Guest Posted November 25, 2013 Report Share Posted November 25, 2013 The news this week that Torpoint Athletic have pulled out of the South West League and Liskeard from the Cornwall League means that SEVEN Cornish teams have pulled out of the game this season. Teams to fall by the wayside this season alone is Torpoint Athletic and Falmouth Town from the South West League and St Dominick, Liskeard, Hayle, Kilkhampton and West Cornwall from the Cornwall League. Is it becoming the norm that like the mens game, Women once they reach the age of 16 won't continue into senior football or is it that the better clubs take the best players from their limited numbers. Anyone got any views Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cornishteddyboy Posted November 25, 2013 Report Share Posted November 25, 2013 I was talking to John Mead about this the other day and he came up with a theory which, if you think about is correct. In the keeness to promote ladies teams up the leagues, the better sides have raced up the leagues but most of them much to early in their history. In other words a team has a good squad for a couple of years but once it breaks up it the club struggles and collapses pulling out of their current league. By letting the better teams gain promotion the lower leagues have been weakened both in numbers and quality to such an extent that teams in them are being run on a "shoe-string" both in financial and player number terms. The game locally needs to get down to one decent local Cornwall League, one for Devon and one that covers both counties, like the SWPL. There seems to be too many leagues or levels of leagues for ladies football in the South-West. For example in yesterdays Cornwall FA Cup games there were walk-overs for Liskeard over Dobwalls, Newquay Celtic over Torpoint and St Breward over Mullion. the other 3 matches were played, Charlsetown beating St Teath 8-0, Bude beating Penzance 10-0 and Launceston beating St Agnes 6-0. The Cornwall Cup this year has become a farce! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 25, 2013 Report Share Posted November 25, 2013 I think you are partly right. It seems to have come about all of a sudden. The South West League will grab whatever they want from the county leagues but don't relegate anyone. I also noticed that the Cornwall under 16 league has four clubs while the under 14 league has just five teams. We know that in the women's game you are always going to suffer from players moving on to university, getting pregnant or move on to higher clubs. The Cornwall League used to have 25 teams - now it is 7. The emphasis seems to be on expanding the game at the top. The WSL has expanded to two divisions ALL BASED ON FINANCIAL reasons with NO relegation from WSL 2. Is it down to schools for not producing the youngsters, is it down to men's clubs not backing their female counter parts. It is a very worrying situation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADD Posted November 25, 2013 Report Share Posted November 25, 2013 Not sure about the Ladies side of it as I havent been involved but on the youth side of it at Illogan we now have teams in u10,12,14,16 age groups. The long term plan has been accelerated by being joined this year by a Ladies set up our plan was and still is in the next year or so to be able to feed our girls through the age groups to the senior teams. There are a number of other clubs gradually building but this takes time and sometimes teams dont have it or get it unfortunatley these teams are small in number hopefully teams will gradually grow but it will take time hopefully more clubs will look towards having youth sections and introducing girls to the game. Yesterday we attended Truro college to a festival organised by Warren Parker of the CCFA for u10,12 girls with a good number of young players hopefully for the future it will take time, effort, money and commitment but can be done. Regards Adam Illogan JFC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy K Aggiemaid Posted November 26, 2013 Report Share Posted November 26, 2013 There are many issues affecting ladies football at present and some development around the ladies (16+) game is seriously needed to maintain its future. We started this CWFL season with 12 sides registered and despite all our best efforts, including offering teams delayed starts to the season and even smaller sided 9 v 9 format, 5 sides have withdrawn leaving the league with 7 teams. All 5 sides have withdrawn through lack of players. As pointed our by ECLP above 2 Cornish sides have also withdrawn from the SWWFL. The CWFL loses a team to promotion each season but because the SWWFL is not full no teams have come back down and add that to no new clubs forming or sustaining themselves the numbers are seriously dwindling! The number of registered players has also dwindled and as ECLP mentions players are stepping straight from Under 16's to SWWFL sides which has caused much of the problem for Liskeard despite all the hardwork put in by the club to try and keep it all going! We all want to see the CWFL (formed in 1998 and at its height with 27 member clubs) continue but unless there is help and development of the 11 aside ladies game it is difficult to see a long term future. As Adam pointed out there are presently only 4 Under 16's sides in the county - Illogan/Charlestown/Liskeard who are all attached to existing ladies teams and Culdrose who are not. Hopefully we may see Liskeard back into the CWFL next season and maybe Culdrose as a new team but if we lose another team to promotion without any coming back to us we simply maintain the present status quo. We need new clubs to join us and support! Any clubs interested in starting a new ladies side or any ladies aged 16 years or over of any level of experience who would like to join one of the existing teams please contact CWFL registrations secretary Denzil Lobb on 01872 552091 or email d.lobb48@btinternet.com Mandy K Chair CWFL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bemerzzz Posted February 2, 2014 Report Share Posted February 2, 2014 I realise this is an old topic but having recently become involved in ladies football after giving up playing Peninsula league there have been a few issues that I have noticed. Participation is obviously the big one. Rarely seeing teams arriving with more than twelve in a squad. My understanding is that previously you were able to play from the age of 14. We currently have four players of that age training with us, who could easily play at this level of football. After speaking to the ladies who began playing at 14 there is not a bad word to say about it. Potentially this needs to be discussed to limit the amount of teams disappearing? This lack of players has even bigger impacts on improvement. Often you may only get six or seven players at training. It is incredibly difficult to keep things different and interesting and improve the quality of players with this lack of numbers! Getting to the girls at younger ages is so important. If you look at the DJM league which includes both Devon and Cornwall sides, in the past they have had 8/9 teams. The league just finishing u16s finished with three sides, and the next age group down has just four. This is a huge issue particularly when you consider a large number won't continue playing! On a slightly different note I have noticed a big difference with referees which is very frustrating. You will not see a card for a tackle in womens football. Being a referee as well I have to admit I get agitated at the fact you appeal a decision they are straight on your back, whilst some terrible challenges are going in and players walk away with nothing. I fully accept it is a leisure activity but there do come points where you feel slightly worried for the safety of your players. Players get as frustrated by this as I do! To end on a positive, the league is all played in good spirit and is extremely competitive ( swwfl ) and the ladies certainly in our side are enthusiastic and willing to learn and improve, and team spirit is far better than in the mens game where players are on the move if they find themselves on the bench for a game! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chairman Posted February 2, 2014 Report Share Posted February 2, 2014 Or maybe girls are not generally interested in the game really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Deacon Posted February 2, 2014 Report Share Posted February 2, 2014 Truro's home game today against Cleeve had to be called off because the Bristol based side suggested they didn't want to travel in this weather! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bemerzzz Posted February 2, 2014 Report Share Posted February 2, 2014 Wow that is a fantastic excuse haha! I can say that both sides in our previous game were thrilled just to get some football in, despite the conditions! In regard to chairmans comment - You can only get people interested by making it interesting. For sure its very different to the mens game but there are some serious grass roots issues! There are some extremely good players in the SWWFL, only got to look at Truro going up and being at the top of the league above, just got to increase the pool of players somehow otherwise the womens game is in real trouble! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheolderIgetthebetterIwas Posted February 3, 2014 Report Share Posted February 3, 2014 You hit the nail on the head there chairman, girls when they reach that age have a lot of other interests. Its a mans game, and we all know it. Its hard enough getting young men to play these days, other things to do as well. Football will shrink to a sustainable level over the next few years - its the natural level of things - evolution they call it, and its unstoppable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 5, 2014 Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 I think it is not only a problem in the female game but men's clubs are suffering the same problem. Is it a sign of the times? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted February 8, 2014 Report Share Posted February 8, 2014 Do you think some of the ladies teams formed in the hope of receiving fa funding to help the club improvements as a whole. I know when I was on the committee at our club, when seeking funding it seemed to me you needed as many teams as possible to have a chance. Hence why clubs like Wendron have done so well with securing funding in the past. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruegel the Elder Posted February 8, 2014 Report Share Posted February 8, 2014 Do you think some of the ladies teams formed in the hope of receiving fa funding to help the club improvements as a whole. I know when I was on the committee at our club, when seeking funding it seemed to me you needed as many teams as possible to have a chance. Hence why clubs like Wendron have done so well with securing funding in the past. Yes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Eddy Posted February 8, 2014 Report Share Posted February 8, 2014 but this is also credit to clubs like Wendron because they get so many teams out each week. this is not an easy task but they have managed to achieve it with only a minor blip for quiet a few years now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheolderIgetthebetterIwas Posted February 8, 2014 Report Share Posted February 8, 2014 Agree with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
true mabefc Posted February 9, 2014 Report Share Posted February 9, 2014 Who would i have to speak to about joining the ladies league ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy K Aggiemaid Posted February 9, 2014 Report Share Posted February 9, 2014 Any enquires regarding the CWFL can be directed to me Mandy Kimmins (Chair) 07974 370666 or email bolsterpaper@gmail.com Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted February 9, 2014 Report Share Posted February 9, 2014 but this is also credit to clubs like Wendron because they get so many teams out each week. this is not an easy task but they have managed to achieve it with only a minor blip for quiet a few years now Yes Martin, credit where credit's due, Wendron do a great job finding the backroom staff to run so many teams. Peter Thorne especially works tirelessly up there and no doubt there's a few others behind the scenes who we don't know much about that work there socks off too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now