National Forum

Laois Football's Big Handicap

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Replying To crikey:  "I think Matt Connor was born in Portarlington Hospital in Laois"
Hello.
There is no hospital in Portarlington.

thelongridge (Offaly) - Posts: 1879 - 18/10/2018 16:00:30    2147141

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Replying To Northsidegaels:  "Correct browncows there are essentially 4 clubs in navan when you include walterstown as a large area of navan is in the walterstown parish. As for the comment below about simonstown not being in navan well that's hard to believe really it is bang on the middle of navan!"
Would Bective have much of a catchment of population in Navan ?, what club ownes the the GAA pitch's that has been developed just outside Navan on the Trim road?

bdbuddah (Meath) - Posts: 1413 - 20/10/2018 08:46:26    2147323

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Replying To the_walls:  "But from going through the thread it doesn't seem to be just players from Graiguecullen, which I understand, they are playing in Laois. Maybe I've taken it up wrong but you seem to be making the point that you are losing lads from all over Carlow who are any way decent and have a family connection to Laois. I can't understand why they are not choosing their own county.

As for Ballagh, it's a Mayo club and has always been a Mayo club but I would be in favour of letting people from Ballagh choose whether they want to represent Mayo or Roscommon."
Still didnt get an answer to this :(

the_walls (Mayo) - Posts: 497 - 24/10/2018 09:11:28    2148058

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Replying To the_walls:  "Still didnt get an answer to this :("
There is nobody playing with laois that should be with Carlow, donie Kingston did play with tinryland in Carlow but then moved back to laois so no issue there. The graigecullen issue is a little more fluid these days with young lads there playing for clubs on either side of the border.they are a laois club no matter how you look at it and have been playing their football there for 90 years.

Barrowsider (Carlow) - Posts: 1708 - 24/10/2018 09:50:06    2148062

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Replying To bdbuddah:  "Would Bective have much of a catchment of population in Navan ?, what club ownes the the GAA pitch's that has been developed just outside Navan on the Trim road?"
Navan o'mahonys own that pitch

Meathmaverick (Meath) - Posts: 106 - 24/10/2018 15:39:37    2148146

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Hi there, Portlaoise has 3 other clubs within its Parish, Clonad, Park Ratheniska and the heath.I agree to an extent there should be at least another club in Portlaoise but its very difficult with these other clubs.Also there competing with soccer, rugby basketball etc.

Sandypandy (Cork) - Posts: 1 - 13/03/2023 13:45:40    2463718

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Tralee a town with similar population to Portlaoise has 4 football teams in the town. Austin Stacks. Kerins Ó Rahillys. John Mitchell's and Na Gaeil. There is also a hurling club Parnells and a few clubs on the outskirts of Tralee
Killarney has a smaller population than Portlaoise and has a few clubs too like Dr Crokes The Legion Spa and Fossa.

CiarraiMick (Dublin) - Posts: 3887 - 13/03/2023 13:55:19    2463721

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Replying To Meathmaverick:  "Navan o'mahonys own that pitch"
Do Navan O'Mahony's stillown the pitch/car park beside Pairc Tailteann?. I parked there in 2019, and was advised that I was on O'Mahony's property?

thelongridge (Offaly) - Posts: 1879 - 13/03/2023 16:25:49    2463761

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Replying To Sandypandy:  "Hi there, Portlaoise has 3 other clubs within its Parish, Clonad, Park Ratheniska and the heath.I agree to an extent there should be at least another club in Portlaoise but its very difficult with these other clubs.Also there competing with soccer, rugby basketball etc."
zombie thread alert.....

If there already is 3 other clubs in the town/parish you dont really need another

KillingFields (Limerick) - Posts: 3746 - 13/03/2023 17:37:21    2463776

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Replying To CiarraiMick:  "Tralee a town with similar population to Portlaoise has 4 football teams in the town. Austin Stacks. Kerins Ó Rahillys. John Mitchell's and Na Gaeil. There is also a hurling club Parnells and a few clubs on the outskirts of Tralee
Killarney has a smaller population than Portlaoise and has a few clubs too like Dr Crokes The Legion Spa and Fossa."
Comparing apples and oranges there. Young lads/girls growing up in Kerry live and breath football, no such interest in Portlaoise unfortunately.

4 classes of 6th class in the main Primary School in town (approx 80 kids) which is one of the biggest primary schools in Leinster outside of Dublin, and you would struggle to get 15 lads interested in playing football.

Portlaoise didn't help themselves either when they moved the club grounds way outside the town, without even a footpath or cycle path out to it. If you are a young lad now living on the Fairgreen side of town, the pitch is 5 miles away from you and with traffic you'd often be quicker getting to Mountmellick or Ballyfin.

Laoisvillian (Laois) - Posts: 88 - 13/03/2023 18:55:27    2463787

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Replying To Sandypandy:  "Hi there, Portlaoise has 3 other clubs within its Parish, Clonad, Park Ratheniska and the heath.I agree to an extent there should be at least another club in Portlaoise but its very difficult with these other clubs.Also there competing with soccer, rugby basketball etc."
Yeah I think in principle another club in the town could work, but as you say anyone living around Kilminchy can easily go play with the Heath, a lot of the Mountrath side of the town is actually in the parish of Ballyfin, and the Abbeyleix side of the town is very close to Clonad.

I know this thread was set up 5 years ago but I disagree that Laois' biggest handicap is Portlaoise being a one club town.

It's a factor of many things:
- Small population relative to other Leinster counties
- Little to no winning history in either code at inter county level, no winning culture definitely makes it harder to attract young people in (ladies intermediate All Ireland title last year excepted).
- Large parts of the county dedicated to hurling (and more power to them!) and the decline of dual players as the demands on club players grow and grow
- Huge competition from other sports such as soccer, rugby & basketball

A lot of it comes down to trying to field as strong a hurling and football team as we can unlike other counties, that means a 50/50 split in coaching and resources between both codes which is the right thing to do in terms of promotion of our games, but it's crippling in the hyper competitive world of Inter County.

Laoisvillian (Laois) - Posts: 88 - 13/03/2023 19:05:47    2463789

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This must be a record. No comment from a Laois contributor on a Laois related page from 01/10/18 to 13/03/23.

Well how are Laois feeling about Saturday? Who's going to get promotion? Sligo, Wicklow, Leitrim or Laois? PP odds are Sligo 1/2, Wicklow 4/6, Laois 6/5, Leitrim 6/5

Wicklowman (Wicklow) - Posts: 1142 - 22/03/2023 16:55:15    2465876

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So portlaoise run one football club out of a population of about 22,000 people. Leitrim have 23 clubs out of a population of about 35,000!!

leitrim4sam (Leitrim) - Posts: 698 - 23/03/2023 11:44:30    2465959

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Replying To Wicklowman:  "This must be a record. No comment from a Laois contributor on a Laois related page from 01/10/18 to 13/03/23.

Well how are Laois feeling about Saturday? Who's going to get promotion? Sligo, Wicklow, Leitrim or Laois? PP odds are Sligo 1/2, Wicklow 4/6, Laois 6/5, Leitrim 6/5"
Yeah i've never seen anybody else other than me posting from Laois on HS forum.

A poor interest level that is reflected in home attendances at both hurling and football!

Ah sure it all comes down to can Leitrim beat Sligo at home, and Paddy Power has Sligo as slight favourites, so we'll see..not overly confident!

You lose 2 games in Division 4 and you don't really deserve to get promoted to be honest!

Laoisvillian (Laois) - Posts: 88 - 24/03/2023 13:50:03    2466267

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Replying To leitrim4sam:  "So portlaoise run one football club out of a population of about 22,000 people. Leitrim have 23 clubs out of a population of about 35,000!!"
Yeah one dual club, they are also a senior hurling team, and as above there's 3 other dual clubs just outside the town in the parish of Portlaoise, 2 of them are also senior, so the surrounds are well catered for.

There's 48 gaa clubs in Laois with a population of 85k, so it's more or less the same ratio as Leitrim by the looks of it

Laoisvillian (Laois) - Posts: 88 - 24/03/2023 13:58:13    2466272

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Replying To Laoisvillian:  "Yeah one dual club, they are also a senior hurling team, and as above there's 3 other dual clubs just outside the town in the parish of Portlaoise, 2 of them are also senior, so the surrounds are well catered for.

There's 48 gaa clubs in Laois with a population of 85k, so it's more or less the same ratio as Leitrim by the looks of it"
Take this from the Leitrim gaa website - ok it's ok it's using the 1996 census but I bet it's still true. We had 24 clubs then but St. Osnetts don't field adult teams now compared to then:

"What makes Leitrim unique in Gaelic Football circles is not the County's achievements on the field but the high level of participation in the sport. Leitrim, the county with the smallest population of any of Ireland's 32 Counties, has the highest number of G.A.A. clubs and players, per capita, of any County in Ireland. Leitrim has 24 G.A.A. Clubs for a population of 25,057 (1996 Census) and 54 adult teams playing in 5 League divisions. If you consider that the number of males between the ages of 18 - 32 in the whole of County Leitrim is only 2310, that means there is a team produced for every 42 males of normal football playing age, resident in the County.

Not alone is this not matched by any other County in Ireland, but it is doubtful if any sporting organisation anywhere in the world could come close to this level of participation"

https://www.leitrimgaa.ie/history/

leitrim4sam (Leitrim) - Posts: 698 - 24/03/2023 17:41:18    2466338

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