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When all is said and done, it can't be right that if a first team Junior club plays a senior second team in the first round of the cship, then there at a serious disadvantage to teams that play them later in the group stages.. this is not equitable in anyones language and we now have to put up with another year of this not being fixed.. Bread (Meath) - Posts: 53 - 27/04/2017 09:59:07 1983073 Link 1 |
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As I have said on this site before, it is a myth that the Junior A championship is unfair on clubs whose first team plays in it, because of the presence of the big clubs second teams. In the past thirty years, only 8 second teams have made it to a Junior A final. Only one has managed to win it (Gaeil Colmcille 1992). The competition is actually unfair on the second teams! The problem of course with the second teams in the competition is not the fact that they are there - it is the uneven nature of their teams. For the first match or two, they have a few senior players who haven't played the first senior championship match due to injury/unavailability, so their team is abnormally strong. Which is obviously unfair on the team that plays them in that round. By the time the quarter finals come around, they have lost a heap of players, even some average ones, to the senior team to cover for injuries/unavailability. Which doesn't give them a fair chance at the business end of the competition. I don't think the answer is a B championship though, for a number of reasons. 1. There is too much of a difference in the abilities of second teams to make it a meaningful championship. Donaghmore/Ashbourne 2nd team is a decent intermediate team. There are 4 or 5 strong second teams in Junior A, and the rest struggle a bit. So effectively you would have a B championship with only about 6 teams able to play in the top tier. It is unfair on the Ashbourne second team to make them play in a worse competition than they are currently playing in. Where is the incentive for their players in that? 2. There is equally too much of a difference in abilities of the weaker first teams. At the minute there are 5 first teams in Junior B. Who are they going to play if you take away the second teams? Put them up playing the Junior A teams? The likes of St Pauls would get destroyed - they are struggling to survive in Junior B as it is. At least if the second teams are there, it allows them to play teams of a similar ability to themselves. 3. Regardless of what anyone says, a senior B championship would be considered a mickey-mouse competition, even in comparison to a Junior A championship. I see that with lads I know from Kildare, where they have a senior B championship. Players would prefer to play the best teams they can, whether that is a senior clubs B team, or a smaller clubs A team 4. I cant see how introducing a B championship would improve standards. It would have the very opposite effect. If you accept that teams and players improve by playing teams of a similar standard or better, then surely you have to allow lads to play at the highest standard possible. How would it benefit Donaghmore/Ashbournes second team players (some of whom could be promising underage players who are just breaking into the senior ranks), to play weak second teams rather than strong intermediate teams. How would it benefit players from clubs like Carnaross or Dunsany or Cortown to be playing St Pauls or Boradmill rather than Dunboyne or Summerhills second string. anfearbeag (Meath) - Posts: 1134 - 27/04/2017 20:43:01 1983231 Link 9 |
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The answer to the problem is to balance out the second teams over the course of the championship. 1. Senior teams have to submit a Senior panel of 20 players before the championship starts - they are not allowed play Junior. The lists would obviously have to be checked to make sure they are realistic - they would be based on the previous years championship. 2. After 2 rounds of the Senior championship, a player on the panel who hasn't played can be re-graded back to Junior. This would stop the situation where a player loses form or gets injured, or doesn't get on with the manager, and ends up not being able to play Junior because he is on the senior panel. 3. As before, a player who plays a senior championship game is ineligible for junior. I would introduce a 1-strike rule though. A Junior player could play once for the senior team for less than half a game, and still retain his Junior status. It would stop the current situation where a manager brings on a lad for 5 minutes at the end of a senior game, and then doesn't play him for the rest of the championship. The player is the left idle for the year. 4. REDUCE THE NUMBER OF TEAMS IN THE SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIP. And yes I am shouting that, because the current situation annoys me so much. Naturally if a senior team has to play 5 matches before the quarter finals even start, they will end up using more of their second players over the course of the championship, than if they only had 3 games, as it is more likely that players will be injured/unavailable for some of the games. This is what decimates clubs second teams by the time the late rounds of the Junior championship comes around. The problem with this of course is that it would take organisation on the county board to keep track of eligible players etc. And as we have seen only too often, the County Board doesn't do organisation. anfearbeag (Meath) - Posts: 1134 - 27/04/2017 20:43:15 1983232 Link 9 |
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Anyone else think it's strange that they didn't call an emergency meeting to sort this and make the draws again asap? Next Wednesday is the next meeting. Sure no rush lads. BarneysTie (Meath) - Posts: 258 - 28/04/2017 12:55:02 1983345 Link 0 |
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As AnFearBeag said above, wouldn't segregating first and second teams just make the standard worse? How do you improve the standard by removing some of the stronger teams from the competition? CastleBravo (Meath) - Posts: 1643 - 28/04/2017 13:57:53 1983360 Link 10 |
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Also people seem to be forgetting that you'll end up with the same problem but just pushed down to Junior B grade...
BarneysTie (Meath) - Posts: 258 - 28/04/2017 14:50:02 1983372 Link 0 |
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For most organisations, yes I would find that strange. For the Meath county board, it doesn't surprise me in the least.
anfearbeag (Meath) - Posts: 1134 - 28/04/2017 14:52:15 1983373 Link 9 |
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Anyone hear the bit on LMFM on this yesterday?
BarneysTie (Meath) - Posts: 258 - 01/05/2017 12:17:12 1983761 Link 0 |
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Anyone hear the bit on LMFM on this yesterday?
BarneysTie (Meath) - Posts: 258 - 01/05/2017 12:17:43 1983763 Link 0 |
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No. What did they say?
anfearbeag (Meath) - Posts: 1134 - 01/05/2017 13:00:27 1983767 Link 10 |
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They had a statement from Simonstown who outlined the sequence of events which led to the draws having to be redone. Also said they had contacted Meath co board twice during the week (before and after receiving the Simonstown info) but they refused to make any comment. There's a podcast up I think.
BarneysTie (Meath) - Posts: 258 - 01/05/2017 13:38:05 1983776 Link 0 |
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They had a statement from Simonstown who outlined the sequence of events which led to the draws having to be redone. Also said they had contacted Meath co board twice during the week (before and after receiving the Simonstown info) but they refused to make any comment. There's a podcast up I think.
BarneysTie (Meath) - Posts: 258 - 01/05/2017 13:42:11 1983777 Link 0 |
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New draws taking place next Monday night incidentally...
BarneysTie (Meath) - Posts: 258 - 02/05/2017 14:46:06 1983968 Link 0 |