Big changes coming to football championships in Laois as ‘B’ grade introduced in Senior and Intermediatehttps://www.laoistoday.ie/2023/02/08/big-changes-coming-to-football-championships-in-laois-as-b-grade-introduced-in-senior-and-intermediateFrom Laois Today...
"The structures of the football championships have long been a talking point in Laois for many years.
While most people agree with the schedule and the dates of the competition, the structure of each has come under the spotlight on several occasions.
There are several strategic reviews that have called for a reduction in the amount of Senior teams in the county.
And while that figure still remains at 16, a change to introduce a ‘B’ grade in 2023 has been introduced.
Up to now, all of the teams were drawn out randomly into eight ties for Round 1.
The winners of these progressed to the Winner’s Section for Round 2 and were now unable to be relegated.
The losers went in the Qualifiers Section for Round 2 where the victors progressed to Round 3 and the defeated four sides contested relegation semi finals.
The change now, however, will mean that any team that fails to reach the quarter finals will now go into ‘B’ quarter finals.
Previously, winning one game would be enough to ensure you avoided relegation peril.
However, now, a team could win in Round 1 but lose in Round 2 and 3. That would send them into a B quarter final.
If they lose that game, they are into a relegation semi final. So now, in order to avoid relegation, teams are going to have to win two matches.
The ‘B’ competition will be played alongside the Senior championship and a trophy will be handed out at the end.
The same structure is being introduced into the Intermediate football championship.
Here, the four teams that do not reach the semi finals will go into ‘B’ semi finals.
The winners of the ‘B’ semi finals will contest the final while the losers will play the relegation final.
The Junior ‘A’ football championship will consist of 12 teams this year and these are split into three groups – with the winner and runner up progressing to the quarter finals.
The four ‘second’ teams are going into the same group – St Joseph’s, The Heath, Portarlington and Graiguecullen – with the remaining eight teams drawn into the other two groups.
In this championship, the group winners will progress directly to the semi-finals while the group runners-up will go into a preliminary quarter-final and quarter-final to determine the fourth semi-finalist.
The Junior ‘B’ is slightly more complicated as there are 13 teams due to take part.
These are to be split into three groups – one of five teams and the other two containing four.
Errill, Kilcotton, Rathdowney and Slieve Bloom are going to be placed in one of the four team groups with the remaining nine teams drawn in the other two.
The winner of three of the groups will advance straight to the semi finals while the runner up in two of the groups will playoff for the same place.
A record 25 teams have entered the Junior ‘C’ championship and they will be drawn into six groups – one of these will contain five teams and the others will contain four.
Borris-In-Ossory, Mountrath, Shanahoe and Colt will be placed in one of the four teams groups with the remaining 21 teams split between the rest.
The winner of the group with five teams will progress to the semi finals while the runner up here will join the winners of the other five groups in quarter finals.
The first of these competitions will kick off in late June and run until October."
