Junior football, what is the future?

[FairWeatherFan]

21 minutes ago, LongTimeLurker said:

In the EoS this season they had 30 or 34 league games scheduled along with SC/AJC, SCC, LC and FNC. HibeeJibee will be able to sort it all out.

• SC/AJC - set dates for every round
• SCC - set dates for every round
• LC - 2nd & 3rd round with no set dates only to be played sometime between Sep-Nov 2019. Before COVID19 was largely behind the set schedule.
• FNC - 1st Round with no set date. Before COVID19 was behind the set dates it did have due to weather postponements.

Both the LC and FNC would have been completed on time, but once those dates have been missed for whatever reason (weather postponement, Scottish Cup run) those cups get shifted to fit wherever they can in the calendar later on. Also made that much easier by being cups involving a single league body and limited travel in comparison to a national multi-league competition.

 

Edited April 1, 2020 by FairWeatherFan

[Dev]

16 minutes ago, LongTimeLurker said:

Think there are probably a few more that already did their announcement that they were going for WoS entry in a similar sort of way to that at the expression of interest stage. There was also a North Lanarkshire newspaper story at that stage with quotes from various clubs that might be worth revisiting, if anyone has the url. Wishaw for example, were said to be leaving the decision to their secretary.

Things have moved fast since the 24th March meeting of the Lowland/EoS/SoS/ leagues and the West Juniors and there seems to be general agreement that some clubs which were not keen to move will be swayed by what others do. Some negative statements of a few weeks ago may have been over-taken by events since?

Time alone will tell and some clubs won't feel the need to make public statements at all - Kilbirnie maybe wouldn't need to - and could be similar to other clubs which have people who run the West Juniors e.g. Cumnock, Ardrossan Winton Rovers, St Anthony's.  

[GordonS]

8 hours ago, glensmad said:

8 hours ago, GordonS said:

Anyone still think there's a chance of any of the 20 clubs who haven't yet declared remaining in the WRSJFA?
This was over as soon as Romney and the LL reached an agreement.

Gordon Ronney's own club (Kilbirnie Ladeside) still haven't officially declared that they are applying, unless I've missed it somewhere.

Do you think they won't apply?

[GordonS]

2 hours ago, Doonhamer1969 said:

502 or 500 to Castle Douglas ,just over 30 minutes via A75.

Sounds like you got a 501 via Dalbeattie, 50+ minutes, the scenic route.

Ah, that sounds likely.

[Robert James]

1 hour ago, Doonhamer1969 said:

West Lothian teams could form a new 'Central' JFA with any West juniors who didn't apply., leaving Tayside Juniors as East.

A realistic suggestion, depending on the number of junior clubs, who DON'T move to the West & East senior leagues.

[glensmad]

Do you think they won't apply?

I have no doubt that they will.

[FairWeatherFan]

3 minutes ago, glensmad said:

7 minutes ago, GordonS said:

Do you think they won't apply?

I have no doubt that they will.

I'm sure they already have. Its just strange to some that the club of the person that has publicly backed this plan has never announced their decision.

[glensmad]

I'm sure they already have. Its just strange to some that the club of the person that has publicly backed this plan has never announced their decision.

Not necessarily, but perhaps they have. But yes, you'd have thought that Gordon would be keen for his club to show the way forward that he is telling all the other clubs to follow. But each club has to do whatever is right for them, I'm sure there's a very good reason why Kilbirnie haven't confirmed yet.

[Bestsinceslicebread]

14 hours ago, Footballfirst said:

That is the position for the current season. It will be up to the LL clubs to agree to any change, although I would expect them to come under pressure from the EOSFL and WOSFL, in particular, to increase the number of automatic relegation places..

Equally so, I'm sure that the LL would like the SPFL to automatically relegate club 42, instead of going through a play off process. 

Yes agree with this wholeheartedly but hopefully that's something in the near future.

The standard is rising in the Lowland league and so is the EOS and now with the new WOS starting the standard is going to be high, so teams in EOS and WOS and hopefully the SOS, (personally and not meant to offend, I don't think the SOS teams are strong enough but their standard may rise due to the strength of the EOS and now the WOS),  might think they are good enough for the LL so there should be 2 regulations from the LL and 1 straight relegation from the SPFL Division 2 and 2nd bottom should be in  a playoff with 2nd top LL.

 

This will give every team lower down the positives future knowing they can progress quicker

[surely not!]

Yes agree with this wholeheartedly but hopefully that's something in the near future.

The standard is rising in the Lowland league and so is the EOS and now with the new WOS starting the standard is going to be high, so teams in EOS and WOS and hopefully the SOS, (personally and not meant to offend, I don't think the SOS teams are strong enough but their standard may rise due to the strength of the EOS and now the WOS),  might think they are good enough for the LL so there should be 2 regulations from the LL and 1 straight relegation from the SPFL Division 2 and 2nd bottom should be in  a playoff with 2nd top LL.
 
This will give every team lower down the positives future knowing they can progress quicker

Top of LL doesn’t automatically get the play off spot, they have to beat the HL champion. A more reasonable scenario would have the bottom of spfl league 2 relegated, the winner of the HL/LL play off promoted with the loser playing second bottom in a two leg play off for a (potentially) second spot.

However, realistically I can’t see this happening until the spfl moves ( as is being rumoured) to 4 leagues of 12 in a couple of seasons.

[Bestsinceslicebread]

10 minutes ago, surely not! said:

 

Top of LL doesn’t automatically get the play off spot, they have to beat the HL champion. A more reasonable scenario would have the bottom of spfl league 2 relegated, the winner of the HL/LL play off promoted with the loser playing second bottom in a two leg play off for a (potentially) second spot.

However, realistically I can’t see this happening until the spfl moves ( as is being rumoured) to 4 leagues of 12 in a couple of seasons.

 

Sorry my bad, went off on a tangent there

Yeah again my view, the winners of the play off HL vs LL will go through and the losers will play the 2nd bottom in another play off.

Realistically we all know this wont happen but we believe it should or something similar

[Pyramidic]

Wishaw Juniors cash crisis + criticism of WoSFL

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/local-sport/wishaw-juniors-admit-face-cash-21785638

Edited April 1, 2020 by Pyramidic

[santheman]

7 minutes ago, Pyramidic said:

Wishaw Juniors cash crisis

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/local-sport/wishaw-juniors-admit-face-cash-21785638

No different for any lower league team at the moment unfortunately.

[Jerry Macguire]

10 minutes ago, Pyramidic said:

Wishaw Juniors cash crisis + criticism of WoSFL

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/local-sport/wishaw-juniors-admit-face-cash-21785638

I take from this that they feel as if they are being forced to join but don’t feel as if they’re being forced to join. LL are bad for setting up the WoSL but it’s what they wanted and they thought everyone was going to move together and now they are all being told to apply so that they can all move across together. Did I miss anything?

[Hillonearth]

This is the worry - it's abundantly clear some teams still clearly DON'T want to move, and things may have been better had there been some sort of rump West Region for those teams to remain in.

With 63 teams to take into consideration, it's clear that one size does not fit all, and it may have been better if the new league had been comprised of willing and enthusiastic entrants without a substratum of clubs who will have to all intents and purposes been dragged there by their heels.

 

[Stag Nation]

11 minutes ago, Jerry Macguire said:

I take from this that they feel as if they are being forced to join but don’t feel as if they’re being forced to join. LL are bad for setting up the WoSL but it’s what they wanted and they thought everyone was going to move together and now they are all being told to apply so that they can all move across together. Did I miss anything?

I think you missed "I would say if they call the season off they shouldn't have any promotion or relegation." That suggests his grasp of reality is pretty tenuous

[Doonhamer1969]

19 hours ago, glensmad said:

19 hours ago, Sunrise said:

Shettleston
 
https://www.facebook.com/ShettlestonJfc1903/photos/a.151451288377037/1244762975712524/?type=3&theater

Whoever chose that font must have been on the sauce, probably looks ok to them !

Stoner Font.

[TheLad]

Dont have a sectional league cup, if its going to be a pain in the ass and get in the way

I'm just thinking of how it is in the West juniors at the moment. Once the Sectional League Cup is out of the way (basically a pre-season and midweek tournament anyway), there are only two cups, i.e. the WoS Cup and the SJC. At the point of the season being suspended, some teams still had half of their league fixtures to play, and were still in these two cups.

If that is replicated under the new WoSFL, i.e. two cups (SCC and a League Cup), with also 30 league fixtures to play (perhaps more depending on the size of the conferences), then I just don't see how the Scottish Junior Cup ties will get played, when it has been made clear that the WoSFL competitions must take priority.

[The Informer]

5 minutes ago, Hillonearth said:

This is the worry - it's abundantly clear some teams still clearly DON'T want to move, and things may have been better had there been some sort of rump West Region for those teams to remain in.

With 63 teams to take into consideration, it's clear that one size does not fit all, and it may have been better if the new league had been comprised of willing and enthusiastic entrants without a substratum of clubs who will have to all intents and purposes been dragged there by their heels.

 

As far as I can see this has been the issue with the SJFA’s stance here. I could be wrong, but the new league was set up on an application basis to allow only the teams who wanted to move the opportunity, and allow teams who wanted to stay that chance as well? However, the “all in or nothing at all” approach has sent out the wrong message in my opinion.

[Dev]

15 minutes ago, Hillonearth said:

This is the worry - it's abundantly clear some teams still clearly DON'T want to move, and things may have been better had there been some sort of rump West Region for those teams to remain in.

With 63 teams to take into consideration, it's clear that one size does not fit all, and it may have been better if the new league had been comprised of willing and enthusiastic entrants without a substratum of clubs who will have to all intents and purposes been dragged there by their heels.

 

Entirely agree. However, I will broaden the categories of "applicants" to include those which feel that they are forced to apply as this is the real situation for some clubs.

For this reason alone I will add Wishaw Juniors to the list of those who have applied/will apply to the WoS for whatever motivational reasons. Some may not make it to the start of the new season even if they eventually stay in a West Juniors League.

Edited April 1, 2020 by Dev
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