Messages

[Belfast]

Excuse my ignorance but was Gaelfast not put in place to support GAA in Belfast? As an Antrim man I don't mind it spreading its wings throughout the county but going into St. Pat's Maghera? f**k that!

And the Down parts as well, but if you can make it to take Gaelfast coaches to North Antrim, they can also make it to the Ards peninsula.

Where Gaelfast went wrong was aligning it so rigidly to Antrim CB..

Brexit is a failure. it was based on economic assumptions which failed to materialise.
the EU didn't give the UK free Single Market Access . There are no decent trade deals out there.

Taking the UK out of its economic hinterland is ridiculous.

Brexit was never about economic benefits, it was about immigration and the elephant in the room was closing down taxation loopholes for the well heeled.
Everything thereafter was pure bullshít.

In order to be sustainable, Brexit had to have economic benefits. Unionism in NI is the same. It has to benefit people. Neither do.
Brexit is doomed. So is Unionism

Tell that to the 15million people who voted for something they never fully understood but it was going to keep the immigrants out at whatever cost.

Brexit is a failure. it was based on economic assumptions which failed to materialise.
the EU didn't give the UK free Single Market Access . There are no decent trade deals out there.

Taking the UK out of its economic hinterland is ridiculous.

Brexit was never about economic benefits, it was about immigration and the elephant in the room was closing down taxation loopholes for the well heeled.
Everything thereafter was pure bullshít.

I can get the fact that there needs to be controls of 'goods' entering NI from Britain but I was looking at it from the likes of foods not materials like wood, steel and things like that.

The reason why I'm asking is that more and more companies are not delivering to the north and I'm taking, lets say, garden furniture, what's the difficulty in the paperwork or is it a handy excuse to not bother shipping here?

My take is that while it may not be that hard to get up to speed with the paperwork we are such a small market most just can't be ars*d.

This and the pricks in GB haven't fully resourced their end of the bargain. Probably didn't expect the EU to make them honour their side of the agreement, charlatans.

Some great U20 hurling on TG4 the last few nights.

Clare were outplayed and overpowered by Limerick on Monday night. The Limerick machine looks to keep churning out brutes of men who can also hurl. Clare were missing a few of the lads who've played senior didn't help them. Limerick looked ominous.

Last night we'd Cork V Tipp up first with Tipp off to a flyer (again) only for Cork to come back into it in the second half. Cork had serious pace in their forwards and that seems to be the way they're going. The final will be an interesting matchup.

In Leinster Galway were making wee boys out of Kilkenny and had something like a 13 point lead at half time. Classy hurlers but Kilkenny never gave up and got the lead down to 4 but couldn't close it to anything less than that. Carlow ref was a tad kind to the Kilkenny lads at times.
Dublin in the final.

Jeff Bezos being sued by the makers of 70's Soft porn spoof Flesh Gordon for stealing their design;

is that not an infringement of human rights. I would imagine value cabs are in trouble

THink I don't want to see it as there's supposed to be three and I saw the last one...

Everton has suspended someone pending a police investigation..

Wonder who that might be...

Lohan has the last laugh. I can't see a queue of counties wanting to take on Davy Fitz and the circus that goes with him.

He'll be at Antrim next 

Sure he was helping Mushy out with Dunloy a few years back.

[Football is very competitive in Down at U11s]

its happening in the  team my lad plays with U11. players drifting away. in our club its by and large the coaches fault. its a pity, in a good few cases its lads that have loads of potential just not there yet, now they might never be ''there'' but they have potential.
but as others have said its easy to criticize from the sidelines the reality is any of the coaches would  probably gladly hand me the whistle if i thought i could do better. in my defense i do coach with another team in the club, with my younger lad and at this stage the best i can hope to do is learn from the mistakes of this bunch.

firstly they each have a kid on the team and each seem to believe that their lad is the next cillian o connor. this is bad enough but the real problem is they are bizarrely obsessed with winning U11 games. this results in team selection that leaves loads of player out and piles huge  pressure on those who play.
at one game the ''A'' team had 3 subs whilst the ''B'' team had 11 subs
now the result of this Cody like desire to win is that so far they have lost every game they have played ( GO games, so no one keeping score only themselves). and worse the other result is good lads/girls walking away (luckily the girls walk around the corner to the girls club).
now my lad would not be the greatest but not the worst either, incredibly enthusiastic absolutely LOVES football and  has a super attitude, never gives up, never complains. but after one recent match he was down in the dumps and upset for a week. i was so mad i was going to talk to them but he begged me not to.  instead he killed himself training for a week at home and when he went back things were  a bit better (only because 3/4 other players were away on holiday) but it will happen again next week, nothing surer and to be honest i will not  have him like that again,  ill sooner  pull him out, he plays soccer and rugby as well and while football is his first love they will have to do.

its a huge pity but the reality is the coaches have no interest in lads they dont think will be good enough  and they dont care if they go in fact i think they are happier. nothing is going to change this attitude and the longer my lads sticks it out the more knocks he going to have to take before he eventually gets the message and gives up.

Could the club not have 3 teams in that case?

Our club had too many for 1 team for the first time this year so entered a B team. A team carried 11 players and no subs, B team took whatever was left and maybe had a couple of very young U9s on the line in some games. It's worked well - not perfect by any means but better than we expected.

Football is very competitive in Down at U11s, in contrast the hurling is seen as a bit of a run out and lads enjoy it more. There's nowhere near the same yapping from the sidelines etc.

Made  my morning

Probably should have explained that better - the way games are set up leaves things very competitive for the age of the players involved. If coaches are getting sent off for slabbering at refs at U11s or starting rows with other coaches etc you're not doing it right.

Anyone taking U11 football seriously needs to see a Doctor. They're a danger to society unless they get medical help.

One of my first experiences of helping out with coaching structures within my club was trying to use young lads to referee the U12 games which up to that point was an official referee and £30 a game IIRC. I thought it was madness as it was Go Games so no score was kept and there was a middle third where the weaker lads got a run out, so in my simplistic view it was a no brainer. So our secretary was dispatched to a CB meeting to bring this up and he was met with a wall of incredulity at suggesting such a thing as the young lads would be killed by the parents and coaches if this was brought in. Mostly Down football clubs I might add. Nuts I tell you 

We don't have official referee's which is now U11.5 or P7 in old money, so kind of a win but just checking there an U11.5 football still appoints official referee's but as before they're nuts over there..

Each club should have a policy of sorts defining who gets what in terms of meaningful gametime.

We up to go games try to ensure that every kid at whatever agegroup gets a minimum of 50% of gametime available to them. Go games allows for that as you can have as many subs as you like, so roll them on and off. Every kid of a certain age gets an invite without exception as in the past we found that some coaches were "inclined" not to invite the weaker kids in an attempt to win a blitz of some sort or other.

The "competitive" age groups we deploy the 4 A's. Age, Attendance, Attitude and Ability (to compete, defend themselves) plus being a small rural club where we've overlaps between teams the amount of opportunity a kid gets at another level should be taken into consideration.

For instance if we've two 15yo's, one plays a lot for the U17's and one doesn't. The one who plays for the U17's should be taken off first and if we bring on an U13 then we need to be sure they are relatively comfortable to compete and look after themselves at that level and have the wherewithal to protect themselves.

Reflective glory by some of the coaches is still an issue..

It's mad the difference in dealing with the same clubs at different codes over here. There is refs sometimes at U11 football, sometimes not. But they get a load of shit whether its an official ref or not. Saw it only yesterday but it's the boards fault for setting up competitive leagues at that age. The blitzes going away has helped up at U9 to make it less competitive.

Boards by and large only put in place what the respective clubs want.

Clubs and respective boards need to step back and take the heat out of the environment we're expecting kids to develop, thrive and ultimately enjoy themselves if there's shouting and balling at referees at a Go Games match..

At the end of the day a good competitive mentally needs to be instilled into the youth. Of course some of the stories you hear are ridiculous but you have to put yourself in the parents shoes, every parent wants to be the father/mother of the next CON, David Clifford or Michael Conroy

Then 99.9% are bound to fail.

There is no "then" about it. It's a a fact that 99.9% will fail. There is no other way about it. What point are you trying to make johnny?

The point I'm making is that each kid should be afforded the opportunity to be the best that they can be and I don't necessarily think that noncompetitive games up to 12/13 year olds is hindering the high performers. They will still develop their skills along the way. When we enter the competitive games at 14 or 15 years old it's probably more important to develop the correct attitudes in terms of training, preparation and mental resilience to drive on when things don't go their way.

A kid not turning out to be a Tony Kelly or Kyle Hayes isn't a failure and if they've a positive experience of the club and association during those formative years then they're more inclined to help out at various different levels at a later date.

Breed for profit?

eh?

Are you inclined to sell off your offspring?

[Football is very competitive in Down at U11s]

its happening in the  team my lad plays with U11. players drifting away. in our club its by and large the coaches fault. its a pity, in a good few cases its lads that have loads of potential just not there yet, now they might never be ''there'' but they have potential.
but as others have said its easy to criticize from the sidelines the reality is any of the coaches would  probably gladly hand me the whistle if i thought i could do better. in my defense i do coach with another team in the club, with my younger lad and at this stage the best i can hope to do is learn from the mistakes of this bunch.

firstly they each have a kid on the team and each seem to believe that their lad is the next cillian o connor. this is bad enough but the real problem is they are bizarrely obsessed with winning U11 games. this results in team selection that leaves loads of player out and piles huge  pressure on those who play.
at one game the ''A'' team had 3 subs whilst the ''B'' team had 11 subs
now the result of this Cody like desire to win is that so far they have lost every game they have played ( GO games, so no one keeping score only themselves). and worse the other result is good lads/girls walking away (luckily the girls walk around the corner to the girls club).
now my lad would not be the greatest but not the worst either, incredibly enthusiastic absolutely LOVES football and  has a super attitude, never gives up, never complains. but after one recent match he was down in the dumps and upset for a week. i was so mad i was going to talk to them but he begged me not to.  instead he killed himself training for a week at home and when he went back things were  a bit better (only because 3/4 other players were away on holiday) but it will happen again next week, nothing surer and to be honest i will not  have him like that again,  ill sooner  pull him out, he plays soccer and rugby as well and while football is his first love they will have to do.

its a huge pity but the reality is the coaches have no interest in lads they dont think will be good enough  and they dont care if they go in fact i think they are happier. nothing is going to change this attitude and the longer my lads sticks it out the more knocks he going to have to take before he eventually gets the message and gives up.

Could the club not have 3 teams in that case?

Our club had too many for 1 team for the first time this year so entered a B team. A team carried 11 players and no subs, B team took whatever was left and maybe had a couple of very young U9s on the line in some games. It's worked well - not perfect by any means but better than we expected.

Football is very competitive in Down at U11s, in contrast the hurling is seen as a bit of a run out and lads enjoy it more. There's nowhere near the same yapping from the sidelines etc.

Made  my morning

Probably should have explained that better - the way games are set up leaves things very competitive for the age of the players involved. If coaches are getting sent off for slabbering at refs at U11s or starting rows with other coaches etc you're not doing it right.

Anyone taking U11 football seriously needs to see a Doctor. They're a danger to society unless they get medical help.

One of my first experiences of helping out with coaching structures within my club was trying to use young lads to referee the U12 games which up to that point was an official referee and £30 a game IIRC. I thought it was madness as it was Go Games so no score was kept and there was a middle third where the weaker lads got a run out, so in my simplistic view it was a no brainer. So our secretary was dispatched to a CB meeting to bring this up and he was met with a wall of incredulity at suggesting such a thing as the young lads would be killed by the parents and coaches if this was brought in. Mostly Down football clubs I might add. Nuts I tell you 

We don't have official referee's which is now U11.5 or P7 in old money, so kind of a win but just checking there an U11.5 football still appoints official referee's but as before they're nuts over there..

Each club should have a policy of sorts defining who gets what in terms of meaningful gametime.

We up to go games try to ensure that every kid at whatever agegroup gets a minimum of 50% of gametime available to them. Go games allows for that as you can have as many subs as you like, so roll them on and off. Every kid of a certain age gets an invite without exception as in the past we found that some coaches were "inclined" not to invite the weaker kids in an attempt to win a blitz of some sort or other.

The "competitive" age groups we deploy the 4 A's. Age, Attendance, Attitude and Ability (to compete, defend themselves) plus being a small rural club where we've overlaps between teams the amount of opportunity a kid gets at another level should be taken into consideration.

For instance if we've two 15yo's, one plays a lot for the U17's and one doesn't. The one who plays for the U17's should be taken off first and if we bring on an U13 then we need to be sure they are relatively comfortable to compete and look after themselves at that level and have the wherewithal to protect themselves.

Reflective glory by some of the coaches is still an issue..

It's mad the difference in dealing with the same clubs at different codes over here. There is refs sometimes at U11 football, sometimes not. But they get a load of shit whether its an official ref or not. Saw it only yesterday but it's the boards fault for setting up competitive leagues at that age. The blitzes going away has helped up at U9 to make it less competitive.

Boards by and large only put in place what the respective clubs want.

Clubs and respective boards need to step back and take the heat out of the environment we're expecting kids to develop, thrive and ultimately enjoy themselves if there's shouting and balling at referees at a Go Games match..

At the end of the day a good competitive mentally needs to be instilled into the youth. Of course some of the stories you hear are ridiculous but you have to put yourself in the parents shoes, every parent wants to be the father/mother of the next CON, David Clifford or Michael Conroy

Then 99.9% are bound to fail.

There is no "then" about it. It's a a fact that 99.9% will fail. There is no other way about it. What point are you trying to make johnny?

The point I'm making is that each kid should be afforded the opportunity to be the best that they can be and I don't necessarily think that noncompetitive games up to 12/13 year olds is hindering the high performers. They will still develop their skills along the way. When we enter the competitive games at 14 or 15 years old it's probably more important to develop the correct attitudes in terms of training, preparation and mental resilience to drive on when things don't go their way.

A kid not turning out to be a Tony Kelly or Kyle Hayes isn't a failure and if they've a positive experience of the club and association during those formative years then they're more inclined to help out at various different levels at a later date.

[Football is very competitive in Down at U11s]

its happening in the  team my lad plays with U11. players drifting away. in our club its by and large the coaches fault. its a pity, in a good few cases its lads that have loads of potential just not there yet, now they might never be ''there'' but they have potential.
but as others have said its easy to criticize from the sidelines the reality is any of the coaches would  probably gladly hand me the whistle if i thought i could do better. in my defense i do coach with another team in the club, with my younger lad and at this stage the best i can hope to do is learn from the mistakes of this bunch.

firstly they each have a kid on the team and each seem to believe that their lad is the next cillian o connor. this is bad enough but the real problem is they are bizarrely obsessed with winning U11 games. this results in team selection that leaves loads of player out and piles huge  pressure on those who play.
at one game the ''A'' team had 3 subs whilst the ''B'' team had 11 subs
now the result of this Cody like desire to win is that so far they have lost every game they have played ( GO games, so no one keeping score only themselves). and worse the other result is good lads/girls walking away (luckily the girls walk around the corner to the girls club).
now my lad would not be the greatest but not the worst either, incredibly enthusiastic absolutely LOVES football and  has a super attitude, never gives up, never complains. but after one recent match he was down in the dumps and upset for a week. i was so mad i was going to talk to them but he begged me not to.  instead he killed himself training for a week at home and when he went back things were  a bit better (only because 3/4 other players were away on holiday) but it will happen again next week, nothing surer and to be honest i will not  have him like that again,  ill sooner  pull him out, he plays soccer and rugby as well and while football is his first love they will have to do.

its a huge pity but the reality is the coaches have no interest in lads they dont think will be good enough  and they dont care if they go in fact i think they are happier. nothing is going to change this attitude and the longer my lads sticks it out the more knocks he going to have to take before he eventually gets the message and gives up.

Could the club not have 3 teams in that case?

Our club had too many for 1 team for the first time this year so entered a B team. A team carried 11 players and no subs, B team took whatever was left and maybe had a couple of very young U9s on the line in some games. It's worked well - not perfect by any means but better than we expected.

Football is very competitive in Down at U11s, in contrast the hurling is seen as a bit of a run out and lads enjoy it more. There's nowhere near the same yapping from the sidelines etc.

Made  my morning

Probably should have explained that better - the way games are set up leaves things very competitive for the age of the players involved. If coaches are getting sent off for slabbering at refs at U11s or starting rows with other coaches etc you're not doing it right.

Anyone taking U11 football seriously needs to see a Doctor. They're a danger to society unless they get medical help.

One of my first experiences of helping out with coaching structures within my club was trying to use young lads to referee the U12 games which up to that point was an official referee and £30 a game IIRC. I thought it was madness as it was Go Games so no score was kept and there was a middle third where the weaker lads got a run out, so in my simplistic view it was a no brainer. So our secretary was dispatched to a CB meeting to bring this up and he was met with a wall of incredulity at suggesting such a thing as the young lads would be killed by the parents and coaches if this was brought in. Mostly Down football clubs I might add. Nuts I tell you 

We don't have official referee's which is now U11.5 or P7 in old money, so kind of a win but just checking there an U11.5 football still appoints official referee's but as before they're nuts over there..

Each club should have a policy of sorts defining who gets what in terms of meaningful gametime.

We up to go games try to ensure that every kid at whatever agegroup gets a minimum of 50% of gametime available to them. Go games allows for that as you can have as many subs as you like, so roll them on and off. Every kid of a certain age gets an invite without exception as in the past we found that some coaches were "inclined" not to invite the weaker kids in an attempt to win a blitz of some sort or other.

The "competitive" age groups we deploy the 4 A's. Age, Attendance, Attitude and Ability (to compete, defend themselves) plus being a small rural club where we've overlaps between teams the amount of opportunity a kid gets at another level should be taken into consideration.

For instance if we've two 15yo's, one plays a lot for the U17's and one doesn't. The one who plays for the U17's should be taken off first and if we bring on an U13 then we need to be sure they are relatively comfortable to compete and look after themselves at that level and have the wherewithal to protect themselves.

Reflective glory by some of the coaches is still an issue..

It's mad the difference in dealing with the same clubs at different codes over here. There is refs sometimes at U11 football, sometimes not. But they get a load of shit whether its an official ref or not. Saw it only yesterday but it's the boards fault for setting up competitive leagues at that age. The blitzes going away has helped up at U9 to make it less competitive.

Boards by and large only put in place what the respective clubs want.

Clubs and respective boards need to step back and take the heat out of the environment we're expecting kids to develop, thrive and ultimately enjoy themselves if there's shouting and balling at referees at a Go Games match..

At the end of the day a good competitive mentally needs to be instilled into the youth. Of course some of the stories you hear are ridiculous but you have to put yourself in the parents shoes, every parent wants to be the father/mother of the next CON, David Clifford or Michael Conroy

Then 99.9% are bound to fail.

[Football is very competitive in Down at U11s]

its happening in the  team my lad plays with U11. players drifting away. in our club its by and large the coaches fault. its a pity, in a good few cases its lads that have loads of potential just not there yet, now they might never be ''there'' but they have potential.
but as others have said its easy to criticize from the sidelines the reality is any of the coaches would  probably gladly hand me the whistle if i thought i could do better. in my defense i do coach with another team in the club, with my younger lad and at this stage the best i can hope to do is learn from the mistakes of this bunch.

firstly they each have a kid on the team and each seem to believe that their lad is the next cillian o connor. this is bad enough but the real problem is they are bizarrely obsessed with winning U11 games. this results in team selection that leaves loads of player out and piles huge  pressure on those who play.
at one game the ''A'' team had 3 subs whilst the ''B'' team had 11 subs
now the result of this Cody like desire to win is that so far they have lost every game they have played ( GO games, so no one keeping score only themselves). and worse the other result is good lads/girls walking away (luckily the girls walk around the corner to the girls club).
now my lad would not be the greatest but not the worst either, incredibly enthusiastic absolutely LOVES football and  has a super attitude, never gives up, never complains. but after one recent match he was down in the dumps and upset for a week. i was so mad i was going to talk to them but he begged me not to.  instead he killed himself training for a week at home and when he went back things were  a bit better (only because 3/4 other players were away on holiday) but it will happen again next week, nothing surer and to be honest i will not  have him like that again,  ill sooner  pull him out, he plays soccer and rugby as well and while football is his first love they will have to do.

its a huge pity but the reality is the coaches have no interest in lads they dont think will be good enough  and they dont care if they go in fact i think they are happier. nothing is going to change this attitude and the longer my lads sticks it out the more knocks he going to have to take before he eventually gets the message and gives up.

Could the club not have 3 teams in that case?

Our club had too many for 1 team for the first time this year so entered a B team. A team carried 11 players and no subs, B team took whatever was left and maybe had a couple of very young U9s on the line in some games. It's worked well - not perfect by any means but better than we expected.

Football is very competitive in Down at U11s, in contrast the hurling is seen as a bit of a run out and lads enjoy it more. There's nowhere near the same yapping from the sidelines etc.

Made  my morning

Probably should have explained that better - the way games are set up leaves things very competitive for the age of the players involved. If coaches are getting sent off for slabbering at refs at U11s or starting rows with other coaches etc you're not doing it right.

Anyone taking U11 football seriously needs to see a Doctor. They're a danger to society unless they get medical help.

One of my first experiences of helping out with coaching structures within my club was trying to use young lads to referee the U12 games which up to that point was an official referee and £30 a game IIRC. I thought it was madness as it was Go Games so no score was kept and there was a middle third where the weaker lads got a run out, so in my simplistic view it was a no brainer. So our secretary was dispatched to a CB meeting to bring this up and he was met with a wall of incredulity at suggesting such a thing as the young lads would be killed by the parents and coaches if this was brought in. Mostly Down football clubs I might add. Nuts I tell you 

We don't have official referee's which is now U11.5 or P7 in old money, so kind of a win but just checking there an U11.5 football still appoints official referee's but as before they're nuts over there..

Each club should have a policy of sorts defining who gets what in terms of meaningful gametime.

We up to go games try to ensure that every kid at whatever agegroup gets a minimum of 50% of gametime available to them. Go games allows for that as you can have as many subs as you like, so roll them on and off. Every kid of a certain age gets an invite without exception as in the past we found that some coaches were "inclined" not to invite the weaker kids in an attempt to win a blitz of some sort or other.

The "competitive" age groups we deploy the 4 A's. Age, Attendance, Attitude and Ability (to compete, defend themselves) plus being a small rural club where we've overlaps between teams the amount of opportunity a kid gets at another level should be taken into consideration.

For instance if we've two 15yo's, one plays a lot for the U17's and one doesn't. The one who plays for the U17's should be taken off first and if we bring on an U13 then we need to be sure they are relatively comfortable to compete and look after themselves at that level and have the wherewithal to protect themselves.

Reflective glory by some of the coaches is still an issue..

It's mad the difference in dealing with the same clubs at different codes over here. There is refs sometimes at U11 football, sometimes not. But they get a load of shit whether its an official ref or not. Saw it only yesterday but it's the boards fault for setting up competitive leagues at that age. The blitzes going away has helped up at U9 to make it less competitive.

Boards by and large only put in place what the respective clubs want.

Clubs and respective boards need to step back and take the heat out of the environment we're expecting kids to develop, thrive and ultimately enjoy themselves if there's shouting and balling at referees at a Go Games match..

[Football is very competitive in Down at U11s]

its happening in the  team my lad plays with U11. players drifting away. in our club its by and large the coaches fault. its a pity, in a good few cases its lads that have loads of potential just not there yet, now they might never be ''there'' but they have potential.
but as others have said its easy to criticize from the sidelines the reality is any of the coaches would  probably gladly hand me the whistle if i thought i could do better. in my defense i do coach with another team in the club, with my younger lad and at this stage the best i can hope to do is learn from the mistakes of this bunch.

firstly they each have a kid on the team and each seem to believe that their lad is the next cillian o connor. this is bad enough but the real problem is they are bizarrely obsessed with winning U11 games. this results in team selection that leaves loads of player out and piles huge  pressure on those who play.
at one game the ''A'' team had 3 subs whilst the ''B'' team had 11 subs
now the result of this Cody like desire to win is that so far they have lost every game they have played ( GO games, so no one keeping score only themselves). and worse the other result is good lads/girls walking away (luckily the girls walk around the corner to the girls club).
now my lad would not be the greatest but not the worst either, incredibly enthusiastic absolutely LOVES football and  has a super attitude, never gives up, never complains. but after one recent match he was down in the dumps and upset for a week. i was so mad i was going to talk to them but he begged me not to.  instead he killed himself training for a week at home and when he went back things were  a bit better (only because 3/4 other players were away on holiday) but it will happen again next week, nothing surer and to be honest i will not  have him like that again,  ill sooner  pull him out, he plays soccer and rugby as well and while football is his first love they will have to do.

its a huge pity but the reality is the coaches have no interest in lads they dont think will be good enough  and they dont care if they go in fact i think they are happier. nothing is going to change this attitude and the longer my lads sticks it out the more knocks he going to have to take before he eventually gets the message and gives up.

Could the club not have 3 teams in that case?

Our club had too many for 1 team for the first time this year so entered a B team. A team carried 11 players and no subs, B team took whatever was left and maybe had a couple of very young U9s on the line in some games. It's worked well - not perfect by any means but better than we expected.

Football is very competitive in Down at U11s, in contrast the hurling is seen as a bit of a run out and lads enjoy it more. There's nowhere near the same yapping from the sidelines etc.

Made  my morning

Probably should have explained that better - the way games are set up leaves things very competitive for the age of the players involved. If coaches are getting sent off for slabbering at refs at U11s or starting rows with other coaches etc you're not doing it right.

Anyone taking U11 football seriously needs to see a Doctor. They're a danger to society unless they get medical help.

One of my first experiences of helping out with coaching structures within my club was trying to use young lads to referee the U12 games which up to that point was an official referee and £30 a game IIRC. I thought it was madness as it was Go Games so no score was kept and there was a middle third where the weaker lads got a run out, so in my simplistic view it was a no brainer. So our secretary was dispatched to a CB meeting to bring this up and he was met with a wall of incredulity at suggesting such a thing as the young lads would be killed by the parents and coaches if this was brought in. Mostly Down football clubs I might add. Nuts I tell you 

We don't have official referee's which is now U11.5 or P7 in old money, so kind of a win but just checking there an U11.5 football still appoints official referee's but as before they're nuts over there..

Each club should have a policy of sorts defining who gets what in terms of meaningful gametime.

We up to go games try to ensure that every kid at whatever agegroup gets a minimum of 50% of gametime available to them. Go games allows for that as you can have as many subs as you like, so roll them on and off. Every kid of a certain age gets an invite without exception as in the past we found that some coaches were "inclined" not to invite the weaker kids in an attempt to win a blitz of some sort or other.

The "competitive" age groups we deploy the 4 A's. Age, Attendance, Attitude and Ability (to compete, defend themselves) plus being a small rural club where we've overlaps between teams the amount of opportunity a kid gets at another level should be taken into consideration.

For instance if we've two 15yo's, one plays a lot for the U17's and one doesn't. The one who plays for the U17's should be taken off first and if we bring on an U13 then we need to be sure they are relatively comfortable to compete and look after themselves at that level and have the wherewithal to protect themselves.

Reflective glory by some of the coaches is still an issue..

The cups like christy ring lory meghar  Nicky Rackard  if a casual sees that they dont have a clue what they mean or what level they are at can they not change it to something like all Ireland B  Championship or intermediate  or even all ireland plate all ireland vase etc why are the gaa obsessed with names.

Image trying to commemorate sporting greats for posterity by naming a competition after them... Madness I know.

Maybe someone in years to come will ask who was Christy Ring or Nicky Rackard and be told exactly who they were.

Would you prefer the LVD vans AI intermediate hurling final?

Buy at least you know immediately what the LDV trophy is. Why not rename the CR cup a the CR third tier cup or similar.

99% of GAA folk couldn't put Liam, Joe, Christy and Nicky in the correct order, so how are the floating punter meant to?

You forgot about Lory ya philistine ye..

I see where you're coming from as per the floating punter but any of the counties competing in them know only too well the steps of progression..

but for the ignorant on here I'll put them in terms of English Soccer.

Premiership           - Liam McCarthy
Sky Championship - Joe McDonagh
Sky Div1               - Christy Ring
Sky Div2               - Nicky Rackard
National League     - Lory Meagher

Fair play to you johnny cool on using google to double check that before you posted it

Ha Ha, used google for the soccer which I wasn't sure of but no doubt all Accrington Stanley fans would have known that like I know all the hurling ones as will all Donegal or Louth hurling followers.

Not sure why Donegal on winning the Nicky Rackard weren't promoted to the Christy Ring, unless there was some sort of evening up of the numbers per group as the Joe McDonagh is only a year or two old and was squeezed in between the Liam McCarthy and the Christy Ring.