Reducing the size of the SFC

[recyclebin]

I hope this gets voted through for the sake of Laois Football.

[SCFC]

Laois GAA proposal for the new Senior and Intermediate football championship structure

https://laoisgaa.ie/laois-football-championships-proposed-restructure/?fbclid=IwY2xjawNUfopleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHs5sRcdCdkJoD_QfhGQH2lv1WxdLiTp1Aqdk4YJ41XNGRv5xZfNxVLIRuhaz_aem_uJgrmrf13EOsNHa32RqedQ

Looks a well thought out proposal.
Anyone who thinks we should retain 16 senior clubs in Laois football is doting.
However, getting this through is another day's work. A lot of middling senior clubs and most of intermediate clubs might see it as raising the bar too much for them.
But, honestly, what's the point of just hanging on in senior, year in, year out?

[Saint88]

This is a no brainer really. Any club that votes against it is only looking after their own status as a senior club or they don't want a competitive intermediate championship.

Having said that bigger things has to change in this county for us to improve and become more competitive. The urban areas where the population is growing are not being managed at all. Time to wake up at the top level. Population of Laois will hit 100k soon. We can't claim small county status anymore. We aren't optimising our population or anywhere near it.

Population 1991 - 52k
Population 2025 - 92k

[tiempo]

If you haven't people making it a life priority over 20-30-40 years you've no chance of competing at the top table I'm afraid, downsides of that, the people inclined to do it are few and far between, also eventually people clash, keeping things on track requires nothing short of alchemy, look at Tyrone and Derry as an example, Derry have now appointed their third Tyrone man in a row to manage their seniors, for the pool of talent they have across the board its embarrassing but they can't stop the self-sabotage, whereas Tyrone are much less erratic and able to focus on targets in the short and medium term as the 30-40-50 year foundation has established and holds the weight of the whole shop, those who build the foundation were the visionaries, there are no shortcuts

[Karate kid]

Well lads, started this back months ago because I was sickened with the gulf between your best and worst teams in the Championship. Looks like the county board are in agreement and have presented in my opinion a good, tidy and viable way to reducing the number of teams.

Talking to a couple lads from Ballyfin, they are nearly relieved to have gone down because they say that nearly every game in the past two years is like groundhog day and next year they will get a good crack at winning something and will certainly compete.

I am actually posting this to get a feel of what the want for this is like in clubs. I am hopeful most will realise trying to cling on to senior status by keeping it at 16 really is cowardly in my opinion and anyone with a bit of ambition should be striving to leave their mark on the championship not just a game of survival, but I know that type are out there. Let me know what everyone thinks, only a few weeks out from the vote now.

[Heshs Umpire]

Be good to see this getting through. The SFC lacks a bit of jeopardy and has done for a good few years now.

[Karate kid]

I've heard that the proposal has changed slightly after a proposal made by O'Dempseys. Instead of four groups of four in Senior with a team from Pot 1-4 in each group, there will be no group stages this year and it will be the same structure as this year. The only difference will be that this years quarter finalists will be seeded and the senior b teams plus Park Ratheniska will be unseeded. There will be a senior b again and the loser of the senior b quarter finals will be in a relegation semi. The losers of that will go down and the winners will play in another play off, loser going down and making it three going down.

There has also been a slight change to the relegation element for the 2027 season as well after a proposal from Stradbally. I am not totally sure about the change here but I think it is to make a round robin of the teams who end up in relegation trouble rather than straight knockout.

[Gaabellting]

Have park Ratheniska much of a chance against the louth chamions this weekend. 7 week break since co final win will leave them lacking match practise going into this game and laois clubs havent done great historcially at intermediate level. this porbaly stems back to the argument baove where fottbal standard in the county isnt there for 16 teams to play at senior level.

[Karate kid]

Good to see the re structure go through and Senior being reduced to 12 teams. Means I can stop harping on about it on here for the time being at least.

[Laois Rising]

Park being easily defeated in the Leinster Intermediate championship once again reaffirms and highlights that the standard of team representing Laois in these championships is not at the calibre it should be. With Dublin entering their 33rd best club in the competition it gives clubs from other Leinster counties an opportunity to go on a 'fairy tale run' and win a Leinster club title and perhaps make it to Croke Park for an All-Ireland Final (granted the standard of the intermediate champions in Munster, Ulster and Connaught always seems far stronger than that of whoever does win Leinster). I would much rather this to the alternative of surviving as the 14/15 best senior club side in Laois. It will take a couple of years but excited at the prospect of a reduced, more quality focused senior championship and a fair more competitive intermediate championship where the winner's enter into the Leinster Club with genuine ambitions of winning it.     

[SCFC]

Good to see the re structure go through and Senior being reduced to 12 teams. Means I can stop harping on about it on here for the time being at least.

Going to be a lot more "squeaky bum time" for some of the senior teams next year. Three out of the 16 going down next year and three out of 14 the following year!
To be honest, there aren't that many teams in the SFC that you'd consider to be in no danger of going down. Port and Josephs really are the only ones spring to mind for me.