U14 Feile

[johnneycool]

I heard one the reasons for the changes was some of the AIG-Dublin teams used to stay in training camps rather than host families . the aim is the competition is meant to be fun rather than all all-ireland u-14 championship

Dublin teams aren't the only ones who've been at that nonsense.

FFS back years ago, some of the Cork hurling teams were accused of bringing 20 odd other youngsters up on the Sunday morning to take part in the parade rather than their real team who would have been playing in the final later on that day and that was back in the 80's.

Is the parade usually not before? Like the Friday?

It used to be on the Sunday morning before the finals with a bit of mass thrown in.

I'm talking way back and the hurling Feile.

[you take er!]

To be honest i've lost faith in the Feile. We have a hurling club in our town who go to the Feile EVERY year whether they win the county Feile or not (in fact 3 clubs from the county went this year) I assume this is in order to 'promote' hurling in weaker counties. As a football club we have our training and games disrupted EVERY year in order to facilitate the hurlers going to the Feile, despite on occasion not having won the county Feile. This year however our club made it to the final of the county football Feile - this has only happened on a handful of occasions over the years. We lost out narrowly to the winners and as you would expect everyone in the club was very disappointed. This disappointment was compounded when we discovered that a neighbouring club were to enter the Feile as a 'host club' given there were not enough clubs to host in Monaghan. The club in question (and fair play to them by the way) were beaten in the first round of the Shield comp in the county yet got to go to the All-Ireland competition due to their Geographical location. I would have thought the county runners up (situated 3 miles away would have been next in line to enter as a host.
I am cross due to the effort that was put in by the lads and the opportunity missed for our lads- it seems that the powers that be hand pick who they want at times which is disappointing on those who are perhaps more deserving. In short I dont believe its a level playing field which would have you question why have young lads out training in all conditions from January to try to qualify?

[bennydorano]

http://www.gaa.ie/features/feature/exiles-excel-2017-john-west-feile-peil-nog/

[Too many steps]

http://www.gaa.ie/features/feature/exiles-excel-2017-john-west-feile-peil-nog/

Interesting article - makes no mention of the fact that they engineered the feile to try and get a new winner.

So the opening paragraphs predicting the rise of NY as a club power may be a bit skewed - like the competition.

[Hound]

From a Dublin perspective, last year Castleknock won Dublin Div 1 and played National Div 1 Feile and won.

This year, Skerries Harps won Dublin Division 1, and they (along with runners-up Na Fianna) played in the Premier Regional Feile in Sligo, rather than the National Division 1. Apparently the 10 teams in this "Premier" competition were from counties that competed in the Div 1 National Feile last year. So looks like they are rotating it.

[Harold Disgracey]

To be honest i've lost faith in the Feile. We have a hurling club in our town who go to the Feile EVERY year whether they win the county Feile or not (in fact 3 clubs from the county went this year) I assume this is in order to 'promote' hurling in weaker counties. As a football club we have our training and games disrupted EVERY year in order to facilitate the hurlers going to the Feile, despite on occasion not having won the county Feile. This year however our club made it to the final of the county football Feile - this has only happened on a handful of occasions over the years. We lost out narrowly to the winners and as you would expect everyone in the club was very disappointed. This disappointment was compounded when we discovered that a neighbouring club were to enter the Feile as a 'host club' given there were not enough clubs to host in Monaghan. The club in question (and fair play to them by the way) were beaten in the first round of the Shield comp in the county yet got to go to the All-Ireland competition due to their Geographical location. I would have thought the county runners up (situated 3 miles away would have been next in line to enter as a host.
I am cross due to the effort that was put in by the lads and the opportunity missed for our lads- it seems that the powers that be hand pick who they want at times which is disappointing on those who are perhaps more deserving. In short I dont believe its a level playing field which would have you question why have young lads out training in all conditions from January to try to qualify?

You are absolutely correct in your assertion that your club, as Féile runners up, should have been next in line for a place. But, if I'm right in my assumption the club you refer to were entered into Division 10 and the team that beat you in the county final were entered into Division 1 so your club would be at least Division 2 standard at a minimum? Perhaps the only vacancy as a host club was at Division 10 thus ruling you out, and them in due to their geographical location?

[you take er!]

To be honest i've lost faith in the Feile. We have a hurling club in our town who go to the Feile EVERY year whether they win the county Feile or not (in fact 3 clubs from the county went this year) I assume this is in order to 'promote' hurling in weaker counties. As a football club we have our training and games disrupted EVERY year in order to facilitate the hurlers going to the Feile, despite on occasion not having won the county Feile. This year however our club made it to the final of the county football Feile - this has only happened on a handful of occasions over the years. We lost out narrowly to the winners and as you would expect everyone in the club was very disappointed. This disappointment was compounded when we discovered that a neighbouring club were to enter the Feile as a 'host club' given there were not enough clubs to host in Monaghan. The club in question (and fair play to them by the way) were beaten in the first round of the Shield comp in the county yet got to go to the All-Ireland competition due to their Geographical location. I would have thought the county runners up (situated 3 miles away would have been next in line to enter as a host.
I am cross due to the effort that was put in by the lads and the opportunity missed for our lads- it seems that the powers that be hand pick who they want at times which is disappointing on those who are perhaps more deserving. In short I dont believe its a level playing field which would have you question why have young lads out training in all conditions from January to try to qualify?

You are absolutely correct in your assertion that your club, as Féile runners up, should have been next in line for a place. But, if I'm right in my assumption the club you refer to were entered into Division 10 and the team that beat you in the county final were entered into Division 1 so your club would be at least Division 2 standard at a minimum? Perhaps the only vacancy as a host club was at Division 10 thus ruling you out, and them in due to their geographical location?

Yes I did hear that this was the case, but the authorities don't seem to have a problem with putting a  teams in divisions for which they are too strong a la New York. There could have been re-jigging here and there i feel to have us in an appropriate division had they wanted to be fair and/or representative but it appears this is not a priority and anyone can be shoehorned in. Still not taking away from any of the young lads who took part im sure its something they enjoyed and will always remember.

[johnneycool]

To be honest i've lost faith in the Feile. We have a hurling club in our town who go to the Feile EVERY year whether they win the county Feile or not (in fact 3 clubs from the county went this year) I assume this is in order to 'promote' hurling in weaker counties. As a football club we have our training and games disrupted EVERY year in order to facilitate the hurlers going to the Feile, despite on occasion not having won the county Feile. This year however our club made it to the final of the county football Feile - this has only happened on a handful of occasions over the years. We lost out narrowly to the winners and as you would expect everyone in the club was very disappointed. This disappointment was compounded when we discovered that a neighbouring club were to enter the Feile as a 'host club' given there were not enough clubs to host in Monaghan. The club in question (and fair play to them by the way) were beaten in the first round of the Shield comp in the county yet got to go to the All-Ireland competition due to their Geographical location. I would have thought the county runners up (situated 3 miles away would have been next in line to enter as a host.
I am cross due to the effort that was put in by the lads and the opportunity missed for our lads- it seems that the powers that be hand pick who they want at times which is disappointing on those who are perhaps more deserving. In short I dont believe its a level playing field which would have you question why have young lads out training in all conditions from January to try to qualify?

You are absolutely correct in your assertion that your club, as Féile runners up, should have been next in line for a place. But, if I'm right in my assumption the club you refer to were entered into Division 10 and the team that beat you in the county final were entered into Division 1 so your club would be at least Division 2 standard at a minimum? Perhaps the only vacancy as a host club was at Division 10 thus ruling you out, and them in due to their geographical location?

There may be a bit of that alright, but I know that in the hurling depending on the number of host clubs each county is allocated a number of slots. How those slots are filled is normally up to your own county board on how thats to be done presumably before the county feiles take place.

I know in Down hurling we'd three places to fill at the national Feile and for the fourth year in a row our lads got beat in the final only to see teams below them get a place in the national feile. That's the rules and we know them before we enter. I know there were allegations of teams deliberately throwing games to ensure they were going in a lesser division but you'd hope that's not the case.

[Harold Disgracey]

You take er! If it makes you feel any better, the same team lost out on a place in the Féile two years ago on a coin toss! Of course I was taking them at the time!

[Too many steps]

From a Dublin perspective, last year Castleknock won Dublin Div 1 and played National Div 1 Feile and won.

This year, Skerries Harps won Dublin Division 1, and they (along with runners-up Na Fianna) played in the Premier Regional Feile in Sligo, rather than the National Division 1. Apparently the 10 teams in this "Premier" competition were from counties that competed in the Div 1 National Feile last year. So looks like they are rotating it.

Down Feile winners went to Div 3 last year (I think) - and lost every match (I think - definitely did't come back with a trophy).

So why were Burren excluded?

[Too many steps]

Yes I did hear that this was the case, but the authorities don't seem to have a problem with putting a  teams in divisions for which they are too strong a la New York.

It's not that NY were too strong. They just removed all the teams that would have provided them competition and put them in Sligo. Maybe they knew NY would be too strong for the rest and are trying to give GAA a boost across the pond.

[Too many steps]

How can they know?

To be fair I don't think they Knew NY would be too strong, but they definitely wanted a different winner and engineered it that way.

I mean going on the Down form book in recent Feile you would say that Burren shouldn't have been on their radar, but they seemed to know enough about u14 teams in Ireland to clear a path for a new winner - whether they intended that to be NY we'll never know - but it's not beyond the realms of possibility.

It is after all a great boost for underage football over there to bring back the Div1 feile trophy. I am sure the NY contingent are blissfully unaware that the winners from the biggest counties were moved from their path.

[Zulu]

That's not true. I think everyone is aware of the situation and NY, in particular, have been very competitive in the higher divisions for some years now. I'm not sure of the general strength of NY clubs but there is probably an argument that NY should be represented by their club champions rather than an amalgamated team at this stage.

[Too many steps]

That's not true.

What isn't true?

All the winners of the top counties were moved to Sligo - that is an undeniable fact.

Now that you are saying that NY have been knocking on the door for years and haven't quite been able to make the breakthrough makes me even more suspicious.

[Zulu]

Everyone knows the top teams have been removed from the main feile. That didn't just happen this year.