Only got themselves to blame. No promotion of their training days or anything in regards to zone league. Lucky they have 100 all age sides to borrow players from to keep them afloat.Originally Posted by riverboy
Only got themselves to blame. No promotion of their training days or anything in regards to zone league. Lucky they have 100 all age sides to borrow players from to keep them afloat.
Maybe they should have been relegated as per the rules.
Wallsend also asked to go down to zl3 but were knocked back after a couple of attempts. Wallsend had lost nearly all last years first grade that finished 9th and were again struggling for numbers so I think it was a valid case. Especially compared to some clubs in zl3.
Mayfield juniors came last the previous year. They should have been relegated under the rules.
Plenty of third grade forfeits coming
Seems like getting rid of third grade is going to be the right move with so many clubs struggling to fill them
Meanwhile Croatia had a convincing win against an NPL side yesterday, early days but going to be a good year for Croatia.
Reserves got hammered and we got shown up but that doesn't matter, you don't get promoted of the strength of your reserves.
Nor do you get promoted in January
Given the experience Wallsend has last year and that information above it does seem valid for sure...
Really interesting that they were knocked back, does that mean Newy Football have the view that its fill the grades or disappear as a club?
Seems that way if they don?t have the clubs best interest at heart.
Or could be for Northern to prove their point about removing threes.
Correct
Yeah didn't say that I said it is going to be a good year.
2 clubs struggling to fill 3rd grade teams, so the other 22 clubs get punished??
Wallsend could easily be gone by Tuesday/Wednesday in all grades. That's the reality, Hard to see anything changing. Shame as numbers are OK for 2 grades.
Deffo not good, no one wants that. Looks like a bye round is coming
Easy solution drop Wallsend into zl3 and bring up whoever came second last year.
Do they have three grades? Just let them play with 2, if they are dropping thirds end of the season, why does it matter if there are some byes this year.
The more likely reason why they refused to drop Wallsend and Mayfield is because with promotion/relegation there is no point trying to mess up the league numbers now and they want to keep them even.
So 2 months out from the start of the season suddenly a new club has to try to find another 15+ blokes? It’s too late for that, you’ll just end up with that club trying to drop as well since they can’t field 3rds, or, a bye in 3rds.
Middleby Gone
Lawrie Out
Wallsend's case was very simple. All bar one Wallsend first grader has left. So basically it's a merger between Wallsend reserve grade and a mixture from Cardiff City's Zone League 2 squad from last year, first and Reserve.
It's no secret both squads probably struggled the most for numbers come game days. Lots of forfeits in lower grades. It's also no secret both clubs struggled severely to get results.
This years squad only had enough for two grades and have a squad that's only really capable of playing at Zone League 3 level. The playing just 2 grades doesn't really solve any issue. Importantly your lowest players are playing against the middle part of other clubs. With substitution
in this grade it doesn't really allow much participation for your weaker players.
Wallsend needs to rebuild, start again. The new promotion/relegation system is good in theory. But if you are dead set struggling in a division and don't get relegated you face 2 scenarios given their are no allowances. Get pumped and have more forfeits etc or disappear as a club. Not good
And herein lies the problem with the 3 grades, some clubs can easily fill 3 squads, then others can’t. But the problem persists if you drop a club or two and then try to replace them with clubs who either can’t fill 3 grades themselves, or are not at ZL2 level, get pumped, and then drop back down.
I can’t see a future for 3rd grade like this, unless it’s an opt in system for each ZL where if you’re playing a team that doesn’t have a 3rd grade side that week, you have a bye. Especially after a few promotions/relegations and clubs just having to drop their 3rd grade when they drop to ZL3, or have them play all age seperate to the main ZL squad.
Middleby Gone
Lawrie Out
Really the only two viable options if 3rds to remain, the other is to disband
Last edited by Taffy; 30-01-2024 at 05:14 PM.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
