County Representative Football.

[David Bray]

Sadly there will be no CCFA Representative Football this season.

The 2nd leg of the Brunel Cup ( reversed fixtures from last season ) scheduled for May this year has been abandoned. 

The chances of County teams playing any Representative Football in the near future must be in serious doubt.

Anyone wishing further information or reasoning should contact the County Office. 

 

[Dave Deacon]

Why’s it not going ahead Dave. It’s the end of county rep football by the sounds of it. Everyone too busy to be bothered?

[Tommy Matthews]

Very sad but an inevitable consequence of the step system. 

[cornish leg end]

Do the Cornwall fa not make enough money to make this work and out something today? 

[Tommy Matthews]

24 minutes ago, cornish leg end said:

Do the Cornwall fa not make enough money to make this work and out something today? 

It’s nothing to do with the Cornwall FA. If you don’t have any opponents you can’t play games. Local FAs don’t have a hold on selecting players these days, the clubs do and most (especially in other counties) won’t release them. Gone are the days when if you had two or more players selected for your county, you could postpone a game. You can’t anymore so clubs will naturally insist on having their players rather than key players missing. 
Essentially the step system has taken all the powers away from local FAs and if there’s no interest then there’s no games. 

[David Bray]

15 minutes ago, Tommy Matthews said:

It’s nothing to do with the Cornwall FA. If you don’t have any opponents you can’t play games. Local FAs don’t have a hold on selecting players these days, the clubs do and most (especially in other counties) won’t release them. Gone are the days when if you had two or more players selected for your county, you could postpone a game. You can’t anymore so clubs will naturally insist on having their players rather than key players missing. 
Essentially the step system has taken all the powers away from local FAs and if there’s no interest then there’s no games. 

Spot on Tommy.

[cornish leg end]

32 minutes ago, Tommy Matthews said:

It’s nothing to do with the Cornwall FA. If you don’t have any opponents you can’t play games. Local FAs don’t have a hold on selecting players these days, the clubs do and most (especially in other counties) won’t release them. Gone are the days when if you had two or more players selected for your county, you could postpone a game. You can’t anymore so clubs will naturally insist on having their players rather than key players missing. 
Essentially the step system has taken all the powers away from local FAs and if there’s no interest then there’s no games. 

Right I get it now I thought it was to do with the county fa it would be a real shame. Cornwall always been blessed having good county sides as you know. 

[Tommy Matthews]

The “rot” started when I was with the County Youth Team and while most managers allowed their players to play as they understood the honour involved and the fact that it helped develop their players. Sadly there were some who put club before county which of course was their choice but it denied young players the experience of playing county football. One particular player who was in outstanding form for his club played just one game out of seven for us. 

[Dave Deacon]

2 hours ago, cornish leg end said:

Right I get it now I thought it was to do with the county fa it would be a real shame. Cornwall always been blessed having good county sides as you know. 

To be fair to the Cornwall FA, they have done well getting games on when other counties have been fairly apathetic towards the idea!

[cornish leg end]

2 hours ago, Tommy Matthews said:

The “rot” started when I was with the County Youth Team and while most managers allowed their players to play as they understood the honour involved and the fact that it helped develop their players. Sadly there were some who put club before county which of course was their choice but it denied young players the experience of playing county football. One particular player who was in outstanding form for his club played just one game out of seven for us. 

Sounds like you was fighting a losing battle with some. It’s a shame there’s a lot of unseen  talent in Cornwall 

[Tommy Matthews]

I think the talent is being found but there’s no county teams to aspire to at men’s youth and senior level. 
Just my opinion but outside of the professional game representing your county is the biggest honour you can have. 

[RAPPO]

Remember when we played Dorset away in January at Bridport Tom and they were out warming up in their all in one training coats and Lenny came in and dropped our kit in the middle of the dressing room in a bin bag 45 minutes before kick off and it was still wet from being washed at the launderettes that morning!! Think it was about 2c outside and raining! We won 3-1 anyway!!! 😁⚽️👍👏🏼

[Tommy Matthews]

11 hours ago, RAPPO said:

Remember when we played Dorset away in January at Bridport Tom and they were out warming up in their all in one training coats and Lenny came in and dropped our kit in the middle of the dressing room in a bin bag 45 minutes before kick off and it was still wet from being washed at the launderettes that morning!! Think it was about 2c outside and raining! We won 3-1 anyway!!! 😁⚽️👍👏🏼

I do remember Rappo. Same at Almondsbury against Gloucestershire. It was so bloody cold we were frozen to the core during the “warm-up”. Thankfully when I had the Cornwall Youth Team David Bray was the consummate professional and everything was done properly. Between us all we had warm-up tops, kit bags, the lot. I can’t complain about anything really. 

10 hours ago, FutureGK said:

Such a shame County representative football won’t happen. No doubt the county FAs have done all they can to make this happen….

Well I can say the Cornwall FA have but it was met with resistance from some other counties really. The recent Cornwall v Devon games were a chance to have representative sides but not with the hope of anything more. There are schools sides that play but it’s difficult to get a Cornwall U-18 Youth Team anymore because the best players are playing in the step system. 
When clubs won’t release players and some players are reluctant to give up their “remuneration” and play for their county instead, I don’t think there’s any way back. 

[Dave Deacon]

1 minute ago, FutureGK said:

Where any u18s players asked ? I find it hard to believe any would turn down a chance to pull on the county 18s shirt ?

Had they opposition lined up?

[Tommy Matthews]

7 minutes ago, FutureGK said:

Where any u18s players asked ? I find it hard to believe any would turn down a chance to pull on the county 18s shirt ?

You need opponents to play any game. Other counties need to be able to raise a side and you need at least four to have a league. You’re also assuming that teams playing in the step system will release them. It doesn’t always happen.