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Well i know its only early in the leagues but is there any team out there seriously struggling for numbers. Any games called off or walkovers given?

I would imagine that the second and third teams of bigger clubs must be fairly desolate with players being called up to make up numbers on the senior panels.

I heard Shamrock juniors gave a walkover to Killeigh in the league last week and alos heard that Gracefield juniors only had 13 against Ballycommon in junior league aswell. Its very early in the year to be giving walkovers...

Tullamore played Shamrocks last night in senior football league. Shamrocks had 16 which was made up mostly of juniors. Thats the first team so they must be struggling for numbers terribly.

I think that Shamrocks plight has been highlighted here on this forum before. They had even struggled at times last year. Hopefully they will find a few more to make up the numbers just like they did last year in the junior a when they reached the final

if you think shamrocks are struggling how about the smaller clubs!s/bridge , k/fert, .doon have lost alot of players this year that had to head to australia for work,players they need to make any inpact on the league or championship!shamrocks will survive but the other 3 i mentioned im not so sure!fingers crossed they will in these hard times

I'd say most clubs are struggling now, but in fairness it is February and that would always be the case at this time of year. Fellas who have committed to soccer or rugby will be seeing that out until April or whenever, and that's normal. I certainly wouldn't say that it affects one size club more than the other, since the bigger club will have more teams to fill. We played Rhode's third team last night and they had plenty of subs available, but on the other hand you might have other clubs who will really struggle.

That said I don't think there have been many walkovers so far?

Obviously emigration is another issue and one that has hit some clubs hard and others not so much, but the full effect of that will only be seen in the summer.

How did you get on, against Rhode i.e.?

We lost 0-7 to 0-6, Rhode won with two points in the last two minutes. Not actually as bad a game as that scoreline suggests either, but for most of the second half neither forward line was able to get anywhere, was 0-4 each at half time and 0-5 each with five to go.

shannonbridge are missing 8 players that played championship last year and with no new players coming into the set up now only have 17 players to pick from. we have two or three 17 year olds comin through for next year and then thats it for about 5 or 6 years. its gonna be a real struggle to field a team in the coming years