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Montrose Roselea Statement re North Region Move

tellyboy

By tellyboy
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tellyboy

tellyboy

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MONTROSE ROSELEA STATEMENT RE NORTH REGION MOVE

 

Montrose Roselea have formally had their application to switch from the East Region of the Scottish Junior Football Association to the North Region approved by the SJFA. This followed an agreement by North Region Junior clubs to adopt Montrose Roselea into their Region.

 

The decision was not taken lightly and there were several consultations with Committee, Players and Supporters spread over a few meetings.

 

The move had been discussed at Montrose Roselea several times since 2010 when they looked at the possibility when Turriff Utd, Formartine and Strathspey Thistle were moving to the Highland League. They pulled out at that time when the North Region reconstruction proposal for an East and West feeder to the Superleague did not go through. The Region was left as it was meaning they would have had to gone in at the 3rd level with much travel in that Division and a minimum of 2 seasons to reach the North Superleague. The North did eventually reconstruct in 2011.

 

As a club who find themselves on the “border†of two Regions they feel that a move to the North Region will be a massive benefit to them considering the amount of travel involved in the East Region. In one season they had eleven trips to the Lothians and that is not viable for a Junior club based in North Angus. This season when the Forth Road Bridge was closed the club had its longest trip of the season to Haddington and on the bus were the team, two Committee members and two supporters.

 

They find the North Region very appealing in terms of travel and competition and they think that they can be a valuable addition to the North.

 

Committee, Players and Supporters have all had their chance to ask questions and to find out the pros and cons. In the end it was pretty unanimous decision to move North. This process started as far back as September 2015 but as mentioned earlier it has been talked about over the past 5-6 years on and off.

 

The club held back on releasing the official statement for as long as possible to try and be fair to teams currently fighting relegation and also challenging for promotion. Roselea have now completed their season in the McBookie.com East Premier and will now officially resign from the Region.

 

Roselea General Manager Roy Gill commented

“This is a move that feels right for the club at this stage and was not taken lightly. We are dealing with 86 years of history and needed to make sure that we continue the good work that has been done by others over the years. We hope that the move will see us continue to develop as a club and head towards our Centenary year in 2030. Travel has become a burden not in terms of finance but more in terms of losing whole days travelling to the Lothians. This is Junior football and players have jobs and family commitments to consider. With most of the North teams based in or around Aberdeen it has a great appeal to us. We also think that given time we hope to be competing with the top 6-8 clubs in the North Superleague.

 

We would like to thank the SJFA and East Region Committees for allowing the move to take place and also Richard Easton the North Region Secretary who was most helpful during the process. We would also like to thank all the teams, Committees and fans of the various East Region sides we have competed with over the years and built up some great friendships with and will miss them all.  Hopefully we can “bump†into some them on Scottish Cup or GA Cup duty!

 

This move will bring a freshness to the club and we now look forward to new challenges, places and faces†  

                                                                              

Montrose Roselea JFC

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HTG

HTG

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Has to make sense for them. Less travel and a decent chance of strengthening enough to pose a challenge at the top end within 2 or 3 years with the potential for Scottish Cup access if they succeed.

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drs

drs

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It only makes sense if the players are all from the Montrose or Aberdeen region.

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MEADOWXI

MEADOWXI

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Of the East Division they going into think 6 of the 12 are Aberdeen, and that could be as many as 8 by next season.

 

The furtherest of the rest is only 40miles from Aberdeen (Fraserburgh Utd).

 

Montrose gravitating towards Aberdeen rather than looking south towards Edinburgh and Lothians makes so much sense and will be interesting to see what the other Angus teams do in the future. They will have an idea of the competition too with the Inter-Regional competitions that already are ongoing.

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Jambo'ness

Jambo'ness

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Will be interesting to see if other Angus clubs start to drift towards the North Region.

I would think it would depend on ambition.  The quality of the North League has always been weaker and if one team transferred region, it wouldn't improve.  If, say, Lochee, Broughty, Carnoustie and even Tayport, went north it would inevitably raise the standard.

 

Can't see a mass exodus, however.

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Burnie_man

Burnie_man

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Will be interesting to see if other Angus clubs start to drift towards the North Region.

 

Maybe Forfar West End, who, like Roselea are a reasonably strong club who could perhaps challenge for the North Superleague title if they moved, but probably not Forfar Albion and Brechin Vics who play at a reasonably local level already and don't seem anywhere near moving into the Premier.

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lochee12

lochee12

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Best of Luck to Montrose in their move, had the pleasure of traveling there earlier this year in the GA Cup.

This does pose the question what the ERSJFA will do in terms of relegation promotion. Will 4 teams still be relegated from premier status or will this be reduced to 3. ( no question to answer if Montrose finish in the bottom 4 ) but that looks unlikely.

Or maybe 3 clubs will be promoted from this years competitive North Division surely Blairgowrie Downfield Kirrie Glenrothes would argue for this

Just asking ??

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Deadly

Deadly

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Best of Luck to Montrose in their move, had the pleasure of traveling there earlier this year in the GA Cup.

This does pose the question what the ERSJFA will do in terms of relegation promotion. Will 4 teams still be relegated from premier status or will this be reduced to 3. ( no question to answer if Montrose finish in the bottom 4 ) but that looks unlikely.

Or maybe 3 clubs will be promoted from this years competitive North Division surely Blairgowrie Downfield Kirrie Glenrothes would argue for this

Just asking ??

When Ballingry folded half way through last season, the knock on effect was one less team was relegated from the premier.

This would be different as it's the end of season that a team's leaving meaning the premier could be a team less for 16/17 if Montrose finish out of the bottom 4, which they look like doing.

Either:

1. 4th bottom gets a reprieve like Bathgate did last year.

2. A 5th team gets promoted from the north / south. Surely a play off would be the only way to decide this.

3. The premier league goes with a team less next season.

All speculation until the region make a decision which may well be once the season is finished.

As someone pointed out a while back, to be sure of playing in the premier league next season ....

North & South league teams - finish top two.

Premier league teams - finish 5th bottom or above.

All the best to Montrose who will be a great addition to the North Region.

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tellyboy

tellyboy

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Thank you for all the positive comments as we start a new and exciting chapter in our clubs history.Time will tell if it was the right move but we are really looking forward to new challenges with less travel involved.

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