Fermanagh Football & Hurling

[Hungry Exile]

Question:  How many clubs are there in Fermanagh?  It woud appear the club scene in the county is at a pretty low ebb at the minute.  Considering the size of Skea, Derrylin, Irvinstown, Newtown and Roslea they should have a better club structure.  Comparing it to Derry football all theses towns are as big if not bigger than any of the top teams in Derry.  The main football catchment area in Derry is focussed within 15 miles from the Castledawson Round about .  Am I being overly harsh or what is the underlying problem? 

Considering the greatest GAA strategist in our lifetime is without doubt Peter Quinn - what is the County doing to raise the standard of club football?
Should they consider merging with Leitrim to develop a decent league structure to try & raise the overall standard of both counties? 
Should Intermediate clubs be allowed to merge to play in the Senior Championship (ala Kerry) again to bring players on to perform at a more consistent higher standard? 
Should the first round of the championship be in a league system to get more than one match, again to develop players? 
The status quo should not be allowed to remain!!

[inisceithleann]

There are 20 football clubs in fermanagh, 18 senior, with 2 junior although Coa played in the IFC. You're right fermanagh club football is going through a bit of a low ebb at the minute. To be honest several factors are responsible. If you look at Enniskillen, the county town, with the largest settlement population, there is only one football club but five soccer teams. A lot of fellas play football at underage level and then concentrate on soccer when they get older. Thats a major problem in Enniskillen IMO. As regards other clubs I really dunno why the standard has got so poor. Yes there are some small clubs, but sure every county has clubs of a similar size. You mention joining forces with Leitrim. This was actually mooted as a solution about 10 years ago but it never happened. I think the attitude was that it would only paper over the cracks and wouldn't solve the underlying problem. We tried playing the championship in a round robin format 6 years ago ( i think) and it didnt' work. Once teams qualified for the next stage we were left with meaningless ties with few supporters attending. There have been suggestions by some people that some rural clubs should amalgamate. The dwindling birth rate means that this will eventually happen unfortunately, but in the mean time i think clubs should merge for the championship, as a lot of smaller clubs never have a chance of a decent run.

Overall despite the above we aren't doing too badly and the county's fortunes indicates that we punch way above our weight. Maybe we're going through a low point and it'll pick up again. Who knows? All suggestions welcome!

[Hungry Exile]

Larger towns historically don't do that well c.f. Magherafelt & Maghera, but that can only be used as a soft excuse.  Loup as a parish, is as small as many of your rural clubs, but they introduced a structure at underage level to great success.  Ballinderry would also be a smallish rural club but it is not fair to compare them with anyone as they're just fanatics!!  It's down to having a plan and setting it in place & folowing it through.  I see Tempo are starting to reap the reward of a good underage policy.  Is the county board doing anything to introduce anything or are they leaving it to the clubs?

[inisceithleann]

If fairness to the county board they are probably doing the what most other counties are doing. Peter McGinnity is the football development officer and is doing a lot of good things with the schools. As regards my own club the numbers attending u-8s and u-10s is incredible, which indicates that the work being done is paying off. IMO no areas in Fermanagh are as fanatically about football as you would get in parishes in Tyrone, Armagh or south Derry. It's important to them alright, but not the religion that it is in other areas. I dunno if there's any solution to that. It's just tradition.

[ExiledGael]

Interesting problem, especially in Enniskillen.
Think Enniskillen need to have a seroius look at their structure, too many youngsters slipping away, and a number of new soccer teams are poaching players away at a crucial age.
I still play local soccer and there's been an explosion in the number of local Catholics now playing with various soccer clubs across Fermanagh that would have been unheard of a few years ago.
Lisnaskea, Lisbellaw, Clabby, Fivemiletown, Maguiresbridge, Ederney and all the Enniskillen teams are full of players who quit football or now juggle both. There's even a new soccer team entering the league this year from Tempo, called Orchard Farm.
Where once they were Protestant clubs only that is now far from the case, and the GAA are losing out.
Some of the county's best, Enda Ferris, Mark Little, Paul Ward, Ronan McCabe, Colm Monaghan, Shane McCabe have been at it, I even ran marked Peter Canavan last year in soccer.
At least he's past his best in football for Tyrone, our players are turning to soccer at a much younger age than ever.
All those clubs have drawn in a lot of players and filled a void left by the GAA in the new political climate.
The structure needs to be examined or we will continue to lose players of all abilities to local soccer clubs.

[inisceithleann]

Soccer is a major problem, but not the only one. I think you can juggle the two succesfully, sure the soccer season is nearly over when the football season gets underway. I like many others successfully played the two until I went to England. The Fermanagh & Western is one of the most competitive and well run amateur soccer associations in the north. Football players will always want to play soccer in Fermanagh and there's no point trying to stop it happening. But I do take the point that club football is not as strong because players do not devote all of their time and energy to it unlike players in other counties.

[inisceithleann]

Anyone know how the Newtown V Brookeboro replay ended up tonight? Our seniors drew with Teemore 0-7 to 0-7 in the league.

[tintin25]

Anyone know how the Newtown V Brookeboro replay ended up tonight? Our seniors drew with Teemore 0-7 to 0-7 in the league.

Newtown 0-11 Brookboro 0-04

[ExiledGael]

Any results from today's games?
Skea beat Donagh by 7

[inisceithleann]

Our seniors beat Irvinestown by 2 points. Good to get a win again.

[ExiledGael]

A win's a win, but Irvinestwon have been the whipping boys this year, must have been tight enough.
Who are Enniskillen hoping to overhaul in the relegation places? Would be a total farce if they were to be relegated

[inisceithleann]

Ourselves, Teemore, Roslea and Donagh are done there. Irvinestown are already gone at this stage so we'll be hoping the 3 points we got this weekend will move us up the table. Its quite tight actually at the bottom.

[KIDDO]

Did Enniskillen ,not pick up 3 points from their weekend games , not 4 as stated in your recent posting.

[inisceithleann]

Did Enniskillen ,not pick up 3 points from their weekend games , not 4 as stated in your recent posting.

Aye it was 3, wishful thinking on my part 

[Tempoman]

Any of you guys follow the small ball??
Any predictions for this weekends championship hurling final??
I used to play hurling for the law up until minor.
But i have to say i was absolutly disgusted when i heard that they pulled out of the armagh league at the start of the season. Thats no way to develop hurling within the county.
But still hoping that they can claim another victory against skea this weekend. i hear that the law lads that went to america are back and looking likely to start the game at the weekend.