Greatest League in the World 2024 [new thread available]

Gavin "shels"

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117782636#Comment_117782636

Mochtas are no push overs, watched their game against Crumlin last Sunday. Only issue is their top goalscorer when off injured last Sunday, would be a huge loss for them.

Shels lacking the finishing touches again last night, Bray probably only chance converted. Thankfully results went our way but doing our best to pish this away!

pgj2015

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117784467#Comment_117784467

Jurkovskis is the only good signing in the last 6 months. I have been very impressed by him.

NIMAN

Have just been thinking this last week or so, it's a pity the loi can't market itself a fraction of how the gaa does, or have the hold over Irish media the way Gaelic games do.

The amount of coverage that the hurling final has got this last week has been amazing. I heard it discussed at length in about 5 or 6 different radio shows. And that's just the ones I heard. Last couple of days it's been wall to wall.

topmanamillion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117790957#Comment_117790957

The GAA is an absolute example to any organisation. €50 million+ turnover, massive exposure, huge attendances....the LOI could absolutely learn a lot from it but there tends to be too many LOI fans stuck in the 60s and 70s still rabbiting on about the GAH spitting on them for going to "soccer" games.

Fact is the likes of the GAA,IRFU, Greyhound racing and horse racing have super people in charge that have driven their sports forward. While football has had absolute leeches running it in this country and is in the state it is in because of them. Not because of the GAA or anyone else has been successful.

Italia 90, USA 94, Euro 16 etc were all missed opportunities that should have been captured to move the league and sport forward in this country with increased funding and marketing. Instead, all we have is memories of lads selling tickets out of suitcases and CEOs acting like a teenager at closing time in Coppers.

The way the GAA got hold of LIDL as a sponsor to drive on womens football should be an example to the LOI. Its not long ago feck all were showing up for those finals. Now its the most attended womens final in Europe.

Lessons to be learnt there if anyone in the FAI/LOI could be bothered.

thebronze14

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117784934#Comment_117784934

Couldn't believe how badly set up Pats were at the back! Sadly I think Higgins will have Derry slightly better set up on Friday

overshoot

It's a good point by topmanamillion there with the ladies gaa, with Lidl on board and the marketing campaign they got more than 40,000 to the AI final. The men's and ladies soccer combined has generally been less than 20k for that's officially the most participated sport in Ireland.

Youd really love to see the fai pushing a league wide marketing strategy, backing club infrastructure, and clubs doing more too on that and their own house in terms of match day. For 3 months of the year we don't compete with the premier League but there's no LOI day/summer campaign to exploit that, get people in and hooked like you'd have non league day in England. market to tourists/hotels, Problem is a good campaign is money up front/short term loss and everyone is broke...(and covid)

topmanamillion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117792332#Comment_117792332

A big marketing campaign would be great but Its the little things that kill the league and do so much damage to its reputation.

Things like when you Google the league table the top result is last years table. I think they fixed this in the last few days but even then the league season is in the closing stages before they did anything about it.

Then there's the whole farce of licencing. At the start of this season a group of cowboys came within an inch of getting Dublin County FC into the league. They were green flagged the whole way through licensing with the only thing keeping them out being Morton refusing them use of the ground. A few of them were involved in other similar "projects" in eastern Europe that ended in disaster. Whatever about a 3rd tier we should know with a reasonable degree of certainty who's playing in the league a few years in advance. Admission to the FD should be a 2 or 3 year process, not the whip around a few weeks before the season starts it is now. A club should be able to enter teams in all 4 grades of the underage league and field a side the cups for a few seasons before they get near the FD.

None of that is particularly difficult or expensive to do but there's just no care or effort put into the league.

srfc d16

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117792332#Comment_117792332

A fairly basic thing that would improve attendance or at least tv viewing figures for the cup final would be to make sure no games either adult or underage are played on the same day. Very easy to implement and creates a thought in peoples head that it is a big deal

Gareth Keenan

I am hearing some interesting rumours around St. Kevin's.

Depending on who you talk to, either preparing a submission to enter the LOI underage leagues next year, or switching their efforts from Bohs to Shels.

chopperbyrne

**** St. Kevin's. They are a cancer on Irish football. Registering players from all over, with the sole intention of trying to make money from UK clubs.

Gavin "shels"

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117793506#Comment_117793506

Had hear there was trouble in the camp with the Bohs/Kevins link but didn't expect to join up with us, can only think Alan Caffrey is the link there.

Darkglasses

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117786325#Comment_117786325

I saw Ciaran Kilduff was playing for Maynooth University Town too, scored two against Killester Donnycarney (our opponent).

Can't say I've ever closely followed the LSL, but like most Irish leagues there seems to be a massive difference between the top and bottom sides. I'm very relieved Wexford drew Killester in the cup rather than Mochtas 😳

joeysoap

The way ALL the clubs are putting emphasis on coming 4th is unbelievable. There 3 European places. If the cup winners are in the top 4 - that’s fair enough, but not guaranteed.

Gavin "shels"

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117796464#Comment_117796464

In contrast Kilduff was playing against my mate on Friday in Home Farm and he was supposedly dirt according to my mate :D

Watched Mochtas & Crumlin the Sunday before last on a Live stream and Mochtas were quality. Was out at the Crumlin against Gary McCabe/Conor Kennas' Kilnamanagh the week previous and they slaughtered them for 90 mins... 4-0 FT if memory serves me right, so puts into perspective how good Mochtas are. Ex Shels lads Alan Byrne & Alex O'Hanlon both with Mochtas too - not great shacks but solid at that level.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117794155#Comment_117794155

Lots of league of Ireland clubs are at the same thing. There are no players from Longford on the Longford town under 13 teams. There are 2 on the under 15 and then again none on the 17s or 19s. We also have one local player on the senior team who will most likely be signed by a premier team next year.

Raoul

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117796947#Comment_117796947

Still holding on to the hope that Dundalk get that spot through the cup? Ha

joeysoap

Lucky ifthey get past st mocktas

dfx-

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117798596#Comment_117798596

there are almost no shocks in the FAI Cup from a division or league below an opponent, there are barely any close games with PD opponents. Dundalk should disband the club if they lost at home to a non league team on their best route to European qualification which is clearly what they are all about.

joeysoap

Their ‘only’ Route. Dundalk have never retained the cup (despite being in ever final since 2015.

joeysoap

Whatever about disbanding the club - a clearout of players maybe. Most are gone already, Shields, Gannon, Hoare, McGrath, Benson, Mountney, Kelly and to all extents McEleney ( injured for at least 6 weeks)

BlazingSaddler

Regarding the LSL, can anybody enlighten me how that works? Mochta’s are my local team and I’d like to take an interest (certainly in the LOI off season) but I just can’t get my head around it. Which is the top league?, is it Major Saturday, Premier Saturday, Premier 1 Saturday??? It just makes no sense to anybody who hasn’t played at or been involved at that level like myself. Very confusing altogether

DvB

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117800261#Comment_117800261

Senior Sunday would be the top league in the LSL.

That would be followed by

Senior 1,

Senior 1A

Senior 1B

Major

Major 1

Premier

Premier 1

Premier 1A

Division 3

Division 3A

(all sunday)

Saturday wouldn't be considered as high a standard, but the top Saturday sides would be better than the lower Sunday sides.

BlazingSaddler

Thank you for that. Surely that needs a rethink. Ridiculously confusing!

DvB

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117800673#Comment_117800673

Its been restructured/renamed a couple of times since I stopped playing 15 years ago now (the intermediate title seems to have been dropped for example), seemed a lot more straightforward back then.

Agree re confusion with respect to the relationship between Senior, Major, Premier etc... its hard for the casual person to understand the structure.

Mochtas are my local team also (Former player too) so pre pandemic had been going down regularly if the games didn't clash with Rovers games, the standard has improved considerably from back in my day. Some really good players at that level who can play a nice style of ball.

flas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117798365#Comment_117798365

Well this isn't correct, but your point is spot on. But saying that, go back 15/20/25 years and it was never strictly locals, was always lads from Longford, roscommon, westmeath, Leitrim, cavan, mayo in cases that made up the underage sides, a strong local contingent yes, but always some from surrounding counties there...

topmanamillion

Dont think anyone really cares where a LOI clubs players are from if they are successful.

Longford would have bigger barriers than that anyway. I never really got the community club vibe off Longford. Always just seemed like they've one or two people with deep pockets involved that keep the show on the road. Even back in the Kenny days when they were winning things the support was pretty poor.

Their ground is outside the town on the Strokestown road, so they're never going to get any floating supporters walking up on the night.

Not sure if they're still training in Dublin? But it's hard to get local businesses involved when the team doesn't train/live locally.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117804434#Comment_117804434

So how many locals apart from the 2 recently signed from Melview are playing with the Town? None of the side that finished 4th with the Kennedy cup are involved at all. Nobody is looking for 11 locals in the first team but 3 or 4 at a minimum would be nice. It is disgraceful that one local player has played senior football in the last ten years. Your point is correct about surrounding counties but we never brought down 13 year olds from Dublin to fill these age groups. The other thing is why 5 local lads are going to cherry Orchard and St Pats to play underage? We will never have any decent crowds until more people from Longford are on the field .

What do we think tonight . Would you give Rovers any chance of going through? Heard on the radio progression in this round could mean 3 million windfall

Ferris_Bueller

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117807002#Comment_117807002

Can't see them winning by three clear goals. If they can score early then maybe, but rovers have struggled on many occasions to break teams down and I'm sure Tallinn will be happy to sit back and counter, like they did effectively in the first leg.

First game back in Tallaght tonight since February 2020 so looking forward to it, cracking evening and could be a special night if they pull it off!

kksaints

Cork have a great chance against us tomorrow night. We're missing our Mountney, Desmond, Barrett, Bone and Griffin. Basically our regular defenders bar Bermo who could easily have to play centre back due to our lack of options.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117807233#Comment_117807233

Enjoy it! I hope Rovers get the right result tonight

dfx-

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117807233#Comment_117807233

they only need to win by two and then penalties, but it is very unlikely. It depends on how Flora play it. Rovers have struggled against teams who are prepared to attack them and press high, being very sloppy in possession. If they sit off Rovers like most LOI teams have, there's a chance.

shanec1928

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117807383#Comment_117807383

That’s what we thought and look what’s happened…

Underground

Another perfect ball whipped in by Rovers, and once again absolutely nobody going for it. Ffs.

Ferris_Bueller

If Rovers score they could easily grab another, but Flora look dangerous on the counter too. They've really done their homework on how to play against Rovers by the looks of it. Gonna need to do something differently.

kksaints

Rovers did OK in that half but they didn't create a huge amount and they're not getting enough men into the box for some decent crosses.

Underground

Pretty shocking from Mannus. He's let us down over the two legs here. That's all she wrote.

That is a kick in the teeth for Rovers. It was already looking a tall order but no way back now

Dr. Bre

Poor from mannus

kksaints

Dreadful goal to concede after some good pressure in the moments before.

ShatterProof

A series of errors. Shocking.

Oat23

Knocked out by a butter company. 🤦‍♂️

Francie Barrett

Rovers shape is horrible. Three central defenders with two central midfielders playing far too deep for most of the game. Little wonder they struggled to create chances tonight.

kksaints

Very disappointing 2nd half from Rovers. Really haven't created anything clear cut. I don't know why they're still 3 at the back and why they took Watts off and not take off one of the center backs. Squad is more unbalanced than I thought, they really can't play anything other than 3 at the back and don't have any wingers other than a permanently injured Ferrugia.

Ferris_Bueller

To be honest that was a shocking performance from Rovers over the two legs. Completely outwitted and outperformed, they were very open at the back last week and gave away stupid goals, tonight despite needing to score at least three goals they never really looked like creating many clear cut chances.

I'd question whether Bradley has a plan B. At one stage it felt like a lot of players were playing out of position to accommodate this 5-4-1 formation yet they looked outnumbered both going forward and defensively.

Flora a better team than probably a lot of us expected, so credit to them, but Rovers were poor and really disappointing over the two legs. The good news is they will get a crack at it again next year more than likely.

Underground

Gameplan seemed to be to get to the byline and ping as many crosses into the box as possible.

Strange plan when the likes of Burke and Greene insisted on hanging out on the edge of the opposition box all game. Bizarre.

joeysoap

An opportunity missed. Flora are 3rd in Estonian league ( ok, they have games in hand and will probably come 2nd) nonetheless Rovers should have advanced. we already knew why Dundalk played a weakened team against rovers last year. Play the B team at this stage, and pick up the €3.

joeysoap

€3m.😀

dfx-

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117807904#Comment_117807904

It's what gave Bohs the success they had and penalties in that run against Rovers. Bradley finally changed it up in the cup semi final to play long and suddenly went on a run the other way. Bohs looked good in Tallaght early in the season, but hopeless against everyone else. Same in the first half at home to Slovan. Back three needs the pace of Grace to recover, not Joey and Lopes.

Sloppy possession decided the tie. Good luck to them..

joeysoap

Vitesse and PAOK advance to the playoff rounds.