Sligo Club Football & Hurling

[magpie seanie]

V disappointed with the result of our game v. Geevagh. They are pretty good to be fair but we had a strong outfit and should have performed better. With 2 first team fixtures next weekend our second side could be quite weak. Sure we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Big beating for St Mary's there. 

[magpie seanie]

In reference to AllStars post on the Sligo/Wickla thread:

I'd say you are going along the right lines of what needs to be done in Sligo except I think county players should play 100% of club league games in the county. We need to split the leagues into 3 divisions of 11 or 12 (if a fourth division is needed then great). Then the 10 or 11 league games can easily be scheduled to be played with county players. Outside of these weekends there should be plenty of football for the ordinary club players including seven a sides and the Pick 'n' Choose, Kiernan & Benson Cups (these should not be used as warm-up competitions - I'd suggest that a divisional based competition could fill that role).

Since the league has become less meaningful the standard of football within the county has fallen a good bit. When I first played senior football league games were treated as a big deal but its not the same any more.

Anyhow, that should get the juices flowing.

This weekend is a busy one for the good ship Coolera/Strandhill. Shams come to Ransboro tonight and we're off to Templeboy on Sunday with our first team. The second team travel to play Harps seconds on Monday night.

[all star]

We have the lovely st. Marys coming to the field of dreams this weekend its always great to get the townies up for the day hopefully we will put in a good performance.

The Senior A  league was well run last in certain areas last year, from memory we played at one stage 8 league games in a row (tough on the social life) but they were competitive games and you knew what you had come championship .

By the time the league final came around you had absolutely no interest in playing even though it was against your nearest and most hated rivals.

The county Board must address this fact and try and get the league final over before the championship starts if at all possible. I know there could be a contradiction in my reasoning in that I was arguing before that county players should play in the league but some new structure has to be introduced. League games on a Friday night (with county players) and then let the same play county football on a Sunday. (taking this year there should be eight weeks now to the ross game were county players should be playing) forget about resting players for new york.

County players in sligo need to playing more club football to lift the standard of football in the county and give it an extra edge.

When is last time a club player broke on to the county team in Sligo that had not played minor or u-21 for the county.  It happens regularly in other counties.


I am on a roll also you should only be allowed to play senior championship if you are in Division A (that would mean two groups of four) giving each club team three real competitive championship games top two in each group meet in the final end of story.


Over the last number of years the championship group system has proved a waist of time and needs to be reformed. If the above system was introduced then you would have a competitive league because regulation would mean something and not at present spending a year travelling to far flung places with poor quality pitches and sub standard referees.

Enjoy the weekend all

[magpie seanie]

Mixed fortunes for us over the weekend. We somehow contrived to throw away a 9 point lead with 14 minutes to go on Friday night to lose out to Shamrock Gaels by a point. One or two switches made by a couple of Paddy's old team mates were important but our lads faded badly. For lads who know the club scene I'd just like to report that Gary O'Connor at midfield for Shams was simply outstanding. He's a huge talent.

On Sunday we travelled to Templeboy and got the required result winning by 7. It was a patchy enough performance though and it looks like we lost one of the lads who is playing very well to the well known "Templeboy ankle" injury. Hope he's not out for too long.

Second team heading to Keash tonight for a Div 2A game. Points will be hard got out there.

Elsewhere I heard the terribly sad news that Tony Taylor suffered a serious knee injury over the weekend. The lad was really beginning to show his stuff at county level and is a big loss for the championship. I wish him a speedy and full recovery.

[paddypastit]

Seanie - interesting weekend for S Gaels by the look of it. I suspect the Riverstown version odf the 'dual player effect' was telling on Sunday.
Ref O'Connor, my sources - the most meaningful of which you would know well on a daily basis - acknowledge him as a talent but would have concrens about his eh... application, in every sense of the word.

Sounds tough on Taylor.  Let's wish him the best and hope that he can stay positive and keen through his recovery.

[Teeling Gael]

Thats tough on Tony Taylor. However big a loss for Sligo , his ability and size in particuliar makes him a massive loss to Harps. Templeboy is undoubtedly a poor surface !!! Gary O Connor was a standout minor about 4 yeras ago but paddy's synopsis of him sounds very accurate. 

Agree with the previous posts that for the good of football in Sligo we need a strong club scene and in essence that requires the county players playing. Impossible for them to play 14 games so I believe a 11 team one round league is the answer.( I am a firm believer in an uneven team league as ordinary club players genuinely need to have weekends off over the season). 7 teams in 2 round Dvision 2 and 9 in again a 2 round Division 3. The 14 player rule should be dramactically increased and this would leave only Harps Marys and Coolera capable of fielding in essence a separate second team panel. All other teams should be encouraged to field second teams and each second team should be in the same equivalent division as their first team with corresponding fixtures and matches played directly after their first team. I'd scrap league finals and force the second placed team to playoff with the second from bottom team in the higher division to stop this yoyo effect .Also agree that championship status should depend on league position rather that the hideous relegation playoffs where the luck of the draw means inferior teams can stay up.

Harps seem to be going well in 1A with Castleconnor following up a good win last week with a big defeat this week. Marys seem to be struggling. Be interested in how Johns are shaping up in 1B as they definitely have the players. Imagine that Farnans and Enniscrone will continue to struggle in that division. Either Molaises Gaels aren't quite as superior to all other teams in 2A or Coolaneys returning players  have made them very competitive but that draw looks an interesting result. Geevaghs form looks excellent though I suspect soccer committments didn't help Pats. Owenmore Gaels put in their best league performance in my memory against Michaels and hopefully will go on from there. In 2B Curry have started well and like any ambitious club the smell of success should keep them interested all summer.

[Owenmoresider]

Round Two:

Curry 0-10 Ballymote 0-8
Eastern Harps 1-13 Easkey 1-11
Tourlestrane 0-10 St. Mary's 0-6
Bunninadden 0-14 Castleconnor 0-6

Coolera/Strandhill 1-12 Shamrock Gaels 2-10
Drumcliffe/Rosses Point 3-6 Enniscrone 0-6
St. Farnan's 2-6 Coolera/Strandhill 2-13
St. John's 2-11 Calry/St. Joseph's 1-9
Tubbercurry 0-10 Shamrock Gaels 0-4

Owenmore Gaels 4-9 St. Michael's 0-2
St. Pat's 0-8 Geevagh 2-14
Coolaney/Mullinabreena 2-6 St. Molaise Gaels 1-9
Eastern Harps v Coolera/Strandhill

St. Farnan's w/o Calry/St. Joseph's
Curry 1-10 Ballisodare 1-9
St. Mary's v Easkey
Cloonacool 2-6 St. Michael's 0-12

[magpie seanie]

Teeling Gaels - wouldn't agree at all with the proposal to increase the 14 players and have a seperate "reserve" league. It simply wouldn't work. It was tried before and was a spectacular failure. Club should be encouraged to have as many teams as possible. There are some clubs with 3 or 4 soccer clubs in their area fielding only one mens football team which is not good. Also championship and league should be kept seperate. Winning 3 or 4 games in April shouldn't be enough to guarantee a clubs championship status. Championship is championship and league is league. I would hope that the fiasco that was the intermediate relegation last year is not revisited though.

Would agree with the rest of your proposals though.

From experience Geevagh are quite good though we were missing probably our 2 best players against them and they would make a huge difference to our team. They are very fast and fit and strong round the middle. Accurate shooter too.

[Teeling Gael]

Seanie -- Naturally didn't expect you to agree somehow !! My basic principle here is that having players eligible to play in 2 separate leagues is basically unfair. League matches can be determined by factors outside of that league.For example in say a tight 2 A division whereby Harps have injuries/suspensions /holidays/county players unavailable in their first team in round 12 of the league and therefore have a weak 2nd team that round. In round 13 they are at full strength. A completely different quality of team and this could decide promotion and relegation for 2 other teams. Surely thats wrong ?? ( and just as asking senior club teams to play league matches with their county players is wrong)

Secondly and looking at the current scenario scentifically and consider St Michaels. They have to be considered amongst the favourites to be relegated to 2B where they be scheduled to play their 2nd team. Headwrecking stuff !!. Its also possible that their second team is promoted and their first team relegated. Would make the leagues unworkable. Farnans are top of 2B today and top of 1B . Again they could meet in 2A next year !! To me both these quite possible scenarios would make a complete laughing stock of the 14 man rule.

[paddypastit]

Showing my out of touchedness here but '14 man rule'? Is it that yoiu have to nominate 14 for the first team that can only play with that team with all the rest available for the next level down?  Where there are three teams in a club is it the first 28?

[magpie seanie]

If a club were to have 3 teams the third outfit wouldn't be able to use 14 + 10 = 24 players. We have enough players in our club to field 3 teams but the fact that ALL mens football games will be at weekends this year would mean that we'd have 3 games on a lot of weekends. We just wouldn't be able to cope.

[Teeling Gael]

Seanie -Were ye playing harps last night and if so how did it go ??

[baoithe]

I was at home recently and had a look at the pitch in Templeboy and I have to admit that it is a thundering disgrace. Unfortunately the powers that be in the club did not have the foresight to do something about this years ago. Although a little late it seems the club have secured a long term lease on an adjoining property which will allow the redevelopment of the current pitch. Having seen the proposed plans for the redevelopment of the clubhouse also it will be a nice facility when its complete.
Nonetheless, that doesn't take away from the stupidity of allowing things to deteriorate to the current state of affairs. In terms of the pitch, it has been a source of injury for alot of Farnans players over the last number of years too.

[magpie seanie]

Baoithe - I'm quite sure several of your players have suffered due to that pitch over the year. I'm delighted to hear that progress is being made and that the facilities are going to be upgraded. From my involvement with my own club I can tell you that these things are not all that straightforward - there's very little that makes people act funnier than land.

TG - yeah, we were out in Keash last night and after a decent first 40 minutes ended up getting well beaten. At least we fought a bit harder and despite having a considerably weaker team than for our first game the performance level was better. Harps had the luxury of introducing good subs late on when we were goosed so the scoreline looks a lot worse than it was (3-11 to 0-7). Big game for us on Saturday at home to St. Michaels. With memories of the battle of Ballitogher in the intermediate relegation still fresh there's sure to be a bit of craic. Our first team playing on Sunday will not help matters though.

[Teeling Gael]

Thats a massive match for both yourselves and Michaels alright Seanie. Obviously Molaises , Harps , Geevagh or Coolaney are unlikely to be in a relegation battle so matches between the rest take on an added importance.

The playing of the first teams match on Sundays is obviously the wrong way round for clubs with two teams. In fact from a social perspective , it would be better for the majority that more matches would be on Saturday night than Sunday afternoon but I presume that its the training schedule of the county team that dictates this ??