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Replying To Roger: "Lots of good in these new league divisions. Putting Eastern Gaels and St Pauls in Division 10 means they can be competitive hopefully. Second and third teams getting nine league games is good, if perhaps a little hopeful as the spectre of the dreaded 'walkover' hangs in the air and might be a common occurrence. Kilbride lost the Division 3A final (Division 5 in the new naming system) to St Brigids last year. Yet Kilbride have jumped two Divisions from 5 to 3, and Brigid's who won that final only move to Division 4. St Ultan's who topped Division 4 last year but lost the final have had their promotion taken away from them to facilitate Kilbride's two division jump. Ultan's probably can't complain having got a reprieve from their JFC B relegation. You'd wonder who makes these decisions, is it a single individual or a committee? I know clubs were none the wiser." There were a number of walkovers given in some of the leagues last year that had a major influence on the outcome of some of the final standings. Some teams might not have ended up where they did if they had to play all of their games and no one complained then. Yes some made jumps all right but if you look at the clubs who have dropped and who have went up I think there are good arguments for and against. Summerhill's second team's are in Div. 5 surely the Keegan cups champions 2nd string should be higher?. It will take a year for the leagues to settle but its a positive step allowing second and even 3rd teams allowed in. However a number of big clubs have no 2nd teams in the leagues, the likes of Moynalvey and Oldcastle are missing, both are big clubs who you would have expected to field second teams. 199710 (Meath) - Posts: 120 - 21/02/2024 09:30:45 2527324 Link
Great step forward. As some have said it will take a couple of years to even out (if a second team are good enough to compete at Div 2 then so be it, need our big clubs producing multiple teams, plenty of second teams in Dublin competing in same way). For clubs not fielding a second or third team this year there is obviously a reason. If they submit a team for the sake of it then you run into the exact problem you want to avoid ie walkover. Maybe next year they will have bigger numbers and can enter. off_the_wall (Roscommon) - Posts: 71 - 21/02/2024 12:23:59 2527353 Link
Replying To off_the_wall: "Great step forward. As some have said it will take a couple of years to even out (if a second team are good enough to compete at Div 2 then so be it, need our big clubs producing multiple teams, plenty of second teams in Dublin competing in same way). For clubs not fielding a second or third team this year there is obviously a reason. If they submit a team for the sake of it then you run into the exact problem you want to avoid ie walkover. Maybe next year they will have bigger numbers and can enter." A great step forward as long as the CB have the foresight not to fix games for a first and second team on the same night. And to avoid teams fielding first team players in second team games then fix the games within a day or two days max of each other and that was it massively reduces this risk as a player isn't going to play for the second team if the first team plays the day after or even before. This should remove all walkovers and also increase the standard and quality within the leagues as well ratlag (Meath) - Posts: 582 - 21/02/2024 12:53:04 2527361 Link
Replying To winatallcost: "How are all these fixtures going to be fixed? Will committee ensure 1st and 2nd/3rd team games will not be fixed on same night or at least a few days apart?" Whatever approach is taken it needs to be consistent across the duration of the league. You can't have the situation we have had in recent years where one team in a division plays a 2nd team who are missing players as their 1st team is playing at same time but another team plays a much stronger version of that 2nd team as their 1st team isn't playing that day Belt (Meath) - Posts: 272 - 21/02/2024 13:44:59 2527378 Link
The fact that we don't have enough referees to cope with 10 Divisions means that these games will have to be spread over a couple of days. A real challenge with Minor football on Mondays, U15 on Wednesdays, U13 on Fridays and minor hurling on Thursdays. Add in the additional fixtures rightly fought for by hurling clubs, and its going to be tight. Will be interesting to see what happens and the fixtures secretary will be busy. Possibly the top four or five divisions on one night and the bottom five on another. Those with three teams will have two games on at the same time you'd imagine. The smaller junior and junior B clubs simply wouldn't have the numbers for two games on the same day, but senior clubs can at a push. Roger (Meath) - Posts: 478 - 21/02/2024 15:37:34 2527405 Link
Replying To Roger: "The fact that we don't have enough referees to cope with 10 Divisions means that these games will have to be spread over a couple of days. A real challenge with Minor football on Mondays, U15 on Wednesdays, U13 on Fridays and minor hurling on Thursdays. Add in the additional fixtures rightly fought for by hurling clubs, and its going to be tight. Will be interesting to see what happens and the fixtures secretary will be busy. Possibly the top four or five divisions on one night and the bottom five on another. Those with three teams will have two games on at the same time you'd imagine. The smaller junior and junior B clubs simply wouldn't have the numbers for two games on the same day, but senior clubs can at a push." That's correct. The smaller clubs for example a first team having a div 4/5 team with a a 2nd team being div. 9/10 wouldn't have a hope of fielding on same night and also wouldn't be fair to play on consecutive nights either. These clubs might have a panel of 24 players but on a given weekend maybe 20 players available or less in total and some of the guys named as part of the 10 players ineligible for 2nd team football may have county commitments so its not unreasonable to state that 10-12 first team panelists could be asked to play both matches so would suggest matches be fixed at the very least 48 hours apart. winatallcost (Meath) - Posts: 587 - 21/02/2024 16:59:47 2527423 Link
You either have enough players for two teams or you don't. To run 2 teams you need 40 players. Moynalvey don't have a second team in the league but their second team last year was made up of 75% of their first team. Picking and choosing games for different nights means that some teams get an advantage over others by playing more higher graded players. Unfortunately we don't have enough referees and pitches to run all 10 divisions at the same time. This new league structure is now similar to the structure in Dublin - they have 12 divisions with 1st,2nd,3rd and 4th teams all in the same system. Divisions 1-4 play at the same time each week (10:15). Divisions 5-8 play 2 hours later (12:15) and Divisions 9-12 play at 15:00. Once a player plays 3 games at a particular grade, they are cup tied for their lower ranked teams. Has something similar been proposed for the new league structure? royal11 (Meath) - Posts: 102 - 22/02/2024 10:20:38 2527504 Link
Replying To royal11: "You either have enough players for two teams or you don't. To run 2 teams you need 40 players. Moynalvey don't have a second team in the league but their second team last year was made up of 75% of their first team. Picking and choosing games for different nights means that some teams get an advantage over others by playing more higher graded players. Unfortunately we don't have enough referees and pitches to run all 10 divisions at the same time. This new league structure is now similar to the structure in Dublin - they have 12 divisions with 1st,2nd,3rd and 4th teams all in the same system. Divisions 1-4 play at the same time each week (10:15). Divisions 5-8 play 2 hours later (12:15) and Divisions 9-12 play at 15:00. Once a player plays 3 games at a particular grade, they are cup tied for their lower ranked teams. Has something similar been proposed for the new league structure?" Your comparing apples and Oranges there comparing Meath club football to Dublin. The volume of players available to the vast majority of clubs in Dublin is off the charts compared to Meath. BigJoe14 (Meath) - Posts: 997 - 22/02/2024 12:23:34 2527531 Link
Replying To BigJoe14: "Your comparing apples and Oranges there comparing Meath club football to Dublin. The volume of players available to the vast majority of clubs in Dublin is off the charts compared to Meath." There are 5 or 6 "Super clubs" in Dublin that can field 4-5 teams but outside of that there are lots of clubs of similar size to clubs in our County with 1-2 teams. In Meath - Ashbourne, Colmcilles, Ratoath aren't far off the size of those biggest clubs in Dublin so I think it is a fair comparison. Obviously there is a greater overall volume but this year in Meath we have 113 teams registered for the leagues. The same process has worked elsewhere, so why not here? royal11 (Meath) - Posts: 102 - 22/02/2024 13:08:59 2527547 Link
Replying To royal11: "You either have enough players for two teams or you don't. To run 2 teams you need 40 players. Moynalvey don't have a second team in the league but their second team last year was made up of 75% of their first team. Picking and choosing games for different nights means that some teams get an advantage over others by playing more higher graded players. Unfortunately we don't have enough referees and pitches to run all 10 divisions at the same time. This new league structure is now similar to the structure in Dublin - they have 12 divisions with 1st,2nd,3rd and 4th teams all in the same system. Divisions 1-4 play at the same time each week (10:15). Divisions 5-8 play 2 hours later (12:15) and Divisions 9-12 play at 15:00. Once a player plays 3 games at a particular grade, they are cup tied for their lower ranked teams. Has something similar been proposed for the new league structure?" Bang on,exactly,a 2nd team is exactly what it says Utdroyal (Meath) - Posts: 65 - 22/02/2024 13:41:26 2527559 Link
Will be interesting to see what the eligibility for these league are. Last year if you had a second team in the league you had to name 15 players (not including anyone retired or emigrated) who could not play with the second team in the league. That only applied to the limited number of senior clubs who had second teams in the league. In the Premier championship for Division 3 and lower depending on what grade you were in, you only had to name 8, 9 or 10 players ineligible to play. So in many cases last year, for a Junior or Junior B club to field a second team, they were only working off 25 to 30 players in total. With a ten division league replacing the Premier Championship, do they say teams operating in Divisions 1 and 2 must name 15 and then teams from Division 3 and lower must only name 10 who can't play second team football? Roger (Meath) - Posts: 478 - 22/02/2024 16:31:08 2527591 Link
Replying To Utdroyal: "Bang on,exactly,a 2nd team is exactly what it says" Why do people think smaller clubs only have to name 10 players that cannot play 2nd team football? This is specifically designed for clubs with less than 30 players. If they had to name 15 players they wouldn't be able to field a 2nd team. For the leagues, between players playing for county, injuries, players away at college, there could be up to 7 or 8 players from a panel unavailable at a given time so these clubs need to allow that flexibility between 1st and 2nd teams in terms of player use. For a team, and this is across the board, there may be only 10 players guaranteed to be starting first team football for their club so 2nd team football offers the chance for guys to get extra football too including those that are on the fringes of the first team. This is not Dublin, there are many clubs in Meath that have a one club mentality where all players are very much united and there are plenty of interchanges between 1st/2nd teams. To say you need 40 players to field 2 teams isn't correct. Here you would have up to 20 guys only playing partially across both teams. winatallcost (Meath) - Posts: 587 - 22/02/2024 20:22:25 2527617 Link
When will fixtures be issued? seasiderblues (Meath) - Posts: 352 - 23/02/2024 15:25:06 2527737 Link
Replying To Meath4Sam2020: "https://cdn.fbsbx.com/v/t59.2708-21/428548890_1118286566051533_3678660720849496204_n.pdf/2024-Meath-GAA-Adult-Football-League-Grading-Version-1-19-02-24.pdf?_nc_cat=102&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=2b0e22&_nc_ohc=i5bjDBV-wNsAX8hRXDS&_nc_ht=cdn.fbsbx.com&oh=03_AdR7Xo868lbnjs5lkaMupd5c7uejynp6DPaIbFGANOs9SQ&oe=65D5AA8B&dl=1" Is this link still working for others? town11 (Meath) - Posts: 1 - 24/02/2024 13:55:49 2527848 Link
Replying To town11: "Is this link still working for others?" No, it's outdated now as the gradings seem to have changed. On the Meath site Rathkenny and Syddan have swapped leagues (Syddan now in Div 2, Rathkenny in 3) . Same with Summerhill and St. Colmcilles in divs 4&5. Division 5 is now 12 teams instead of 10, with Cortown and O'Mahonys bumped up from div 6. CastleBravo (Meath) - Posts: 1664 - 27/02/2024 10:27:06 2528559 Link
games start next week. We can judge it all then seasiderblues (Meath) - Posts: 352 - 09/03/2024 20:15:47 2530515 Link
Replying To seasiderblues: "games start next week. We can judge it all then" Already clubs are giving walkovers because they cant field a team and we haven't even kicked a ball. Either there was no engagement from the clubs with there players and they should have not entered a 2nd and 3rd teams into the competitions. I think having to send in the list of players and for it to get published has thrown a few. I hope county board looks at these list and goes back to clubs who have lads who are in Perth and in the States down on them because the whole integrity of the league will be a joke with walkovers. 199710 (Meath) - Posts: 120 - 12/03/2024 11:55:49 2530881 Link
Replying To 199710: "Already clubs are giving walkovers because they cant field a team and we haven't even kicked a ball. Either there was no engagement from the clubs with there players and they should have not entered a 2nd and 3rd teams into the competitions. I think having to send in the list of players and for it to get published has thrown a few. I hope county board looks at these list and goes back to clubs who have lads who are in Perth and in the States down on them because the whole integrity of the league will be a joke with walkovers." Where can the list of the named players be viewed? Is this on the Meath GAA website? BigJoe14 (Meath) - Posts: 997 - 12/03/2024 13:19:15 2530900 Link
Replying To BigJoe14: "Where can the list of the named players be viewed? Is this on the Meath GAA website?" The lists don't have to be in yet. They have to be submitted before the 2nd round games so I doubt it will be available as of yet. Blackspot09 (Meath) - Posts: 1003 - 12/03/2024 15:11:20 2530920 Link
Any indicators on the league thus far? I know we are only one round in but id be interested to hear peoples opinions. Feis Cup final also fixed at home for Simonstown on Wednesday? Why is that not at a neutral ground considering it is a final in adult football. COUNTYTOCOUNTY (Meath) - Posts: 30 - 29/03/2024 09:00:55 2534418 Link