GAA in Britain

[Maroon Manc]

The Lancashire senior league would have to be scrapped if we were to play home and away even under a 2 division format? I'd be in favour of this as we'd end up with more competitive games.

[BennyHarp]

Although I'd love to see a situation where we could have 20 guaranteed games for our senior team, as pointed out before the gulf in class between clubs would lead to a few pointless games, especially if played home and away. Could we really imagine JFK travelling to Liverpool to play John Mitchells after taking a tanking in Leeds? One suggestion is that we could start with a league of 11 or 12, play each other once and split the league in two. So say a league of 6 and 5. Play the return game against those in your half. Top 2 after that then make the semi final and next 4 play off to get into semi.

My other suggestion would be to have a senior and junior pennine league, any club who played senior championship in Yorks or Lancs in 2013 will be in senior and the rest junior. If clubs feel they can field in both then they can with fixtures made to accommodate them.

I'm led to believe this restructured pennine league will replace the Yorkshire senior league and the Lancs senior league may get scrapped too or reduced to just a single leg (I think). It's early days in the discussion process as far as I know and everything is still up for debate. To be fair, Yorkshire is slowly dying on its arse, the few clubs that are making an effort to improve need these extra games as it's hard to convince lads to stick at it when the matches are so sparse.

[theticklemister]

The Lancashire senior league would have to be scrapped if we were to play home and away even under a 2 division format? I'd be in favour of this as we'd end up with more competitive games.

yes I would too. at the minute at senior level; youse the brendans have 3 competitive games, us the tones have one.

[theticklemister]

The Lancashire senior league would have to be scrapped if we were to play home and away even under a 2 division format? I'd be in favour of this as we'd end up with more competitive games.

yes I would too. at the minute at senior level; youse the brendans have 3 competitive games, us the tones have one.

I forgot to times that by 2!

[Maroon Manc]

Although I'd love to see a situation where we could have 20 guaranteed games for our senior team, as pointed out before the gulf in class between clubs would lead to a few pointless games, especially if played home and away. Could we really imagine JFK travelling to Liverpool to play John Mitchells after taking a tanking in Leeds? One suggestion is that we could start with a league of 11 or 12, play each other once and split the league in two. So say a league of 6 and 5. Play the return game against those in your half. Top 2 after that then make the semi final and next 4 play off to get into semi.

My other suggestion would be to have a senior and junior pennine league, any club who played senior championship in Yorks or Lancs in 2013 will be in senior and the rest junior. If clubs feel they can field in both then they can with fixtures made to accommodate them.

I'm led to believe this restructured pennine league will replace the Yorkshire senior league and the Lancs senior league may get scrapped too or reduced to just a single leg (I think). It's early days in the discussion process as far as I know and everything is still up for debate. To be fair, Yorkshire is slowly dying on its arse, the few clubs that are making an effort to improve need these extra games as it's hard to convince lads to stick at it when the matches are so sparse.

Just don't see the point of the stronger teams playing the weaker teams, it doesn't do either team any favours.

From our point of view I'd be happy playing our senior league to start the season on a one legged affair. The Pennines League could commence in May. Brendans, Mitchels, Oisins, Peters, Benedict's and CuChulains in division one and Lawrence's, Wolfe Tones, Ann's, Hugh O'Neils, Brother Pearses and JFK's in division 2. I'm not sure if Young Ireland's have a team currently?  Lots of competitive games for all teams, can't see too many hidings in either division. It should be ideal preparation for everyone come the championship and keep everyone interested.

[superbad]

Any young talents from the North playing?

[theticklemister]

Any young talents from the North playing?

I played a few in our Juniors this year lol!

We have a former Offaly senior player playing for us and I think John Mitchells have a very current Westmeath senior, Lynham playing. Not sure about the rest of the clubs.

[Zulu]

While I think a 20 game league would be difficult to run and not likely to be successful in terms of fulfilling fixtures etc. linking counties is the way to go in Britain. Bar London I'm not sure there is a single county which can provide all it's clubs with a decent season. There are obvious logistical problems linking some counties and some counties would need it more than others but the key to British GAA is constant development and that doesn't always happen.

Can anyone list the active underage clubs in Yorkshire and Lancashire? Do the U12 ABC champions, St. Brendans, come from Lancashire?

[Plastic Paddy]

While I think a 20 game league would be difficult to run and not likely to be successful in terms of fulfilling fixtures etc. linking counties is the way to go in Britain. Bar London I'm not sure there is a single county which can provide all it's clubs with a decent season. There are obvious logistical problems linking some counties and some counties would need it more than others but the key to British GAA is constant development and that doesn't always happen.

Can anyone list the active underage clubs in Yorkshire and Lancashire? Do the U12 ABC champions, St. Brendans, come from Lancashire?

No they are Warwickshire. I think the Warwickshire clubs get a decent amount of games.

[Maroon Manc]

While I think a 20 game league would be difficult to run and not likely to be successful in terms of fulfilling fixtures etc. linking counties is the way to go in Britain. Bar London I'm not sure there is a single county which can provide all it's clubs with a decent season. There are obvious logistical problems linking some counties and some counties would need it more than others but the key to British GAA is constant development and that doesn't always happen.

Can anyone list the active underage clubs in Yorkshire and Lancashire? Do the U12 ABC champions, St. Brendans, come from Lancashire?

In Lancashire we get more games now than we have for 20 years. There's 10 senior league games plus a semi final and final if you get that far. A minimum of 2 championship games plus a semi and final if you get that far. That's a minimum of 12 plus the Pennine League which apart from this year normally gives you at least 5 games.

Its the quality of the games which is important though, opening up a Lancs/Yorks league would give both the stronger and weaker teams more competitive games which I think were all agreed on.

[Zulu]

Its the quality of the games which is important though

That's what I meant by this sentence MM - "Bar London I'm not sure there is a single county which can provide all it's clubs with a decent season"

There's actually a fair few games played here in Scotland too but many of them are a bit farcical and I'd question there value. Most counties have teams of varying quality who at home would be in different competitions, we don't have a enough clubs to do that so we have teams playing against each other who shouldn't be.

There's no easy solutions but we have to start thinking about how teams in different counties but relatively close to each other can link up better for the purpose of competition.

[theticklemister]

Liverpool Wolfe Tones Club Fundraiser

[Zulu]

Dunedin Connollys 7-16 Shane O'Neills (Armagh) 8-8, Ladies All Ireland junior QF. 

[theticklemister]

Dunedin Connollys 7-16 Shane O'Neills (Armagh) 8-8, Ladies All Ireland junior QF.

Their full forward from Wicklow cleaned us out in British final

[Zulu]

Junior football semi finals on today, I'll go for Connollys and Mitchell's to progress.