We've done it over the years in both hurling and football.. after dropping out of the senior team and playing reserve football back in the day it was a decent club day out, reserves before seniors and few pints and head home, super Sundays..
Then the kids changed, they'd rather sit on a senior bench than turn out for reserves, standards dropped and interest also..
We went down the road of reserves playing in lower leagues, definitely better than the reserve set up, but you need a pool of 25 players, just in case of call ups to the seniors, not all clubs have that.
But we've been back to the reserve set up but with the reserves on after the seniors! No buzz about it, ref'd one last year, it was brutal
I much prefer a second team in a league, in fact I much prefer them competing for junior and intermediate if they are at that level, but ensure no messing with team selections come championship, teams have to be strictly graded and assessed before season starts.
These lads that don't make senior ever, deserve to win an all county championship also, I can see why they can't progress into Ulster, that's understandable too
Then the kids changed, they'd rather sit on a senior bench than turn out for reserves, standards dropped and interest also..
We went down the road of reserves playing in lower leagues, definitely better than the reserve set up, but you need a pool of 25 players, just in case of call ups to the seniors, not all clubs have that.
But we've been back to the reserve set up but with the reserves on after the seniors! No buzz about it, ref'd one last year, it was brutal
I much prefer a second team in a league, in fact I much prefer them competing for junior and intermediate if they are at that level, but ensure no messing with team selections come championship, teams have to be strictly graded and assessed before season starts.
These lads that don't make senior ever, deserve to win an all county championship also, I can see why they can't progress into Ulster, that's understandable too