Kerry Championship

[blewuporstuffed]

in tyrone county players are generally available for 10 out of the 15 league fixtures

[screenexile]

No Hurling.

And they play their league games without County players. And their championships are all knockout (albeit with a back door for the County Senior championship).

Is this true?? Not saying we'd win AI's otherwise but in Derry we prefer for our county men to get battered in club games throughout the year!! Think in Dublin county men play virtually no club matches either.

Any County in the AIQF I would imagine the players play very little if any league football for their Clubs!

[Walter Cronc]

No Hurling.

And they play their league games without County players. And their championships are all knockout (albeit with a back door for the County Senior championship).

Is this true?? Not saying we'd win AI's otherwise but in Derry we prefer for our county men to get battered in club games throughout the year!! Think in Dublin county men play virtually no club matches either.

Any County in the AIQF I would imagine the players play very little if any league football for their Clubs!

As you well know Screen our problem is a run of 2/3 league games in quick succession following a county championship game whether that be Ulster 1st round or semi. Then we have a raft of injuries. Derry clubs will have to make a decision soon enough because they way we are going will result in never making a break through. What they do in Donegal isn't right either but there has to be compromise.

[Ciarrai_thuaidh]

2 things I feel benefit club footballers and the system as a whole in Kerry are:
- The County League. It is taken very very seriously..obviously the County Championship is the biggest thing, but the League is treated with a lot of importance down here, unlike a lot of other counties. It means a club player is guaranteed at least 13 serious games of club football a season. 10/11 County League, 1/2 Club c/ship and 1 Divisional championship. I know lads who are very good footballers who play 3/4 games of serious football a year if they're lucky due to the structures in their county. Of course, the likes of Dublin have a very well organised All County League aswell, it's not unique to Kerry.
- Also, as I've said before, the fact that every single club player in Kerry has an outlet to play Senior County Championship football is a massive thing. The star of a Novice/Junior /Intermediate team, who slogs away all year with 3 men marking him, gets to play at higher level, with better players and stake a claim to play Kerry Junior etc. The divisional sides have launched the careers of Tom Sullivan, Bryan Sheehan and several other players.

The Divisional championships are held around this time of year and also have great appeal. They are very tribal affairs and to some are even more prized than County Championship or county league honours.

[AZOffaly]

2 things I feel benefit club footballers and the system as a whole in Kerry are:
- The County League. It is taken very very seriously..obviously the County Championship is the biggest thing, but the League is treated with a lot of importance down here, unlike a lot of other counties. It means a club player is guaranteed at least 13 serious games of club football a season. 10/11 County League, 1/2 Club c/ship and 1 Divisional championship. I know lads who are very good footballers who play 3/4 games of serious football a year if they're lucky due to the structures in their county. Of course, the likes of Dublin have a very well organised All County League aswell, it's not unique to Kerry.
- Also, as I've said before, the fact that every single club player in Kerry has an outlet to play Senior County Championship football is a massive thing. The star of a Novice/Junior /Intermediate team, who slogs away all year with 3 men marking him, gets to play at higher level, with better players and stake a claim to play Kerry Junior etc. The divisional sides have launched the careers of Tom Sullivan, Bryan Sheehan and several other players.

The Divisional championships are held around this time of year and also have great appeal. They are very tribal affairs and to some are even more prized than County Championship or county league honours.

I agree with you, and I think Kerry have a lot of things right in terms of their approach to club competitions. The Divisional Championships are great.

But just in relation to the leagues been taken seriously. They are, but there's a bit of a paradox. Clubs play without county players, which obviously can have an effect on results, and finally I've seen bizarre behaviour before games where teams agree to 'give the points', in scenarios where one club needs the points for promotion/relegation and the other one is already safe. That to me also mitigates the seriousness of the league.

[twohands!!!]

I agree with you, and I think Kerry have a lot of things right in terms of their approach to club competitions. The Divisional Championships are great.

But just in relation to the leagues been taken seriously. They are, but there's a bit of a paradox. Clubs play without county players, which obviously can have an effect on results, and finally I've seen bizarre behaviour before games where teams agree to 'give the points', in scenarios where one club needs the points for promotion/relegation and the other one is already safe. That to me also mitigates the seriousness of the league.

So you've got the County Championship as the most important competition, club championship next (i Presume?) and then Divisional Championships - all those are knock-out and all are presumably more important than the league, so why is the league taken all that seriously [does it affect anything? is there much of a correlation between a team doing well in the league and having success in the othr competitions? do county players take any part in the league.] Why do teams do deals given it would be the least important competition - would clubs be that bothered?

[AZOffaly]

The county championship is #1. The number 2 is debatable. Yes, at Senior Level, the Senior Club championship is probably #2, but for intermediate and junior clubs, often times the Divisional championship is more important. I remember when Dromid won the South Kerry championship for the first time, and they didn't stop drinking for about a month.

the leagues are important because the clubs all want to play at the highest level, but yes, your points would be similar to my own in terms of exactly *how* important.

[Mike Sheehy]

The league is not as important as the championship or the divisional championship for sure but I would assume that is the same in any other county that has separate league and championship ? Its the GAA afterall, championship is everything , even if its divisional !

Also, as always, it depends how successful you are.  Perennial Div 1 clubs like stacks, Laune Rangers , Crokes etc are never going to get excited about the league but for teams in the middle i.e Div 2, 3 getting promoted and relegated is a big deal. A club like Legion winning the Div 1 title would be very big deal for them.

[omaghjoe]

Hang on Hang on, Lets get this right
So there is:
County Championship: Senior Clubs & Amalgamated Divisonal Teams consisting of inter and junior clubs
Senior Championship; Senior Clubs
Inter Championship: Inter CLubs
Junior Championship: Junior Clubs
Divisonal Championships: All Clubs from each region

Is this correct? or is there also a novice level in Kerry?

It is a great system BTW

[AZOffaly]

Also novice. The level below Junior.

[blanketattack]

Hang on Hang on, Lets get this right
So there is:
County Championship: Senior Clubs & Amalgamated Divisonal Teams consisting of inter and junior clubs
Senior Championship; Senior Clubs
Inter Championship: Inter CLubs
Junior Championship: Junior Clubs
Divisonal Championships: All Clubs from each region

Is this correct? or is there also a novice level in Kerry?

It is a great system BTW

For the divisional c'ship I'm not sure if all the clubs take part. I think some of the weaker clubs don't bother with the main competition and just play in the secondary one.  I could be wrong though. I'd say every club in North Kerry goes into the North Kerry championship. Don't think all East Kerry clubs do likewise e.g. Cordal, Listry, Scartaglin would get absolutely hammered by Crokes. The divisional c'ships are great. Junior clubs regularly beat senior clubs in them and even win the competition outright. They're left very late in the year. One year the first round of the North Kerry c'ship didn't start until December.

One thing I like about the Kerry system compared to the Cork system is that in Kerry only A teams are allowed in Intermediate, Junior and Novice championship. In Cork, B teams and even C teams from stronger clubs take part as well alongside the A teams. In Kerry there's separate competitions for these B and C teams. I presume the Kerry system is the norm in this regard nationwide?

[AZOffaly]

I'd say not. In Offaly your clubs second team can go all the way to intermediate.

[Ciarrai_thuaidh]

Hang on now AZ, yes there have been 1 or 2 rumours of dodgy draws to save a team from relegation or whatever, but you're talking about rare circumstances where it's a dead rubber for one of the teams (can't get promoted or relegated) and only in the last round of the league..overall 99.9% of games are seriously contested by all teams. Like I said, it means each club team gets 10 extra competitive games played at near championship pace and this only improves the player development and standard of football overall. Overall, I would say the average county panelists plays 3/4 games in the league for the club, but this number rises for some players and Fitzmaurice is good to release players to clubs also.

2 years ago they changed the system to 3 up, 3 down in the leagues which makes it ridiculously competitive. 1 game can change a team from promotion to relegation contenders now.

To answer another query, yes there are 1 or 2 teams who are "non-league" (all in North Kerry I think)..but those teams would be very small rural clubs that would be what most counties would class as Junior C. The players from these clubs would play with the nearest Senior club in all cases, if they so wished.

[AZOffaly]

Hang on now AZ, yes there have been 1 or 2 rumours of dodgy draws to save a team from relegation or whatever, but you're talking about rare circumstances where it's a dead rubber for one of the teams (can't get promoted or relegated) and only in the last round of the league..overall 99.9% of games are seriously contested by all teams. Like I said, it means each club team gets 10 extra competitive games played at near championship pace and this only improves the player development and standard of football overall. Overall, I would say the average county panelists plays 3/4 games in the league for the club, but this number rises for some players and Fitzmaurice is good to release players to clubs also.

2 years ago they changed the system to 3 up, 3 down in the leagues which makes it ridiculously competitive. 1 game can change a team from promotion to relegation contenders now.

To answer another query, yes there are 1 or 2 teams who are "non-league" (all in North Kerry I think)..but those teams would be very small rural clubs that would be what most counties would class as Junior C. The players from these clubs would play with the nearest Senior club in all cases, if they so wished.

1 or 2?? I've seen more than 1 or 2 myself!

[orangeman]

Donaghy man of the match today and Kerry captain next year.

What do you think of that Joe Brolly ?.