ScottishZizou Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 4 minutes ago, Ranaldo Bairn said: Yes a very interesting post there, thanks. But there's no reason that it applies especially to the juniors as "a grade", whatever that means. All those things listed apply to HL, LL, EoS, SoS just as much, and there's absolutely no reason they would not carry on being true as a member of the HFL as opposed to the NRJ. My post was more to do with people who were sort of making fun of no people going to watch Junior Football. It doesn’t exist to produce pleasing stats, it exists for people to take part in something. I agree with your point. As a junior player I would like to see promotion to the HL and relegation to juniors. I am not attached to the grade or term “juniors” and know my experience would be the exact same if I played in “Highland League Division 1” or whatever. However if the pyramid was to work up north the highland league would have to be flexible about floodlights etc. It’s complete unfeasible for a club such as the one I play for (despite having good players who could maybe compete at mid HL level) to be able to implement floodlights and it’s the same for many others when they have players paying subs to play for them. It’s not that I don’t like the thought of the pyramid and wouldn’t want to not play “junior” football. It’s just that it’s all a little redundant when if we were to win the league we couldn’t go up anyway with the infrastructure. Before anyone comments regarding “ambition”, these clubs have tiny committees filled with old people with no business experience but big effort levels and a lot of passion and a group of guys working full time with families playing a hobby. It’s not feasible for these clubs to put everything in place 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ham1sh68 Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 5 minutes ago, Ranaldo Bairn said: Yes a very interesting post there, thanks. But there's no reason that it applies especially to the juniors as "a grade", whatever that means. All those things listed apply to HL, LL, EoS, SoS just as much, and there's absolutely no reason they would not carry on being true as a member of the HFL as opposed to the NRJ. In this context the word "grade" is merely a shorthand way of describing the different requirements of different leagues and associations. For example, the requirement for floodlights , licensing, etc distinguishes the Highland League etc from the Juniors, just as enclosed pitches, safe passage to and from the pitch for officials, requirement for assistants in Superleague games, players on contracts provides a differentiation between Junior and Amateur/Welfare, where these requirements do not apply by rule.. At no time was it stated that these things apply especially to the Juniors, nor was there an intention to imply that the Juniors are better or worse than other "grades". -1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranaldo Bairn Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 Ok that's fine, I'm just fed up seeing posts talking about the magic of the grade, or clubs betraying the grade by leaving for senior leagues. It's all just football clubs, with slightly different management of leagues or facilities required. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitburn Vale Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 Fancy Brora to take the title come the end of the season,though the Broch will run them close. The Broch's problem is when they face up to so called lesser teams,they've a habit of dropping points. Looking for the Vale to continue their improvement over recent seasons,top half finish would be grand. Would love to see a pyramid below the SHFL,involving the NCL and north/north of the tay juniors,needs someone to take the lead though. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottishZizou Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 8 hours ago, Ranaldo Bairn said: Ok that's fine, I'm just fed up seeing posts talking about the magic of the grade, or clubs betraying the grade by leaving for senior leagues. It's all just football clubs, with slightly different management of leagues or facilities required. I think up North people recognise that and honestly I don’t think there’d be too much of a fuss if we were told our league was being rebranded Highland League 2/3/4. Eventually as well the highland league would be way more Aberdeen based and of a higher standard. But the problem is that teams would have to refuse promotion as they couldn’t comply with regulations and they don’t have the resources to change that which isn’t really feasible for them to have. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshbairn Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 (edited) 19 hours ago, ScottishZizou said: Eventually as well the highland league would be way more Aberdeen based Fucking hope not, the Super League is bad enough already. Edited July 24, 2019 by welshbairn 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottishZizou Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 1 hour ago, welshbairn said: Fucking hope not, the Super League is bad enough already. Well I think the super league would actually then be populated by the country teams as Dyce, Bridge of Don, Hermes etc took their place in the Highland League! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Shaker Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 I think up North people recognise that and honestly I don’t think there’d be too much of a fuss if we were told our league was being rebranded Highland League 2/3/4. Eventually as well the highland league would be way more Aberdeen based and of a higher standard. But the problem is that teams would have to refuse promotion as they couldn’t comply with regulations and they don’t have the resources to change that which isn’t really feasible for them to have. The standards gone consistently downhill since the arrival of Shire teams in recent years. Dunno if we need more. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairWeatherFan Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 19 minutes ago, Jimmy Shaker said: The standards gone consistently downhill since the arrival of Shire teams in recent years. Dunno if we need more. Isn't that one side of it? Arrival of weaker sides = Departure of stronger sides. Caledonian, Thistle, Ross County, Peterhead and Elgin City total 48 titles. Their replacements Wick, Inverurie, Formartine, Turriff and Strathspey have 0. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottishZizou Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 13 hours ago, Jimmy Shaker said: The standards gone consistently downhill since the arrival of Shire teams in recent years. Dunno if we need more. I think it’s undeniable that the biggest junior teams would beat the bottom few teams in the Highland League and would make it a stronger league with less thumpings. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Shaker Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 Biggest junior teams? There's only one, and they're not interested in shifting. Plus we've already seen the addition of Formartine and Turriff cause problems with thinning out an ever-decreasing pool of talent in the Shire. Sticking another Shire side in will only cause that to get worse. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottishZizou Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 3 hours ago, Jimmy Shaker said: Biggest junior teams? There's only one, and they're not interested in shifting. Plus we've already seen the addition of Formartine and Turriff cause problems with thinning out an ever-decreasing pool of talent in the Shire. Sticking another Shire side in will only cause that to get worse. It sounds like you want the Highland league to be in two tiers then? Dyce/Hermes/Culter/Bridge of Don would all beat Fort William, Lossiemouth and Turriff with their current squads easily as well as banks of Dee 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Shaker Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 (edited) Two tiers is the last thing anyone wants. The plan - to make everyone play more cup games to compensate for less league games - was shot down and hopefully stays down. Those teams won't beat anyone in the SHFL because they won't join. Edited July 25, 2019 by Jimmy Shaker 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottishZizou Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 54 minutes ago, Jimmy Shaker said: Two tiers is the last thing anyone wants. The plan - to make everyone play more cup games to compensate for less league games - was shot down and hopefully stays down. Those teams won't beat anyone in the SHFL because they won't join. So what do you want exactly? You don’t want a smaller league although that would be a way to increase quality. You don’t want more city teams although that again would increase quality. But you are complaining about the current quality. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Shaker Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 The quality was permanently blown when the big teams (and Elgin) left. There’s no more city teams interested in joining. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strathman Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 Locos and Formartine have been a win on the last day away from winning a title. Fair point about losing the bigger clubs however there are not loads of locals playing for the bigger clubs that went into the league. Pele's Inverness team probably had the most. They majority of the teams players that go in to the National leagues tend to go to other Highland League clubs fairly soon afterwards. The standard in my opinion recovers eventually. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshbairn Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 8 hours ago, ScottishZizou said: It sounds like you want the Highland league to be in two tiers then? Dyce/Hermes/Culter/Bridge of Don would all beat Fort William, Lossiemouth and Turriff with their current squads easily as well as banks of Dee Is your idea that less fixtures with 2 tiers would mean that Shire teams wouldn't have to invest in floodlights and improving their facilities to join the HL? And could replace clubs who had? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitburn Vale Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 Brora off and running......cant see past them picking up the title this season!! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacksgranda Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 On 25/07/2019 at 18:10, Jimmy Shaker said: The quality was permanently blown when the big teams (and Elgin) left. There’s no more city teams interested in joining. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshbairn Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 1 hour ago, Whitburn Vale said: Brora off and running......cant see past them picking up the title this season!! Too soon to tell from that weirdness of a game. From what I saw of Brora last year, and they've reinforced in the summer, you could be right, but if Fraserburgh develop some consistency I could see them two battling it out. Think only Formartine could be another threat. Wonder if Brora have changed their thoughts about promotion? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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