Laois Senior Football Championship 2016

[SCFC]

Begley best player on show today. Cretty will be wondering what if as O'Carroll's loss killed them.
Portlaoise comfortable, never got out of second gear. Bam Kennedy's red card was idiotic and cost Killeen any chance they might have had.
Strad not too bad, think they'll give Town a good run for it in the final.

[The Rover]

Portlaoise had an easy victory and were never in trouble, the Arles Killeen Player sending off (deservedly so) really finished the game as a contest. Portlaoise a long way off what they are capable of producing maybe they have an eye on the Leinster Club Championship. Stradbally will improve in sharpness between now and the final their forwards were wasteful during the first half playing with a strong breeze. the second have Stradbally completely Dominated, Begley was completely in charge. I expect that Stradbally will give Portlaoise a stern test and if they hit it right on the Day could spring a surprise. 

[BallyroanAbbey]

If portlaoise show up and decide to play near their potential they will annialate stradbally. Strad have improved a bit this year and begley is a big help but they have had a very handy run to the final, clonaslee, cretty twice and ballylinan, they took a long time to finish off a very limited cretty team today (bar maher who i felt was excellent in the first half and murphy). Portlaoise to win by 5 minimum.

[BallyroanAbu]

Fair play to Stradbally for getting to Final but lets be honest route was
Clonaslee
Crettyard
Ballylinan
Crettyard

I suppose you can only beat what is in front of you they have been impressive in the wins but now they face the big dogs.

[Unlaoised]

Poor fair in O'Moore park yesterday in my opinion...

Stradbally did enough to beat a poor Crettyard side.

Portlaoise weren't too impressive in beating a Killeen side who themselves didn't play well..

Bruno Mccormack was the pick of the players on show with Colm Begley and Cahir healy also showing well...

Donie and Paul Kingston were as usual very good for Kileen

[High Fielder]

Stradbally and Crettyard was desperate at times. The basic skills from some players were below Junior standard. If Colm Begley didn't stand out there, he'd have no business on a county panel. Thankfully he did, in fairness to him. The Killeen tactic of just hoofing the ball to Donie was like something from another era. Back to the old days of lobbing it into the big fella. I don't think they could have done much more though, because they didn't have the pace like Josephs to rush forward and back.

The Killeen/Kilcruise situation is morally wrong in my opinion. It has gone on for far too long. I don't know the exact details of the row, but my understanding is that it started over a field. If that is the case, and I stand corrected, then all involved should be ashamed. Kilcruise have their title in 2003, but many lads on their current panel don't have a medal, and nobody in Killeen has one. They'd still be formidable for a year or two if they joined immediately, but there's also the future to think about. Time to get some sense.

[Unlaoised]

Stradbally and Crettyard was desperate at times. The basic skills from some players were below Junior standard. If Colm Begley didn't stand out there, he'd have no business on a county panel. Thankfully he did, in fairness to him. The Killeen tactic of just hoofing the ball to Donie was like something from another era. Back to the old days of lobbing it into the big fella. I don't think they could have done much more though, because they didn't have the pace like Josephs to rush forward and back.

The Killeen/Kilcruise situation is morally wrong in my opinion. It has gone on for far too long. I don't know the exact details of the row, but my understanding is that it started over a field. If that is the case, and I stand corrected, then all involved should be ashamed. Kilcruise have their title in 2003, but many lads on their current panel don't have a medal, and nobody in Killeen has one. They'd still be formidable for a year or two if they joined immediately, but there's also the future to think about. Time to get some sense.


This ....It's just total madness....

Can anyone give the details of the fall out and when it happened ?

[LaoisHeart]

Portlaoise by 4 in final. They were far better than Killeen and stradbally will pose a few problems for tjem

[Heshs Umpire]

I think the split was over the club name and the dispute over the rights to the field happened later on.

[The Monument Road]

Stradbally and Crettyard was desperate at times. The basic skills from some players were below Junior standard. If Colm Begley didn't stand out there, he'd have no business on a county panel. Thankfully he did, in fairness to him. The Killeen tactic of just hoofing the ball to Donie was like something from another era. Back to the old days of lobbing it into the big fella. I don't think they could have done much more though, because they didn't have the pace like Josephs to rush forward and back.

The Killeen/Kilcruise situation is morally wrong in my opinion. It has gone on for far too long. I don't know the exact details of the row, but my understanding is that it started over a field. If that is the case, and I stand corrected, then all involved should be ashamed. Kilcruise have their title in 2003, but many lads on their current panel don't have a medal, and nobody in Killeen has one. They'd still be formidable for a year or two if they joined immediately, but there's also the future to think about. Time to get some sense.

I remember the whole fiasco well. It happened well over 20 years ago when an Arles club general meeting decided to change the name to Arles Kileen and the minority at that meeting didnt accept it. The outcome was a new club was set up called Arles Kilcruise with the old Arles club called Arles Kileen. As far as i can remember the whole episode went down the legal route. Ironically the two Arles clubs have joined together this year at under 13. Maybe a sign of things to come

[redsetanta]

Article from the Times back in 2003.

From The Sunday Times
November 23, 2003
Kilcruise relight fire amid the fury

A Laois community was split in two by a dispute at the local club. Now the whole county is united behind their pursuit of Leinster glory, writes Michael Foley
Two years ago, driving through Arles from his home in Kildare for the first time on his way to training, Jim Maguire noticed there was nothing to notice. In the village, he saw a church and the Tall Trees pub. He saw a derelict shop on one side of the road and a few houses collected near the pub. Out the road he came across the pitch, lined out on the side of a gentle incline on a lush part of James Kealy's farm, with a cargo container acting as a dressing room and clubhouse.
This was Arles-Kilcruise. They had little but their spirit, and a stubborn belief in themselves. They had known times as bad as they could ever have been, but now unimaginable things seemed possible. The spirit among the players was intense and seeped into every vein of the community. On the muckiest training nights, knots of locals would linger on the sidelines. The team knew they needed the cold input of an outsider, but it took Maguire, a new co-manager, time to cut his way into their trust.

"They were absolute fanatics for football," says Maguire. "For a club like them to achieve what they have they'd have to be."
The last two weekends have brought those unthinkable dreams to life. Last Saturday Arles-Kilcruise won their first Laois county senior title. The following afternoon they beat O'Hanrahans of Carlow in the Leinster club championship and this afternoon they play Round Towers in a Leinster semi-final.
Less than a decade ago, Arles didn't exist. Three years ago they had no field and almost saw their very existence crushed by a judge's gavel. But they found the resolve to survive, nurture their footballers and live the dream. This is their day.
Arles parish holds about 300 houses and three clubs, which carve those thin resources between them. On one side of Arles-Kilcruise sits Ballylinan, on the other Arles-Killeen. For 30 years the parish had two clubs, Arles and Ballylinan. For years Arles existed in happy obscurity. In 1974 they reached a county semi-final, but it was a rare spark that was quickly extinguished.

Larry Wall captained Arles in 1974, and soon after began calling to Arles national school to coach football. He still turns up every Friday evening, his enthusiasm hardly sapped by the years. The school houses about 40 children and two teachers and provided every player on Kilcruise's current panel. Wastage is considered a crime. No player with even an ounce of talent is left untapped.
Wall's household led the way. His own son Jim played until his mid-teens but after a few years he let it slide. His father worked on him over the year, and eventually he returned. Then a few years ago he broke his leg so badly that he had to have a plate inserted in it, yet he still lined out in midfield last weekend.
"When you drive through the big towns like Portlaoise, with maybe 20,000 people," says Larry, "or see the big clubs like Stradbally or Portarlington, they'd have more in one street than we have in our whole catchment area, but we'd make a team out of what they'd waste. We bring everyone on board and make the most of them."

The circumstances demanded they must. At a meeting in 1993, a group of members from the Killeen side of the parish proposed the club name be changed to Arles-Killeen in order to recognise the input from that end of the parish. Others couldn't understand their gripe. There was talk that the new name might attract a few more players. A vote was taken, and the proposal was passed. Those present who objected — the Kilcruise people — walked out of the meeting, and never came back. The club was ripped in two. At least the Kilcruise group still had people like Wall to fall back on. In 1994, when Laois county board refused to affiliate them while affiliating the rest of the old Arles club under the name of St Michael's, they decided to keep going.
"We tried to hold the club together ourselves," says current chairman JJ Conway. "We knew we had talented young players so we just tried to keep those bunch of players active. We played around 20 challenge matches in 1994. We were only a bunch of junior lads but we went wherever we could get a game."
The following year, the Laois football board decided to affiliate them as a junior B club under the name Arles. Wall took on the job as manager, and has been there since. That year they won the county title. In 1996 Beano McDonald brought home an All-Ireland minor medal to St Michael's, while JJ's son Chris brought one back to Arles, who won the junior A title. Now they were intermediate, and level with their neighbours.
Relations had been tolerable, but both sides kept their distance. The Tall Trees was evacuated by the Kilcruise people, who relocated to Kellys in Ballickmoyler out the road. Brothers and neighbours ended up playing for two different clubs. Little things kept relations strained. The clubs shared the local pitch, but found training sessions were clashing. There might be a comment passed, or a dig given in company, but largely the peace was kept.

In 1996, they met in the intermediate final. Thousands came expecting enough dust-ups and spats to fuel decades of rivalry. Instead, the game was a classic. Arles led to the end but St Michael's sneaked ahead to win. It shattered Arles, but the desolation of losing to St Michael's in a football final was nothing compared to the next twist.
In 1999, Arles won the county intermediate title and St Michael's launched an objection to their retention of the name, which mushroomed into a legal action against Laois county board. Seeing as they had walked out of the club, surely, they argued, Arles had no right to the name or any recognition. There was talk of a High Court action. A priest from Wexford was called in to mediate, but he went home shaking his head. All kinds of old skeletons were allowed to escape.
"I was never in the High Court before," says Conway. "I didn't fancy going up with what was a local dispute. A lot of people were very concerned about the consequences of neighbours fighting over a trivial thing in the High Court."

With the case heading there, Croke Park's turbo-powered disputes committee was called in. With the GAA president and chief executive on board, they set to work on bringing the two together. "You wouldn't believe the tension at the meetings," says one source close to the committee. "All sorts of stuff was raked up. It was a community at war."
After a fortnight of the hardest talking, a resolution was reached. The committee agreed that Arles had acted improperly and were duly banished from the local pitch. However, given their thriving existence, they were allowed to continue under the name Arles-Kilcruise, with St Michael's reverting to Arles- Killeen. For under-age games up to under-21 level, the entire parish, including Ballylinan, would play as one team, called Ballylinan- Glenmore.
Last Saturday, they both fetched up on county final day, Kilcruise in the senior, Killeen in the intermediate. For some in Killeen, although they celebrated when they won their final, the day darkened with the senior result. Others have been able to move on.
"We keep our distance," says Conway. "But last Saturday one of them, a prominent man in the club, came up to me and gave me his congratulations, 'from the bottom of my heart,' he said. Some relations still aren't great. We'd be very good friends with some of them, but there'd still be a certain few. They'd be very much in the minority though."

When they came home to celebrate last Saturday, Arles-Kilcruise headed for Kellys, Killeen headed for the Tall Trees. Still, there have always been cracks in the tension. Some can remember Beano McDonald and Chris Conway high-fiving as teammates with the combined under-age team. Wall works happily as part of a three-man team that has brought the under-21s to the county quarter-finals, while the minors have reached the semis.
"As far as I was concerned," says Kilcruise's Ross Munnelly, "I don't see it as going to play with 'those lads'. The team I play with are my teammates, whoever they are. Any differences can't come into it if you want success."
While the mood has mellowed, they still egg each other on. In the league section of the county championship, Arles-Killeen won their game against Kilcruise by a few points, leaving Kilcruise needing a win against Graiguecullen to progress. The defeat shattered them, but tested the true meaning of their desire for the summer.

"We thought we were flying," says Munnelly. "Then they beat the stuffing out of us. In a way we have them to thank. We were able to refocus and get ready for our last match, which we won quite comprehensively. After that match I said to the lads that now I felt we could win the county championship."
"This is the kernel," says Wall. "We're out to prove a point. We couldn't fail. We had to succeed. There was a lot of people saying we should've stayed together, that we shouldn't have split. But we drove on and strove to get to the top."
Now that things they could never imagined have happened, who can ever tell them what can and cannot be? They have done their recent training in nearby Crettyard, but next spring they move to a new pitch. Jim Maguire's approach has got them far fitter, fusing seamlessly with the natural drive of Wall and selector Leo Flanagan. The entire county has rowed in behind them, and this afternoon the support will be bigger than anything they could have dreamed of.
But for all the fighting, their survival is rooted in the purest expression of their devotion. Every Friday, Larry Wall heads for the national school, teaching and coaxing and encouraging. Every evening, as the children go home, he tells them that while they have homework to do for school, they have football homework to do in their back gardens for him, too.

When they start skipping that, then they'll know trouble.

[OTF]

FFS
That's my first time reading that, I wouldn't hold my breath on that.

[Junior Ex Laoistalk]

Here's a bit more taken from this website. There's a lot more here, worth a read.   http://www.anfearrua.com/topic.aspx?id=589488

I could write a book on this local spat.
Some 14 years ago when at the time I was a member of the Tipp County Board, I was one of 4 independent mediators asked by Croke Park to investigate and try and solve a bitter dispute which had reached the high court with the legal bills mounting on all sides. The 2 clubs, Laois County Board & Croke Park were all parties to the High Court action, so a solution was required otherwise the legal bills would rocket.

There were plots and sub plots along the line, but here goes, these were the true facts upon investigation.

Back up to 1993 2 adult clubs existed in the parish of Ballylinan. Ballylinan Gaa, a small village team, and Arles GAA, another tiny village outfit, with a slightly more rural make up. Few arguments arose as to who belonged to the two adult clubs. They played together as Ballylinan Gaels, or by times St Michaels at underage level. That was the back drop   .

In the January of 1993, Arles adult club held its AGM. A proposal was taken from the floor that the actual name of the adult club be changed from Arles to Arles Killeen. The proposal was seconded and on a vote won substantially, well over 70%.
From our investigations the actual change of name caused no great bother to most members. What lay beneath the surface was the real problem. Within the original Arles, two big GAA families dominated. The Conways, including ex Leinster footballers JJ and John. And on the other side the Brennans, headed up by Danny, another former inter county footballer, his father before him had been a long standing Runai of Laois GAA. So picture two heavyweight families. From our research we believed that a dispute, non GAA related, was the origin of the bad blood between the two families. Danny Brennan was the brainchild behind the club AGM motion to alter the club name. He covertly rounded up enough of members to get the motion passed. The Conways were kept in the dark and the first they knew about the name change was on the day. They got the hump because they were not consulted. Instantly two factions developed.

Fast forward 14 months then to the middle of March 2005. Internally in Laois the Hurling and Football boards ran their own affairs at the time. When it came to the entry for teams and affiliations the fun started. Arles Killeen, the new name for the original club entered two adult teams as they were entitled to, one intermediate and a junior B . Then at the last moment, the Conways and their allies entered up a junior team calling it Arles, still claiming they were the original.

Matters were complicated at the Football affiliations meeting because, the then Chairman of Laois football board was D.ick Miller. He was also a first cousin of the Conways and firmly in their corner.
So as a fudge, he allowed the two teams to enter the Laois championships, and the players from the original Arles club were freely allowed to pick their choice of new club. The championship was played out that year, with neither making any inroads, before the nitty gritty of GAA law and national law arose.

Arles Killeen, took cases to the Leinster Council and Croke Park, and were proven to be 100% correct in their actions and that they were found to be the original club. But as you get with Gaa matters, no organ within the association was prepared to dismiss the other club from the picture.

Arles Killeen had acted correctly by the letter of the GAA law and with a fudge emerging not to their liking, took the decision to thrash the case out in the High Court, a main bugbear with them being that the new club should never have been affiliated by Laois football board, and under no circumstances could it be named Arles.

Along with 3 others, I was appointed, by the then GAA president Jack Boothman, plus a mediating member of the cloth to offer a solution. Our interventions were stonewalled, getting nowhere and the gulf was growing between the factions. After a few high court injunctions, with the legal bills reaching well beyond six figures   (sky high back in mid 90s   )   , a deal was brokered, reluctantly I might add on the part of Arles Killeen.

Arles Killeen was accepted as the original club, they had rights to the original pitch, and it was a poor pitch without dressing rooms at the time. The other club could not use the name Arles, they were given a variety of alternatives, selecting Arles Kilcruise, not to the pleasure of Arles Killeen. My part in this polluted episode ended then, I do know that the legal costs were agreed to be borne by the provincial and national bodies.

Reconciliation was not an outcome, so from my experience I would be convinced the bad blood will remain for a number of decades, assuming the two main families remain at the helm of the different clubs.

From a distance it looked a piece of cake to solve, the more you scratched beneath the surface the more poison emerged, and it still appears to be as toxic as ever.

[redsetanta]

Never heard that about slurry being spread by the Brennans the day of Chris Conways wedding. And robbing the greyhound and painting it black and white.

I do know that there were plenty of rows in Pedigree Corner back in the day that were directly as a result of the split. All the younger club members would have drank there at the time. It got very bitter with rows and arguments a regular occurence.

[BallyroanAbu]

They will sort it out themselves in time when their both Junior A, one of the greatest disasters in Laois football.  With the talent they had in the early millennium could have won an All Ireland Club.  St Michaels were a serious underage team back in the day.