The junior clubs in Meath have been completely forgotten about and smothered by the so called 'bigger clubs'!! The dramatic revamping of the championships is complete madness. A club that may have struggled in Junior A for years and is coming good and is making the push for honours is now facing 5 teams from a grade higher to compete against!? The same in Junior B.

There is no consideration for these clubs and the players that have plugged away at these grades for years.

The county board messed up and they created this mess of uneven numbers etc, but yet its the smaller clubs that suffer in the clean up.

Meath, as far as I know, have never won an All Ireland without a Junior player in their ranks. If this goes ahead I hope one of these bully clubs gets a killer group and goes to intermediate. Hear the uproar then.

All this said, I am lead to believe that Junior A/B clubs have got together and will voice their opinions tonight and may vote to boycott the championship.

Anyone with a real passion for football and all levels will support these clubs.

The Big Horse (Meath) - Posts: 28 - 28/01/2016 13:46:27    1820024

The previous CB made this mess and the current CB are trying to fix the problem.

TBH I couldn't care if Johnny from Moynalty has the blues because he might get relegated this year. The idea is to make the championship stronger across all grades. There are teams lingering around Senior, Intermediate and Junior without a hope of ever winning the championship but just happy to say "ah this is grand we're a (insert grade) club"

I'm all in favour of the new format it will bring back the aggression and Can't lose attitude. At the moment a team could lose two games in senior and still make the quarter finals, that was the joke!

Uncle_Fester (Meath) - Posts: 217 - 28/01/2016 14:28:07    1820051

Ah yes a boycott of the championship, that's how to fix everything!
Faced with having to raise standards themselves these unnamed clubs (why you're afraid to name them is beyond me) throw the toys out of the pram and turn to anarchy and whinging.

Standard reaction to anything new these days in Meath, the old Not In My Back Yard mentality. Really hope the CB stay strong on this, its a small step and a crucial move in modernising the game here.

highking12 (Meath) - Posts: 184 - 28/01/2016 14:56:29    1820062

Any Clubs Who oppose the county championship structure and try to boycott it should be automatically removed and relegated. Solves that problem, and I am from an interclub that is staring junior seriously in the face

Irish_downunder (Meath) - Posts: 630 - 28/01/2016 15:13:31    1820068

I am from a junior football club and one which is likely to be affected by this.

I cannot see the huge issue yourself and others are making about this. Clubs will find their level - if they can't get out of Junior A or B or even if they go down to Junior C, well that is their level. Recent Junior A winners haven't exactly set the Intermediate championship on fire and likewise with Junior B winners in Junior A.

As a player, I am looking forward to this year's championship. There is no safety net for anyone this year, games will be intense and cutthroat - what are people afraid of?

Belt (Meath) - Posts: 253 - 28/01/2016 15:15:54    1820069

I play with a junior club but don't really care that it has change but the problem is that you can still lose 2 games and end up in the Q/F. Sure 3 teams out of 4 will progress is just rediculous

de_man (Meath) - Posts: 192 - 28/01/2016 15:21:19    1820074

Funniest post I've read on here in a long time. Thanks Big Horse.

It's happening. Get used to it (and get over it).

SmallHouse (Meath) - Posts: 291 - 28/01/2016 15:22:54    1820076

Strange bective and Dunsany leading the charge ... One voted for change and the other abstained.

I have and will be against the changes still no one has explained how it is better
Horse is bolted I reckon

Brownepat (Meath) - Posts: 532 - 28/01/2016 15:30:10    1820080

Uncle-Fester
Under the new format a team can lose two games in a 4 team group and still make a quarter final now that's a joke...

Greenwood (Meath) - Posts: 210 - 28/01/2016 16:02:27    1820092

Big Horse, tell us what club you are from. Really cannot see how people are getting so excited about this. What clubs are apparently boycotting? I know mine certainly won't be

I'd prefer if it was just the top two going in to the knock outs but can see where the committee were coming from by making sure each team play in a all or nothing play-off game

Belt (Meath) - Posts: 253 - 28/01/2016 16:26:20    1820102

I think everyone's agreed that the 3 qualifying from 4 is a joke. But it just baffles me how Meath fans moan and complain constantly about the standard of championships yet when something is done to change that, they moan and complain that it's too much of a change.

If a team is middling around Junior A, never getting relegated yet never challenging for honours then this is probably the best change for them. If they get relegated, they all of a sudden have a pretty decent chance of silverware. May give the club a boost to challenge for higher honours in the future.

Ratoath Royal (Meath) - Posts: 1362 - 28/01/2016 17:07:42    1820114

No word of a boycott in my club either, some clubs are going to get hard done by this year but 16 teams per grade is a better fit and its going to make for one hell of a championship this year. The 3 coming out of a 4 team group is ridiculous.
I know I'm repeating myself here from another topic but the problem with junior and this year it will be especially prevalent is the diminishing quality of the senior clubs 2nd teams as the championship progresses.
I have no problem playing them or keeping them in the championship but they need to be roughly the same strength throughout and not being rolled over in the latter group stages or wasting a quarter final spot.

ahherehey (Meath) - Posts: 18 - 28/01/2016 18:26:51    1820141

We had 32 teams in senior+inter for at least 10 years before 2012, where was the boycotts and outrage then?

CastleBravo (Meath) - Posts: 1643 - 28/01/2016 18:35:35    1820144

I'm pretty sure that this bycott is fiction. I would read too much into it.

de_man (Meath) - Posts: 192 - 29/01/2016 11:41:25    1820294

aherehey

Surely with fewer championship games to play than in previous years, the chances of a clubs second team getting weaker as the championship progresses is actually smaller than it was before.
If a Senior team has to play 5 group games, then the chances are that they will need to use more players than if they have to play 3 group games (due to the likelihood of injury/holidays etc.) So now that it is down to 3 games, they should be able to leave more of their 2nd teams players playing for the second team. So the 2nd team should now be more evenly balanced over the year, no?

If you look at last years Junior A championship, the second teams generally did well in their groups until the end of round 4 of games. (if you look at the number of games won by 2nd teams against 1st teams, it stayed consistent from rounds 1 to 4),
In round 5, the 2nd teams lost more than they won (although possibly skewed by the fact that a couple of them had already qualified). Then the 3 that qualified all lost their quarter final.

That suggests to me that the problem for 2nd teams is the number of games that their senior teams have to play, which obviously weakens them as the competition progresses, and therefore devalues the competition in general.
Fewer senior championship games = stronger 2nd teams = more evenly competitive junior championship.

I would however be in favour of Senior clubs having to name a panel of 20 players before the start of the championship, that couldn't then play Junior. To be fair, it could be reviewed after the first 2 games, so that a lad who hadn't played a minute for the 1st team in the first 2 rounds, could then be re-graded back to Junior.
Obviously the rule that id you play Senior, you cant then play Junior would also have to stay.

anfearbeag (Meath) - Posts: 1134 - 29/01/2016 12:02:04    1820303

Its Westmeath Fault

The only reason there was a cry out for changing the format of the football championship was
because Westmeath beat us in championship football for the first time in history !!!
So the thinking is , If Westmeath can beat us well we must be bad and its our club football
that is causing us to be beaten by Westmeath !!!!
We have to change Westmeath beat us !!!!
How can Westmeath beat Meath in the championship ? sure its not right we have to change something
that is the reaction we all listened to.



New format no better that old one !!!

3 teams out of four in each group qualify !
Top team into quarter final with home advantage
2nd team plays 3rd team from another group in prelim quarter final
3rd team from group plays 2nd team from another group in prelim quarter final
4th team in relegation play off,


team one wins all 3 games finishes top
team 2 wins 2 and loses 1 game and finishes 2nd
team 3 wins 1 looses 2 and finishes 3rd
team 4 looses all 4 in relegation

so you can loose 66% of your championship group games and still qualify for knockout stages
how is this going to help the intensity of championship football ?

duelplayer1 (Meath) - Posts: 97 - 29/01/2016 13:12:47    1820342

anfearbeag

I get what your saying about fewer senior games but it does need to be regulated as they will get weaker no matter the fewer games and will waste knockout places.
I agree with your suggestions and am disappointed nothing was done this year with so much relegation.

ahherehey (Meath) - Posts: 18 - 29/01/2016 13:22:50    1820343

We didn't change the champ because Westmeath beat us thats just silly..

But I agree that the change was a lost opportunity.Simply if they made it that 2 teams from 4 go through it would have been great..

ziggy32001 (Meath) - Posts: 8354 - 29/01/2016 13:51:47    1820361

I never write on the forums but I notice one item that I think has not been noticed in this topic on the big changes on the championship layout. If I am correct in my understanding of this championship layout it is to make Meath football stronger. Well if this is the case then I don't see how this new format achieves this. All they have done is make poor teams even poorer. My team are junior a and have good chance of going to junior b with the new changes. Not crying about been relegated but how does this make our players any better. At the moment if one of our players got on the Meath team it would take at least 3 years for them to get up to the pace of county football due to the standard of club football they would be playing. 3 years been generous, also you would have to take into account that no Meath manager will look at a junior b player and if the player played a few bad game because they are not use to the pace they would be dropped and forums like this would say he is not good enough. Now the radical change that I would have suggested is that you have two extra teams in the senior championship. They could be called north Meath and south Meath. The best players from them areas that are not playing for senior teams get to join the senior championship. You have trials in Jan and by Feb you name your 30 players for both teams. These 30 players for both teams would still player for there respected clubs but would have a chance to match themselves against the best players in Meath and would in turn give the Meath manager some players he would never looked at a chance to become a county player. It is a different solution than amalgamation as seemingly no club what's to do this even though it makes no sense. Just imagine a team of Nobber st Michael and k wood joined together. In sure you could get a decent team out of these 3 clubs to compete a senior level. Anyway rant over.

woodman (Meath) - Posts: 3 - 30/01/2016 12:10:28    1820610

Here are my opinions on this;
1: The highking called this a small step .How can you possibly call this a small step, It's a massive step.
2:I think a lot of peoples problem isn't with the new format. The problem is with why it's deemed necessary to do it all in the one year.
3: The three qualifying from each group actually isn't too bad an idea, it keeps every single game competitive which is always good.
4: The idea of a 16 team Senior/inter is fine, but there's nothing wrong with the Junior grade having a higher number of teams.
5: I wouldn't dismiss the idea of teams taking some sort of action , they wouldn't have to boycott the championships there's plenty other ways for clubs to get awkward. The truth of the matter is the CB likes to take care of the big senior clubs and to hell with the small rural clubs.



Ah yes a boycott of the championship, that's how to fix everything!
Faced with having to raise standards themselves these unnamed clubs (why you're afraid to name them is beyond me) throw the toys out of the pram and turn to anarchy and whinging.

Standard reaction to anything new these days in Meath, the old Not In My Back Yard mentality. Really hope the CB stay strong on this, its a small step and a crucial move in modernising the game here.

highking12 (Meath) - Posts:162 - 28/01/2016 14:56:29 1820062

hootervillian (Meath) - Posts: 308 - 30/01/2016 14:17:28    1820638