Tyrone Club Football and Hurling

[TyroneOnlooker]

Carmen had a thirds team circa 7-8 years ago. From what i recall they were the very poor and didn't last more than 1 or 2 seasons.

On the reserve proposals in general, my first thought was that the change to monday night etc was a great idea, something had to change but thinking more about it, it maybe isn't the answer.
In practical terms you could have 7-8 reserves on the senior bench on sunday, some getting game time, some not. then asked to turn up for reserve match monday night, possibly away from home (albeit not the other side of the county if it's regional leagues), then expected to train or else told not to train with seniors on tuesday and then train again on thur/fri. In reality that leaves a fair amount of your clubs bog standard players having to make a serious commitment in terms of time and dedication and leaves senior training on tuesday down to bare squad of 15-18 not including injuries or other reasons. You'd in many cases be asking students to come down the road an extra night on a monday to play or older family men an extra night out of the house.

Something certainly needs done but i think more thought needs to go into it. Reserve football is dying and maybe guaranteed games will help make it better. Like there's absolutely no reason reserve league and championship couldn't be run off every week and wrapped up for end of summer. No need to postpone reserve football for county matches and on those weekends games could be played on the friday or saturday, whichever suits.

I don't believe reserve football is the 'player development route' for young players that it might have been in the past. My experience is that good young players these days are exposed to enough good quality football in terms of schools, county squads etc and tend to go straight into senior teams (in fact you probably wouldn't want your young star playing in a reserve match!) but there does need to be an outlet for the average or over the hill footballer, whether its the lad who's totally committed and just isn't good enough for seniors or the lad that's happy to train the odd night and take a game for the stiffs at the weekend.

[Norf Tyrone]

I think it has been agreed that the reserve league will press on this year when the senior sides pause.

[TabClear]

Carmen had a thirds team circa 7-8 years ago. From what i recall they were the very poor and didn't last more than 1 or 2 seasons.

On the reserve proposals in general, my first thought was that the change to monday night etc was a great idea, something had to change but thinking more about it, it maybe isn't the answer.
In practical terms you could have 7-8 reserves on the senior bench on sunday, some getting game time, some not. then asked to turn up for reserve match monday night, possibly away from home (albeit not the other side of the county if it's regional leagues), then expected to train or else told not to train with seniors on tuesday and then train again on thur/fri. In reality that leaves a fair amount of your clubs bog standard players having to make a serious commitment in terms of time and dedication and leaves senior training on tuesday down to bare squad of 15-18 not including injuries or other reasons. You'd in many cases be asking students to come down the road an extra night on a monday to play or older family men an extra night out of the house.

Something certainly needs done but i think more thought needs to go into it. Reserve football is dying and maybe guaranteed games will help make it better. Like there's absolutely no reason reserve league and championship couldn't be run off every week and wrapped up for end of summer. No need to postpone reserve football for county matches and on those weekends games could be played on the friday or saturday, whichever suits.

I don't believe reserve football is the 'player development route' for young players that it might have been in the past. My experience is that good young players these days are exposed to enough good quality football in terms of schools, county squads etc and tend to go straight into senior teams (in fact you probably wouldn't want your young star playing in a reserve match!) but there does need to be an outlet for the average or over the hill footballer, whether its the lad who's totally committed and just isn't good enough for seniors or the lad that's happy to train the odd night and take a game for the stiffs at the weekend.

Mid week games were never going to work. Only option was Fri/Sat and that raised its own problems with training squads etc.

If the reserve league is run off I think that will be a start. Only issue will be when clubs start loading up the Reserve teams with seniors to give them game time when Tyrone are playing in the summer and the senior league is paused. Not sure how you combat that unless it is a rule like your cannot play for the reserves if you started the previous senior league game. Even that will cause issues

[Wee Roddy]

Have Carmen ever considered a thirds team? Surely they'd easily have the numbers for this. It would be interesting to see how the reserves for biggest teams in the county get on in junior football.

They had one a few years ago.

Yeah, thought they would walk the Junior league IIRC.  Turns out reserve teams are reserve teams for a reason.

That is so untrue. Actually Carrickmore pulled out of it because they had to field older retired players to fulfil the fixture. Players were given a choice and they would rather be part of a "senior panel" which is your reserves and seniors, than go and play for the thirds.

[Wee Roddy]

So the dinosaur as he was called actually has a bit of experience behind him as to what might happen.

[general_lee]

In Armagh we have reserves of a Wednesday night. Totally separate from where your senior team is. It's split north/south. Top two from each play off for the league final. Championship is all county knock out. Eligibility for league is anyone who didn't start the previous senior match. Yes it includes county men but personally haven't seen it. Eligibility for championship is anyone who didn't play for senior team in championship. The clubs with big numbers field a second senior team in junior football. Not perfect but clubs who don't/can't field reserve teams don't bother and those who do are provided with some tangible structure. Still plenty of w/os and dnfs but again it's reserve football and will always be second fiddle

The Armagh system was ridiculed beyond reason by some of the Tyrone Clubs at both fixture meetings. I think Carrickmore called it a 'pub league'.

It's f**king reserve football of course it's a pub league! I'd say there are about ten decent reserve sides in Armagh and that's being extremely generous

[Club boi]

Nail on head here TyroneOnlooker -

I don't believe reserve football is the 'player development route' for young players that it might have been in the past. My experience is that good young players these days are exposed to enough good quality football in terms of schools, county squads etc and tend to go straight into senior teams (in fact you probably wouldn't want your young star playing in a reserve match!) but there does need to be an outlet for the average or over the hill footballer, whether its the lad who's totally committed and just isn't good enough for seniors or the lad that's happy to train the odd night and take a game for the stiffs at the weekend.

The point was to let the majority of reserve players (not good enough for seniors, cant commit to seniors, best years over them but still want to play) play constant football with no large breaks in the season. Local soccer or rugby can provide a full season of regular saturday games and let the players enjoy their saturday night and weekend with family if needs

The small number of 5 or 6 who float between the 2 panels is the same as county football in my opinion. Football grinds to a halt for the few and the rest suffer

[Jimbop]

Putting reserve games after the senior games as it was in 2015 is a start. No idea why that was changed. No need to hold players back therefore making it easier to field.

[GlenMan]

Putting reserve games after the senior games as it was in 2015 is a start. No idea why that was changed. No need to hold players back therefore making it easier to field.

It was a terrible idea and didn't work. Supporters left after the Senior game and generally nobody cared about the Reserve game.

[Jimbop]

If supporters care about reserves they will stay for the games just as they would come down early as it is now.

Reserve games second would suit players more which is what we need...

[redzone]

If supporters care about reserves they will stay for the games just as they would come down early as it is now.

Reserve games second would suit players more which is what we need...

Are you speaking as a reserve player here.?

[Jimbop]

Yes. Playing games is the priority. Too many called off.

[redzone]

Well maybe u have a point. It is all about playing games after all. If the senior game was at 2,15 we might be fit to see  the live game on rte at 4.

[W.A.G. Lover]

Any more word on the new fixtures plan, to reflect reserves back to normal? And particularly underage - Is it not due to start in 3 or 4 weeks?

[The_Slug]

a large number of tyrone clubs entered into the ulster league this year, not sure if there has ever been so many