The Laois GAA Divisional Competition team names and managers were announced back in September.
The team names and the management teams that will be involved with the four teams in the upcoming Laois GAA Divisional Football Competition have been confirmed.
Laois Football Board chairman Laurence Phelan enlisted O’Dempsey’s clubman Bryan Breen to bring back the competition for a second year and plans are now well underway.
Organizers are also calling on members of the public to help design new jerseys for each of the sides.
As revealed last week, the competition is set to begin after the the SFC final is played and will see all the clubs in the county broken up into four groups.
Last year, these were called the Northeast, Southeast, Central East and West/Northwest.
But in a change to that, chief organiser Bryan Breen approached Portlaoise duo Teddy Fennelly and Pat Critchley who have come up with new names for each of the areas:
Fir Ón Tuaisceart (Men of the North) (White)
Fir Ón Deisceart (Men of the South) (Green)
Fir Ón Oirthear (Men of the East) (Yellow)
Fir Ón Iarthar (Men of the West) (Blue)
Using the colours of the crest, the four teams have also been designated one.
Fir Ón Tuaisceart (North) will wear white, Fir Ón Deisceart (South) will wear green, Fir Ón Oirthear (East) will wear yellow and Fir Ón Iarthar (West) will wear blue.
Bryan Breen has spent the last week approaching people in the different areas and all four teams have put in place some very impressive management teams – with names to be added in the coming weeks.
Fir Ón Iarthar (West) will have Paul Lawlor (Emo), Martin Deegan (Camross), Paddy Dunne (Rosenallis), Donnacha Phelan (Ballyfin), Gordon Lalor (Kilcavan), Brian Dempsey (Mountmellick), Tom Delaney (Slieve Bloom) on the sideline.
Dan Nelligan (St Joseph’s), Liam Ramsbottom (Timahoe), Greg Ramsbottom (Stradbally), Paul Julian (Ballylinan) and Padraig McMahon (Ballyroan-Abbey) and Tom O’Connell (Park-Ratheniska) will look after Fir Ón Oirthear (East).
Fir Ón Deisceart (South) will be managed by John Kealy (Ballylinan), Martin Gorman (Spink), Jason Enright (Arles-Killeen), Barry Ryan (Killeshin), John Michael McDonald (Arles-Kilcruise) and Kevin Doogue (Graiguecullen).
While John Scully (Annanough), Eddie Kinsella (Courtwood), Francis Finn (O’Dempsey’s) and Alan Bracken (Portarlington) will take care of Fir Ón Tuaisceart (North).
Speaking about the new team names and the management set ups, organizer Bryan Breen said: “We are delighted with how this is all coming together.
“This competition is for all Laois people and the names we have given each area reflect the inclusiveness it all.
“It is great to see so many people from different clubs getting involved in the running of the teams and that is exactly what we want to see happening.
“We have people like Tom Delaney from Slieve Bloom and Paddy Dunne in Rosenallis who are doing fantastic work with football in their clubs and it is brilliant to have those involved.”
Laois GAA now plan to have new jerseys designed for each of the areas and have teamed up with Darren Strong of DS Sports to make that happen.
They are looking for members of the public to go to the kit builder part of his website and design jerseys.
They are seeking submissions for the four teams and the colours must correspond to the ones specified – Fir Ón Tuaisceart (White), Fir Ón Deisceart (Green), Fir Ón Oirthear (Yellow) and Fir Ón Iarthar (Blue)
All submissions are to be screenshot and sent to jerseys@laoistoday.ie where the best one for each team will be chosen.
The deadline for entries is Monday September 16 at 10pm and the chosen designs will be revealed in the coming weeks.
