Derry Club Football & Hurling original

[Brendan]

Junior is the biggest victim in this as the Derry Gaels keep pointing out, 7 league games and a handful of Pre Season tournament if theyre lucky since Ardmore and Moneymore have been conceding fixtures, then into championship.

Bring the reserves into the All county leagues and let them work their way up if theyre good enough is my shout

[MidUlsterObserver]

A disgrace that these games weren't played on a weekend and well publicised. These are massive games for clubs and big impacts for next year obviously.


What do we propose should happen with the leagues or what improvements would help?

The entire promotion of the game within Derry by the county board is an absolute disgrace.

How do we have paid staff in the county when our CLUB games aren't getting any sort of promotion throughout the leagues?

Slaughtneil won the league and there was zero mention of it. I know people will say "it's only the league," but that's a total cop-out for what a county board should be doing.

Leagues aren't being promoted.
Reserve leagues are collapsing.
Thirds are flooded with young lads who should be playing reserves, which makes thirds football far less enjoyable for the players it's actually meant for.

The senior county team coverage was clearly paid-for promotion with your man Mossy, so I don't know what's going on, is there even a PRO or a PRO team anymore?

[GTP]

Positive from the league is that no games (Div 1) as far as I can tell were conceded, they have been played regularly and appear to be reasonably spaced so must be good enough from a player perspective.
Go with 12 - 12 - 14 / 15 and split in the same way Division 2 did this year. Still 16 games but could be more competitive. Or could lead to a pile of dead rubbers in the bottom half with teams in no danger of relegation.

[shawshank]

Coleraine and Faughanvale giving a good example of why the leagues need restructured tonight. 2 poor teams, Coleraine deserved winners but average age of that team would be close to 40 and they arent going to improve any time soon to be going into division 1

Took the game in myself, two poor enough sides as you say but think your being  bit hyperbolic. Few older heads in coleraine team alright but also a few younger lads. Faughanvale decimated by injuries all year and one of the boys telling me they lost their whole full back line even from Sundays game. Your man Sweeney a big loss to them at full back and you could tell by how easily they conceded them goals in the first half. Coleraine will struggle rightly at senior but fair play to them for getting back there. I'd agree with you about the leagues need restructuring but don't forget why it was changed in the first place, it wasn't to help the likes of Coleraine or Faughanvale that's for sure. Some 'historical' clubs ego will never let them vote for a smaller league as they might find themselves in intermediate very quickly.

Screen, Bderry & Coleraine were the teams who fiercely objected to the 12 team league & cship.

[harryR]

Took in the game last night as well. Looks like another bad injury for Ruairi Mooney, after only recently returning from a knee injury. Terrible for the lad

[jmcgdoire]

Coleraine and Faughanvale giving a good example of why the leagues need restructured tonight. 2 poor teams, Coleraine deserved winners but average age of that team would be close to 40 and they arent going to improve any time soon to be going into division 1

Took the game in myself, two poor enough sides as you say but think your being  bit hyperbolic. Few older heads in coleraine team alright but also a few younger lads. Faughanvale decimated by injuries all year and one of the boys telling me they lost their whole full back line even from Sundays game. Your man Sweeney a big loss to them at full back and you could tell by how easily they conceded them goals in the first half. Coleraine will struggle rightly at senior but fair play to them for getting back there. I'd agree with you about the leagues need restructuring but don't forget why it was changed in the first place, it wasn't to help the likes of Coleraine or Faughanvale that's for sure. Some 'historical' clubs ego will never let them vote for a smaller league as they might find themselves in intermediate very quickly.

Screen, Bderry & Coleraine were the teams who fiercely objected to the 12 team league & cship.

I would have expected the objecting teams would have been the likes of slaughtneil, glen, magherafelt, and newbridge all of who have load of lads involved (or could be involved) with the county team and therefore miss a number of league games. Instead these teams all finished at top of the league. Very impressive from all of them! Whats ballinascreens excuse for finishing so low?

[Cluborcountywhynotboth]

Coleraine and Faughanvale giving a good example of why the leagues need restructured tonight. 2 poor teams, Coleraine deserved winners but average age of that team would be close to 40 and they arent going to improve any time soon to be going into division 1

Took the game in myself, two poor enough sides as you say but think your being  bit hyperbolic. Few older heads in coleraine team alright but also a few younger lads. Faughanvale decimated by injuries all year and one of the boys telling me they lost their whole full back line even from Sundays game. Your man Sweeney a big loss to them at full back and you could tell by how easily they conceded them goals in the first half. Coleraine will struggle rightly at senior but fair play to them for getting back there. I'd agree with you about the leagues need restructuring but don't forget why it was changed in the first place, it wasn't to help the likes of Coleraine or Faughanvale that's for sure. Some 'historical' clubs ego will never let them vote for a smaller league as they might find themselves in intermediate very quickly.

Screen, Bderry & Coleraine were the teams who fiercely objected to the 12 team league & cship.

Dungiven were also strongly against it, the year they played intermediate not that long ago I think they only finished 4th but the next year low and behold the leagues were restructured and they found themselves a senior team again somehow even tho teams who finished above them stayed intermediate (I think they used championship performance to allocate league placing and Dungiven were senior championship, but could be wrong). I'm sure the fact the vice chair of the county board at the time was a high profile Dungiven member was just a coincidence.

[Brendan]

I see the same argument regularly on the Antrim football thread, surely at some stage they have to put the ego of their clubs aside and do it for the good of Football across the county. Some of these "traditional" clubs could benefit from a year in Intermediate, Ballinderry a run to an All Ireland Final, Glenullin should have went as low as Junior at a time despite their arrogance, they served their time in Intermeidate and now look at them a solid Senior club again

[marty34]

Early days in who'll win minor but, in Derry, it's a good standard. Usually well matched up teams in the later rounds.
Magherafelt have been winning a lot at underage this past 30 years. Huge numbers in their lower underage teams. Always playing in the higher 'A' sections also.  Won Féile again this year.
But they really need to push on at senior level now. As I say, always huge talent but only one senior championship in recent years. I thought they'd push on and win three or four but seemed happy with just one.
Be interesting to see how they go this year. A lot of people tipping them but I can't comment as I haven't seen them at all in the league.
But a big year for them. 

I think you're overlooking three things there. Maybe on purpose 

1. Slaughtneil weren't finished in 2020. They were caught by a very good Glen team in 2019, who maybe thought that a semi-final win had won them the championship. Slaughtneil proved in 2020 that they were far from done.
2. Then came a brilliant Glen team that eventually won an All-Ireland in 2023. They had won four Ulster Minor titles, that generation had now come of age. Conor Glass was back from Australia and Malachy O'Rourke at the helm. Still a huge threat for any team
3 Then came Newbridge. Had been pushing to make a break through and also a club with a great tradition. They were battle-hardened from years of winning very little, but they learned how to make the most of every player. Can they do 3 in a row in their centenary year.

Magherafelt have always been successful at underage level, but as I've said before, it's only in more recent years that they've started doing it consistently at minor level. Now that those lads are coming through just like Glen did, you would expect senior success to follow.

But "should" is the important word. Nothing is ever guaranteed in a county final. I think we can look forward to a championship that is as competitive as last year. And Lavey are definitely worth watching too.

You're raised a few valid points there HonDerry and I'm not picking but it's a valid question. My point being is once they won one, then it should be easier to drive things on but that didn't happen. Especially with the good groups and players coming through via minor levels.


Re: underage it'd be interesting to see who won underage titles over the last 30 years say, at U14, U16 & minor. Maybe a job for someone some time.   


Funny you mentioned Newbridge. I think if you asked anybody a 3 or 4 years ago who would win two Derry championships in a row - Magherafelt or Newbridge?, I'd hazard a guess that the majority of people would have picked Magherafelt.


But the senior championship will be open enough this year. It'll just, like in a lot of cases, depend on the day.

[marty34]

Coleraine and Faughanvale giving a good example of why the leagues need restructured tonight. 2 poor teams, Coleraine deserved winners but average age of that team would be close to 40 and they arent going to improve any time soon to be going into division 1

Took the game in myself, two poor enough sides as you say but think your being  bit hyperbolic. Few older heads in coleraine team alright but also a few younger lads. Faughanvale decimated by injuries all year and one of the boys telling me they lost their whole full back line even from Sundays game. Your man Sweeney a big loss to them at full back and you could tell by how easily they conceded them goals in the first half. Coleraine will struggle rightly at senior but fair play to them for getting back there. I'd agree with you about the leagues need restructuring but don't forget why it was changed in the first place, it wasn't to help the likes of Coleraine or Faughanvale that's for sure. Some 'historical' clubs ego will never let them vote for a smaller league as they might find themselves in intermediate very quickly.

Screen, Bderry & Coleraine were the teams who fiercely objected to the 12 team league & cship.

I would have expected the objecting teams would have been the likes of slaughtneil, glen, magherafelt, and newbridge all of who have load of lads involved (or could be involved) with the county team and therefore miss a number of league games. Instead these teams all finished at top of the league. Very impressive from all of them! Whats ballinascreens excuse for finishing so low?

Coleraine and Faughanvale giving a good example of why the leagues need restructured tonight. 2 poor teams, Coleraine deserved winners but average age of that team would be close to 40 and they arent going to improve any time soon to be going into division 1

Took the game in myself, two poor enough sides as you say but think your being  bit hyperbolic. Few older heads in coleraine team alright but also a few younger lads. Faughanvale decimated by injuries all year and one of the boys telling me they lost their whole full back line even from Sundays game. Your man Sweeney a big loss to them at full back and you could tell by how easily they conceded them goals in the first half. Coleraine will struggle rightly at senior but fair play to them for getting back there. I'd agree with you about the leagues need restructuring but don't forget why it was changed in the first place, it wasn't to help the likes of Coleraine or Faughanvale that's for sure. Some 'historical' clubs ego will never let them vote for a smaller league as they might find themselves in intermediate very quickly.

Screen, Bderry & Coleraine were the teams who fiercely objected to the 12 team league & cship.

I would have expected the objecting teams would have been the likes of slaughtneil, glen, magherafelt, and newbridge all of who have load of lads involved (or could be involved) with the county team and therefore miss a number of league games. Instead these teams all finished at top of the league. Very impressive from all of them! Whats ballinascreens excuse for finishing so low?

Fair point jmcdoire. Maybe with players away on county duty, it gives
other fringe players an opportunity to stake a claim on the team? This can only be a good thing but I suppose these players need to be there in the first place. Widening the panel to a decent level.

[Derry Man]

Junior is the biggest victim in this as the Derry Gaels keep pointing out, 7 league games and a handful of Pre Season tournament if theyre lucky since Ardmore and Moneymore have been conceding fixtures, then into championship.

Bring the reserves into the All county leagues and let them work their way up if theyre good enough is my shout

Only 3 games conceded in the Junior League, Ardmore conceded 2 & Magilligan 1 going by the Derry website.

On the reserves, the strong reserve teams M'Felt, Slaughtneil, Newbridge & Bellaghy would hammer every Junior team & would be competitive against most of the Intermediate teams so not sure if that would benefit anyone but them clubs

[Ryan O]

Personally I wouldn't want reserve teams playing in the lower division. Its bound to be unbelievably deflating if you get beat by a first division reserve team.

Running the Junior and intermediate championships earlier than senior would help.
Then pick a north, south, east, west set up the same as Kerry.
Give the good players in weaker clubs a taste of competitive football against our strongest clubs.

[Wildweasel74]

I remember junior many yrs ago 2 way and maybe 20 games