Feile games being played in football and hurling recently . Decided the teams that will be representing us deserve mentions .
Portlaoise demolished port by 23 points in the A football final. Didn't even concede a score . Look like a big strong bunch of lads
Graigue had a big win over The Heath in the B finale .
Hard to believe Graigue are playing B football. Plenty of other places with big populations bases not pushing on either.
Well the A finalists Portlaoise and Portarlington do have big populations. Graigue were strong enough to compete in the A. Mountmellick have a decent population but are nowhere to be seen at underage. After that there isn't really any "big" population bases.
Ballyroan would have been Portlaoise main threat for the A but pulled out because they were missing 5 players. What about the rest of the players? Surely they could have played the matches.
Why are Moutmellick not competing at underage level? A town of their size should be challenging for A titles and have lads on the county panel. County board should be targeting the likes of Moutmellick and putting plans in place to have them challenging at underage grades
Mountmellick are in with Ballyfin AND Kilcavan at minor level and are still conceding games. So I don't know where u go from there.
Quote from: Laoiseabu on April 15, 2018, 09:38:59 PM
Well the A finalists Portlaoise and Portarlington do have big populations. Graigue were strong enough to compete in the A. Mountmellick have a decent population but are nowhere to be seen at underage. After that there isn't really any "big" population bases.
Maybe traditionally strong areas instead of big population bases. Stradbally, Timahoe and Annanough are together playing B. Na Fianna Og are 2/3 clubs together playing B. The Heath are a club that ive always known to be senior playing B. Ballylinan likewise. As pointed out Mountmellick are either in B on their own and sometimes in B with others. O Dempseys is another area that should have enough interest, tradition and population to play A. Camross bet them in the B. A hurling area with a smaller population and much lower interest in football than hurling. Maybe this is just an odd year but for all the above clubs to be so far down at u14 it must be a worry.
Ye a lot of clubs have very little coming through but the interest in a some of them places is gone very low. Mountmellick interest in football is at an all time low. Stradbally Timahoe and Annanough combined should be winning A titles but find themselves doing poor in a B feile. Ballyroan and Port are doing well at underage but have yet to see this form transfer to senior yet. Hopefully the new Na Fianna Og amalgamation down in Arles and Barrowhouse stays afloat because it's always been an area that had a big football tradition. Underage football in Odempseys is gone very backwards with some age groups struggling to field a team I hear. St Joseph's on the other hand are competing well in A competitions even since Barrowhouse left them.
Overall that's just very brief , but some clubs are doing fine more are struggling .
Quote from: BobbyBoucherJr on April 15, 2018, 09:55:46 PM
Ballyroan would have been Portlaoise main threat for the A but pulled out because they were missing 5 players. What about the rest of the players? Surely they could have played the matches.
Where were the 5 players?
Something to do with Heywood apparently, which was flagged in January but for some reason Feile weekend could not be moved. Doubt we would have beaten Portlaoise seems a very strong team with that scoreline.
Portlaoise only bet St Joseph's 2-5 to 0-3 in the semi final so you wouldn't know Ballyroan could of been a match for them. Portlaoise had a far easier game in the final.
Quote from: BallyroanAbu on April 16, 2018, 06:32:21 PM
Something to do with Heywood apparently, which was flagged in January but for some reason Feile weekend could not be moved. Doubt we would have beaten Portlaoise seems a very strong team with that scoreline.
Surely if Ballyroan were without 5 players they still would have a team to play the games though? Why did all the other players suffer because 5 players couldnt play?
A lot of clubs playing B cos they enter A and get hammered by the likes of St Paul's , Port, Ballyroan, and Portlaoise. Most of them just trying to keep young fellas playing and hoping for a good crop ......nothing is worse for a chap than getting the s#£@e bet out of you every match. I was at Port v St Paul's semi and both teams had most of last year's u12s out....... Portlaoise had every player up to full age and at that age size makes a huge difference
Thats understandable JD but if proper work was put in recruiting at u6 and u8 about 6 years ago then places like O'Dempseys, SPG, MM and Graigue should have enough for A. Like you said clubs 'are hoping for a good crop'. Maybe clubs should start planning and developing good crops.