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Highland Pyramid


Burnie_man

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1 hour ago, Sherrif John Bunnell said:

Slightly OT, but the teams for this summer's Inverness amateur league have been confirmed.

https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/sport/28-teams-announced-to-play-in-inverness-amateur-summer-leagu-237207/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

Premiership – Avoch, Ardersier, Contin, ICM Electrical, IRN Security, Loch Ness, Maryburgh, NMM Sams and Tomatin.

Division One –Balloan, Black Rock Rovers, Charlestelona, Culloden Blacksmith’s, Drakies PDG, Highland Hospice, Hill Rovers, Innes CI and Muir of Ord Rovers.

Division Two – AFC River Ness, Black Isle United, Citadel, Conon Bridge, Gellions, Highland Athletic, Invergordon Social Club, Inverness Athletic, Ness Thistle and Tomatin United

There has been a rumour here on P&B that an Inverness Amateur side was considering entering the NCL next season. Anything new on that at present? A few clubs have left the Amateur league compared to 2020 e.g. Fortrose & Rosemarkie, Gairloch/Aultbea etc. Invergordon SC has come into the league.

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2 hours ago, dwl123 said:

There's the odd one or two teams in the  premiership division could quite easily make the step into the NCL if they fancied.

Avoch have always dodged it. Muir of Ord were NCL champions when I was up there, they had a great team. Contin have the park and the history but never seem to have the squad. Watch out for Maryburgh though, if they still have the momentum they had a few years ago, they had the backing and ambition.

Gutted not to see Merkinch on that list 😞

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I was curious as to how much further Brechin would have to travel next season if they are relegated to the Highland League, compared to what we know so far about next season if Brechin were to remain in League 2 (i.e. - with Forfar replacing Queen's Park).

I found that a Brechin team bus, going town to town, would travel approximately:

3,184 miles (HL, minus Brora)

3, 522 miles (HL, including Brora)

3, 632 miles (League 2)

So Brechin would likely be travelling fewer miles in the HL next season than they would in L2. 

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8 hours ago, theboke said:

I was curious as to how much further Brechin would have to travel next season if they are relegated to the Highland League, compared to what we know so far about next season if Brechin were to remain in League 2 (i.e. - with Forfar replacing Queen's Park).

I found that a Brechin team bus, going town to town, would travel approximately:

3,184 miles (HL, minus Brora)

3, 522 miles (HL, including Brora)

3, 632 miles (League 2)

So Brechin would likely be travelling fewer miles in the HL next season than they would in L2. 

Mind you, that Wick journey will seem like 5,000+ miles on its own, I would think. Miles won't mean as much when the roads are pretty shite.

Edited by Hampden Diehard
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10 hours ago, theboke said:

I was curious as to how much further Brechin would have to travel next season if they are relegated to the Highland League, compared to what we know so far about next season if Brechin were to remain in League 2 (i.e. - with Forfar replacing Queen's Park).

I found that a Brechin team bus, going town to town, would travel approximately:

3,184 miles (HL, minus Brora)

3, 522 miles (HL, including Brora)

3, 632 miles (League 2)

So Brechin would likely be travelling fewer miles in the HL next season than they would in L2. 

Good analysis. But AIUI Brechin's concern is that their players' journeys start many miles south of Brechin.

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19 hours ago, theboke said:

I was curious as to how much further Brechin would have to travel next season if they are relegated to the Highland League, compared to what we know so far about next season if Brechin were to remain in League 2 (i.e. - with Forfar replacing Queen's Park).

I found that a Brechin team bus, going town to town, would travel approximately:

3,184 miles (HL, minus Brora)

3, 522 miles (HL, including Brora)

3, 632 miles (League 2)

So Brechin would likely be travelling fewer miles in the HL next season than they would in L2. 

As interesting as that is, it is totally irrelevant.  Further up this thread the point has been made that teams in the Highland League aren’t made up of local lads. When Huntly line up for a game it is never going to be eleven lads from Huntly on the pitch.

Guess how many Brechin players live in Brechin?  I’ll give you a ballpark figure. It’s less than one.

The only player we have had recently who could be described as local is Euan Spark and he plays for Elgin now.   Work that one out.

I’m not one of these guys who says there is no way we can get players to come to Brechin.  Far from it, the other Highland League teams prove that point.  Boys that play for these teams travel from all over the North so why couldn’t we have a team of players from Tayside/Aberdeen that would be competitive?

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23 hours ago, charlie king mvp said:

I’m not one of these guys who says there is no way we can get players to come to Brechin.  Far from it, the other Highland League teams prove that point.  Boys that play for these teams travel from all over the North so why couldn’t we have a team of players from Tayside/Aberdeen that would be competitive?

Depends on what you mean by being competitive (i.e. being part of a title race or just being better than the likes of Strathspey). 

Do you think we'd be able to convince players from Dundee to commit to travelling beyond Inverurie every second week rather than play in the upper echelons of the juniors?  If not, then you have to ask what Brechin can offer Aberdeen lads that the more local Locos, Formartine etc can't.  A dual carriageway for convenience?

A fundamental issue is where the players would train.  If we'd want to attract players from both Tayside and Aberdeen then it would need to be in / around Brechin as I seriously doubt that folk would travel from Dundee to Aberdeen for midweek training or vice versa.  However, if it was to be in Brechin, then you'd need to ask why Aberdeen-based players would travel 45 mins out of town when other HL sides are effectively coming to them for training.  That's only going to happen if we want to attract a bang average HL standard player at best, unless finances play a part.  However, if we trained around Aberdeen then you'd imagine that reasons for an Aberdeen-based player opting for Fraserburgh, Buckie or Deveronvale over Brechin would need to be financial, especially if City retained their core support.

Basically, if we wanted to be top end of the table competitive then I reckon we'd need to commit to being Aberdeen or Dundee focussed, and I think that the thought of tapping both isn't particularly realistic.

Edited by Hedgecutter
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25 minutes ago, Hedgecutter said:

Depends on what you mean by being competitive (i.e. being part of a title race or just being better than the likes of Strathspey). 

Do you think we'd be able to convince players from Dundee to commit to travelling beyond Inverurie every second week rather than play in the upper echelons of the juniors?  If not, then you have to ask what Brechin can offer Aberdeen lads that the more local Locos, Formartine etc can't.  A dual carriageway for convenience?  That said, you'd imagine that reasons for an Aberdeen-based player opting for Fraserburgh, Buckie or Deveronvale over Brechin would need to be financial, especially if City retained their core support.

Another issue is where the players would train.  If we'd want to attract to players from both Tayside and Aberdeen then it would need to be in / around Brechin.  I seriously doubt that folk would travel from Dundee to Aberdeen for midweek training or vice versa.

When East Stirlingshire and Berwick Rangers were relegated they never dropped their ticket prices. Don't imagine Brechin would dramatically change their's either. So a decent support for the level and higher match day revenue should mean a financial advantage when competing for players.

Dundee area juniors are likely playing in a 18 team league that will contain the best and worst of the region. With the best being lost to the Highland League over time anyway. It's not going to be as attractive a league to play in. Certainly year one if relegated there would be a higher level league to play in, Scottish Cup, SPFL League Cup and SPFL Challenge Cup to competie in for Brechin.

The right managerial appointment will be key to how Brechin handle any transition to non-league. Assuming there's a managerial change.

 

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17 minutes ago, FairWeatherFan said:

The right managerial appointment will be key to how Brechin handle any transition to non-league. Assuming there's a managerial change.

Given that Paton has 4 years left on his contract, the Aberdeen-based training option might not seem all that attractive (I presume he's Central Belt based these days).

I edited my post shorty after you quoted it to factor in finances, but even then, it would probably need to be a considerable wage increase for players to travel out of town.  We'd realistically need to be Tayside or Grampian focussed as we couldn't have it both ways unless we were seriously minted by HL standards.

Also, certainly at the moment, I can't really see Tayside juniors willfully choosing to join the HL for travel reasons.  The reward : faff ratio just seems far too low.

Edited by Hedgecutter
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5 minutes ago, Hedgecutter said:

Given that Paton has 4 years left on his contract, the Aberdeen-based training option might not seem all that attractive (I presume he's Central Belt based these days).

.

He was living in Greenock during his time with us and will have unlikely had reason to change that since.  Has he got work away from football now?  

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5 minutes ago, parsforlife said:

He was living in Greenock during his time with us and will have unlikely had reason to change that since.  Has he got work away from football now?  

Given that he was full-time at Queens until 2020, I seriously doubt he'll have picked something up during the Covid years.  I'd imagine that his Brechin wages might just be enough to keep his NI pension contribution years going.

Player/manager at Brechin throughout Covid whilst based in Greenock takes some level of beating in the shite year awards.

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1 hour ago, Hedgecutter said:

Depends on what you mean by being competitive (i.e. being part of a title race or just being better than the likes of Strathspey). 

Do you think we'd be able to convince players from Dundee to commit to travelling beyond Inverurie every second week rather than play in the upper echelons of the juniors?  If not, then you have to ask what Brechin can offer Aberdeen lads that the more local Locos, Formartine etc can't.  A dual carriageway for convenience?

A fundamental issue is where the players would train.  If we'd want to attract players from both Tayside and Aberdeen then it would need to be in / around Brechin as I seriously doubt that folk would travel from Dundee to Aberdeen for midweek training or vice versa.  However, if it was to be in Brechin, then you'd need to ask why Aberdeen-based players would travel 45 mins out of town when other HL sides are effectively coming to them for training.  That's only going to happen if we want to attract a bang average HL standard player at best, unless finances play a part.  However, if we trained around Aberdeen then you'd imagine that reasons for an Aberdeen-based player opting for Fraserburgh, Buckie or Deveronvale over Brechin would need to be financial, especially if City retained their core support.

Basically, if we wanted to be top end of the table competitive then I reckon we'd need to commit to being Aberdeen or Dundee focussed, and I think that the thought of tapping both isn't particularly realistic.

Most players will travel if the £ is right.

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1 hour ago, Ironside8 said:

Guys cancel the pyramid lowland boys have sold you and everyone else down the swanny.

What does it have to do with the Highland Pyramid considering they aren't joining here? Let me remind you that the HFL fairly recently rejected ICT entering a colts team...

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