Club football 2025

[Offaly Hero]

Was anybody at the ‘Battle of Clonbullogue‘ today?!

[jimbob17]

The idea of joining clubs in the same parish/area is interesting. In Killeigh parish, you would be joining 3 clubs into 1 and in Daingean it would be 4 into 1, I might be mistaken on both. You might make a team capable of contesting a senior championship, but you will reduce playing numbers in those areas.

I’ve thought about it a good bit and at the minute there is no possible way to entertain the idea due to the current calendar, especially given our dual tradition.

Thinking off the top of my head, would there be a way to streamline Senior B down to Junior and run them off quicker, but delay the Senior A until they are done. Then, after the conclusions of those, run a Senior A championship with amalgamations. We will never be able to do the Kerry model, the hurling rightfully wouldn’t allow it.

I think it would lead to a brilliant Senior A, plus some of the best players in the county would get to play at a higher standard than with their individual clubs. Given the dominance of Tullamore at underage, which almost certainly won’t stop, it could be ominous enough for the senior championships future.

To be honest, it’ll never happen. There’s probably too many negatives which outweigh the positives, but it’s an interesting conversation all the same.

As far as I am aware (could be wrong), there is already provision to have amalgamated teams in a senior championship in Offaly - should clubs be willing to join and enter senior championship I know it was discussed and fairly sure it got over the line. I think this was done either last year or the year before but to date, no clubs have taken this up. Think I remember hearing M Duignan talking about it. From what I recall, clubs needed to be intermediate or junior clubs. Senior B clubs were not included. My recollection is that the clubs do not need to be from same parish and do not even need to be connected to each other geographically. I am not sure if it meant they couldnt play in own junior / inter championship but as far as I recall, i think that they could play both. If there was more than one team, I think it was suggested they would play in separate group to regular groups and one quarter final place or prelim Q-final place may have been kept for them. Again, not certain this got through but think it may have. Can anyone clarify?

[SearingDrive]

The idea of joining clubs in the same parish/area is interesting. In Killeigh parish, you would be joining 3 clubs into 1 and in Daingean it would be 4 into 1, I might be mistaken on both. You might make a team capable of contesting a senior championship, but you will reduce playing numbers in those areas.

I’ve thought about it a good bit and at the minute there is no possible way to entertain the idea due to the current calendar, especially given our dual tradition.

Thinking off the top of my head, would there be a way to streamline Senior B down to Junior and run them off quicker, but delay the Senior A until they are done. Then, after the conclusions of those, run a Senior A championship with amalgamations. We will never be able to do the Kerry model, the hurling rightfully wouldn’t allow it.

I think it would lead to a brilliant Senior A, plus some of the best players in the county would get to play at a higher standard than with their individual clubs. Given the dominance of Tullamore at underage, which almost certainly won’t stop, it could be ominous enough for the senior championships future.

To be honest, it’ll never happen. There’s probably too many negatives which outweigh the positives, but it’s an interesting conversation all the same.

As far as I am aware (could be wrong), there is already provision to have amalgamated teams in a senior championship in Offaly - should clubs be willing to join and enter senior championship I know it was discussed and fairly sure it got over the line. I think this was done either last year or the year before but to date, no clubs have taken this up. Think I remember hearing M Duignan talking about it. From what I recall, clubs needed to be intermediate or junior clubs. Senior B clubs were not included. My recollection is that the clubs do not need to be from same parish and do not even need to be connected to each other geographically. I am not sure if it meant they couldnt play in own junior / inter championship but as far as I recall, i think that they could play both. If there was more than one team, I think it was suggested they would play in separate group to regular groups and one quarter final place or prelim Q-final place may have been kept for them. Again, not certain this got through but think it may have. Can anyone clarify?

I never heard that, but is worth trying. There may be potential difficulties ahead, but the more players getting Senior Football experience will be a good idea.
In 1959, St. Mary’s and Gracefield combined as St. Patrick’s to win the Senior County Football championship.

[SearingDrive]

The idea of joining clubs in the same parish/area is interesting. In Killeigh parish, you would be joining 3 clubs into 1 and in Daingean it would be 4 into 1, I might be mistaken on both. You might make a team capable of contesting a senior championship, but you will reduce playing numbers in those areas.

I’ve thought about it a good bit and at the minute there is no possible way to entertain the idea due to the current calendar, especially given our dual tradition.

Thinking off the top of my head, would there be a way to streamline Senior B down to Junior and run them off quicker, but delay the Senior A until they are done. Then, after the conclusions of those, run a Senior A championship with amalgamations. We will never be able to do the Kerry model, the hurling rightfully wouldn’t allow it.

I think it would lead to a brilliant Senior A, plus some of the best players in the county would get to play at a higher standard than with their individual clubs. Given the dominance of Tullamore at underage, which almost certainly won’t stop, it could be ominous enough for the senior championships future.

To be honest, it’ll never happen. There’s probably too many negatives which outweigh the positives, but it’s an interesting conversation all the same.

Scrap Q/Finals, and just play semi finals in hurling and football. That would reduce the number of games.

[Lone Shark]

This discussion has been had many times, and the problem is that people keep seeing the upside, but putting their fingers in their ears and doing some version of "la la la I'm not listening" when someone tries to explain the downside. But this has become my specialist subject in GAA admin terms down the years (you'll see why below) so here we go again.

Scrap Q/Finals, and just play semi finals in hurling and football. That would reduce the number of games.

Leading off with this: why on earth would Rhode, Tullamore, Shamrocks, Edenderry, Bracknagh, or any other senior club vote for less games? If you're getting rid of a meaningless round robin fixture that's one thing, but not getting rid of knockout rounds. No-one will want that.


Next, and more importantly, the only counties where these amalgamations work are where they are drawn from at least seven or eight clubs on average. Let's assume for a minute that we get rid of the senior B grade and call it what it is - intermediate - and you create a parish team from Doon, Erin Rovers and Ballycumber, and we'll even throw Tubber in there too, though they aren't technically in the same parish. Given that clubs like Ballycommon and Clonbullogue are senior in their own right, the Leamonaghan amalgamation would be as good as you'd get.

Fielding a combined team would absolutely cripple these clubs' first teams. Let's be honest about it, no serious player is going to play for Leamonaghan just to cobble together a team on the day and get walked on by a highly-drilled, cohesive and talented team from Tullamore or Edenderry. That's a surefire route to humiliation and playing yourself out of contention for a place on the Offaly senior panel, which is the complete opposite of what we're trying to achieve.

So this only works if Leamonaghan meet and train every bit as much as Tullamore do. This project only works if Leamonaghan are resourced and supported every bit as well as Tullamore are. I'm not saying that the four clubs have to fund a Stephen Rochford style appointment, but they have to be able to look over at what Ger Rafferty has assembled in Ferbane or what Paschal Kelleghan has put together in Rhode in terms of specialist coaches and they have to believe that they're being given every bit as much help to be as good as they can be, just like those teams.

And for all that to happen, the four composite clubs have to fund it, thus stripping them of the chance to be as good as they can be themselves, and they have to accept that two or three times a week, their players will be training with Leamonaghan, and so they'll (at best) be able to do one session with Doon, Ballycumber etc. Now I'm not privy to how training is going for those clubs in 2025, but my gut feeling is that if you took ten lads (for example) out of Ballycumber on any given night, what would be left would be a small group of honest but limited players that simply wouldn't be able to train at any sort of decent level. It would be a Junior B training session, effectively.

These four clubs (and their potential opponents in the IFC/JFC) will have to accept that every single championship weekend, their games will be played on a Sunday or Monday evening, and half a dozen of their players will already have had a hard hour of championship football played on Friday or Saturday. Add all this together, and the toll on the individual clubs is massive. The money alone is usually enough to make clubs baulk - I was on a fixtures committee here in Roscommon, where a group of North Roscommon clubs wanted something similar. The expressions on their faces when I said that this work in Kerry because clubs put up to €10,000 each into the Divisional team every year was pretty memorable, and needless to say they ran from that aspect.

So they made a half-hearted effort that wouldn't impede on the clubs too much, and they got this, which killed their enthusiasm stone dead:
https://www.shannonside.ie/sport/st-bri ... al-229994

That's why Kerry Divisional teams are (on average) pulled from around seven or eight clubs, Cork Divisional teams are often pulled from as many as 25 clubs, which is designed to share the load around. And the fixtures can be set to allow those Divisional teams to play at different times, which works because you have multiple divisions in each county - not realistic here in Offaly. And needless to say it's understood that if you play for East Kerry, or Muskerry, or St. Brendan's, you can't feasibly hurl as well - which is no issue if you want to put together a team from Walsh Island/Gracefield/Raheen/Ballinagar for example, but it instantly kills the idea of doing something similar anywhere west of the line from Cappincur to Killeigh (i.e., roughly two thirds of the county).

One final killer - to make this work, this project has to have continuity. So let's just say that a few years ago, there's a Walsh Island parish team, with Gracefield also in the mix. But if - like now - Bracknagh and Clonbullogue go Senior in their own right, then there isn't enough left for an amalgamation. That's a big reason why the Kenmare district team in Kerry struggles, they don't have lots of clubs.

The remedy for this is that every club in Offaly is part of a Division, and the Divisions are big enough that they can handle it if one or two clubs gain promotion. Sure, East Kerry won't be as good if Fossa get promoted and the Cliffords are no longer available for selection, but there are 13 clubs in the Division, so they'll always have a team.

And here's the kicker - one of those clubs is Dr. Crokes, who have won nine Munster club titles and two All-Irelands since they were last intermediate, all the way back in 1985. And every year, Dr. Crokes pay into the East Kerry Division, helping to fund the management and training of a team that in 2019 beat them in a county final.

That happens because Kerry people believe in the Divisional system and what it does for them, and it is firmly established in the county's GAA tradition and culture. But to go from scratch right now and try to sell to Rhode GAA and Edenderry GAA the idea that we're going to create a North Offaly Division comprising the clubs from those parishes along with maybe Daingean parish as well, and that Rhode and Edenderry would have to pay to fund a divisional team that in all likelihood they will never have players play for and that might be the one to knock them out of the Offaly SFC some year soon, that strikes me as ambitious.

I'll push it further. If you could make the executive and membership of those clubs believe in that concept, then I hope you work in sales for a living, because you could sell anything to anyone.

[Offaly Hero]

This discussion has been had many times, and the problem is that people keep seeing the upside, but putting their fingers in their ears and doing some version of "la la la I'm not listening" when someone tries to explain the downside. But this has become my specialist subject in GAA admin terms down the years (you'll see why below) so here we go again.

Scrap Q/Finals, and just play semi finals in hurling and football. That would reduce the number of games.

Leading off with this: why on earth would Rhode, Tullamore, Shamrocks, Edenderry, Bracknagh, or any other senior club vote for less games? If you're getting rid of a meaningless round robin fixture that's one thing, but not getting rid of knockout rounds. No-one will want that.


Next, and more importantly, the only counties where these amalgamations work are where they are drawn from at least seven or eight clubs on average. Let's assume for a minute that we get rid of the senior B grade and call it what it is - intermediate - and you create a parish team from Doon, Erin Rovers and Ballycumber, and we'll even throw Tubber in there too, though they aren't technically in the same parish. Given that clubs like Ballycommon and Clonbullogue are senior in their own right, the Leamonaghan amalgamation would be as good as you'd get.

Fielding a combined team would absolutely cripple these clubs' first teams. Let's be honest about it, no serious player is going to play for Leamonaghan just to cobble together a team on the day and get walked on by a highly-drilled, cohesive and talented team from Tullamore or Edenderry. That's a surefire route to humiliation and playing yourself out of contention for a place on the Offaly senior panel, which is the complete opposite of what we're trying to achieve.

So this only works if Leamonaghan meet and train every bit as much as Tullamore do. This project only works if Leamonaghan are resourced and supported every bit as well as Tullamore are. I'm not saying that the four clubs have to fund a Stephen Rochford style appointment, but they have to be able to look over at what Ger Rafferty has assembled in Ferbane or what Paschal Kelleghan has put together in Rhode in terms of specialist coaches and they have to believe that they're being given every bit as much help to be as good as they can be, just like those teams.

And for all that to happen, the four composite clubs have to fund it, thus stripping them of the chance to be as good as they can be themselves, and they have to accept that two or three times a week, their players will be training with Leamonaghan, and so they'll (at best) be able to do one session with Doon, Ballycumber etc. Now I'm not privy to how training is going for those clubs in 2025, but my gut feeling is that if you took ten lads (for example) out of Ballycumber on any given night, what would be left would be a small group of honest but limited players that simply wouldn't be able to train at any sort of decent level. It would be a Junior B training session, effectively.

These four clubs (and their potential opponents in the IFC/JFC) will have to accept that every single championship weekend, their games will be played on a Sunday or Monday evening, and half a dozen of their players will already have had a hard hour of championship football played on Friday or Saturday. Add all this together, and the toll on the individual clubs is massive. The money alone is usually enough to make clubs baulk - I was on a fixtures committee here in Roscommon, where a group of North Roscommon clubs wanted something similar. The expressions on their faces when I said that this work in Kerry because clubs put up to €10,000 each into the Divisional team every year was pretty memorable, and needless to say they ran from that aspect.

So they made a half-hearted effort that wouldn't impede on the clubs too much, and they got this, which killed their enthusiasm stone dead:
https://www.shannonside.ie/sport/st-bri ... al-229994

That's why Kerry Divisional teams are (on average) pulled from around seven or eight clubs, Cork Divisional teams are often pulled from as many as 25 clubs, which is designed to share the load around. And the fixtures can be set to allow those Divisional teams to play at different times, which works because you have multiple divisions in each county - not realistic here in Offaly. And needless to say it's understood that if you play for East Kerry, or Muskerry, or St. Brendan's, you can't feasibly hurl as well - which is no issue if you want to put together a team from Walsh Island/Gracefield/Raheen/Ballinagar for example, but it instantly kills the idea of doing something similar anywhere west of the line from Cappincur to Killeigh (i.e., roughly two thirds of the county).

One final killer - to make this work, this project has to have continuity. So let's just say that a few years ago, there's a Walsh Island parish team, with Gracefield also in the mix. But if - like now - Bracknagh and Clonbullogue go Senior in their own right, then there isn't enough left for an amalgamation. That's a big reason why the Kenmare district team in Kerry struggles, they don't have lots of clubs.

The remedy for this is that every club in Offaly is part of a Division, and the Divisions are big enough that they can handle it if one or two clubs gain promotion. Sure, East Kerry won't be as good if Fossa get promoted and the Cliffords are no longer available for selection, but there are 13 clubs in the Division, so they'll always have a team.

And here's the kicker - one of those clubs is Dr. Crokes, who have won nine Munster club titles and two All-Irelands since they were last intermediate, all the way back in 1985. And every year, Dr. Crokes pay into the East Kerry Division, helping to fund the management and training of a team that in 2019 beat them in a county final.

That happens because Kerry people believe in the Divisional system and what it does for them, and it is firmly established in the county's GAA tradition and culture. But to go from scratch right now and try to sell to Rhode GAA and Edenderry GAA the idea that we're going to create a North Offaly Division comprising the clubs from those parishes along with maybe Daingean parish as well, and that Rhode and Edenderry would have to pay to fund a divisional team that in all likelihood they will never have players play for and that might be the one to knock them out of the Offaly SFC some year soon, that strikes me as ambitious.

I'll push it further. If you could make the executive and membership of those clubs believe in that concept, then I hope you work in sales for a living, because you could sell anything to anyone.

This is an exceptional post LS and I'd agree with it 100%. Thanks for taking the time to write it. Overall its a complex problem and defies an easy solution.
As pointed out by a poster above, it is indeed true that some form of amalgamated teams have been allowed in football for the last two years with no uptake of same. This is instructive. I don't see divisional teams ever being established in Offaly and it's a waste of time to have this conversation any further

For me, the issue to be addressed is the number of tiny football predominant clubs in north and especially east Offaly.
Shannonbridge, Doon, Erin Rovers, Tubber, Ballycumber, Cappincur, Ballinagar, Ballycommon, Kilclonfert, St Brigids, Walsh Island, Raheen, Clonmore Harps, Ballyfore, Bracknagh and Clonbullogue are all tiny both geographically and in population.
Because of this they all play musical chairs with each other as to the year to year 'up and down' between senior a, senior b and intermediate but none of them are strong enough to make any impression on the senior a championship. Even making the senior a championship final (much less winning it) has been restricted to a remarkably low number of clubs for the past 30 odd years. This is unlikely to ever change as it currently stands.


It is a remarkable number of small rural clubs in North Offaly and compares very differently to hurling predominant clubs of south Offaly where only Crinkill, Ballyskenagh/Kilavilla, Lusmagh and Clareen would be considered 'small' relative to their peers in both geographic and population senses.
South Offaly has a few geographically very large rural clubs. Coolderry, Shinrone, Drumcullen, St Rynaghs, Ferbane/Belmont and Kilcormac-Kiloughey span vast areas. This is not replicated in North Offaly to the same extent.


I respect tradition as much as the next person but I wonder if time and demographics are calling time on the small rural clubs of North Offaly. I wonder if more out and out amalgamations would be better. Clubs have to change with the times. Larger clubs more more capital, more expertise capital, better facilities, more chance of success. I don't accept that larger clubs mean less playing numbers. Kilcormac Kiloughey will field five adult hurling teams this year. I also feel that small clubs due to lack of finance, facilities, chance of success etc may lose players due to them simply being a less dynamic place to spend time in. Club amalgamations, when they happen, tend to be positively viewed. I don't think anybody in K/K, Ballyskenagh/Killavilla or Shamrocks would reverse their amalgamations.

This is where I feel the hard honest discussions need to be had and not on divisional teams.

[Anon44]

Realistically, it will never happen. I think there are far more problems than potential advantages, as I said in my original reply. LS has outlined even more potential issues that would arise if it were to be trialed, then when you add in how many club duals there are it simply would never work.

Down the line, amalgamations like we see at underage will have to be considered. All the population is shifting to the urban centres.

[Tar Man]

Down the line, amalgamations like we see at underage will have to be considered. All the population is shifting to the urban centres.

Also the setting up of new clubs will have to be considered. Ireland is changing drastically - Rural Ireland is being decimated - think about it for a second - the population of Offaly is rising year on year not reducing yet we are talking about a necessary future action to amalgamate clubs to keep our games going. In the past you had natural splintering of clubs with rows etc but now you generally don't have these for a no. of reasons - mainly finance and also the rule book has been vastly expanded to take care of all eventualities. Hard decisions are going to have to be made.

[private joker]

Should there be a brosna gaels club covering both hurling and football. You could have a decent senior A team and probably a good junior A team in football if the same clubs that come together for hurling did the same for football.

[Lone Shark]

The population thing is a completely separate issue, but a very valid and real one. I can't imagine that all four clubs in the Brosna Gaels umbrella coming together to form one GAA club is likely, but out of the four, Erin Rovers in particular are really feeling the demographic pinch while Doon are not too bad for numbers at underage now by their own standards, but they went through a long period of having maybe two or three lads from each calendar year playing ball at the teenage years, which is obviously pretty close to unsustainable.

And absolutely, clubs in big towns and cities having to cater for too many is a problem as well. Tullamore is a behemoth by Offaly standards and you could make a strong case for saying that a second club in the town would be a good thing, but it's far from the most egregious example out there. Naas and Portlaoise are absolute monster clubs, and a lad from Waterford told me very recently that they have a huge problem with Ballygunner, and the lack of parish rule down there. There are plenty of clubs in Waterford City so it's not the lack of clubs, but apparently Ballygunner are sweeping up a disproportionate amount of the young players, fielding eight to ten teams at U-10 and U-11. By the time it gets to U-15, U-16 and minor, the vast majority have stopped playing and what's left is so strong that no-one can live with them, to the point that other Division One clubs are conceding walkovers rather than sending their teams out to be slaughtered. He told me that from U-13 up to minor, they've won every championship game this year and haven't been tested yet - not sure how true that is, but even if it's exaggerated, it still would be a massive problem.

The problem is that for the GAA to fix it would either be prohibitively expensive (buying up huge swathes of land in urban areas) or very impractical (creating some sort of one-way valve for players to leave towns and go out to struggling rural clubs, but with no option to go the other way).

There is a massive societal issue here that should be solvable from a government point of view in the modern era of swathes of people working from home, though I get no sense that there is any will to take it on.

[Anon44]

All valid points. I know we’re probably getting a little off topic, but to me the parish rule is very much outdated and too simplistic. How is it fair on certain clubs, if we use Erin Rovers and Doon as examples, to try and compete with other clubs in the coming years when the population is drastically decreasing? In senior football, those clubs who would see themselves as contenders, are the ones with the big populations and numerous schools in their catchment area. Can those clubs outside ever really mount the most surprising of challenges? Realistically, they can’t and won’t.

There definitely should be something more to help smaller, rural clubs. I don’t know what the right amendment would be, maybe like what they do in other counties with a grandparent/parent rule where you can only go from one of those bigger population clubs to a smaller one? I don’t know, but we’re at risk of losing lots of clubs.

[Lone Shark]

All of the above is reasonable, but as you say, knowing the solution is not easy. I probably should have specified when I cited them that while I don't think there's any prospect of all four Brosna Gaels constituent clubs coming together to form one Leamonaghan team, I could see a scenario where a Doon/Erin Rovers merger is put on the table, though there are obvious downsides to that too. If you're on the Doon side of the Shannonbridge border, maybe somewhere around Clonascra, that's a good 25 minute drive to the Erin Rovers pitch in Pullough for training. Hardcore parents that spent their lives playing ball themselves won't bat an eyelid at that, but more casual parents will baulk at it and will just make do with the child playing soccer in Ballinahown.

Then looking further down the tracks, that leaves Shannonbridge with nowhere to go if the time comes when they need to think of something similar - and that's entirely plausible too, notwithstanding the fact that they're working incredibly hard in that club to stay afloat as an independent entity.

Absolutely, some sort of one-way release valve is needed. I don't know if parentage is the way to go myself, mainly because it only defers the problem for one generation. But the flip side of that is that you need there to be some sort of connection between the player and his new club, otherwise there will come a day when a really small club has a core group of 7-8 really talented players coming up - not unlike a Ballinagar-type situation right now - and a wealthy benefactor decides he's going to push things over the line by going out and recruiting a load of fellas from Tullamore, Edenderry and Portlaoise to build a championship winning team.

As you say, identifying the problem and identifying the solution are two very different things.

[jimbob17]

Interesting points Lone Shark. Based on above, and reference to Kerry structure, this is what I'd love to see.

Two combined teams enter senior A championship - on knockout basis.

They play each other on a home / away basis alternating year on year. Each team is made up of players from Junior and Intermediate teams but NOT Senior B or Senior A teams.

Each team is restricted to 8 training sessions pre first round and one per week thereafter. They enter at Prelim Q-final stage against each other with winner qualifying for one q final spot kept for them in Senior A championship. So essentially it is one knockout game and winner goes to a q-final meaning the time and commitment to it is minimised so as not to inconvenience clubs involved.

The teams as follows - excuse if I leave out anyone but you'll get general idea - based around principal of being East or West of a hypothetical North to South divide running through Tullamore.

East Offaly - Ballyfore, Clonmore Harps, St Brigids, Walsh Island, Kilclonfert, Raheen, Clodiagh Gaels,

West Offaly - Shannonbridge, Doon, Erin Rovers, KK, Birr, St Rynaghs, Lusmagh, Kinnity, Ballyskenagh among others etc

One team plays in the Offaly home strip while the other plays in the white away jersey. There would be huge honour for lads in making these teams if it were run this way and I genuinely think it would be someting that lads from these inter and junior clubs would aim for. I also think there would be a few in South and West Offaly that could get exposure to good level of football that may help Offaly potentially. There are lads down there that might only love to have the chance to play the big ball at a good level - this would afford that opportunity.

On a given year, where teams are relegated from senior B, East Offaly may also include likes of Gracefield, Daingean, Cappincur, Ballinagar etc while likes of Clara, Durrow, Ballycumber, Tubber etc, or anyone else that side would be added to West Offaly - in a swap with a team promoted to Senior B, having won the intermediate championship the previous year.

There have always been players from some of these clubs that have been very strong underage players but fell away and never played co senior because they were never showcased at club senior level. Lots of co minors from 2024 and 2025 come from these clubs. I think it would be novel, exciting, promote football in these areas and also allow players to play in own club championship at own grade.

A nominal sum of around 500 - 1000 euro per year from each participating club would be enough to cover cost of physio / coach manager etc if the model only allowed for a certain number of training sessions - and that this is policed by county board. If this training cap is not honoured then, the individual clubs would report upwards to co board and team would be excluded the following year as a disincentive. If required, the co board could be involved in the selection of the coaching teams for each team to ensure that these rules are not broken.

I think players and supporters would be massively enthused by such a concept and it could bring real energy to senior championship....

Maybe it is a hair-brained idealistic idea that would only be scoffed at, but i'd love to see it tried.....

[Lone Shark]

It's a nice idea in theory, but here's where rubber meets road. So let's assume for a second that there's two weeks in between this preliminary quarter-final and an actual quarter-final against a club team, so they've eight sessions prior to the Divisional game and two more after it.

So this team, let's say it's North Offaly for argument's sake, has now met up 10 times and played one match, maybe one other challenge match at best. And they get drawn to play Tullamore or Edenderry, who have met up somewhere around 60 or 70 times, and played up to 20 matches between league, championship and challenges. Either that alone means that the club team wins the game with plenty to spare, or else why does any club bother training at all, if it's makes no difference to how they will perform?

You're not starting with like for like either. Sure, you'll have a couple of club colleagues lining out together for North Offaly, but plenty more won't really know each other. Good footballers they may be, but it's not like Geordi O'Meara and Cian Donohoe ever played on the same team together, so they're coming in cold taking on club sides that have played together all their lives. That is a huge, huge handicap to overcome.

If I'm a bookie, it's not about player ability - the club team is a 10 or 12 point favourite to win that match, and the danger of players opting out late to prioritise their own club is high, so the danger of a margin of 18 or 20 points is high. That Pearses vs West Roscommon game I mentioned above, three players from one club pulled out of playing for West Roscommon on the morning of the game. The trapdoors are everywhere.

So if I'm a player, I'm thinking to myself that the way to catch the eye of Mickey Harte and Declan Kelly is not by running the risk of exposing myself to being tattooed by Tullamore in a game like that, it's by knuckling down, getting to a county final with my club and using that game as my shop window.

In a nutshell, I don't think players will see this as an opportunity nearly as much as they might do on paper.

[Offaly Hero]

Interesting points Lone Shark. Based on above, and reference to Kerry structure, this is what I'd love to see.

Two combined teams enter senior A championship - on knockout basis.

They play each other on a home / away basis alternating year on year. Each team is made up of players from Junior and Intermediate teams but NOT Senior B or Senior A teams.

Each team is restricted to 8 training sessions pre first round and one per week thereafter. They enter at Prelim Q-final stage against each other with winner qualifying for one q final spot kept for them in Senior A championship. So essentially it is one knockout game and winner goes to a q-final meaning the time and commitment to it is minimised so as not to inconvenience clubs involved.

The teams as follows - excuse if I leave out anyone but you'll get general idea - based around principal of being East or West of a hypothetical North to South divide running through Tullamore.

East Offaly - Ballyfore, Clonmore Harps, St Brigids, Walsh Island, Kilclonfert, Raheen, Clodiagh Gaels,

West Offaly - Shannonbridge, Doon, Erin Rovers, KK, Birr, St Rynaghs, Lusmagh, Kinnity, Ballyskenagh among others etc

One team plays in the Offaly home strip while the other plays in the white away jersey. There would be huge honour for lads in making these teams if it were run this way and I genuinely think it would be someting that lads from these inter and junior clubs would aim for. I also think there would be a few in South and West Offaly that could get exposure to good level of football that may help Offaly potentially. There are lads down there that might only love to have the chance to play the big ball at a good level - this would afford that opportunity.

On a given year, where teams are relegated from senior B, East Offaly may also include likes of Gracefield, Daingean, Cappincur, Ballinagar etc while likes of Clara, Durrow, Ballycumber, Tubber etc, or anyone else that side would be added to West Offaly - in a swap with a team promoted to Senior B, having won the intermediate championship the previous year.

There have always been players from some of these clubs that have been very strong underage players but fell away and never played co senior because they were never showcased at club senior level. Lots of co minors from 2024 and 2025 come from these clubs. I think it would be novel, exciting, promote football in these areas and also allow players to play in own club championship at own grade.

A nominal sum of around 500 - 1000 euro per year from each participating club would be enough to cover cost of physio / coach manager etc if the model only allowed for a certain number of training sessions - and that this is policed by county board. If this training cap is not honoured then, the individual clubs would report upwards to co board and team would be excluded the following year as a disincentive. If required, the co board could be involved in the selection of the coaching teams for each team to ensure that these rules are not broken.

I think players and supporters would be massively enthused by such a concept and it could bring real energy to senior championship....

Maybe it is a hair-brained idealistic idea that would only be scoffed at, but i'd love to see it tried.....

You're right.
It is a hair brained idea.