Have to agree with Sammythecrow,Junior should be left to teams that only play Junior football

cloud9 (Galway) - Posts: 92 - 28/01/2009 09:15:43    191658

Cloud9 you really are on cloud9!!!! How can you make any sense of playing only Junior Teams in Junior Football? Going on that 6 teams in last years westboard would have to drop out of the league and at least 9 teams from the North board!! What is your point in having these teams drop out? IS the whole GAA ethos not 'one life, one club' ??? Well clubs that can field 3 teams in their County should be allowed to and not lose any players to other sports! I know that An Cheathru Rua have 3 Adult teams - Senior, Junior A and Junior C and did not give one walkover all year - the Junior A's narrowly missing out on going up, and they beat Arainn who were the favourites without any "Senior" players as the Championship was well and truly underway at this stage. I am not sure what your argument is for having only Junior Teams?

Conamara (Galway) - Posts: 111 - 28/01/2009 10:42:30    191786

I heard on the Radio that the Galway County Board are putting the Intermediate and Junior A league together in the Westboard and that for the championship they will split again into their Respective groups. Also said that only one team from Intermediate and one from Junior A will go up!!! Is this true? Some bull about it being a Connacht Council Decision and that they cannot overrule that? Anyone know any more or a more accurate explanation to this?

Conamara (Galway) - Posts: 111 - 28/01/2009 17:12:37    192365

No all true. The junior A league will be spilt into two groups. One group with clubs who have hurling teams and the other group with football only clubs. (Don't know why that is!!) So Na Piarsaigh, Arainn, An C Rua, Leitir Mor, Renvyle, Oughterard and Killanin in one group. Barna, An Spidéal, Salthill, Gort and Griffins/Eire Og in the other. No Teams will get promoted from the league, only one team to up, from the championship. I think it will kill the league, to be fair to the west board hands are tied; it came down from the Connacht council.

Starie1975 (Galway) - Posts: 444 - 28/01/2009 21:15:27    192592

What a stupid decision!! This is a crazy ruling!! I would love to talk to the "Suit" that came up with this masterplan and find out what his reason was behind it!! What a joke!!!! Its unfair on clubs like Na Piarsaigh, Arainn and Renvyle who now only have the one shot of going up, lets be fair Intermediate football is what they strive for - and to progress from there - but now the Connacht Council are as well as killing this dream for them!! Its unfair!! It should be the clubs that give walkovers during the year that are punished and not these decent clubs that always field teams and work their socks off to gain a higher status!! (i.e a team beat An Cheathru Rua last year but gave a walkover to a team that finished in the top 4, if the walkover had been given to An cheathru Rua instead they would have contested a league semi final) This is only going to weaken football in the Westboard!! Look at the likes of Micheal Breathnachs who were playing Junior A not so many years ago and are now establishing themselves as a solid senior team - would they have made it with this new system? Hard to get players motivated to play in the league when they know they are playing for nothing bar the "bit of pride", which, no doubt, be the managers number one motivational tool!!!!!! The lads in my club will be lucky that we have a senior team, but our juniors will be nothing more then a reserve team now. Croke Park, Connacht Coucil, Galway County Board get your act together and stop trying to kill the small rural clubs.

Conamara (Galway) - Posts: 111 - 29/01/2009 09:17:32    192847

Does a team have to win the north or west board and then the county final to gain promotion? I feel for the teams that get knocked out in the first round meaning they only play one competitive game in the year. At every other level of GAA theres a back door or second chance, not for Junior A though as the county board dont care about them.

captaincajun (Galway) - Posts: 54 - 29/01/2009 10:19:22    192904

This is a total joke of a decision. The league will be totally meaningless - they will be merely challenge matches. It's MORE competitive games that players need not less.
Training all year for potentially just 1 competitive game? Joke.
I can see a lot of players opting out of football after this decision.
What is the rationale behind this decision does anyone know? How does this benefit club players in any way?
And who can we complain to to get this decision reversed?

galwayman2 (Galway) - Posts: 1307 - 29/01/2009 11:58:41    193026

The league will resemble the hurling league wher eplayers and Refs(if they turn up) just dont wanna be there and it will prob never get finished. The north board league ran well last year apart from 1 club postponing a few games, they are gone this year so it should run even smoother.

mowtastic (Galway) - Posts: 98 - 29/01/2009 15:28:18    193297

Meeting taking place about this issue on Sunday night between all intermediate and junior clubs. All clubs have been contacted. Make sure someone from your club is going. Let them know your feeling about this. This meeting will allow clubs to discuss their preferred options.

My point is why fit it if it's not broken. I know this ruling came from Croke Park or the CC but surly if they open there eyes they can see that it works in Galway. (The success of Moycullen and hopefully St Michael's) The new system, for example if Na Piarsaigh wins there first two games in the league we're as good as safe. Then go out in the first round of the championship, well there season is over. It would be hard to motivate players for meaningless games in the league for the rest of the year.

Starie1975 (Galway) - Posts: 444 - 30/01/2009 07:19:58    193868

Looks like it has to be brought in as seemingly that's the way it's done in every other county (i.e. only the championship winners go up). If this is the case then they'll have to eventually scrap the separate senior,intermediate,junior leagues and introduce a system like other counties where you have division 1,2,3,4,5 etc. and you get promoted up and down the divisions as per the local soccer leagues. This means you could potentially play division 1 football (by getting a few promotions) but still be down in junior or intermediate for the championship if you have failed to win these competitions.

They are going to have to introduce groups to the intermediate and junior A championships now or there will be uproar. The league is now meaningless so they will have to do this to give teams at least 3 meaningful competitive games.

galwayman2 (Galway) - Posts: 1307 - 30/01/2009 09:53:33    193920

Starie1975, whats the story with the meeting on Sunday night? Do you know time, venue etc. While this is a crazy decision, it has been coming for quite a while as Croke Park have given notice of this directive to county board on a number of occasions that championship (and not league) must decide promotion and relegation. The worst part of it though, as usual, is the lack of consultation with clubs and the lack of notice from the ridiculous powers that be in this county. They would have known that this was coming, so the time to have meetings about it was months ago so that clubs could have an input.

The championship format will have to be changed, no question. There must be a group stage initially, similar to the hurling chmpionships, to guarantee clubs a minimum amount of games (ideally three games in a group of four). This is the only way also to determine relegation from the championship. There would be a play-off of teams placed bottom in the group to see who is relegated.

Just because promotion from the league is scrapped, doesn't mean only one team should be promoted. There were 16 intermediate clubs last year and at least 28 junior a clubs (i think 12 in west and 16 in north) and to have only one team promoted from each is very uncompetitive. Two teams can still be promoted from championship. Perhaps the two teams that qualify for the final or in the case of junior A, the winners from the north and the west? This would make for a very competitive championship and would mean that the league could be run off without all the usual last minute cancellations as promotion/relegation would not be affected. The league would still give clubs and players games - which everybody wants more of - and could even be played mid-week during the summer months. Would be more enjoyable than training anyway.

Another question that arises out of this? How is relegation from senior going to be determined? it is surely not right to have promotion from one division decided by championship and relegation from another decided by league?

Original_JD (Galway) - Posts: 127 - 30/01/2009 11:44:47    194045

Original JD: Fair points but will the county board listen to the clubs or will they do the usual nodding of heads and then go and do whatever they like (whatever suits their own clubs)? Playing games midweek is a no no i think - in an ideal world would be a great idea, but when you have 4-5 of your best players working all over the country its unfair - tough enough when in the Junior A we often play games on a friday evening minus 3-4 lads due to work commitments.

Conamara (Galway) - Posts: 111 - 30/01/2009 13:39:26    194171

The meeting is off of because of the Galway v's Westmeath Match.

There is a work group put together to discuss how to go about the league for the next few years. The work group has 2 from Junior clubs 5 from Inter clubs and county board officers. I think there are two ideas on the table. I've no more info on the ideas. Everyone who whats to have there opinion heard should talk to there county reps.

It looks like we were breaking the rules here in Galway. Nothing wrong with system we had and I'm perfer if we could keep it but we gotta move on......but no one likes to be kept in the dark, we should have been told about this change earlyer.

Starie1975 (Galway) - Posts: 444 - 30/01/2009 21:11:50    194601

Lokks like a lot of changes in store....

On_theball (Galway) - Posts: 55 - 31/01/2009 20:00:55    194921

Hope the changes improve the League and championship

cloud9 (Galway) - Posts: 92 - 02/02/2009 08:47:35    195632

so it was approved last night that only way up is through championship!!!
this means for some teams only one match of the year thats competitive,

i know the league is nice to win but who are we kidding the main objective 4 teams is intermediate football,
opinions?

ACminor (Galway) - Posts: 154 - 03/02/2009 16:55:29    197104

Surely dey hav 2 change the champ format into group stages. One competitive match for half the teams in junior A is crazy!! How can you compete with other sports in an area with only a few meaningful games at best each year, players will choose other sports!!

footinturf (Galway) - Posts: 35 - 03/02/2009 17:13:04    197126

so they want to fade out Gaelic football with these crazy decisions.

cloud9 (Galway) - Posts: 92 - 04/02/2009 07:19:28    197590

shame on the county board for letting this go through do they give a damm about junior and inter football

behindtheditch (Galway) - Posts: 333 - 04/02/2009 16:53:09    198176

This decision just shows what the County board thinks of ordinary footballers playin Inter and jnr football in Galway.

I wonder will they have to take paycut!!

Gaillimh (Galway) - Posts: 191 - 04/02/2009 20:53:22    198432