The future of laois hurling

Started by Tobias, October 27, 2015, 08:08:58 PM

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Laoisguy

I'm from the town but involved with a club outside at this stage and I agree completely with the Don

Resources will have to be poured into Portlaoise Dubs style.

Seems to be a serious doughnut effect where all people potentially playing GAA/Hurling are now moving out to surrounding clubs


Downtheroad

Quote from: Unlaoised on May 18, 2017, 10:27:34 AM
Is the Portlaoise team thats in Div 5 bascially there intermediate team?Thats not fair if so ...heard likes of Brian Mulligan is togging for them they put up some score against Trumera this week.
Portlaoise's Div 5 team looks very strong in fact it could give it's named 17 for intermediate a game. the 2nd team game a walkover  last night which is a bit of a joke considering they fielded Div 5 on Tuesday.

clonadmad

Quote from: Laoisguy on May 18, 2017, 10:34:42 AM
I'm from the town but involved with a club outside at this stage and I agree completely with the Don

Resources will have to be poured into Portlaoise Dubs style.

Seems to be a serious doughnut effect where all people potentially playing GAA/Hurling are now moving out to surrounding clubs

Does the multimillion Euro bailout from Croke Park on Rathleague not qualify?,

still I guess dragging Neighbouring clubs to the DRA over juvenile players  at €3,000 a pop does drain the resources all right

Don Draper

Perhaps, and its a well worn conversation at this point, but perhaps, given the lack of improvement in underage hurling, and the revelation that 1/4 of the counties population now resides in the town, that its time to force a split onto Portlaoise and let the cards fall where they may. Either back another club in the town (they could work out of Fr Browne Avenue for the start up), or simply draw lines through the town, and let the other parish clubs take possession of those areas. It'd be for their own good. They may not realise it, but in time they will be grateful for it being forced upon them.

clonadmad

If there's to be a second club in the Town,Who funds it?

Hardly the CB,more than likely the Leinster Council or Croke Park and it will need to be properly funded because Portlaoise will do everything in their power to strangle it at birth as what happened the last time there was an attempt to put a 2nd club into the town.


Don Draper

Quote from: clonadmad on May 18, 2017, 11:52:13 AM
If there's to be a second club in the Town,Who funds it?

Hardly the CB,more than likely the Leinster Council or Croke Park and it will need to be properly funded because Portlaoise will do everything in their power to strangle it at birth as what happened the last time there was an attempt to put a 2nd club into the town.
The last attempt was a shambles from the start. This time the COE can be used for the grounds so there is a footing. There are templates for this being done. If Castleknock can set up in the middle of Brigids and OPER, a club can be put into Fr Browne Avenue. The last club was solely a football club, Portlaoise cared enough about football to finish it before it began.

Clubber Lang

When you have no real competition from another club to compete for players, standards drop and complacency sets in. A town the size of Portlaoise should realistically have three strong functioning clubs operating out of it. However I fear little will be done to rectify this situation in the foreseeable future. The appetite, resources or manpower to achieve change simply isn't there. With the pick available to them-Portlaoise should hoover up nearly every available juvenile title in both codes if things were being run properly. This is nowhere near happening. A second club is needed but there is huge apathy towards GAA in the town. You'd need a number of very committed individuals and plenty of resources to get it functioning properly. You also need access to and build up relationships with the primary schools. That is the key to something like that taking off-develop a strong nursery and over time things will snowball. Look at Castleknock in Dublin. Only 20 years old and now one of the strongest teams in the country. They invested hugely at underage level (still do) in the beginning and created a buzz/enjoyment for playing hurling and football. The club is now thriving and there is a real sense of community attached to club as well. It does show it's possible.   

Laoisguy

I'm purely commenting from a gaa community point of view
Portlaoise can go to hell as far as i'm concerned

Facts are county board just not upto scratch regards initiatives to change status quo

Primary schools are an issue








 
Quote from: clonadmad on May 18, 2017, 11:16:58 AM
Quote from: Laoisguy on May 18, 2017, 10:34:42 AM
I'm from the town but involved with a club outside at this stage and I agree completely with the Don

Resources will have to be poured into Portlaoise Dubs style.

Seems to be a serious doughnut effect where all people potentially playing GAA/Hurling are now moving out to surrounding clubs

Does the multimillion Euro bailout from Croke Park on Rathleague not qualify?,

still I guess dragging Neighbouring clubs to the DRA over juvenile players  at €3,000 a pop does drain the resources all right

clonadmad

#473
Would a Hurling only Club in Portlaoise be an option?,and the path of least resistance..

redsetanta

In my opinion you will need to get someone with a vision as to how this will work best for everyone and put in place a long term plan. Would probably need a patron or donor because the money won't be coming from the CB or Croke Park. Once they get the go ahead from CB you would need a couple of ex players who would also have a long term vision to actively get the club up and running and in my opinion it should be started as a hurling club only!
The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. VinceLombardi

Mad Mentor

Knowing how hard it is to keep an established club going, it is likely that all the passionate hurling people in Portlaoise are working hard to keep the Portlaoise club going, or have got burned out and have walked away. To expect Portlaoise to split itself in two or three would be unrealistic. Who from any club is going to leave that club, to establish another club in order to compete with your own club? The only way it would work would be to get people not involved with Portlaoise to try set up a club independently. That would be a huge undertaking and good luck to anyone who takes it on. I personally can't imagine leaving my own club to start a rival club. Until you have an Arles type split to force the issue it is likely to remain so.
Possibly if the County Board were to canvass the Portlaoise area to see if there was an appetite for this, it could start, but you would be looking at putting together a management team to get it up and running before handing over to a new club committee. How you get people to leave their own clubs to do this would be the problem.

With regard to the specifics of the current u17's, if you look at last year's u16 championship, only Castletown Slieve Bloom and Rathdowney Errill were really competitive. Clough Ballacolla were joined with Abbeyleix and Borris Kilcotton, Clonad, Ballinakill and Park Ratheniska were in the B. I'm not running down these clubs, but the numbers were just not there in the clubs. People must have been holding off having babies in 2000! I don't think any Castletown Slieve Bloom players were present last night for whatever, and one of our own best hurlers didn't go because he couldn't be arsed.

In contrast, last year's and this year's u14s have been very competitive, and there is a very strong bunch in the u14 development squad this year. Whether these will progress in the next few years remains to be seen, but at least it's looking promising.

We could do with some more GDAs as both Andrew and Ciaran are putting in serious hours including evenings and weekends and I can't fault their efforts.

Don Draper

In essence, you have come back to my original reaction mad mentor, that this celtic challenge isn't worth a whole hill of beans.

Sanny

#477
Is Clonad not a second club in the town ?
Maybe clubs should look at their own set-up and stop looking for ways to break-up Portlaoise?
Typical Reaction!! Channel your bitterness into something more constructive in your own club ?

Ballyroan Abbey

Clonad is a raheen club that lads from the heath go to play hurling with,  if you were going to set up a club in portlaoise do it at under 8 under 10 level and work your way up with the groups use the COE as their grounds there are plenty of families in the town with no connections to portlaoise gaa and those  parents would probably be more willing to bring kids to a club in the town too, but you would be talking about a 10 to 15 year project

Clubber Lang

Can you honestly say Sanny that Laois is maximising it's potential from having one club in Portlaoise? One third of population live in the town and on that basis Portlaoise G.A.A. should be realistically able to field minimum of 4 adults teams and at least 3/4 underage teams at each underage level if structures were right and tapping into the schools correctly. This is presently not happening. With a third of pick, Portlaoise should realistically be provide close to 7/8 players to every underage Laois squad.