Minor Club Formations

[bennydorano]

Naomh Eoin/St John's in Armagh are an Amalgam of Collegeland, Ananghmore & Clonmore, I dont think the 3 clubs have competed individually at U16 or minor in a while, not sure about other age groups.

[thebandit]

I'm all for amalgamations at underage (at U16 and Minor anyway) for smaller clubs. It gets fellas used to playing a higher standard of football.

[boojangles]

Ramor United(Virginia) and Maghera Mc Finns amalgamated at Underage level up to Minor under the name Lurgan up until this year when both clubs decided against it,I believe that Ramor the larger club wanted the 2 clubs to amalgamate at all levels but Maghera were against it.Lurgan contested 1 Divison 1 Minor Championship final in 2004.
What clubs make up Northern Gaels? Abbeylara and Mullinaghta is it?

[LaurelEye]

What clubs make up Northern Gaels? Abbeylara and Mullinaghta is it?

Yep.

Incidentally, back in the early 50s, there was a proposal for Mullinalaghta to expand to include the lower end of the parish - Scrabby Gowna - with the merged team playing in Longford football. It was vetoed by other clubs within Longford.

[AZOffaly]

Used to be the case in our parish. Ferbane and Belmont both had adult clubs in Hurling and Football, but there was a seperate underage club entirely, called Ferbane-Belmont (originally enough).

Several years afterwards, Ferbane ceased hurling, and our hurlers play with Belmont, and Belmont reciprocated in the Football.

So now our parish has 3 clubs.

Ferbane - Adult Football
Belmot - Adult Hurling
F/B - Underage hurling and football.

[Puckoon]

As already mentioned Tyrone have two youth clubs that are an amalgamation of two Senior teams. Naomh Mhuire are a combination of Edendork and Killyman while Michael Cusacks are a combination of Drumquin and Dregish. N.Mhuire have been around for some time now, Edendork themselves might be able to field a youth team on their own though Killyman would definitely struggle. Michael Cusacks is more recent - Dregish were going nowhere with fielding underage teams and with their small catchment base where having to field very young players at some levels and were starting to withdraw from some youth competitions because they simply didn't have the numbers while Drumquin, though not as bad, were starting to face similar problems of a reduced number of boys coming through. Naomh Mhuire field from Under 8 right up to Under 21 (though they didn't enter a team for the U21 championship this year) while Drumquin and Dregish still field their own teams for Under 8 and Under 10 Blitzes.

Its a great idea to be honest. When we were younger, I remember togging out at 10-11 years of age for the Drumquin U-14S - and it wasnt because I was good enough! They simply didnt have the numbers.

Didnt stop them putting us to work to pick the stones outside what is now the new clubrooms for a week in the summer however.

[boojangles]

What clubs make up Northern Gaels? Abbeylara and Mullinaghta is it?

Yep.

Incidentally, back in the early 50s, there was a proposal for Mullinalaghta to expand to include the lower end of the parish - Scrabby Gowna - with the merged team playing in Longford football. It was vetoed by other clubs within Longford.

God forbid!! Just couldnt imagine Bernard Morris or Dermot McCabe in the Longford colours.They'd probably have refused too,the Mullahoran colours don't look good on a Gowna man!

[David McKeown]

Naomh Eoin/St John's in Armagh are an Amalgam of Collegeland, Ananghmore & Clonmore, I dont think the 3 clubs have competed individually at U16 or minor in a while, not sure about other age groups.

I think although im not sure that we (Annaghmore) last played u-16 on our own about 7/8 years ago.  I know when I was u 12 I played for Naomh Eoin and when I was u 14 I was back with Annaghmore not sure about how the subsequent age groups went as I had to stop playing about then

[antoinse]

Longford also has Southern Gaels (Newtowncashe/Killashee). Both play in the Intermediate grade and as it happened played each other in the Intermediate championship final this year. They don't seem to be going that well this year. I was at the under 12 final in Pearse Park last weekend where Northern Gaels and Clonguish  played a stormer in the A final. As I was leaving I heard Southern Gaels did not turn to play in the B final. Are all the other club amalgamations seperate entities? 

[The Forfeit Point]

To be honest though, if both clubs are now senior could they not field separate underage sides.

Tacadóir, Abbeylara (Panc's team) would just be about able to field a minor team but Mullinalaghta (my end) wouldn't be - our population is less than 500 in total. Northern Gaels would have a combined population of around 1,300 - either smaller than or equal to a good many clubs in Longford - including the one we beat in this year's final and from where a lot of the whining has been coming over the last few years. There are a couple of other similar arrangements in the county that have been formed subsequently - some of whom have larger populations than ours but who haven't had the same level of under-age success (Carrick-Sarsfields, Ballymahon-Forgney, Southern Gaels).

To be honest, my attitude to the whole thing is f**k the begrudgers and the whingers.

i see the debate is raging on the hoganstand! i do think mullinalaghta need to amalgamate for quantity purposes not quality (some class minor players) but it shouldnt be with abbeylara. abbey couldve fielded a very competitive minor team this year, they still wouldve annihilated us! (thats slashers, the town team for those of you that dont know) for the pick we have we are really struggling. there is just no interest in the town. is it like this for the other town teams?

[LaurelEye]

To be honest though, if both clubs are now senior could they not field separate underage sides.

Tacadóir, Abbeylara (Panc's team) would just be about able to field a minor team but Mullinalaghta (my end) wouldn't be - our population is less than 500 in total. Northern Gaels would have a combined population of around 1,300 - either smaller than or equal to a good many clubs in Longford - including the one we beat in this year's final and from where a lot of the whining has been coming over the last few years. There are a couple of other similar arrangements in the county that have been formed subsequently - some of whom have larger populations than ours but who haven't had the same level of under-age success (Carrick-Sarsfields, Ballymahon-Forgney, Southern Gaels).

To be honest, my attitude to the whole thing is f**k the begrudgers and the whingers.

i see the debate is raging on the hoganstand! i do think mullinalaghta need to amalgamate for quantity purposes not quality (some class minor players) but it shouldnt be with abbeylara. abbey couldve fielded a very competitive minor team this year, they still wouldve annihilated us!

Only 8 of that Northern Gaels team were from Abbeylara - we had 7. The only other club we could feasibly amalgamate with would be Colmcille - and I wouldn't see that being any more favourably received by the people who are criticising us for a long-standing arrangement (28 years now) with Abbeylara.

Frankly, we had a very good group of players this year who came through at the same time, and where only two of last year's first 15 - Willie Crawford and Dónal McElligott - weren't eligible this year. We're likely to be a good deal weaker for next year and a good many subsequent years. The only thing is that the spleen that has been publicly vented over the last few weeks against Northern Gaels will act as a motivating factor.

The facts are that Abbeylara are not a particularly big parish population-wise - 800 is about the same size as Carrickedmond or Ardagh on their own - and Mullinalaghta have a smaller pick than any club in the county except Moydow and Forgney.