ARLES KILCRUISE and ARLES KILEEN

[BallyroanAbbey]

Isn't that exactly what causes these splits though Joey? Some bright spark looks around and says hold on, we can go it alone. Fast forward a few years and they'll be nowhere near Senior because they're no more than a space on the road between bigger towns. I'm all for encouraging youngsters to play, but such splits are a curse. There are lads playing football in those clubs who really should be retired. No offence to them

Says a lot about the level of coaching going on in places like Mountmellick Graiguecullen and The Heath that they could all be down intermediate while Arles/Killeen and Kilcavan could be senior clubs by the end of the week
Better a road of talent than a talentless estate

[High Fielder]

All 3 of those clubs are massive under achievers. I'm not diminishing what either Arles club has achieved. I'm just saying it was a short term strategy that will inevitably fail in the long term. Seems ironic that someone with a tag of BallyroanAbbey is lauding 2 clubs who should probably be together, and are at Underage level. It's a numbers game in the long term as we know all too well in Laois

[Joeythelips]

Isn't that exactly what causes these splits though Joey? Some bright spark looks around and says hold on, we can go it alone. Fast forward a few years and they'll be nowhere near Senior because they're no more than a space on the road between bigger towns. I'm all for encouraging youngsters to play, but such splits are a curse. There are lads playing football in those clubs who really should be retired. No offence to them

Just need to get this straight, I assume you mean the bright spark was from Kilcruise in terms of go it alone, but was the issue not that someone wanted to amalgamate with Ballylinan and that caused the split? So when that happened Arles as it was would have had a batch about to come through of Conway, Beano, Munnelly etc so surely they knew they had good underage players about to emerge. I can see why people resisted at teh time and the split happened. Its such a shame as its not hyperbole to suggest that such and Arles team in the early 2000s could have challenged for All Ireland titles imo.

[High Fielder]

I thought it was about a field, but I stand corrected. The details are unimportant really. The future is all that matters. They play together at underage where differences are put aside. So the people who can't stand the sight of each other drop their kids to training to play on the same team. Make it make sense

[Laois Rising]

There is no need for any amalgamation in the near future. Both clubs have found a working solution that they are happy with. Play with na fianna og underage and then branch out to your respective adult club once your underage is complete. Chris Conway pretty much said it- its cyclical. As a small club they accept that they may go and have years like this year. They won't press any panic button. They maximise their resources, keep as many young players involved and they do have a couple  of decent lads in late teens/early 20s. The u20s played in the B county final this year and I was at a few of the U15 teams' games in the A championship and some really good players part of that team. You know that they will keep the show on the road and build again from junior next year. Arles Kilcruise will be fine as they don't allow too many players coming through to drop away as they progress up the ranks.   

[High Fielder]

In and of itself I wouldn't disagree. But it isn't in and of itself. The amalgamation is already in place, hence the lack of resources. A sad situation that I'm sure makes sense to those involved. To most it just looks pointless, and limits opportunities for those coming through

[Smellyball]

Im sure everyone has been waiting for my opinion on the matter, so here it is.
I think its all a big hape of muck!
Its too small a village to have 2 teams in it.
Rather than struggle to field at Intermediate and Junior, they could be decent at Senior and Intermediate.