The Future for Laois Football

[High Fielder]

I can't say I blame lads for not committing. Billy might be full of enthusiasm, but why would players feel the same? Intercounty participation is a thankless endeavour for players in Laois and our likes, and let's face it, Billy alone won't entice everyone. Something has to happen for lads to want to commit to intercounty. You either have to be successful, which we're not, or you need to draft in the best possible coaching team to motivate players. I don't think we achieved that either. This is our predicament....

[clonadmad]

With all the talk regarding Portlaoise and the fall out from yesterdays Final over on the senior football thread

I decided to have a look at the last 10 years of Juvenile A football results

now bear in mind that results at Juvenile don't guarantee success at Senior but given the fact that Portlaoise has close on a third of the Laois population within its Parish

Something shortly will have to be done to arrest the decline from a Laois perspective.

2012 - 2021

1 Minor A title won in 2012,nothing since

Portarlington have 2,so have Graiguecullen and Ballyroan

In the 10 years

there has been 33 Juvenile A football Titles up for grabs (17/15/13 from 2018-2021,12/14/16/18 from 2012-2017 with no u12 played in 12 or 13)

Portlaoise have won a grand total of 5 of them,

by comparison, Ballyroan have won 9 (1 as a Gaels combo at u12 in 2015)


2 of these were won in 2012

which means they won a total of 3 titles in 30 available Juvenile A football titles in 9 years.

[Smellyball]

I've seen numerous posts on this board about how Laois needs Portlaoise to be doing well, can't say I agree at all.
The period of dominance they had in SFC did nobody any good. People talk about how the rest of the teams in Leinster feel they are wasting their time trying to compete with Dublin, so how would this be any different?  Especially given Laois teams haven't exactly been packed full of Portlaoise players for the last decade.
The stats posted above are (in my opinion) a good thing, it shows strength is distributed around the county rather than just in one town.
No other reasonably successful county have had any club recently with such a period of dominace as Portlaoise - Corofin , Dr Crokes and Nemo have had good spells but nothing like what happened in this county.
Enjoy looking to the future and seeing names like Portarlington and maybe  Ballyroan, Graigcullen or Ballyfin etched on the cup

[High Fielder]

Crossmaglen? We can't just ignore Portlaoise and hope for the best. A third of our population resides there. If there are issues in the club, it's in everyone's interest to investigate them

[Smellyball]

Crossmaglen? We can't just ignore Portlaoise and hope for the best. A third of our population resides there. If there are issues in the club, it's in everyone's interest to investigate them

OK fair enough, but armagh haven't won an all ireland for 20 years, or a provincial for 15.
I'm not saying ignore them, I just reckon 1 dominant force in a competition does no favours to the rest of the field.
I've no doubt part of the reason players in laois don't commit to the county is cos they know they'll never win a trophy competing against Dublin.
Would you bother your hole committing to a semi-pro setup when you know your team will be slated when you inevitably receive a 15+ point hammering...? I wouldn't be bothered.
Even reading through the last few years posts on this board, there is a huge amount of negativity towards our county team.
The vast majority of posts since Sheehans appointment have been negative, many even categorically stating he is the wrong choice and is doomed to failure,  why bother being part of it.

[smcder]

Stupid question probable, but how big is Portlaoise parish. Basically are any of the other clubs nearby also pulling from this 1/3 of the population?

Something should be done with portlaoise, but it's not the only issue in the county. The standard needs to be improved in a lot of clubs. How many of our senior teams would stay senior in other counties, like Kildare or westmeath. Comparable counties.

[High Fielder]

Crossmaglen? We can't just ignore Portlaoise and hope for the best. A third of our population resides there. If there are issues in the club, it's in everyone's interest to investigate them

OK fair enough, but armagh haven't won an all ireland for 20 years, or a provincial for 15.
I'm not saying ignore them, I just reckon 1 dominant force in a competition does no favours to the rest of the field.
I've no doubt part of the reason players in laois don't commit to the county is cos they know they'll never win a trophy competing against Dublin.
Would you bother your hole committing to a semi-pro setup when you know your team will be slated when you inevitably receive a 15+ point hammering...? I wouldn't be bothered.
Even reading through the last few years posts on this board, there is a huge amount of negativity towards our county team.
The vast majority of posts since Sheehans appointment have been negative, many even categorically stating he is the wrong choice and is doomed to failure,  why bother being part of it.

Billy wouldn't have been anyone's first choice. He has it now and best of luck to him. The good thing for him is the lack of expectation.

As for Portlaoise, it is obvious that there is a lot wrong. The attrition rates from Juvenile to Adult cannot be ignored. The lack of funding is also a big issue. Their Intermediate and Junior teams are basically a mix and match of who's available or who fancies it on the day, and I'm not even sure at times if they have coaching in place for these teams. I could be wrong on that, but it certainly gives the impression it's a fairly loose arrangement. I don't like offending the genuine Portlaoise lads on here, but to my eye, there is a lot of work to be done in that club

[The PRO]

A few figures.
Laois total population is around 85K.
Portlaoise total population is around 22K i.e. 25%.
Now, Portlaoise has a non Irish national population of around 25% so if you say 16K for Portlaoise, it's still close on 20% of the total population of the county. (By the way, non Irish national kids can and should be very good at hurling and football given the chance too but I know there's probably a cultural preference for other sports)
You have Clonad and The Heath maybe picking up a few kids from the town. But it's not enough. Portlaoise needs a second juvenile club. It was done very successfully in Ennis where the new club started with 10 year olds and under and they now have an extra adult club in the town. Athlone too (but that was more as the result of a split in the club).
I know Portlaoise wouldn't be happy about this but it's simply not good enough that hundreds of kids are either not playing gaelic games at all or are falling through the cracks at a young age.

I posted this back in August. Around a quarter of the population of Laois are in Portlaoise.
I also have to correct something. The second club in the town of Athlone, Garrycastle, was not created directly as a result of a split in the Athlone club. The split happened a few years after a group of interested people set up Garrycastle. I just think it's a real pity that a huge number of kids in our largest town are never given the chance to play hurling or football.

[High Fielder]

Stupid question probable, but how big is Portlaoise parish. Basically are any of the other clubs nearby also pulling from this 1/3 of the population?

Something should be done with portlaoise, but it's not the only issue in the county. The standard needs to be improved in a lot of clubs. How many of our senior teams would stay senior in other counties, like Kildare or westmeath. Comparable counties.

I agree with you but there's no appetite for change. I laughed when I read some posters saying Park would struggle in Senior. Not sure why they would or should. There are some truly awful teams in Senior being propped up by a system that lends itself to teams clinging on by their fingertips.

[Laois man]

Should be interesting to see who's going to be our new County board Chairman.

[town1980]

PJ kelly of timahoe i was told last night

[clonadmad]

Should be interesting to see who's going to be our new County board Chairman.

Who are the nominees?

Im presuming Kieran Leavy will throw his hat In again

[Spiritof86]

PJ Kelly has it apparently. Leavy and Tom Cleere were nominated.

[clonadmad]

PJ Kelly,Tom Clear and Kieran Leavy are the 3 nominations

Winner to be decided following a vote at convention on the 6th of December

[town1980]

Did i not just say who was going to get it?   PJ KELLY