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Junior football, what is the future?


Burnie_man

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On 11/23/2017 at 20:56, jinky said:

Also,no mention of Cumbernauld Colts being a decent outfit who beat top of the league  BSC 4-1 at the weekend...they are also a relatively new community club with ambitions...similar numbers in their youth set-up plus various youth/amateur and ladies team.

Its not all about the first team as they have a pathway into adult football for all abilities...they may even include a Junior team as part of the structure,who knows.What it does demonstrate is a club with a vision and prepared to move with the times.

 

cumbernauld could not support another team - united ,clyde and clots all watched by 3 men and a dug 

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2 minutes ago, Football crazy 09 said:

The fact is that this comment could apply to a large number of clubs. The days of 25,000 plus crowds at Junior Cup finals will never return. The number of boys playing the game (and I use the word boys deliberately) has dropped dramatically in the last 40 years. While big business has attracted a significant prawn sandwich support at the very top end of the game, what could properly be called grass roots football, lower league, Lowland and junior and amateur, has been surviving in spite of the clear and obvious decline in support. The reasons are many and varied as society changes but what is for certain is that there will be no return to the days when it was unusual to meet someone who was not interested in playing, or had played, football. The majority of Junior Clubs survive through the work of a small and committed group, often helped by sponsorship which is in reality charity, and as a result, their very existence is regularly threatened.

Clubs like Auchinleck Talbot are the exception and should not be cited to hide the reality of the situation.

Villages which once boasted a healthy economy and were distinct communities have been ravaged, many are in terminal decline and others are nothing more than places where people live and commute for work and leisure, with little or no sense of community. 

In my humble opinion, "Junior" Football is one of the remaining links to an identity for a significant number of communities, and if they were to be merged into some form of pyramid system, it would sound the death knell for the majority of clubs outwith the most successful.

Some good points, but I'm rather puzzled at your conclusion that integration with the Pyramid would be the death knell for a large percentage of current Junior clubs.

As some else said, we support football clubs not a grade of football, and in reality not a lot would change for 90% of clubs anyway.

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2 minutes ago, Football crazy 09 said:

My own view is this Burnie man. It is the local, and in some ways, romantic association that many people have with "junior" football that has allowed it to survive in it's current form, in the last few decades. It is that individual identity which makes it attractive. The majority of people I know who are interested in Junior football , pay little attention to the senior game, and conversely, those people reared on a diet of senior football, rarely catch the bug. We have a good brand but it is not for everyone and my own view is that those involved have to promote what we have as distinct from other Leagues or levels, and concentrate on the local nature of the clubs, their history and their place in the community.

You stand at a Junior game within earshot of a group of Junior fans and you'll hear them talking about Senior football. There's absolutely nothing surer.

A sizable number of Junior fans have a "big" team in the Seniors who take priority over the Junior outfit they watch.  Junior clubs would be more relatable to a wider audience of Senior fans if they played in the same structure as the Senior clubs. 

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You stand at a Junior game within earshot of a group of Junior fans and you'll hear them talking about Senior football. There's absolutely nothing surer.
A sizable number of Junior fans have a "big" team in the Seniors who take priority over the Junior outfit they watch.  Junior clubs would be more relatable to a wider audience of Senior fans if they played in the same structure as the Senior clubs. 



Exactly and this wee cosy notion of junior football being unique , nobody being interested in senior football , all community based etc etc is nonsense for me , I hardly know a single junior fan who doesn't have a senior team , yes their junior team might take priority but most if not everyone has a senior leaning , I know of a good few Dundee united , st mirren , rangers, Celtic , Kilmarnock , Ayr united , west ham , Chelsea , man united, man city fans who go to bellsdale every second week , to suggest junior football fans have no connection with senior teams is a total myth , you would struggle to find many who don't have a soft spot for a senior club .
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48 minutes ago, theshed said:

 

 


Exactly and this wee cosy notion of junior football being unique , nobody being interested in senior football , all community based etc etc is nonsense for me , I hardly know a single junior fan who doesn't have a senior team , yes their junior team might take priority but most if not everyone has a senior leaning , I know of a good few Dundee united , st mirren , rangers, Celtic , Kilmarnock , Ayr united , west ham , Chelsea , man united, man city fans who go to bellsdale every second week , to suggest junior football fans have no connection with senior teams is a total myth , you would struggle to find many who don't have a soft spot for a senior club .

 

 

You're right and I've got a soft spot for your team. It's a bog near Dalry. 

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1 hour ago, theshed said:

 

 


Exactly and this wee cosy notion of junior football being unique , nobody being interested in senior football , all community based etc etc is nonsense for me , I hardly know a single junior fan who doesn't have a senior team , yes their junior team might take priority but most if not everyone has a senior leaning , I know of a good few Dundee united , st mirren , rangers, Celtic , Kilmarnock , Ayr united , west ham , Chelsea , man united, man city fans who go to bellsdale every second week , to suggest junior football fans have no connection with senior teams is a total myth , you would struggle to find many who don't have a soft spot for a senior club .

 

 

You get a home game every second week. I think there should be an enquiry

Edited by valleyboy
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13 hours ago, HTG said:

The decision says more about the current position of the newspaper group than it does about junior football 

You might find there's a certain symmetry about the prospects of both institutions in the coming years. 

Circulation is so low now that if the Scotsman even exists in 3 or 4 years time it probably won't be in print form.  A new owner and radical change in direction is required in order for it to survive... 

The recent documentary about its 200 year anniversary was great, but evidence seems to points towards it being a museum piece in the not too distant future.

 

Edited by Che Dail
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5 hours ago, theshed said:

 

 


Exactly and this wee cosy notion of junior football being unique , nobody being interested in senior football , all community based etc etc is nonsense for me , I hardly know a single junior fan who doesn't have a senior team , yes their junior team might take priority but most if not everyone has a senior leaning , I know of a good few Dundee united , st mirren , rangers, Celtic , Kilmarnock , Ayr united , west ham , Chelsea , man united, man city fans who go to bellsdale every second week , to suggest junior football fans have no connection with senior teams is a total myth , you would struggle to find many who don't have a soft spot for a senior club .

 

 

The folk that go to junior games that have a senior team..if their junior team becomes a senior team will they still care about their junior team ? If Kilbirnie join the pyramid...then there can only be one.. my senior team will be forgotten..how many will choose junior over their senior ?

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The folk that go to junior games that have a senior team..if their junior team becomes a senior team will they still care about their junior team ? If Kilbirnie join the pyramid...then there can only be one.. my senior team will be forgotten..how many will choose junior over their senior ?



I think we would be the same in terms of all our fans would still be following our junior team , maybe if their senior teams were east Stirling , brechin , Stranraer , east fife , stenny etc then they would support the senior team as that would be the type of rivalry that their junior team would aspire to realistically , the guys who go to our junior games that support rangers , Celtic , st mirren etc etc would remain junior fans for me as their junior team wouldnt reach that level of senior football and would probably operate at 2nd/3rd division at a push .
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7 hours ago, clash city rocker said:

The folk that go to junior games that have a senior team..if their junior team becomes a senior team will they still care about their junior team ? If Kilbirnie join the pyramid...then there can only be one.. my senior team will be forgotten..how many will choose junior over their senior ?

From my user name it's obvious where my loyalties USED to lie but supporting the BU's for 10 years has blown my senior loyalties away.  I look for results but cannot consider myself a fan as I've only been to Tynecastle twice since 2010.  When (not if) Bo'ness make the change to whatever part of the pyramid will be open to them, my undivided loyalties will be with them.

The team you pay to watch are your team.  End of. 

It's kind of similar to when I was younger and everyone had an 'English' team.  Most only ever saw them on TV.

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7 hours ago, clash city rocker said:

The folk that go to junior games that have a senior team..if their junior team becomes a senior team will they still care about their junior team ? If Kilbirnie join the pyramid...then there can only be one.. my senior team will be forgotten..how many will choose junior over their senior ?

I lived in England from 10-21 and watched my local non-league team who at that time were 1/2 divisons below football league. Crowds of anything from 400-1500 for league games, division dependent. Virtually everyone had a 'big' team but the local side were more accessible and cheaper.  I know at Pollok most supporters have a 'big' team (not necessarily OF) but there are still a few Third Lanark guys around and about too. Others have very much ditched their OF allegiance into the Clyde.

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11 hours ago, Jambo'ness said:

From my user name it's obvious where my loyalties USED to lie but supporting the BU's for 10 years has blown my senior loyalties away.  I look for results but cannot consider myself a fan as I've only been to Tynecastle twice since 2010.  When (not if) Bo'ness make the change to whatever part of the pyramid will be open to them, my undivided loyalties will be with them.

The team you pay to watch are your team.  End of. 

It's kind of similar to when I was younger and everyone had an 'English' team.  Most only ever saw them on TV.

Got to say its the same, have a senior club and was a regular but now only an occasional, most of my fitba watching is Junior and the people I know who watch the Juniors also have a senior club. I don't know anyone who watches Junior fitba who doesnt have a senior club.

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9 hours ago, Goalie Hamish said:

Got to say its the same, have a senior club and was a regular but now only an occasional, most of my fitba watching is Junior and the people I know who watch the Juniors also have a senior club. I don't know anyone who watches Junior fitba who doesnt have a senior club.

Hi my name is Bill ... I don't have another club ... you can only really truly have one team ... and your national team. imho of course 

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