Reflect on this season & plan for next season?

Savman

Ok so the first season is just about over, bar the final game on 18th March which doesnt really have much significance for either ourselves or the opposition.

In my opinion, I thought the 6-team divison was crap with having to play everyone 3 times, dunno how they do it in the SPL! I don't know what the feeling is on nxt season regarding what night suits best, but feck sake a bigger division has to be priority. At least it wont be a case, like it is now, of one team running away with it (Boca Plate have Played 13, Won 11 and Drawn 2). If there were more teams around our level we would be all taking points off each other, the knock on effect of that is that you can lose to the Top Team but still push for 2nd or 3rd if you beat the teams around you. If you took Boca Plate out of our division, then Noisewater would be the team to beat and as we seen last week that's not too big an ask.

When we last played Noisewater we were shockingly bad (IMHO) but somehow managed to draw 3-3 with an equaliser in stoppage time. Thats how good teams do it, play badly and get a result instead of just accepting a loss. That kind of defeatist attitude we can do without.

Yesterday we lost 3-2 to a whingey aggressive Templeroan team despite playing well. We went 3-0 down in opening 10mins but since we pulled it back to 3-1 in the first half it was a fairly even contest. That peno decision that went against us in the 1st half was a key moment, on another day the Ref wouldn't bottle such a biggie. These things generally balance themselves out over a season but that ref was awful. Either way, the ref didnt score against us, the 3 we conceded were, yet again, sloppy. You cannot give away 3 goals in quick succession in any league and expect to get a result. At 3-0 down we were dead and buried, Jules scored a very good goal but apart from the fumble by their keeper we weren't exactly plush with chances. We just huffed and puffed with no end product.

I think some of us are getting bullied off the ball and psych'd out of matches, we have to toughen up ffs. As Jules said afterwards, we are just not mean enough. If you go out with a "sunday kickabout" kind of attitude then that's what you'll be, "kicked about" by the opposition. Some of our games were like Men Versus Boys at times, we were that meak. Get dirty! What are we afraid of? It's well known that if you go into a challenge half heartedly, you will come out worse off. If in doubt, go thru the ball and man. It's highly unlikely you will get sent off unless you deck someone, this is fairly basic stuff. Its a contact sport so dont be afraid to get physical...

I have also noticed in recent games some lads go quiet and switch off as the game goes on. Some won't even listen when you try speak to them, this I really cant understand because going into games everyone seems up for it then it seems we lose a couple of players thru boredom/tiredness/attitude/whatever. Sorry but not good enough lads. You dont have to be Maradona but if you do the simple thing and work hard thats all your teammates can ask of you. We go quiet as mice on the pitch for some reason? What happened to the talking? It's the same voices all the time, might sound stoopid but until we have 11 players shouting "MAN ONNNNNNNNNNNN!" we'll not get anywhere.

If someone was running up behind you with a knife, you'd want someone to warn you. This is no different.

Thats my rant, someone else take over!

_blank_

OK then.

You can all see the thread about the options for next season anyway.

I think we have done fantastically well, from what we started out as in August to what we have now is very good.

It's a pity we lost so many of the players who paid the money, but that's the nature of it I think. The core group we have now, the 14 or 15 that regularly appear on Sundays is growing as a team. I think a few additions in some positions and we'll compete at a higher level than we did, especially in the part of the season before Xmas.

We have six weeks until the Summer season kicks in and it runs for 18 weeks which will bring it up to the middle or end of August, so I'm going to ask you all to think about how much commitment you can give over the whole period.

Can you come every week, can you train weekends?

I want a squad of eighteen. I want eighteen players who will come every week. I want eighteen players to commit for the eighteen weeks of the season.

I want to build a team capable of competing at the Medium Standard with a view to moving to High within a season or two.

The core is already here in place, and I think we owe it to ourselves to keep going.

Quball15

I must say i enjoyed and looked forward to every game we had. My only regret is that i missed so many lately.

I did think that it was a bit shoddy to only have 6 teams, but in fairness we were lucky to even get in a league.

I hope we keep up the training anyway cus its helping a lot. And i definately think we'd have a much improved and more solid team come the start of the summer season.

Personally, way back in august last year, when i joined the team I planned on getting my fitness up to scratch. but that never happened and i even got worse. Throughout the season I struggled fitnesswise during the matches. My sharpness is terrible, which meant i lost a lot of 50-50s.

What about getting some friendlies after this season and before next...

Savman

Aye friendlies plus training.

I know some lads say they play another game during the week, but that's not quite the same if it becomes too casual. Sometimes you end up fooling yourself over your own sharpness.

Best to play against better players who wont be so easy on you, it's the only way. You wont get pushed off the ball playing with your mates whereas oppostion players will be less forgiving.

It's occurred to me that maybe we have to be more like a football team with the way we approach games. Fine if we have to post on thread stating our availability but it's happened a few times where we'd be expecting fellas on a sunday only to get a message in the dressing room they weren't coming. Maybe put funds aside for a club mobile phone that is the point of contact if you are gonna be AWOL and cant get online. Some reminder texts sent around to the group about training etc wouldnt do any harm either and you get 250 free texts a month with o2, think its 300 with Vodafone.

A regular training night is absolutely essential, it's done week-by-week now cos it only started recently (fair play Darragh btw). Let's just agree on a day of the week that suits best and stick to it, maybe block book somewhere or DCU seems to suit all. Fair enough we all cant be there all of the time but there has to be a real desire to do well. All I'm saying is I've no interest in playing for a mickey mouse "cant be arsed" type of team, I just wouldn't bother cos its a total waste of time and the most frustrating thing in the world. I'd imagine a few others feel the same? Like I said, the only thing required is commitment, we make allowance for lack of skills in a particular area, if someone's weak in the air we can address that in training. If you don't want to be there well there ain't no training exercises for that...

Sounds stoopid, but entering the "medium" level league is a semi-serious move considering where the team has come from. These "medium" leagues are bound to have very good players who just dont fancy entering the Higher level league so we have to be prepared for 9 other decent teams. Gifting goals will make us the laughing stock and we'll finish bottom of the pile. Make ourselves difficult to play against and difficult to beat so nobody will look at their fixtures and think "ah grand we've boardeaux on thursday, handy one" :mad:

rant rant rant :D

kaizersoze123

Some fine rants here so far Sav, Neil would have been proud of you
We've done great so far I think. Have made a lot of progress from last August anyway! We have to step it up another level though for next season. Our aim has to be to cut out all the soft goals we've been giving away. If we could cut out them ,then we would have been there or there abouts in most of our games this season. A bit more concentration required I think. We lost 3 goals in the first 10 mins the last day before we switched on. We need to be focused from the kick off.
I agree with you Sav about having no interest in playing with a Mickey mouse team. We either want to enter this to win every game, or were just entering it for the craic, a chance to say "yeah i play on a football team". In fairness I don't think we are like that but it's a good point anyway. As regards next season, I can commit to midweeks definately if its on thursdays, and hopefully a bit of time on weekends, but as I'm going back to GAA football this summer, I can't say for 100% yet.