NFL Division 2 - 2021

[MayoBuck]

In Counties like Cavan, Ros, Monaghan etc Gaelic football is the only serious sport.
That wouldn't be the case in all those big half jackeen commuter towns where a large proportion of the population of Meath and Kikdare live.

Number of football teams registered in 2020

Cork   1525 Dublin   1443 Meath   808 Kildare   778 Tipperary   667 Kerry   643 Mayo   627 Galway   575 Donegal   524 Louth   522 Limerick   501 Tyrone   495 Waterford   462 Wexford   418 Down   380 Cavan   379 Clare   344 Armagh   335 Antrim   319 Monaghan   314 Derry   303 Wicklow   301 Roscommon   293 Westmeath   293 Laois   281 Sligo   253 Longford   231 Kilkenny   226 Offaly   213 Fermanagh   206 Carlow   166 Leitrim   162

Number of football teams registered in 2009

Cork      1300 Dublin      918 Kerry      631 Meath      590 Tipperary      584 Galway      542 Tyrone      534 Limerick      512 Mayo      491 Kildare      483 Donegal      450 Louth      426 Wexford      419 Antrim      385 Cavan      363 Armagh      353 Down      346 Waterford      309 Clare      294 Derry      289 Kilkenny      283 Monaghan      282 Wicklow      277 Westmeath      240 Laois      238 Roscommon      215 Sligo      210 Leitrim      188 Carlow      178 Longford      172 Offaly      166 Fermanagh      152

Change in number of registered football teams

Cork   225 Dublin   525 Kerry   12 Meath   218 Tipperary   83 Galway   33 Tyrone   -39 Limerick   -11 Mayo   136 Kildare   295 Donegal   74 Louth   96 Wexford   -1 Antrim   -66 Cavan   16 Armagh   -18 Down   34 Waterford   153 Clare   50 Derry   14 Kilkenny   -57 Monaghan   32 Wicklow   24 Westmeath   53 Laois   43 Roscommon   78 Sligo   43 Leitrim   -26 Carlow   -12 Longford   59 Offaly   47 Fermanagh   54

Population in Ireland increased by about 536k over this time period.

Is that adult and underage club teams? Strange there has been such an increase in Mayo.

[Rossfan]

Are those football and hurling teams?

[rosnarun]

and the mayo population has hardly changed , it may even have gone down.

thios figurealso show what wastage there has been in dublin huge amount of promotion offivers in a massively growing city and  'The greatest team of all time' and nearly 500 teams fewer .any other reason why?
other than the PIKe footbal they are now playing compare to even a few years ago

[Maroon Manc]

and the mayo population has hardly changed , it may even have gone down.

thios figurealso show what wastage there has been in dublin huge amount of promotion offivers in a massively growing city and  'The greatest team of all time' and nearly 500 teams fewer .any other reason why?
other than the PIKe footbal they are now playing compare to even a few years ago

You mean there's been an increase of 500 teams.

[Captain Scarlet]

I do agree that Dublin in the province is a massive downer but I still think the resources are not being put to use. There is an odd thing in Kildare where many of the big towns are simply not harnessing their populations either.

Like Leixlip and Kilcock are intermediate for example despite growing populations in the north of the county. Meanwhile the champions, Clogherinkoe, are a rural half-parish team. Now I know you can have great teams from small bases, but overall there is an issue grabbing 'blow-ins' for want of a better phrase in Kildare and Meath.

Dublin are the monster that would ruin any province if truth be told.

[twohands!!!]

Adult and underage football teams.
No hurling in the previous figures.
[Dublin has shown similar increases in the number of hurling teams over the same time period - 637 hurling teams in 2009 to 1,141 hurling teams in 2020]

The Dublin increase hasn't really fed through to senior level yet.

173 adult football teams in 2009
201 adult football teams in 2020
An increase of 28 in the number of adult football teams versus an increase of 497 in non-adult football teams [these are underage plus U21/U20 (the change from the U21 age grade to U20 means it's not an exact like-for-like comparison, but I don't think the age grade change has any sort of significant impact in terms of the numbers]

Looking at both football and hurling Dublin has less registered teams than Cork at the moment [it's only a matter of a few years when Dublin will have more teams I'd imagine] but Dublin have more registered players in total.

This was the number of registered players for 2015



According to this Dublin had 5,365 (16%) more players than Cork in 2015.
Dublin -  39,197
Cork - 33,832

I would imagine the difference/discrepancy in the number of registered teams versus registered players is related to dual players.
It looks like a much higher percentage of Cork players would be on both hurling and football teams compared to in Dublin.
In 2020 Cork had 1313 hurling teams total versus Dublin having 1141 hurling teams.

You have a situation where Dublin have won 6 in a row, have got the lion's share of funding over the last decade and a half, have the most coaches by a mile, have the highest sponsorship, play the majority of their games at home, where most of the increases in playing numbers hasn't fed through to senior level and are the area where the population is predicted to grow the most in the next 10/20 years. You're looking at a situation where even if things go badly for Dublin they will win probably 15 out of the next 20 All-Irelands at a minimum.

[Captain Obvious]

Looking at those figures, over the last decade at County level

The underachievers

Cork, Kildare, Meath, Galway

The overachievers

Clare, Monaghan, Roscommon

[Armagh18]

Adult and underage football teams.
No hurling in the previous figures.
[Dublin has shown similar increases in the number of hurling teams over the same time period - 637 hurling teams in 2009 to 1,141 hurling teams in 2020]

The Dublin increase hasn't really fed through to senior level yet.

173 adult football teams in 2009
201 adult football teams in 2020
An increase of 28 in the number of adult football teams versus an increase of 497 in non-adult football teams [these are underage plus U21/U20 (the change from the U21 age grade to U20 means it's not an exact like-for-like comparison, but I don't think the age grade change has any sort of significant impact in terms of the numbers]

Looking at both football and hurling Dublin has less registered teams than Cork at the moment [it's only a matter of a few years when Dublin will have more teams I'd imagine] but Dublin have more registered players in total.

This was the number of registered players for 2015



According to this Dublin had 5,365 (16%) more players than Cork in 2015.
Dublin -  39,197
Cork - 33,832

I would imagine the difference/discrepancy in the number of registered teams versus registered players is related to dual players.
It looks like a much higher percentage of Cork players would be on both hurling and football teams compared to in Dublin.
In 2020 Cork had 1313 hurling teams total versus Dublin having 1141 hurling teams.

You have a situation where Dublin have won 6 in a row, have got the lion's share of funding over the last decade and a half, have the most coaches by a mile, have the highest sponsorship, play the majority of their games at home, where most of the increases in playing numbers hasn't fed through to senior level and are the area where the population is predicted to grow the most in the next 10/20 years. You're looking at a situation where even if things go badly for Dublin they will win probably 15 out of the next 20 All-Irelands at a minimum.

Very surprised that Armagh, Down, Antrim and Tyrone all have similar numbers. Always thought we'd be well behind tbh!

[seafoid]

I do agree that Dublin in the province is a massive downer but I still think the resources are not being put to use. There is an odd thing in Kildare where many of the big towns are simply not harnessing their populations either.

Like Leixlip and Kilcock are intermediate for example despite growing populations in the north of the county. Meanwhile the champions, Clogherinkoe, are a rural half-parish team. Now I know you can have great teams from small bases, but overall there is an issue grabbing 'blow-ins' for want of a better phrase in Kildare and Meath.

Dublin are the monster that would ruin any province if truth be told.

Kildare 's population is a fraction of Dublin's. Dublin have professionalised the production of county grade footballers.
No other county, even at maximum efficiency, could compete.
The story is insane.

[twohands!!!]

Is that adult and underage club teams? Strange there has been such an increase in Mayo.

Just had a look at the Mayo numbers - there was 2 less adult teams in 2020 (83) compared to 2009 (85)
It was all underage - 504 teams in 2020 compared to 365 team in 2009.

I'd imagine that Mayo's presence at the top table was a big factor in driving that underage growth given that the population changes in the county over that time period would would be fairly minimal.

These are Mayo's population numbers for the most recent censuses.

2006 123,839
2011 130,638
2016 130,425

An increase of 6,586 in a decade.

These are Dublin's number for the most recent censuses.

2006 1,118,716
2011 1,273,069
2016 1,345,402

An increase of 158,226 in a decade.

[Armagh18]

I do agree that Dublin in the province is a massive downer but I still think the resources are not being put to use. There is an odd thing in Kildare where many of the big towns are simply not harnessing their populations either.

Like Leixlip and Kilcock are intermediate for example despite growing populations in the north of the county. Meanwhile the champions, Clogherinkoe, are a rural half-parish team. Now I know you can have great teams from small bases, but overall there is an issue grabbing 'blow-ins' for want of a better phrase in Kildare and Meath.

Dublin are the monster that would ruin any province if truth be told.

Kildare 's population is a fraction of Dublin's. Dublin have professionalised the production of county grade footballers.
No other county, even at maximum efficiency, could compete.
The story is insane.

Mayo competed for 5 years. Kerry are competing at the minute.

[rodney trotter]

No Leinster U20 thread, but Bernard Flynn stepped down as Meath manager a few weeks before the Championship
https://t.co/bMI3ZE9hAO?amp=1

[thejuice]

Shite situation made worse by Flynn pulling this stunt. Whatever about the agreements that we're made, we're down 6 starting players through injury and suspension so I can understand why Andy wants Costello and Hickey to stay with the seniors.

However having said that we haven't a hope of winning Leinster at senior anyway so probably better off focusing on U20s. Of course Andy isn't going to admit that and Flynn is just f**king over the rest of the U20 panel in the process.

Bad enough to be having no hope at senior but it seems those in charge of the U20s can't see past their own egos to do whats best for Meath as a whole.