Quote from: LeoMc on March 07, 2024, 10:42:22 AMQuote from: W.A.G. Lover on March 07, 2024, 09:32:34 AMQuote from: God14 on March 07, 2024, 08:38:43 AMnot disagreeing with either points
but in the case of Cookstown, is it not a case they have looked at neighbouring towns such as Dungannon, Magherafelt and Omagh - and made a bigger effort as a club to replicate the successful strategies employed there?
Id be passing magherafelt pitch quite alot, its on a busy road. The work going on in that club is fantastic, the pitch is stacked with young kids all the time. Its no surprise that they are bearing the fruit of that at senior level. Every Derry underage side, and the big schools are benefitting of the work Magherafelt are doing. Cookstown rightly should be trying to emulate that
I think your post is missing the point. Magherafelt is stacked with young kids because they have a growing town population, which in turn creates a strong underage and eventually will create a strong senior team, if nurtured correctly. Yes, Cookstown will see that and try to replicate same - But this still doesn't solve the problem of decreasing rural numbers.
In North/West Tyrone, which is probably worst hit:
- Take Clan NaGael for example - They were in division 1/1A/1B for the guts of 10-15 years, with a senior championship semi-final in 2006. They are now languishing in the bottom half of division 3 and youth football amalgamated with Craigbane in Derry just to field.
- Gortin (1980s/1990s/2000s) and Greencastle (2010s) were notable senior sides, with Gortin even competing in a Senior Championship final in 1985. Rural depopulation/emigration has meant those clubs have been mostly division 2 over past number of years, with Gortin also amalgamating with Glenelly at underage level.
- Newtownstewart and Dregish merged/amalgamated at youth and senior level.
- Urney won an intermediate championship to reach senior football approx 2014, but now languish in the lower half of division 3 with no real prospects of promotion.
Do we ease the parish boundaries rule? Do we allow a transfer market of some kind allowing players to move from a club with larger numbers to a club with smaller numbers? This benefits the player getting football, and helps the player get more game time.
It is an issue but are stricter planning rules at the heart of this? A few one off dwellings are not going to turn the fortunes of any of those clubs around. In most cases there is a village at the hub and development would be permitted IF there was demand.
i 100% agree, one-off dwellings are not enough to sustain a club as can be seen with rural clubs now. Stricter planning policies are a major contributing factor. Planning policies were changed last year and restrict building in rural villages. They talk about the "need" for housing and "commitments" they have made to historic approvals, but where have these numbers been taken from? Who have they consulted? It certainly isnt the local people as i know many villages are crying out for new developments but restricted by planning and lack of NI Water infrastructure.
Ive said it on this forum before, we need the help of our councillors and county committee to help the plight of smaller clubs, rather than be just happy to see bigger town clubs get stronger.