President's Patter for 24th January

26/1/2015

Overnight heavy rain caused the pitches on the main ground to be unplayable but good management over the years has left us in a favourable position with alternative pitches available we were therefore able to play all our home games.
The 1st XI continued their improved form with a hard fought 4-3 victory over Old Westminster Citizens. The Res XI kept up their promotion form with a 4-2 away win over HSBC we are well placed in this division with several games in hand over our rivals.
The 3rd XI returned to form with an easy win 8-2 over Old Salesians and in the shock of the day the 5th XI beat the high flying 4th XI 4-3.
A good day in all with our only defeat coming from our own hands. Results are improving as the season moves on and we still have the opportunity to turn it into one of our most successful for some years.

7 Comments

A link

26/1/2015 03:42:05 am

It's great that Norsemen have the connections and are in a favourable position when needed so that games can still go ahead. Of course this only applies to senior teams the youth just get casted off. For example there are around 6 youth teams that haven't played at Norsemen in January for 2 seasons!!!!! Yes that's right I said no games in January for 2 seasons and the club still tries to boast it has great facilities with it's great drainage and concrete training area. Seriously what happened this club used to be good didn't it?

Dan Green

1/2/2015 01:07:49 pm

Joke comment

Reply to Mr Green

2/2/2015 03:25:26 am

I glad you find my comments above a joke, it really shows the level of interest you have in both the youth section and the long term future of the club. It’s a real shame that someone in your position "Norseman of the Year 2014" doesn't feel that he has a greater role to play at the club rather than a two worded comment.

We have all seen the President’s Patter in which he has mentioned on a couple of occasions that he is concerned about the lack of boys crossing from the youth section to adult section and for the need of more players. Unless the youth and adult section are closer together and without divide you will not get youth section boys transferring to the adult section. As Norseman of the Year and Captain of the 3rd XI and the clubs leading Goal scorer for 6 of the last 7 seasons do you not feel you have more to offer. Young boys look to role models in life and if someone like you was too spend ten minutes a month aligning yourself with a youth team both promoting the club and giving advice to young players it may be more constructive and help to move the club forward.

As I understand it you joined Norsemen as a 16 year so you should fully understand and appreciate that all work, nurturing, time and effort that is spent week after week, year after year developing and providing an environment in which children can grow and flourish into young men that are proud to say they represent Norsemen.
Unfortunately if we do not provide this environment in regards of pitches, training and a feeling of being part of a club we lose these boys to other clubs.
Although the youth section does at many clubs take second place to the senior section which is understandable consideration must be given when the President’s Patter praises the fact that all games went ahead in the adult section and gives no mention or apology to the youth section for cancelling all their games.

We get boys and disgruntled parents checking the website and quizzing us to why our games were called off when adults were not. The types of comments we get are “what a Joke”, “games being played on other pitches”, “oh, I see the adults played”, “ I thought we were a club not two clubs”, “it would be cheaper to hire a parks pitch and we would play more often”.
By the time the boy has played a number of seasons for us under these conditions and they reach the stage where they should be moving across to the adult section they have no desire to do so, as there is no sense of loyalty or belonging to the club and move onto a different club, thus throwing away the all the time spent developing the boys.

It is important that we do enter into a state of conflict between the adult and youth section from which there is nothing to gain and is potentially damaging to the club. Like yourself I've been at the club for a number of years and only have the clubs best interest at Heart and to this I would like to apologise for ill-mannered and reaction-al remarks made to the President’s Patter which was borne out of frustration.

All youth coaches and managers dedicate their time for free and do so willingly but there comes a time when without support of the club, the coach will cease to coach/manage and the team at that age group will fold. Every club is built from the root up and it’s important that the club is represented at every level as this helps projects the club and draws in new boys.

We have been asked to attend the senior section on the 9th Feb and I suggest we use to build bridges and move the club forward and not to penalise the youth for a remark that has upset a few senior members.
I ask all youth team managers and coaches to attend as it is your time to have your say and not to be penalised by the club, only by representing ourselves in numbers will the club understand that problems do exist and need addressing before it damages the Club.

Thank you

Dan Green

2/2/2015 06:11:33 am

Completely the wrong forum for these sorts of rants, the state of the pitches has nothing to do with my views on youth football.

I have had to inspect the pitches the past few weeks, and they are just about safe for adults football.
Would you like to play in a mud bath, putting the kids at risk. What would this teach them if the ball doesn't roll.

The club has great facilities and the youth needs to become part of the setup more, of which I have attempted quite a few initiatives in the past season and a bit which have been ignored.

This "patter" is about a light hearted view on the weekends events and the fact Brent and Dave worked hard to just get 1 pitch playable over the club (yes one) was commendable.

We even saved the back two pitches this week to get youth football over there, but the weather foiled that again.

I'm not too sure what your point is here, would you expect the club call home games off on a Saturday with the hope it doesn't rain to allow games to be played on a Sunday?
As you must understand the revenue that is brought into the club is very much reliant on football being played on Saturday.

In summary agree the youth/adult is fractured, you know I've had that concern for a while.
Can't effect the weather.
It's 7/7 years I've been too goalscorer (soon to be 8)
Happy to run finishing master classes if you like ;)

Ultimately in this forum if you post things like that you will have people post 'opinions' that's mine. This is something that you should discuss internally.

From beyond the respect line

4/2/2015 03:01:52 pm

As the parent of a boy who plays in one of the youth teams, some observations on the recent exchange of comments on President’s Patter.
First of all, Dan, you can’t dismiss A’s comment in two words, and then climb up on your moral high horse to state that this is “completely the wrong forum for these sorts of rants”. He states that no Norsemen youth team has played in January for two seasons. Is that true? If not, correct him; if it is true, then why’s it a joke comment? Surely it’s a valid point that needs a proper response.
What made me laugh is that having made a statement in your next post about this being “completely the wrong forum for these sorts of rants” you then go off on a rant of your own. You finish with an “I’m not sure what your point is here”. Sorry mate, but if you don’t see what his point is, then you’ve only too clearly proved it! The mums and dads on the touchline don’t get the slightest impression that the club gives a monkeys about the youth section. You make some (no doubt) valid points about the difficulty of putting games on, and I’m sure a lot of people put a lot of work into keeping the club going, but why are we only hearing it now? I’ve never seen a single mention of the youth teams in President’s Patter: no well-done for a notable win, no sorry we had to call off all your matches again. Congratulations on being top scorer again, and I’m sure the youth coaches would gladly have you come a long for a finishing master-class (we need it). But again, why only now? This is the first sign I’ve seen that any seniors have the slightest interest in coaching the kids.
The Patter may be “a light hearted view on the weekends (sic) events”, but I think the club needs to have a good think about how this comes over at times. The 2nd Feb posting announces that the weekend’s events were well worth celebrating in the bar, and celebrated there I’m sure they were. Not by youth team parents though, who spent another weekend at home listening to their kids moaning about how there was no football again, how their mates always seem to play and can they join another club.

Nick

6/2/2015 08:08:03 am

Can we please remember the reason matches get postponed (I'll come back to that). It's because the pitches aren't safe to be played on. I'm sure explaining that pitches aren't safe to be played on is easier to do than explaining to a child that they can't play for months or years (or ever again in some cases) because of an injury they got on a bad pitch. These things do happen and safety of the players is paramount.
Going back to the postponement. These matches aren't being taken away, simply moved to later in the season. Teams will still play all their allotted games so getting worked up about it is nonsensical.

President

6/2/2015 10:44:30 am

I get details of the senior section results from the members if I was supplied with same from the youth section I would be very happy to include them in my Patter.I plead guilty to having not sympathised with the youth for games called off if it happens again Iwill do so

President's Patter for 24th January

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