astro leagues in waterford? *football*

mufcboy1999

hows things everyone

just hopin someone can point me in the direction of a well run football league in waterford you know the astro ones i think there called nightowls not sure.

i play football all the time im 21 just lookin to play full time for a good team who takes it serious enough baiscally im fed up of playin junior football and i love playing on the astro:L and wouldnt mind giving this astro league a try.

il do any trial or whatever im handy enough without being too cocky

by the way i aint sayin which team im playin for at the mo until i see them in person never know who's who and i could be telling the wrong people if you know what i mean:D

lassykk

hey the nightowls website is www.floodlitsoccer.com

But be warned the standard of refereeing is so shocking it will make you wanna tear your hair out. I know of a team on the verge of quitting the league due to the appalling standards of refereeing.

Don't know how you'd go about joining a team though without knowing someone. I'm sure someone on here will be looking for players in the premier division.

If you've played junior league already this season there may be issues with de-registering with your junior league team prior to joining a night owls team as there are some rules around that.

kensutz

We play in the league. It's just a matter of giving Kevin Daly an email or phone call to let him know you want to play for a club. He'll have a list of clubs looking for players and point you in the right direction.

ps. Waterpark is treacherous with the shoddy astro turf on it. There's absolutely no give in the ground and if you fall, you'll end up cut to bits.

lassykk

I didn't realise Kevin operated a list system like that. Must recommend the lads put in a request as I've seen them play with only 9 or 10 players in the past.

Having played there in the past I can also vouch for the poor nature of the surface in Waterpark. Given the large profit that I assume is being made down there I can't understand why the surface is not relayed.

The league operates to the best of my knowledge 5 days a week from 6 - 10 during the winter and summer.

If you take it that there are a few weeks were no games are being played the revenue for the league is:

42 weeks x €110 per team per match x 2 teams per match x 4 games per night x 5 days games = €184,800

I assume Waterpark are able to do this calculation they are probably taking a large slice of this from Kevin which could be reinvested in the pitch.

Last season a number of games were played in the Kingfisher but this appears to have fallen through this year. Kingfisher is lethal in the wet anyway

kensutz

At least the pitch in Kingfisher has a bit of give in the ground. You can fall over without slicing the knee off you. I don't play as much in Waterpark now because of an ankle ligament injury, only do a few games here and there.

lassykk

Definitely. The kingfisher pitch is top quality in the dry probably one of the best in the town but in the wet it used to be slippy.

I play in Villa the odd time and they have a great pitch down there but its not big enough for eleven a side so it couldn't be a venue for the nightowls.

RodVelvet

I personally thought the Kingfisher was way better than Waterpark. If it wasn't for those cables hanging over the top it would have been top class. It does seem to have fallen by the wayside this year which is a pity.

The waterpark surface is so bad it's like playing on tarmac. I remember seeing on the fsl website that they were in talks about resurfacing waterpark but I'd say in the present economic climate that they won't be shelling out on a new surface. Regarding the refs, I know it's a thankless jobs but some refs don't help as they are way below the standard required.

aws

Have to agree for the price of it and profit involved the standard of refereeing
is awful. A referee assessor was appointed to try bring the standard up but as far as i can see its just as bad. Secondly kevin was ranting about the level of voilence and bad sportmanship in the games , most of it is down to players becoming increasingly fustrated by poor ref decisions. At the very least there should be a lines man, but that costs money i suppose.:mad:

lassykk

aws wrote: »

Have to agree for the price of it and profit involved the standard of refereeing is awful. A referee assessor was appointed to try bring the standard up but as far as i can see its just as bad. Secondly kevin was ranting about the level of voilence and bad sportmanship in the games , most of it is down to players becoming increasingly fustrated by poor ref decisions. At the very least there should be a lines man, but that costs money i suppose.:mad:

Yeah money which Kevin undoubtedly had if he wasn't too tight to pay for it.

I was only thinking about it after the rough calculation I did above.

On a single night with 4 games he earns revenue of €880. (8 teams paying €110 each)

At most he pays the ref's €30 a match (open to correction on this)

That leaves him with €760. If he pays Waterpark €100 per hour (which I highly doubt he does) he's left with €360 of pure profit for himself.

He doesn't provide footballs, jerseys or anything else for the league so he has no other overheads bar the website (which I must commend him on as its run very well) Insurance cover is also optional for players to sort themselves which wasn't the case in previous years (but a €20 charge was imposed per player)

It will get to the stage where someone sets up in competition with him with a higher standard of referees and linesmen and his business will evaporate as people are so disillusioned with the shocking level of refereeing. I know its a thankless job and definitely not easy but if they are getting €30/hour and they ref 2 matches a night its a nice supplement to their weekly wage.

The violence and bad sportsmanship stems purely from peoples frustration. There a lads playing who are taking it really seriously and have to put up with shocking calls for offsides and fouls.

mufcboy1999

cheers for the info lads helps a lot

me still playing junior might be a problem so going to have to sort it out

thanks again il give kevin an email

LETS BE AVN IT

Used to play in the FSL last few years! As the people were saying you will get cut up fairly badly on the waterpark pitch but at least your guaranteed a match every week unlike the junior league at the moment! Its unreal the amount of matches getting called off! I have had the last 6 games called off im cracking up! I wonder if the junior league will ever think of allowing astro turf pitches or maybe a summer league like the league of ireland ?

mufcboy1999

thats actually a great point i think a summer league should be introduced only thing i think stopping it would be all the lads who play GAA during the summer months because a lot of them play soccer during the winter that could be a big problem but ye at least you wont be going weeks without a match last season i went 2 months without a game was an absoulte joke how are you going to build and develop your form and game if your only playing once a month its a joke outside the premier divsion the whole junior league is very poorly run

LETS BE AVN IT

mufcboy1999 wrote: »

thats actually a great point i think a summer league should be introduced only thing i think stopping it would be all the lads who play GAA during the summer months because a lot of them play soccer during the winter that could be a big problem but ye at least you wont be going weeks without a match last season i went 2 months without a game was an absoulte joke how are you going to build and develop your form and game if your only playing once a month its a joke outside the premier divsion the whole junior league is very poorly run

Ye very true , I wonder if there is anyway in getting them to change it to summer ,this year is unreal the season will run in till june id say! Is there any other county that play summer league football or is it just LOI?

mufcboy1999

im not sure if anyone else does it im sure there are other countrys who do summer football i think a lot of eastern european countrys do it, it would be a brialliant idea and also they have to get rid of sunday morning games serioulsly like staying in on a sat night just isnt for me:L waste of a weekend