt (Meath) - Posts: 253 - 15/01/2015 15:49:52    1683553

This is a consequence of the promotion free for all we had a few years back, where they stopped relegation for 2/3 seasons in the league and championship and shunted more teams upwards to make an 18 team senior, 14 team division 1 league etc. It results in way too many games to be played off.

Assuming that they aim to be done by the August Bank holiday, thats 27 weekends (including january 30th) to play 13 rounds of league football. Factor into that 6 championship matches between hurling and football, plus 5 rounds of hurling league. On top of that there's the cup competitions in hurling and football. For a dual player thats nearly a match a week for 6 months, and thats if you dont progress in the leagues/cups and reach semi finals/finals for even more matches.

There's just no room to play off the league in the time frames people are suggesting here.

CastleBravo (Meath) - Posts: 1647 - 15/01/2015 15:56:53    1683559

why the rush to be finished by the august bank holiday?
if your not in the promotion chase or in the knockouts in the championship it nakes for a longer winter
no reason why they cant have the leagues finished off by mid september and have the finals in around the end of september

srgt_slaughter (Meath) - Posts: 462 - 16/01/2015 15:10:11    1683891

@srgt_slaughter. The reason for trying to have it all wrapped up before August is that in the past the cb found there were lots teams unable to field in league games if they were already out of the championship. The benefit of finishing the league in July is that all teams still have something to train and play for and its unlikely that there will be walkovers.
I think the earlier start this year suggests that not alone do they want the league rounds played, they also want the finals played too.

GoalsWinGames (Meath) - Posts: 303 - 16/01/2015 16:10:44    1683916

Goals....... I think your right there.... and to be fair only for Ballinlough involved in everything and that sad death in Blackhall that Final would have been played earlier.

glenny (Meath) - Posts: 1108 - 17/01/2015 10:53:27    1684012

GoalsWinGames i understand that but if everything is finished by mid august and your out of the championship then its a very long winter
obviously im not advocating playing games in the middle of october but by the end of september would be ok with most people like some clubs are barely back a week expecting the leagues to start traditionally on valentines weekend hardly fair on them and the pitches would hardly be able to take games we must be the only county to start leagues in january

srgt_slaughter (Meath) - Posts: 462 - 19/01/2015 11:03:21    1684443

Lads, far better to have the league game played as early as possible and finished all competitions by the resumption of championship.

Playing games through knock out championship has always been a disaster in Meath. Teams knocked out of championship usually throw their hat at the league then anyway.

Quick question, does anyone have a list of league winners. I have;
2014 Dunboyne
2013 NOM
2012 Donaghmore

Can't remember after than and no list on Meath website

Goldback (Meath) - Posts: 54 - 19/01/2015 15:17:59    1684561

no i disagree there does be weeks during the summer when there is no games played doesnt take a whole lot of organisation to get that done pitches are bearly playable this time of year for most clubs unless they have 2 or more and are prunty pitches
league in kildare doesnt start til march and they seem to run it off fairly quick league should stop for meaths progression in leinster and/or all ireland series

srgt_slaughter (Meath) - Posts: 462 - 19/01/2015 15:37:59    1684566

Every year league games are being played in the so called holiday period and beyond, this is due to county games, hurling games, championship games etc. the earlier it starts the better, some games will be called off due to pitches being unplayable but sure games are called of during the year anyway for a number of reasons!!! Get them started at the begining of Feb and run them off as quickly as possible, keeps it competitive and if teams are knocked out of champo they then have the rest of summer/autumn to themselves!!! And people saying its starting bk in jan.....Its Jan 31st, come on lads cop on!!

ratlag (Meath) - Posts: 557 - 19/01/2015 17:04:32    1684597

yeah the league shouldnt stop because of county games, only championship club games how come kildare can start there leagues in march and not finish in november?
all just needs finer planning

srgt_slaughter (Meath) - Posts: 462 - 20/01/2015 09:23:45    1684680