2021 season General thread

[niall_hearty2000]

The S/C coach Graham Norton was predominantly involved in GAA before he joined Dundalk. GAA players conditioning is more focused on upper body ,more physical game. Some of the Dundalk players over the last few years looked like they done too much upper body, Gartland, Sean Hoare, even McEleney.


The previous S/C coach at Dundalk Graham Byrne left Dundalk for GAA S/C https://www.the42.ie/graham-byrne-dunda ... 0-May2018/

Yes I agree they appear to be bulking up on the weights a lot.

[magarnagle]

Interesting to hear people pointing to a lack of fitness last season. Here's a counter argument, less than 3 days after a EL match in Norway, we beat a team with over a week to prepare after extra time on a crap pitch, looked far fitter.

[Quayman]

Rumours one leading Premier division side have been refused a licence due to salary breaches. Most clubs have announced this morning that they got their licence, havn't seen anything from us yet.

[Richie87]

Interesting to hear people pointing to a lack of fitness last season. Here's a counter argument, less than 3 days after a EL match in Norway, we beat a team with over a week to prepare after extra time on a crap pitch, looked far fitter.

Fair enough point, though McMillan, Duffy, McEleney didn't start in Norway. I wouldn't say looked far fitter though, Dundalk came more into the game after a slow start. They always looked a threat on the attack with Burke.

[Peak11]

Our stamina in the Cup final was very impressive and superior to Rovers who visibly wilted and were beaten at 2-1 only to be gifted an equaliser.

But under Perth in his first season, even maybe 2018, the speed we had been playing the game at in previous seasons noticeably dropped off and I've never understood why. So many games where players seemed never to try beat a man, where they would move at walking pace off the ball, where no one would find space at throw ins, where the full back would check his run, pass to the centre backs, who'd pass to the other full back, and repeat. When we've needed to up the tempo in games we haven't been able to for a long time.

I don't know is it an S&C thing that focused too much on strength at the expense of speed. Was it a defensive-minded tactical thing? Was it caused by not having a proper number 8 since O'Donnell got crocked? Was it because of the type of number 9 Hoban is? Was it because we became totally reliant on playing Michael Duffy in? Maybe all of the above.

[dundalkfc1903]

Rumours one leading Premier division side have been refused a licence due to salary breaches. Most clubs have announced this morning that they got their licence, havn't seen anything from us yet.

Have seen Sligo, Drogheda, Rovers, Harps and Longford confirm so far

[dundalkfc1903]

Rumours one leading Premier division side have been refused a licence due to salary breaches. Most clubs have announced this morning that they got their licence, havn't seen anything from us yet.

Have seen Sligo, Drogheda, Rovers, Harps and Longford confirm so far

St Pats have theirs also

Dan McD saying all premier clubs got licences. He'd be drooling if there was any issues in dundalk. Can't wait to have a go these days.

[Peak11]

Rumours one leading Premier division side have been refused a licence due to salary breaches. Most clubs have announced this morning that they got their licence, havn't seen anything from us yet.

Have seen Sligo, Drogheda, Rovers, Harps and Longford confirm so far

St Pats have theirs also

Dan McD saying all premier clubs got licences. He'd be drooling if there was any issues in dundalk. Can't wait to have a go these days.

Yeah we have ours with some clarifications required according to a guy I know at one of the LOI websites. Jim has fixed it!

[oldfogey]

Rumours one leading Premier division side have been refused a licence due to salary breaches. Most clubs have announced this morning that they got their licence, havn't seen anything from us yet.

Have seen Sligo, Drogheda, Rovers, Harps and Longford confirm so far

St Pats have theirs also

Dan McD saying all premier clubs got licences. He'd be drooling if there was any issues in dundalk. Can't wait to have a go these days.

It seems some of the outlets jumped the gun about licences, and the make up of the divisions, possibly a rogue source or maybe just guesswork. Only 10 clubs invited to take part in 1st Division. (Treaty Utd in - Rovers B out).

Some sniggering going on now at the back of the class amongst those who kept their powder dry.

[Pepsi]

https://www.fai.ie/domestic/news/compos ... -finalised

Licences for the 2021 season were awarded by the Independent Licensing Committee on Friday. On receipt earlier today of the NLEC recommendation that the First Division comprise of 10 teams, the FAI Board then took its decision this afternoon.

The SSE Airtricity Premier Division season will kick-off on March 19th with the SSE Airtricity First Division campaign commencing on March 26th.

SSE AIRTRICITY PREMIER DIVISION
Bohemian FC, Derry City, Drogheda United, Dundalk, Finn Harps, Longford Town, Shamrock Rovers, Sligo Rovers, St Patrick’s Athletic, Waterford FC.

SSE AIRTRICITY FIRST DIVISION
Athlone Town, Bray Wanderers, Cabinteely, Cobh Ramblers, Cork City, Galway United, Shelbourne, Treaty United, UCD AFC, Wexford FC.

[dundalkfc1903]

Personally wouldnt have a problem with Rovers II as long as they could only transfer players between their squads during transfer windows.

This craic of having Scales (for example) playing one week in division one to get fitness up and be playing in the premier league the following week was farcical.

[Richie87]

It's good that Limerick has a team in the first Division. Needs more teams outside of Dublin. Thats nothing against Dublin, capital so bigger population. But they need the League to expand

[niall_hearty2000]

Personally wouldnt have a problem with Rovers II as long as they could only transfer players between their squads during transfer windows.

This craic of having Scales (for example) playing one week in division one to get fitness up and be playing in the premier league the following week was farcical.

I would have a couple of issues with rovers B. It is unfair on the rest of the Premier division teams. We have lost 2 young players in the past week because of lack of game time. It helps rovers develop players to step up to the Premier league first team the following season. So why can't Dundalk, derry pats or any other Premier league club who wishes to, have access to this? OK some clubs can barely scrape the budget for a first team squad, but we are more than capable of fielding a B team in the first division. How many players had we wasting away last season in the stands who didn't even make the subs bench for matches? They could have gained match sharpness for this season.
The 2nd issue I have is that rovers B obviously can't gain promotion, so it doesn't matter where they end up in the table. I think it is unfair that their results go towards the final league table. Imagine losing out on promotion or a playoff spot because you conceded 1 more goal or dropped a point playing rovers B. Their results shouldn't count.

[dundalkfc1903]

Personally wouldnt have a problem with Rovers II as long as they could only transfer players between their squads during transfer windows.

This craic of having Scales (for example) playing one week in division one to get fitness up and be playing in the premier league the following week was farcical.

I would have a couple of issues with rovers B. It is unfair on the rest of the Premier division teams. We have lost 2 young players in the past week because of lack of game time. It helps rovers develop players to step up to the Premier league first team the following season. So why can't Dundalk, derry pats or any other Premier league club who wishes to, have access to this? OK some clubs can barely scrape the budget for a first team squad, but we are more than capable of fielding a B team in the first division. How many players had we wasting away last season in the stands who didn't even make the subs bench for matches? They could have gained match sharpness for this season.
The 2nd issue I have is that rovers B obviously can't gain promotion, so it doesn't matter where they end up in the table. I think it is unfair that their results go towards the final league table. Imagine losing out on promotion or a playoff spot because you conceded 1 more goal or dropped a point playing rovers B. Their results shouldn't count.

Yes I agree, should be open to other teams to apply if they want a B team.

[Wexford White]

It's good that Limerick has a team in the first Division. Needs more teams outside of Dublin. Thats nothing against Dublin, capital so bigger population. But they need the League to expand

Agree 100%. Limerick should have representation. The First Division was trivialised by the addition of a B team that couldn't win the league and couldn't play in the FAI Cup and I believe that points gained or lost against a B team should not be counted in the final computation.