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Junior football, what is the future?


Burnie_man

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11 minutes ago, FairWeatherFan said:

Yip, they'd be in Tier 7 while the early adopters would be strengthening at Tier 6 and licenced making. 2 years athe very best just to get to the Lowland League isn't a very sunny outlook for some.

Two years at best to get to the LL is a prospect which will come to fruition for only two clubs unless promotion/relegation is dealt with.

Edited by Khufu2
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7 minutes ago, FairWeatherFan said:

That comment was a particular nod to the approaches of Lochee Utd and Carnoustie on twitter.

I’m sure Carnoustie were pro pyramid in the questionnaire results. I just wish Lochee would come out one way or another and make their feelings known... 

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5 minutes ago, gogsy said:

As you well know it is or will be being dealt with. And don't come on with the evidence please quote you've been using . Just because you're  still upset and in  denial doesn't mean its not going to happen and happen soon.

Oh dear. You really are a fool.

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3 minutes ago, Junior_Arab said:

I’m sure Carnoustie were pro pyramid in the questionnaire results. I just wish Lochee would come out one way or another and make their feelings known... 

They might well be pro pyramid. Keep in mind for some that answered that questionnaire as "yes" may have done so with the idea that it would be SJFA as a whole being integrated at a certain level and that doesn't seem to be happening right now.

As for Carnoustie they were fairly respectful of the EoS during the initial application phase, but not in favour. They also mentioned that Licensing for them would be cost prohibitive.

https://www.thegowfers.com/club-statement-on-juniors-future/

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2 minutes ago, gogsy said:

Nothing to stop the pro-pyramid North and Tayside teams getting together to try and sort a set up North of Tay.

Yes but the remaining north of the Tay East junior sides have played in the East juniors for many years.  I can completely understand if they don't want to suddenly be up against the north juniors and I'm not convinced the best option is to merge them with the north.

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4 minutes ago, gogsy said:

its only 16 years since the East Superleague was formed, even then the leagues below that were still North/Central/South for a few seasons after that. 

I realise that but the East clubs were still in a separate system from the North juniors weren't they?

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4 minutes ago, gogsy said:

its only 16 years since the East Superleague was formed, even then the leagues below that were still North/Central/South for a few seasons after that. 

That's what i'm assuming the EoS will be 2019-20 if the fife/lothian clubs remaining in the East move over. Tier 6 EoS Premier, Tier 7 North, Central & South.

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56 minutes ago, gogsy said:

Most of the North Region Juniors were pro-pyramid as well weren't they?

I think most of them thought it wouldn't affect them much, just the likes of Banks o'Dee or a couple of others with a chance of promotion and potential for ground improvement.  Changing the Junior label to Senior would have been a bit meaningless. There was no mention in the questionnaire of a merger with Tayside. 

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2 hours ago, A.M said:

To be honest I havent  a clue what will happen, personally I thought we were going along ok and didnt see all this coming a year ago , so who knows, what I do think is that the later teams to move have panicked and left in fear of being " left behind".

If it does have to happen in the West I only hope it will be done en mass and not fragmented like it has been in the East.

Yes the true pioneers being Kelty and then Dalkeith, Blackburn and in turn Bonnyrigg planned dealing with these issues looking at the positives and negatives and yes I know we had a difference of option on this. However, I do agree that some teams voted to stay even a month back but the momentum is moving so quickly that some have panicked in particular the clubs that have an association with the top table at the SJFA.  This has been on the table for months and even if these clubs werent planning on jumping they should have considered all options in particular when Bonnyrigg (or Lithgae) announced that they were jumping.

My concern is still the lack of leadership (from the sjfa)  and communication to the east clubs who are still planning to stay  under the juniors. 

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can still remember a then unknown, and visibly discomfited, Collum, backing away from a raging Jim Mercer (I think) of Albion Rovers, at Links Park, around 2004.
[nasal voice]"conduct yourself in a responsible manner"[/nasal voice]


Don’t think Collum can TBH
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2 hours ago, welshbairn said:

If the Banks o'Dee Chairman is serious about being uninterested in the HL, a merger of the Shire and Tayside juniors could make for a fairly competitive junior league, with travel not being much of an issue compared to before. Being as the NRJFA is Shire dominated, and the HL have done fuckall about the pyramid, I see that as a possibility with the North and West being left on their own to sort something out with the NCL.

It could work

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8 hours ago, BoomShakalaka said:

Yes the true pioneers being Kelty and then Dalkeith, Blackburn and in turn Bonnyrigg planned dealing with these issues looking at the positives and negatives and yes I know we had a difference of option on this. However, I do agree that some teams voted to stay even a month back but the momentum is moving so quickly that some have panicked in particular the clubs that have an association with the top table at the SJFA.  This has been on the table for months and even if these clubs werent planning on jumping they should have considered all options in particular when Bonnyrigg (or Lithgae) announced that they were jumping.

My concern is still the lack of leadership (from the sjfa)  and communication to the east clubs who are still planning to stay  under the juniors. 

Pioneers! Calm down man.

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3 hours ago, A.M said:

To be honest I havent  a clue what will happen, personally I thought we were going along ok and didnt see all this coming a year ago , so who knows, what I do think is that the later teams to move have panicked and left in fear of being " left behind".

If it does have to happen in the West I only hope it will be done en mass and not fragmented like it has been in the East.

I hate how it's happened and I know it must look weird from the west, but the issue has dragged on for years with absolutely no progress from the SJFA. Five years ago we were hearing stories of integration with the pyramid from TJ, but he never actually did anything. This caused Kelty to lose their patience, then Dalkeith, then Bonnyrigg, and then after some recent PWG stuff and various emails, a lot of clubs lost faith in the SJFA entirely. The EoSFL have been very open and their offer for everyone to join at tier 6 initially was catnip for most. Once they went, the remaining bigger clubs were left with the prospect of being marooned in an inferior system, bleeding players and sponsors to the EoS and LL, and sliding into obscurity like those who eschewed the Superleague have. 

What those in the west need to understand more than anything is that you don't have a competitor on your doorstep like the east does. You've got your heartland all to yourself in the non-league, apart from a couple of poorly supported LL clubs at the fringes. Once it became clear that the LL/EoS would be stronger than the ERSJFA, it became no choice at all - it was move or accept a long and painful decline.

Hopefully you'll be able to feed into the LL directly from the West Superleague, and the Junior Cup will become a non-league competition open to all, but my bet is that the SJFA will never allow it to happen.

2 hours ago, A.M said:

Quickly diminishing ERSJFA,  it will be interesting where all these teams fit in to the leagues, will it be by who jumped first or by finishing order in the junior leagues, I would imagine the existing teams in the EOSL will want to retain their place in the top league so not much room for junior teams ?

You've missed one of the key things here - one, the EoS are admitting everyone on equal terms to themselves. Things like this are why everything happened to quickly and it's important to know these details.

2 hours ago, LongTimeLurker said:

One of the reason so many reluctant/hesitant superleague clubs eventually went for it is also probably at least in part that this season will be the last opportunity for newly entering clubs in the east to gain pyramid entry at tier 6 so that they are only one promotion away from the LL.

I'll not lie, the prospect of limping in later to tier 8 for what ought to be a tier 5 club is why I shat it. Panic is the rational response here.

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2 hours ago, welshbairn said:

If the Banks o'Dee Chairman is serious about being uninterested in the HL, a merger of the Shire and Tayside juniors could make for a fairly competitive junior league, with travel not being much of an issue compared to before. Being as the NRJFA is Shire dominated, and the HL have done fuckall about the pyramid, I see that as a possibility with the North and West being left on their own to sort something out with the NCL.

Given the Lowland League currently has two tier six feeder leagues and there are proposals to create a third one it strikes me that there is no necessity for the Tayside teams to merge with the north region. 

If they decided they wanted into the Pyramid system then there is nothing stopping them from setting up a new Tier 6 Tayside league and declaring that any licensed champions with floodlights will make an application to the Highland League.

They could then get licensed if they wished for Scottish Cup entry and avoid promotion by failing to install Floodlights.

Not suggesting it will happen immediately but if that were preferred  to a merger with Aberdeenshire teams I don’t see how either SFA or Highland League could complain about them as a stand-alone Tier 6 League.

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