Newspaper coverage doesn’t make sense!

A man I know places Moses’ 40-year trek across the Sinai in the shade; his efforts to guide the fortunes of junior and schoolboy football in Limerick dwarfs that biblical character’s commitment to the cause. And what thanks does he get for it, well very little - at least Moses’ got his hands on the Ten Commandments.
My man doesn’t mind though, he loves what he’s doing, but he does have a point to make: he believes the coverage of soccer in Ireland is utterly skewed.
Here’s his point: next week in Leader Sport we will attempt to make a fuss about the launch of the 2009 Eircom League season in general and Limerick FC in particular. On Friday night Limerick will travel to Belfield to take on UCD in their opening game of the season and will probably take a 20-man squad to Dublin.
But here’s the rub: despite the attention we will foist on Limerick FC for the remainder of the season the involvement of those players will only represent 1% of the total number of players taking to the soccer fields of Limerick on a given weekend. This weekend, between junior and schoolboy football, 153 games will take place in Limerick. So if you assume that 22 players start every game with a possible six players introduced as substitutes you have 2,142 kicking a ball in anger.
Now although Leader Sport makes a genuine effort to cover junior and schoolboy soccer on Shannonside as best it can, the figures suggest we should be trying harder. Indeed the media as a whole should be trying harder.
Every week the national newspapers are flooded with coverage of the English Premier League and while they often fail to do the domestic league (Eircom League) justice they often ignore junior and schoolboy soccer completely.


Tomorrow, right here in Limerick, you can sample what junior soccer is all about by toddling along to what promises to be one of the most entertaining games of the season when Janesboro (starring Shane Clarke who is pictured above) take on Clonmel Town in the last 16 of the FAI Junior Cup at Pearse Stadium (2.30pm).
Put those eyebrows down immediately. This is going to be a serious game with the winners claiming their place in the last eight of the biggest amateur soccer tournament in Europe (680 teams entered).
Don’t bother watching the Carling Cup final - for God’s sake you know Man United are going to win the damn thing. Get along to Pearse Stadium and give it a go, I guarantee you won’t be disappointed!

Brian McDonnell