Regional system suits teams in Junior ‘B’
‘THE Junior ‘B’ football championship, we have 15 teams. What the CCC is proposing is that we go with four groups and we’ve tried to regionalise the groups and make them district as best we can,’ began Paul Wilson when the draws for the Junior ‘B’ football championship were taking place at the County Board meeting that was held from Ballinakill via Zoom last Wednesday evening.
However, before he could get ahead of steam worked up the Hollywood official was cut short by Kiltegan’s Damien Byrne who wanted to make a point in relation to his club’s second football team.
‘We’ve discussed Kiltegan earlier in the year that maybe we could fit in the Junior ‘C’ championship, not Junior ‘B’. We sent in an email last week in relation to it as well,’ he said.
‘At this stage we have you in the Junior ‘B’ if I’m being honest,’ replied Paul Wilson. ‘What we could do is let the CCC have a look at it. All it would do is effect group number three. We’ll have a CCC meeting this week and I’ll come back to you,’ he added. Philip Doyle JBFC Group 1: AGB, Avoca, Avondale, Rathnew
Group 2: Bray Emmets, Newtown, Newcastle, St. Pats
Group 3: Baltinglass, Dunlavin, Kiltegan, Lacken-Kilbride
Group 4: Carnew Emmets, Knockananna, Tinahely
Top team into semi-final. ‘What I’d be proposing there is that if we go ahead with those groupings which I think are pretty fair from a regional point of view, I would go with home and away matches and the top teams from each group would qualify for the semi-finals, and the proposed start date would be Thursday, August 6.
‘Unless there is a counter proposal against that, I’m proposing we go with it. If there is a counter proposal against that, it would be an all-county open draw so teams could end up travelling anywhere and everywhere on a Thursday night. We wanted to keep it as simple as possible,’ he added.
There was no counter proposal and Bobby Dignam seconded Paul Wilson’s proposal and the draw was passed.
Carnew’s Tim Balfe asked whether the Thursday nights when the Junior ‘B’ championship games were due to be played were in hurling or football weekends. Paul Wilson replied that they would be every week. And he also said that it would be the same for Junior hurling.
‘We’re not involved in the Junior hurling,’ said Tim Balfe, ‘But we are involved in the Junior ‘B’ football and the Senior hurling and you want us to play every Thursday and Saturday,’ he added.
AGB’s John Murphy said that Kiltegan pulling out of the Junior ‘B’ championship left it easier for the teams in groups three and four to get out of their groups.
Paul Wilson said that it was either the regionalised four groups or an open draw of two groups of seven unless someone came in with a counter proposal. No counter proposal was offered.