Sub Committee Discussion

There has been a sub-committee set up to examine the League, Championship and options to invigorate the U21 competition.

They are meeting on Wednesday night 12th November to discuss.

Over the next two days ahead of the meeting, I will be giving my 2cents on it.

I’ll be breaking it into 3 parts.
Part 1 ‘Fixing The League’,

Part 2 ‘Amalgamated Championship? no thanks‘ NOW UP

Part 3 ‘Under (rated) 21 competition’ NOW UP

My overall rationale is this.

Improving Players Welfare and the standard of football in the county.

Part 1 ‘Fixing The League’,
Biggie and coming tomorrow morning

Part 2 ‘Amalgamated Championship? no thanks‘

Combination Sides to be entered in the Senior Championship is just laughable really!
We are not Kerry, this is not even a massive county Geographically!
Is there even a demand from Junior players in the county for it??

The suggestion for combination sides to be entered is bad enough but the rationale for it is just plain crazy and quite angering really!!

It smacks of low standards and defeatism.

This Statement near drove me crazy when I Read it.

The three main Championships in Louth seem to work well, but they do not provide a reasonable opportunity to every player in the county to compete at Senior Championship level.
this sentence in particular:

do not provide a reasonable opportunity to every player in the county to compete at Senior Championship level.
Yes it does!!! Train hard, work Hard and Win your junior and intermediate championship and you get your opportunity!!

What do they want? To give everyone a medal at the end of the year!? So we are all winners?
If we give players an easy access to senior championship we kill the incentive for junior clubs and intermediate club ‘better’ players to win to get to top then it’s pointless and not good for Louth football.
I reason I say ‘better’ players is because further on then in the document this statement drove me near crazy!

This change would give players from lower grades a greater chance of competing in a Senior Championship during their careers, and potentially also prevent “better” players from seeking to leave Junior/Intermediate clubs to go to Senior clubs in search of Senior medals, thus weakening further the weaker clubs.

How about you take some responsibility and deny the transfers from going through!

I don’t mean to be so harsh on this suggestion but I feel it’s pure time wasting exercise and I haven’t even discussed the guidelines (and potential rows) on making up the combination sides themselves!
The Championship as it is, is compact and attractive to supporters as there are less meaningful games…only annoyance is the odd team not playing some weekend’s but as for Championship formats out there it works well for Louth Football.

Part 3 ‘Under (rated) 21 competition’

First and foremost I agree, the U21 competition does need to be invigorated because for me it’s such an under rated competition. If you look at majority of Championship winners over the years across all grades they have had success at U21 level. There is a better correlation for success at senior if you winning a U21 champion and than the minor grade.

It seems obvious, but why do clubs not make more of push on it then?
And
If it improves the standard so much, why do the county board not give it more importance?

My Rationale: It needs to be given a better profile. This can be done simply by better planning against ‘Burn out’ and organising the competition to make the players feel wanted and not just run off for the sake of it. what better way of doing that than giving them an opportunity to represent the county.

Sub committee Options: The proposed ‘Junior21’ where you can play 6 overage players is a complete joke. Teams would just take advantage of the rule, it would become win at all costs and you in some cases could you could have a fully grown 30odd year old marking at 17/18 year old. Dangerous and Nonsensical.
From a development point of view, the overage players would just takeover and be leaders in most cases the younger players need to be given the empowered with the responsibility not taken away!
The proposed ‘timing’ of the game on bank holiday’s is just madness! This is just highlights the disconnect! These lads are more than likely working part time jobs on the bank holiday and if they are not working they are definitely out socialising during them. Make the lads feel wanted not drive them away!

My Solutions: Straightaway I would have a U20 competition, it narrows the net from minor to U21. It holds on to clubs losing players a massive problem in the county. The player losing out on a year won’t be that aggrieved as their is a blatant disregard of the competition anyway!

‘The timing’ For me the end of the year is still better than the start of the year………the middle is ideal but its far too fixture jammed. The Start of the year is out, on an academic level January exams then further on kids are studying leading up to their Leaving certs or finals. Not to mention majority of these players will be with their clubs and schools and University competitions are on around that time.
The end of the year frees them up a little away from exams and college team commitments.

Depending on number of teams entered. 3 teams in a group, the same as the senior championship. It gives each team 2 games minimum and they could run the group stage off over a week if they wanted.

The U20 age bracket gives the Louth U21 management set up a perfect opportunity to look at his panel for following season. Playing the current U21 competition at the end of the year does nothing for U21 preparations the following year its too late!

The presence of Louth U21 and senior management at this U20 competition is vital. If the players knew they had a chance to play for the county it would get them out to play for their clubs. The U20 slash following year under21 county trials gives the players the incentive. To further emphasis this, 5 players from each team could be recommended to U21 management after every game.

If numbers is still a problem make it a 13 a side competition. Simple. The football will actually be more open and there will be less stress on clubs looking for playing numbers.

Summary: 1.The timing means the games are played with out stressing the players out, 2. improves overall standard and importance of competition, 3. transparent county incentives are there to make them want to play, 4. we’re tackling the losing players issues and 5. it will make us more competitive at inter county under 21 level too.

To add to this…leave your comments below thanks for reading !!

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