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A new Divisional football Competition in Laois gets underway tomorrow night.
The first game in the LOETB Centre of Excellence sees North/North West take on East Central at 6pm, followed by North East v South East at 7.30pm on Saturday.
The competition is the brainchild of Laois manager John Sugrue and is being used essentialy as trials ahead of the 2019 campaign.
Sugrue is well versed in how the divisional football championships work in his native Kerry having won a number of senior titles with South Kerry, as both a player and manager. His club Renard were one of eight intermediate or junior clubs feeding into the South Kerry region.
Had any of them been promoted to senior in their own right, then they ceased to part of the arrangement. Likewise if a team from South Kerry was senior on their own and got relegated, they could be part of the divisional set up.
And in one of our recent Podcasts, a discussion arose about developing one of the new regional Laois teams into a side that could compete in the senior football championship with the clubs continuing to play in their own grade as normal.
Steven Miller made the case for a ‘North Laois’ to have a spot and outlined how he believes it could work.
Steven said: “The one part of the county that I see with huge potential, if there was some big thinking on it, is the North Laois area.
“People always go on that you can play senior football in Kerry even if you are from a junior club.
“And I think there should be a North Laois amalgamation. You would have Mountmellick, Rosenallis, The Rock, Kilcavan, Clonaslee, Slieve Bloom, Ballyfin, Camross and Castletown.
“There should be a team called North Laois in the senior championship where players from all of those clubs can play.”
Steven said that if any of the clubs who make up North Laois were to win the intermediate, they would not be allowed to take part in it the following year.
He said: “Ballyfin are senior at the moment and if they are senior in their own right, they don’t be part of it.
“And if any of the other clubs came up from intermediate, they would do the same.
“So what it would mean then is that no club would be robbed of say ten players.
“So if for example Kilcavan were playing junior on a Friday night and North Laois were playing Portlaoise or Stradbally on a Sunday evening – there might be only three Kilcavan lads so it is not taking too much from them.
“Fixture wise, it is the same as the Gaels arrangement where the fixtures are set on different nights. If there is a will to do it, there is a way to do it.”
Steven would also like to see this North Laois given its own identity.
He said: “North Laois is an area with a lot of potential and a lot of teams. If you take the likes of Ben Conroy, Ryan Mullaney, Rob Tyrrell and others, you have a serious start.
“And I think this has long term potential. There should be an U-14, U-16 and minor North Laois teams for example.
“There is a concentration of teams up there who are not strong in senior and if you put them all together, you would make a cracking team.
“It would have identity. A complete new set up with different jerseys, different name. I think there is something in that.”
Check out the full discussion below:
SEE ALSO – Laois Divisional squads announced ahead of upcoming competition
