The future of laois hurling

[clonadmad]

Are ballinakill struggling a bit at underage ? Or are they short on numbers ? Always seems to be talk about them and an amalgamation

having faced them across the grades at juvenile,in the past few years,

they would have 7/8 starters on the minor amalgamation this year with ratheniska and margy the remainder,they would have 16/17 at u15 and probably similar at u13 with the u13's padding out the older age groups number.

they would have some serious quality with the 3 Shaughnesseys at minor and Duggan/Quinlan at u15,Depth would be an issue

[Jd]

Shouldn't  affect spink as abbey leix are a hurling club only operating  as St lazerians  and not part of Ballyroan Abbey which is a separate  football club.  Ballinakill are a hurling  only club so their players are free to play with any football club. Ballyroan hurlers can hurl with abbeyleix but also have the option of playing with Ballypickas so you have essentially  5 clubs in the mix

[BallyroanAbbey]

Abbeyleix and Ballyroan Abbey are the one nearly and Ballinakill and Spink simular situation, a knock on of this is that if they join up Ballypickas might get the Spink area back which they always had until Ballinakill start objecting to it, which might free up alot of time at county board meetings if what i hear is true

[SpeculativeEffort]

This shouldnt be allowed happen. Both clubs are competitive in senior. Might both need a few more to win it but doesnt mean they should amalgamate.

[burdizzo]

Absolutely. In the end, everyone will amalgamate with someone, and before we know it we'll only have six or seven hurling clubs and hardly anyone playing.

[BallyroanAbbey]

alot of the lads that are saying they shouldnt be let amalgamate are the same people who were giving out that mountrath and trumera arent together, and slieve bloom split from castletown, but when its a genuine threat to the big 4 in laois suddenly its a big issue, i myself cant see it happening considering their is absolutely no links underage between them

[burdizzo]

I've never been in favour of amalgamations, unless one club is going to fold if it doesn't happen - which I think was pretty much the case when SB went in with Castletown. Now look at them! Trumera are hanging on by a thread, but by God, they make the absolute most of what they have, and have a couple of intermediate championships over the last four years. That's more admirable than two senior clubs joining up to win a title, if you ask me. If it was going to add to the viability of a genuine hurling culture in the area it would be a different matter, but I'm just not sure it would.

[clonadmad]

alot of the lads that are saying they shouldnt be let amalgamate are the same people who were giving out that mountrath and trumera arent together, and slieve bloom split from castletown, but when its a genuine threat to the big 4 in laois suddenly its a big issue, i myself cant see it happening considering their is absolutely no links underage between them

Mountrath and Trumera were all set to amalgamate 5/6 years ago and Liam o'Neill buried it on the Trumera side

[Rusty]

Heard Bk approached pickas too about an amalgamation of sorts.  Abbeyleix would be interesting. Ballinakill couldn't field junior team in cship this year, did abbeyleix have any team bar senior? Poor numbers for hurling clubs if they didn't.

Don't see bk lads going to ballyroan for footy either. Older lads not interested in football. Hard enough to field a team in Spink.

[SpeculativeEffort]

With the amount of amalgamtions borne of little effort at juvenile level we will end up like rugby. Only a few clubs and a minority sport. We cannot less this happen. If you have numbers form a juvenile team at u7, u9 etc. Look after them what ever level they play.

[Don Draper]

With the amount of amalgamtions borne of little effort at juvenile level we will end up like rugby. Only a few clubs and a minority sport. We cannot less this happen. If you have numbers form a juvenile team at u7, u9 etc. Look after them what ever level they play.

If only t'were that simple

[Ogie]

Didn't want to start a new topic on this but have not seen
or heard much chat about it yet,
What do clubs think/feel about soccer changing their season next year, it will be running side by side with GAA season, has there been any consulataion on a local or higher level as to how this will work ?
Last thing we want to do is be putting the gun to kids heads so early about choosing, and I thought it worked great having one sport when the other finished,
If there is no consultation locally between the clubs and training / fixtures are clashing it will lead to hassle

[burdizzo]

Was told this evening that this was only a proposal and not definite? Could be misinformed, however.

[blueandwhite1]

With the amount of amalgamtions borne of little effort at juvenile level we will end up like rugby. Only a few clubs and a minority sport. We cannot less this happen. If you have numbers form a juvenile team at u7, u9 etc. Look after them what ever level they play.

Is there any credible evidence of this happening? For example, Rathdowney Errill or Borris Kilcotton? We heard that it would impact on the number of people playing but as far as I can see both clubs have teams at multiple grades and competitive underage teams year after year. I think there is far more danger of lads not committing to hurling if they are playing for Mickey mouse juvenile teams at B level and barely able to field a team.  If a club has enough players for 2 juvenile teams they can field them at multiple grades but the only club that seems to have the numbers for this are Portlaoise. Maybe it is happening but I haven't seen it myself.

[Mad Mentor]

The R/E, B/K and C/B lads generally play soccer with Clover United in the Kilkenny league and it's the soccer that's suffering at the moment. Struggling to find mentors and get lads to commit. A few lads have opted for rugby instead. Hurling is still the first love of most kids down this way. The Kilkenny league in general seems to be struggling going by the fixtures so far. I was always in favour of the summer hurling, winter soccer set up but the last few years the soccer season has run on into hurling time and has lost out accordingly.