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Where and when do Laois train? Are they open to the public?

It is my understanding that the primary club will have to name 17, in Year 1, 2, 3......and so on.

Well, that rule should change. If they want the "Gaels" teams to work, they need to facilitate them. Change the rule. Allow teams who have played 'outsiders' in this year's championship to name a 17 including some outsiders, if they are genuine.

Else, name a league 17 and a championship 17 including the other clubs' players.

Mountmellick Gaels is Mountmellick plus Brendan Reddin. Because Castletown put in a junior team, Mountmellick had to go down the route. No one else is coming from Castletown as far as I know,  But the point is well made. A proper area amalgamation involving a Senior club  will not be a runner in the long run if 17 players have to be named.

I agree regarding the first point. It was the only functioning example I could think of.
I understand why 17 players should be named. I also understand that it will be a major stumbling block. Not in that instance, but in any proper instance.

In Year1, maybe. Surely the other club's players could be named in the 17, if they intend to join up again the following year?

Funny. I heard different about Ben.

Ballyroan is fine. Apart from Ballypickas pulling some players in from your parish, the parish is united. It's different for other parishes. Arles, Mountmellick and Portarlington are three who, if they copped on, would be far stronger. The days of pride of the parish are dying and if clubs continue on with this, they might fold before they make the right decision.

You're right about hurling clubs combining for football and vice-versa for the football clubs, but unless we strengthen the club scene as a whole, we're at nothing.

Having Portlaoise winning 9, 10, 11, 15 in a row will do nothing for the rest of Laois. There is a definite feel that Portlaoise now want to recruit and what young lad wouldn't want to win something, possible everything the whole way up?

There should be no parish in the county not offering senior hurling and senior football to any player who wants it, whether by virtue of being there themselves, or through amalgamations/isolated players etc. The answer is NOT to have so many senior clubs that there's no bite to the championship at all. At the moment, Laois SFC is where 16 teams play 27 or so matches and Portlaoise win in the end.

The county needs a strategy and I don't think the current CB are good enough to provide it. I don't know how they screwed up the SFC so badly in 2014? but they should have stepped down for the debacle. And what was the solution? No relegation. Save Joes or Strad or Arles from relegation and everyone's happy.

This ruling that players from junior/intermediate clubs can play with senior clubs is fine, but the problem is that the junior club had to agree with it. Turkeys voting for Christmas. Change the rule so the player can go, if asked, or if he wants to.

Hurling changed a few years back and we have clubs going from finalists to relegation finals from year to year. It's dog-eat-dog and if you're not prepped, you're fecked.

Football? A bloated obese fatarse competition, where the real challenge is to avoid Portlaoise and get as far as you can in the competition, before you meet Portlaoise and go out.

Reduce the amount of teams in the SFC, reduce the amount of clubs in Laois.

Goodluck going into the likes of ,kyle, trumera, slieve bloom, ballypickas, kilcavan, barrowhouse, cortwood and telling them they need to fold for the greater good of the county, ill look out for you in the obituaries.
The county board brought in a rule that alllowed lads from these clubs a chance of playing senior so what harm are junior clubs doing
As regards championship make the football into 8s like the hurling and relegate the teams out of senior who dont makke q/f, regardless of pristige or size, unlike stradbally and joesphs in 2014

Change is never easy. It's not my job to tell anyone anything - the CB should be leading this change,

Key word is "allowed".
Caveat: if the club let them.

Too much resistance from the smaller clubs. 10-in-a-row is coming and no-one's going to stop Portlaoise with this b.s.

I think Lillis is playing possum here. There's no manager who'd admit that crap to anyone outside of their circle of closest friends. He's playing games.

Kilcruise will be in trouble when the Conways and Ross retire which can't be too far away now, maybe they should be reconsidering the split with Killeen and join up again. It might be their only hope of survival as a senior team.

So should most of the county. Portlaoise is laughing at the rest of us, with our bitter divisions over some pig or a fence knocked down by someone's grandad in 1932. 28 parishes. 16 senior football clubs, 40-something clubs.

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/browse/counties/rcmaps/laoisrc.htm

You take from Rosenallis down to Durrow are all hurling/junior football areas. That means we've 16 senior clubs in about 11/12 "senior football"  parishes.

Reduce the amount of clubs, reduce the size of the SFC, replace the CB. Get some forward-thinking individuals who can change where this county is going, rather than just tag along for the ride. The CB should be leading, not following.

This needs a huge sea-change in how Laois GAA is structured but all the small-mindedness of people who care more about their patch of grass than the bigger picture of the health of Laois GAA is killing us.

In hurling areas, there should be no junior clubs and the same for football. Consolidate the whole lot of them. Junior hurling clubs should come from the football part of the county and vice versa.

Great post Tony. Laois Gaa is a mess. The malaise within the county is shocking.
I don't know what the answer is but I'd start with the county board.

Start and nearly finish. The CB need to step down (practically, en masse, barring an exception or two). Their handling of the SFC 2014 was a farce and they shouldn't be still there. The whole GAA scene in Laois needs to be reorganised from top to bottom, revitalising the club scene first and foremost, by making our SFC bloody competitive.

It's a big worry.

I thought we had Kilkenny next?

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Perfect.

https://www.google.ie/search?q=laois+gaa+club+crests&sa=N&espv=2&biw=1024&bih=643&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ved=0ahUKEwiDnP21wovMAhUFpg4KHcrRC4kQsAQILQ

Most of them in here.

Google, you say?

I heard that the Westmeath game is cancelled (by Westmeath), can anyone confirm this

Can't confirm this.....

Me either.......

Where would I get nice little jpegs of these, would anyone know?

I had a dream last night that I was talking to Jack Nolan, and he said we beat Cavan, scoring 4 goals in the process. Make of that what you will 

I dreamt about Jennifer Lawrence......but each to their own!

Mind you, she said the exact same thing in my dream.