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Junior football, what is the future?


Burnie_man

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2 minutes ago, LongTimeLurker said:

It was the top west clubs (mainly those in Ayrshire by all accounts) that knocked the superduperleague concept on the head over travel time concerns prompting Kelty to defect to the EoS. Now it's probably going to take at least another decade to get to something close to what should have been the starting point for the south tier 5 feeder.

Superleague idea raised in 2013 with the express intention of existing outside a pyramid system. Kelty don't leave to join the EoSFL until 2017.

The starting point of a south tier 5 feeder was clubs actually wanting to be the 5th Tier and to invest in their infrastructure for licencing purposes. As that was what was required to get the SPFL on board.

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3 hours ago, FairWeatherFan said:

Just because it has been brought up in another thread. A little reminder to how the Lowland League was formed, and how the SJFA shot themselves in the foot before it had even started. Yet people still like to tout a conspiracy that it was the SFA and boys clubs that did the Juniors in.

Keep in mind this article is from days before the Lowland League even announce which clubs and how many would make up the 2013-14 season.

From today's Scottish sun (15th June 2013)

SJFA chiefs are set to press for a new national junior Superleague.

Hampden bosses reckon it would
be a better option for their clubs
than the new Lowland League
— & even rival several of the bottom tiers
of the SFA’s pyramid system plans.

Fresh talk of a 12-team league made up of the top six sides from the West Premier and East Superleague comes after it was revealed this week that NO junior teams have applied to join the Lowland League.

Only six SJFA sides — Clydebank, Rob Roy, Girvan, Rossvale, St Roch’s & Blackburn — had declared an
interest but none followed that up.

It’s clear junior bosses reckon a super Superleague is the way to prevent big guns like Auchinleck, Linlithgow & Pollok being lured away by the chance to earn promotion into the new SPFL.

SJFA secretary Tom Johnston said: “This isn’t a totally new idea, it’s been mooted in the past, but it is something that is very much back on the agenda. We think it’s the right time to look at it.
We’ve floated the idea & have people in the West and the East looking into it further, to see how the mechanics of it would work.

“It’s simple to take the top six from the two Superleagues, it’s what happens to the teams left behind that might need a bit more work on.

“It will be on the agenda for a meeting we have later this month.

“This is the next obvious step for
the junior game. It’s ten years now
since we moved to the three region
set-up & started the Superleagues.

“That has gone well but there are
people in the game that feel we have
to look & see what the next level
is for our teams, what new opportunities we can put in front of them.

“And it would be an option that
clubs could look at rather than the
Lowland League, without the financial
implications that would have for
any of our teams thinking about it.


“We feel a national Superleague
would raise the profile for our game.

“I think it’d be right up there as a
stronger division than the Highland
League, the Lowland League &
maybe even the bottom couple of
divisions of the new senior set-up.”

A national league based on this
season’s tables would see Auchinleck,
Linlithgow, Petershill, Bonnyrigg,
Clydebank, Camelon, Glenafton, Bo’-
ness, Irvine Meadow, Kelty, Arthurlie
& Broxburn in the same division.

Johnston feels staying junior to compete in that sort of league would
be the better option for the SJFA big guns.


He added: “I think the Lowland League will be an inferior product — I don’t think it reaches the standards of our top clubs & I don’t see anything in it
for them.


“I don’t think there is any merit in our top teams going to play there because of the lack of fanbase & quality it will
have, not to mention the costs involved in meeting club licensing
requirements which are substantial.


“I think it’s been rushed through & the interest from junior clubs init was minimal. I don’t have a problem with them looking at it as an option but just feel what we have at the moment is a good product that is better for them.

“I’ll bring our clubs up to date
with where we are at our AGM this
weekend but I don’t expect a major
clamour from them about it.”

 

That interview has not aged well.

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Hi lads, not meaning to disturb! But just popping in to say I have just launched the kickstarter for the new Scottish football magazine I created with some other fans. We done a piece on Pollok and an extended interview with club captain Paul Gallacher. If you'd be interested in a copy, you can pledge to our kickstarter below! 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/scottkelly/stonewaller-magazine-number-1?ref=project_build

 

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On 24/05/2020 at 14:55, LongTimeLurker said:

It was the top west clubs (mainly those in Ayrshire by all accounts) that knocked the superduperleague concept on the head over travel time concerns prompting Kelty to defect to the EoS. Now it's probably going to take at least another decade to get to something close to what should have been the starting point for the south tier 5 feeder.

The pyramid can't really exist in next seasons format for long, it is so lopsided and unbalanced. The irony to me is whether the top league in Scotland is 12 or 14 teams is about as irrelevant as it gets. What is really relevant now is the 190 odd teams in tier 3 down.

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I wonder how things would have played out if you'd had that Super Duper League formed and inserted at tier 5 in 2013 with, for arguments sake, the top 6 West Juniors, top 6 East Juniors and top 4 EoS teams at the time. Decent chance someone would've got as high as the Championship by now potentially, as well as years worth of potential Cup ties against top flight times to rake in cash (eg EK vs Celtic, BSC vs Hibs).

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When it was a bit quieter at work I looked at the 2012/13 tables for the EoS/Sos/NCL and various junior leagues final standings to see what the HL/LL would have looked like if all the various leagues were given equal status and how the divisions below would have looked. There would have been some right good tales from different clubs in that time.

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57 minutes ago, Marshmallo said:

I wonder how things would have played out if you'd had that Super Duper League formed and inserted at tier 5 in 2013 with, for arguments sake, the top 6 West Juniors, top 6 East Juniors and top 4 EoS teams at the time. Decent chance someone would've got as high as the Championship by now potentially, as well as years worth of potential Cup ties against top flight times to rake in cash (eg EK vs Celtic, BSC vs Hibs).

Couldn’t fail to notice you included top 4 EOSFL yet failed to mention Dalbeattie Star or Threave Rovers who would certainly have been on a par with anyone coming out of the East at that time !  I’d agree with your assumption that by now several would’ve made rapid rises through the Pyramid system and given the game the shake up it badly needs 

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Aye fair play we could've taken 4 teams from the SoS as well to give 20.

Linlithgow

Bonnyrigg

Camelon

Bo'ness

Kelty

Broxburn

Talbot

Petershill

Clydebank

Glenafton

Irvine Meadow

Arthurlie

Whitehill Welfare

Stirling Uni

Spartans

Gretna

Stranraer under-15s

The Red Lion

Little mid-Creetown Vale

Annan Arms YMCA B

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37 minutes ago, Marshmallo said:

Aye fair play we could've taken 4 teams from the SoS as well to give 20.

Linlithgow

Bonnyrigg

Camelon

Bo'ness

Kelty

Broxburn

Talbot

Petershill

Clydebank

Glenafton

Irvine Meadow

Arthurlie

Whitehill Welfare

Stirling Uni

Spartans

Gretna

Stranraer under-15s

The Red Lion

Little mid-Creetown Vale

Annan Arms YMCA B

You joke, but the top 4 from the SoSFL in 2012-13 would all have been SFA members at the very least.

Top 4 from across the board would have seen:

EoS Premier
Whitehill Welfare
University of Stirling
The Spartans
Gretna 2008

East Region Super League
Linlithgow Rose
Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic
Camelon Juniors
Bo'ness United

West Region Super League
Auchinleck Talbot
Petershill
Clydebank
Glenafton Athletic

South of Scotland
Dalbeattie Star
St Cuthbert Wanderers
Wigtown & Bladnoch
Threave Rovers

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37 minutes ago, AsimButtHitsASix said:

To get 16 in the HL what would have been top 4 in HL, NCL, North Juniors and East Juniors (north of Tay)

Even in a fictional rewriting of history I doubt you would get 4 NCL clubs willing to sign up for that. Down to 7 teams with one a reserve side at that point. The other leagues getting five teams, with the token NCL champion could work though.

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1 hour ago, Marshmallo said:

Aye fair play we could've taken 4 teams from the SoS as well to give 20.

Linlithgow

Bonnyrigg

Camelon

Bo'ness

Kelty

Broxburn

Talbot

Petershill

Clydebank

Glenafton

Irvine Meadow

Arthurlie

Whitehill Welfare

Stirling Uni

Spartans

Gretna

Stranraer under-15s

The Red Lion

Little mid-Creetown Vale

Annan Arms YMCA B

20 teams?! As if anyone would put a 20 team league together...

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On 24/05/2020 at 20:45, Ginaro said:

Those paragraphs look like someone has written a Limerick. :)

There once was a secretary named Tom...

There once was a secretary named Tom,

Who did demolish junior football with aplomb.

He declared the Lowland League would surely fall apart,

But such an utterance was simply a ripping brain fart.

His chances were many, to preserve his realm,

Yet in the east, pressure would overwhelm.

For it was in the fine county of sunny Fife,

Rebellion did grow and start to run rife.

Tom's campaign to remain free from rest of the land,

Started to falter, as matters did get out of hand.

Join us, the Lowland League, they did lobby,

Despite their match which was stopped, to scoop up a jobby.

One by one, dominoes fell as each town's team changed sides,

Except in West Lothian - the land of the blind.

His empire, Tom alleged, enemies wished to muller,

In frustration, his henchmen attacked people of colour.

He insisted his grade was superior in every way,

Yet fixtures, no-one knew until just days away.

From receivers of yellows and reds, monies it would docket,

His association, hard cash, it would pocket.

And so the east, it had completely fell,

Yet writing on the wall, Tom could not tell.

In Ayrshire, clubs feared something was amiss,

Believing beyond their horizon lay a bottomless abyss.

The junior heartlands of the west, his last stand,

Even as many heads did remain stuck in the sand.

Going senior, it seemed they just could not hack it,

Common sense, yes indeed, they did very much lack it.

One last chance they had, to join the senior zone,

But they refused and the lowland league went it alone.

And so years of junior history went down the pan,

Thanks to secretary Tom, a very foolish old man.

His commitment never, not once, did waver,

To offer up disinformation, and personal favour.

But in the end everything did turn out just right,

As there were to be no trips to Elgin, on a Tuesday night.

Edited by Cameron Wilson
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23 hours ago, Marshmallo said:

Aye I know, was only teasing. Dalbeattie did very well in that first season of the LL I'm sure.

Your right. When we joined in 2014 teams like Dalbeattie Star and Whitehill Welfare were the heavy hitters. Amazing the changes in only 6 years.

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