The withdrawals of Skerries and Naas, combined with Kilkenny’s decision to drop their first side down to division four leaves division two with a bare look for the opening weekend of the season.The six remaining teams will play each other three times with the side due to have a bye according to the ‘Blue books’ fixture list replacing Skerries.
Quite what to make of the future of the division is unclear though the trend is very worrying. In the early 1990s, Leinster hockey had three divisions of ten teams devoted solely to first teams.
Many of those clubs have since fallen by the wayside and it is difficult to see division two remaining in its current format in 2010/11 unless the current trend is reversed.
As for this weekend’s games, Dublin Uni’s game with Avoca looks the pick of the three with both giving league debuts to a number of new faces.
Trinity have Wesley senior cup winning skipper Kristian Fitzgerald as an option between the posts while Steven Roberts moves from Three Rock, Niall Noonan from YMCA and Freddie Hill from Pembroke.
Munster U-18 Roger Clarke has also signed up while the potential of a number of English arrivals remains to be seen but initial signs are Sean Flynn, a West of England representative, could be handy. Peter Hyde returns after stints with Suttonians and Clontarf.
On the way out are key club men Barry Glavey and Ben Hewitt while Brian Cleere looks set to continue his studies beyond College Park. Aengus Stanley and Jonny Orr could return in the New Year.
Avoca, meanwhile, have swooped for Bray trio Jamie Crawford, Greg Keeley and Rob Pearson in their bid to return back to division one though Karl Chapple has moved to Railway Union.
Weston look to be the other side in contention for promotion under the coaching of Alan Browne. The talismanic midfielder has got his side playing high-tempo stuff and the additions of Vikram Singh and Brian Scully are notable ones.
A Bray side short of the afore-mentioned trio, Cliff Bailey and Andy Macken combined with Ian Murphy returning to New Zealand and James Hardiman to Australia means last season’s runners-up have a tough season of rebuilding ahead of them.
Suttonians, under Frank Byrne, have added Alan Crawford (Fingal) and Simon Walsh (Pembroke) to their squad and are close to full strength for Stephen McGrath’s Navan Badger’s visit on Saturday.
Richie Wormald is the only player missing having recently got engaged but will return next week.
Men's Division Two Saturday fixtures: Suttonians vs Navan, Sutton Park; Dublin University vs Avoca, 1pm, Santry Avenue; Weston vs Bray 2pm, Griffeen Valley Park
16 comments:
Findo, any truth in the rumour that J.P.P. van der Elfinhausen is planning a return to first team action this year for Trinity due to all the losses to the first team?
GO ON BROWNLOW
Come on the Badgers! Showing their grit and determination to stay in the league after Naas and Skerries wimped out. Badgers are now officially the highest placed Leinster team outside of Dublin!
Funily enough tho, they train and play home games in dublin!!!! What a Leinster(Dublin)league we have!! Shows how well the Leinster Branch and Iha have supported teams trying to make a go of it outside Dublin!! Bit of a joke!!Something should be done to keep players at their Home Clubs past the stage of Leinster U-16, like Navan, Kilkenny,Naas etc and stop the Big Dublin clubs from swallowing up all of the Tallent! Might give the rest of Leinster a small chance of making it!
Al Crawford back at suttonians is massive! That guys gonna be dominating the right wing all season.
Mullingar and St. Brendans/PP turned down offers to go up to Div 2. Do we need to go back to the old senior system where all 3 div's are only for 1's like ulster or do we need to open up Div 3 and allow the likes of PW 2's to go into Div 2 and let water find its own level?? On the whole developement side, Lenster needs to start putting big effort into the midlands and south leinster. Kilkenny HC only boys hockey school outside the Pale, Wilsons Hospital havnt fielded in years. its a credit to the likes of Navan and Mullingar that they are doing well against the odds.
Come on the Badgers! Showing their grit and determination to stay in the league after Naas and Skerries wimped out. Badgers are now officially the highest placed Leinster team outside of Dublin!
September 25, 2009 3:39 PM
I wasn't aware Bray were in Dublin! Though second highest isn't that bad!
Trinity for promotion this year. Great team spirit and building already and really looking very promising on all fronts.
BROWNLOW'S BABES TO WIN THE LEAGUE
Bray are wanna be dubs tho!!!!!
In reality, the majority of sides in Div 3 wiull beat those in Div 2. If we are seeking progress then why not Div 3 and Div 2 together with only 1st teams capable of being promoted. So if you are a 1st team and you come top, you get promoted automatically. If you come second you go into a play off. The main issue is that you have a stale mate where the 2nds team continuously finish in the top two spots and as such there is no promotion / relegation. While the standard of Div 2 hockey would be far higher and more competitive you could have a chesss situation which happened for a number of years in womens hockey where Pembroke, Loreto, Alex and Hermes 2nds (and now Railway)teams dominate. This may not be the answer but having a farce of a six team league is a waste of time.
Division 2 must be opened up to Clubs seconds teams. 6 teams in the top division is not good enough. I can understand why teams such as naas, Kilkenny, and Portrane, and St James Gate have dropped because despite all having "decent" teams, the standared of the league is too high. Seconds Teams should be allowed to play division 2 but not be promoted. It works with the ladies divisions 2 so why not with the Mens. As regards to the comment about Navan, I would love to see a match between them and Divsion 4 side Mullingar or Division 5 sides Naas and St James Gate. They would Probably lose.
don't really think that Div 3 teams being introduced would solve anything, if skerries, naas, kilkenny, manage to rebuild then how do they break into the division again once they have done so? if you introduce Div 3 teams it'd pretty much kill those teams off. mainly because Div 3 teams are alot stronger than some Div 2 teams and they would be the ones being relegated and not the second string teams. besides what makes you think Div 3 teams would want to play Div 2 hockey if supposedly Div 3 is a better standard.
as for the comment about navan getting beaten by Div 4 sides, have you seen us play recently or are you just going by the assumption that navan are crap?! we play in Div 2 because we want to get better and we do that by playing good sides in our division not by hiding in division 4 or wherever else, since getting promoted from Division 4 there has been a massive improvement in the team with young players coming through and showing potential. it takes balls to do that and enter Div 2. I'll admit we got beaten alot of the time and quite badly in some matches but it was a learning experience and we've come out the other end stronger. really looking forward to the season to start tomorrow and prove people wrong this season.
If div 3 is such a high standard then why do trinity seconds do grand in it? Navan might lose quite often but they have the respect of everybody in div 2 and they are improving. Players who play for pembroke thirds and the like tend to think their really good but in reality nobody who isn't on the pitch cares about seconds or thirds. Its like playing for the reserves in football, it means nothing.
as for the comment about navan getting beaten by Div 4 sides, have you seen us play recently or are you just going by the assumption that navan are crap?! we play in Div 2 because we want to get better and we do that by playing good sides in our division not by hiding in division 4 or wherever else, since getting promoted from Division 4 there has been a massive improvement in the team with young players coming through and showing potential. it takes balls to do that and enter Div 2. I'll admit we got beaten alot of the time and quite badly in some matches but it was a learning experience and we've come out the other end stronger. really looking forward to the season to start tomorrow and prove people wrong this season.
Eh, Navan finished midtable the year they were asked to go up to fill the numbers. Since when does that equate to earning promotion??? Fair play tho, holding yer own, might beat weston once a year!!! Go ye!!
Where does this assumption come from that Division 3 teams are better than division 2? As a division 2 player my experience of playing division 3 teams has always been rather pleasant. Good young players and has beens with little cohesion or desire.
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