Its a big football weekend in the west.

With some time now, there are moves within Waterford to have the divisional boards scrapped and to have one county board run all things pertaining to the G.A.A. in Waterford.

There is a considerable amount of people that don’t want to do away with history. Many argue that divisional boards have served the county well in the past and will continue well into the future if they are left in place.

In late 1995 or early 1996, I was a club delegate to the County Bord na nÓg convention which was held at Lawlor’s Hotel in Dungarvan. On the night, there was a motion that for two years, that the under 14 hurling championship would be played on an all county basis. Feile na nGael was coming to Waterford for 1996 and 1997 and it was felt that if the under 14 players were playing against players of their own standard, regardless of their geographical location, it was the best way to prepare the players in the county for when the best under 14 clubs from the other counties would visit the county for one weekend in the middle of the summer.

Quickly it became apparent that the move was a good one and when the two year experiment was up, it had worked so well that it was decided that the Under 14 hurling championship would be run on an all county basis for the foreseeable future.

The under 16 hurling championship soon followed on an all county basis, and just like the under 14 championship, the competition proved to be a roaring success. A few years later, the Minor championship began to be run on an all county basis, and once again has proven to be a success.

The success of the underage competition is clear to be seen. Three Munster Minor finals in a row were reached between 2009 and 2011. Waterford Colleges have gone on to win the prestigious Dr Harty Cup on three occasions in recent years and the Dr Croke Cup has found a home in Waterford twice. In the lower grade competitions Waterford Colleges have also done well. The end result is that Waterford is producing players now that can step into the Senior Inter County Hurling scene at the ages of eighteen and nineteen and they are not out of place.

Some will say that this is because of the standard of coaching we are providing in the county, and to a degree these people are correct. But I prefer to think that the main reason why we are producing the standard of players that we are is that we have them now with many years have our young players playing against players of their own standard and are giving then six, seven or eight games in a competition before the knockout stages of the championship kicks in rather than the two or three we were before that brave step was made back before the 1996 under 14 hurling championships began.

Why some people are against moving to all county competitions to a degree is a little baffling. The Waterford Ladies Football County Board are running their championships on an all county basis. It works for them. Ballyduff Upper will travel to Mount Sion for games, Tramore will travel to Ballysaggart for games, and the concept works. The county may have had a few lean years on the Inter County Scene in recent times compared to what we were getting in the 90’s.

The same can be said of the County Camogie Board. For Lismore to travel to Gaultier would not be a major objection and Saint Anne’s will travel to places like Tallow and Cappoquin of the needs be.

Why the Divisional Boards do not want to disband their own committee and merge as one county committee is their business. It’s not entirely fair to knock them for doing so. And in fact, they should be congratulated for the way they have gone about making their case for retaining them.

Take the Western Board for example. This coming weekend, they have put together two very attractive programmes of games.

In Lismore they have the Junior Football Premier Semi finals down to be played, where they have two local derbies down for decision.

Affane and Modeligo meet in the first game at 4pm. Affane are going great guns this year. They have put together some very good results and are worthy of reaching this stage of the competition. Modeligo, just out the road are also going well and have won the Junior League Final recently, where they beat Tallow. This could well prove to be a very entertaining game. Some will say that Affane will go into the game as the favourites. But most will be aware that many of those that will have the yellow and blue shirt on their backs on Saturday evening will have the black and red on of Cappoquin on their back a week later and its no secret, that Hurling is the number one game by the bend in the River Blackwater, and that Gaelic Football is not the second. Will some of the players be watching themselves in this game so that they don’t miss out on the meeting with An Rinn next weekend? Modeligo get a hesitant vote to win this one. Confidence will have to be high after their recent win in the league final, but in a local derby game anything could happen.

The second game in Lismore sees Tallow and Shamrocks do battle. These two clubs are playing with a number of years in underage competitions under the Cois Bhride name and will know each other well.

Tallow won the divisional junior final two years ago and went on to add the county final to it. They played one year in intermediate but came down at the end of the year. Shamrocks some years back were a very strong football side and were pushing hard for a place in the senior ranks. However thing have slipped backwards in recent years, but they could now be moving back in the right direction. They will go into this game in a confident mood having recorded a good win over Modeligo in their last league game. Tallow however should have enough in them to win this game. Their experience of winning the Junior Western and County Finals in 2010 has to count for something as will playing in the higher grade in 2011. No doubt that having lost the league final recently, and with their hurlers out of the championship that they will not want to end the year without having the chance to collect at least one medal.

The intermediate finals are fixed for Bushy Park.

The first game is sure to attract some considerable local interest as Ballinameela take on local rivals the Geraldines. Ballinameela won this championship a back in 2009 and added a county title to the Western Title. In their first season in the senior ranks they reached the semi finals where they could and possibly have beaten Stradbally in Fraher Field but conceding a late score meant that the game was to end in stalemate and in the replay at Cappoquin, the Cove Men ran out winners rather easily. Last year, they never showed the same appetite as they did twelve months earlier and were relegated at the end of the year. Geraldines have also been going well in this competition in recent years. They won the western final back in 2008 but were beaten in the County Final against Tramore. It’s likely that this game could be a lively one, where both sides will pull out all the stops to a bid to advance to the final. Ballinameela’s experience of playing in the senior ranks in recent years has to count for something and they get the nod to win this one.

The second game will see Ballinacourty’s second string team take on last years Intermediate Champions Sliabh gCua. Ballinacourty in this year’s championship have won all their games by an average of ten points. While they have lost some players to their senior side throughout the championship, they still have a very useful outfit and will prove very difficult to beat here. Sliabh gCua have done well after coming up from the junior ranks. The objective of any team moving up a grade is to retain their status for a second year, and in achieving this and reaching the semi finals, Sliabh gCua already are having a good year. They have lost some players again this year to emigration and are set to possibly loose more in the near future. The side is made up of players such as David Whelan who helped Sliabh gCua win the intermediate western and county final 21 years ago, and some very young players, some who helped Colaiste na nDeise win the Dr Harty Cup this year. Ballinacourty won 3-6 to 0-8 when the sides met earlier this year and get the nod to win this game as well, but Sliabh gCua on their day are well capable of pulling off a result.