Club Managements

A forum to air your views on Offaly GAA matters and beyond.
frankthetank
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Re: Club Managements

Post by frankthetank »

Farcical that Tullamore can't have a competitive Senior A hurling and football team considering their population and financial windfall every year from the county board for the use of OCP.

Mad to think that all other clubs in Offaly pay a levy that then circumnavigates it's way to Tullamore GAA.

Edenderry is a little bit different I feel. Growing population but a massive amount of foreign nationals who have no interest in GAA. If you took the foreigners out of Edenderry it would be still very much a small country town along the likes of Banagher. So they are still picking from the usual sources/families. And then this small pick is further reduced by the presence of Edenderry Town FC, Derry Rovers AFC and Edenderry RFC.

kingscounty
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Re: Club Managements

Post by kingscounty »

frankthetank wrote: Sun Feb 21, 2021 8:50 pm Farcical that Tullamore can't have a competitive Senior A hurling and football team considering their population and financial windfall every year from the county board for the use of OCP.

Mad to think that all other clubs in Offaly pay a levy that then circumnavigates it's way to Tullamore GAA.

Edenderry is a little bit different I feel. Growing population but a massive amount of foreign nationals who have no interest in GAA. If you took the foreigners out of Edenderry it would be still very much a small country town along the likes of Banagher. So they are still picking from the usual sources/families. And then this small pick is further reduced by the presence of Edenderry Town FC, Derry Rovers AFC and Edenderry RFC.
I would guess the Irish born people living in Edenderry would be at least 3-4 times that of Banagher!!! There are a lot of non national folk in the town and some play and are interested in gaa, it’s up to the club to encourage them.
As for Tullamore‘s windfall, money doesn’t win championships it helps with development of facilities etc. Look at what Rhode can do every single year for the past 20 years +. Edenderry had huge financial gain for a good few years from a school on the premises and won very little and hurling disappeared after 2013.

feirmeoir
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Re: Club Managements

Post by feirmeoir »

I can't understand why there aren't 2 clubs in Tullamore, there are 2 senior clubs in Athlone and 3 in Mullingar, Tullamore a similar sized town.

With the population in Tullamore, they should have 3 minor teams, surely they are losing players ....

private joker
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Re: Club Managements

Post by private joker »

What tullamore need is a progressive club executive. Need to invest in people. A games promotion officer would help. Along with Edenderry, should be competing at a far higher level. Strike me as a club where one code is more dominant than the other and that's holding back both codes.

jimbob17
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Re: Club Managements

Post by jimbob17 »

feirmeoir wrote: Mon Feb 22, 2021 11:39 pm I can't understand why there aren't 2 clubs in Tullamore, there are 2 senior clubs in Athlone and 3 in Mullingar, Tullamore a similar sized town.

With the population in Tullamore, they should have 3 minor teams, surely they are losing players ....
Fully agree. Offaly GAA would be stronger if there were 2 football teams in Tullamore. Would not say the same for hurling. The numbers are there and it means that Tullamore don't have to mind their players as much as other clubs. In Mullingar, you have 4 clubs at senior level in Lomans, Shamrocks, The Downs and Shandonagh, with the latter two also taking in a country area - albeit Mullingar is a bigger town. Tullamore could argue that they are surrounded by Durrow (which is Tullamore parish), Cappincur and Shamrocks which runs right into Charleville - and all are Senior A tams. I think in the past, there was enough there for 2 very good senior teams but not certain the depth of quality is there currently. That said, If Tullamore were consistently competitive at semi finals and finals of A underage (which they have not been - except last year or two), it wouldnt take too long for that to change. There are some good people doing lots of good work in Tullamore but I think that a GPO should be put in to the town to take advantage of population and recruit from newer families in the town including non-nationals. I think the Westmeath clubs are a lot better at recruiting non-national heritage players than we are in Offaly which is a trick we are missing.
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SearingDrive
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Re: Club Managements

Post by SearingDrive »

feirmeoir wrote: Mon Feb 22, 2021 11:39 pm I can't understand why there aren't 2 clubs in Tullamore, there are 2 senior clubs in Athlone and 3 in Mullingar, Tullamore a similar sized town.

With the population in Tullamore, they should have 3 minor teams, surely they are losing players ....
Athlone and Mullingar have bigger populations than Tullamore. In Tullamore parish, Durrow are a Senior Football team, drawing players from Ballinamere and Durrow. Ballinamere and Durrow hurl together at Senior A level. You could argue that there are two teams in Tullamore on that basis.

NewEra
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Re: Club Managements

Post by NewEra »

SearingDrive wrote: Tue Feb 23, 2021 12:08 pm
feirmeoir wrote: Mon Feb 22, 2021 11:39 pm I can't understand why there aren't 2 clubs in Tullamore, there are 2 senior clubs in Athlone and 3 in Mullingar, Tullamore a similar sized town.

With the population in Tullamore, they should have 3 minor teams, surely they are losing players ....
Athlone and Mullingar have bigger populations than Tullamore. In Tullamore parish, Durrow are a Senior Football team, drawing players from Ballinamere and Durrow. Ballinamere and Durrow hurl together at Senior A level. You could argue that there are two teams in Tullamore on that basis.
Give over. The biggest urban town and population in the county doesn't have an excuse or leg to stand on in this regard. The drop off in players and under-utilisation of players they have from underage up over the last 15 years is non excusable. On the opposite side, Cappincur - a quarter of a parish with a 4 mile stretch of road, have beat them in Championship and League (on numerous occasions) over the last few years, while utilising every resource available to them (not counting the number of underage players illegally playing with Tullamore but sin sceal eile!)

SearingDrive
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Re: Club Managements

Post by SearingDrive »

NewEra wrote: Tue Feb 23, 2021 1:48 pm
SearingDrive wrote: Tue Feb 23, 2021 12:08 pm
feirmeoir wrote: Mon Feb 22, 2021 11:39 pm I can't understand why there aren't 2 clubs in Tullamore, there are 2 senior clubs in Athlone and 3 in Mullingar, Tullamore a similar sized town.

With the population in Tullamore, they should have 3 minor teams, surely they are losing players ....
Athlone and Mullingar have bigger populations than Tullamore. In Tullamore parish, Durrow are a Senior Football team, drawing players from Ballinamere and Durrow. Ballinamere and Durrow hurl together at Senior A level. You could argue that there are two teams in Tullamore on that basis.
[
Give over. The biggest urban town and population in the county doesn't have an excuse or leg to stand on in this regard. The drop off in players and under-utilisation of players they have from underage up over the last 15 years is non excusable. On the opposite side, Cappincur - a quarter of a parish with a 4 mile stretch of road, have beat them in Championship and League (on numerous occasions) over the last few years, while utilising every resource available to them (not counting the number of underage players illegally playing with Tullamore but sin sceal eile!)
Cappincur’s sole championship victory over Tullamore was in last year’s SFC. Tullamore reached the 2020 SFC Final v Rhode. Maybe you should address your query to the Tullamore club, or it could be that the GAA Community in the capital town are happy with the status quo.
The other clubs in Tullamore parish, are already mentioned.

Just for the record Portlaoise, with a bigger population than Tullamore have just one GAA club. It hasn’t affected their success in Laois GAA.

Tmacmahon
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Re: Club Managements

Post by Tmacmahon »

i know this has been discussed many a time but what areas is each club made up of?

is there any way of finding out the membership and or playin numbers in each club?

id be intresed in to the size of each club to see which clubs are underachieving / over achieving

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Pat Mustard
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Re: Club Managements

Post by Pat Mustard »

Isn't Ballinamere in Tullamore Parish aswell which is why alot of kids from Tullamore are able to play out there which I agree is no excuse. Massive under achievers when you put them up against Mullingar and Athlone there could easily be another club in the town

jimbob17
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Re: Club Managements

Post by jimbob17 »

Pat Mustard wrote: Wed Feb 24, 2021 4:58 pm Isn't Ballinamere in Tullamore Parish aswell which is why alot of kids from Tullamore are able to play out there which I agree is no excuse. Massive under achievers when you put them up against Mullingar and Athlone there could easily be another club in the town
I wouldn't say a lot from Tullamore play in Ballinamere to be fair - very few in fact. The two primary schools would be the feeders there (Ballinamere NS and Durrow NS). If there are kids from town in school there, they might play with Bal Durrow but other than that, all town dwellers would play with Tullamore GAA club.

Ballinamere have done a lot of work in underage over last number of years and that is now starting to seep through to senior level. The first batch off this underage push are probably only 19 or 20 now and there is a lot of good players coming behind that group that will make both clubs stronger at senior level in years to come in my opinion. In 2 or 3 years, when more underage players come through, they should start to become genuine contenders to win a senior football or hurling championship I think.
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frankthetank
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Re: Club Managements

Post by frankthetank »

Well they got a full back page spread about their "arrival" from Kevin Corrigan this year. Did they beat Kilcormac / Killoughey or St Rynagh's to merit this? Or even Birr or Coolderry?

No, they drew with Shinrone.

And went on to finish bottom of their group and probably would have got relegated if there was a relegation final.

Fleeting underage success does not guarantee adult success. Just ask Clodiagh Gaels.

jimbob17
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Re: Club Managements

Post by jimbob17 »

frankthetank wrote: Wed Feb 24, 2021 7:13 pm Well they got a full back page spread about their "arrival" from Kevin Corrigan this year. Did they beat Kilcormac / Killoughey or St Rynagh's to merit this? Or even Birr or Coolderry?

No, they drew with Shinrone.

And went on to finish bottom of their group and probably would have got relegated if there was a relegation final.

Fleeting underage success does not guarantee adult success. Just ask Clodiagh Gaels.
In fairness, I think the context is really that they have come from Junior hurling and Inter football to win junior inter and senior B competitions to now being fairly competitive at senior A level with small levels of resources - initially at least - over last 10 years. If every club did the level of work Ballinamere Durrow have done at underage, Offaly GAA would be thriving and I am not from Ballinamere. They have totally come from nowhere to be a strong senior football team and decent senior hurling team. If Tullamore did half that work at various levels, they would be wiping the boards with success at underage level - ditto Birr in hurling.

I think KK are another club in hurling that really have their house in order and are consistently doing the right things.
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private joker
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Re: Club Managements

Post by private joker »

Ballinamere remind me of kildangan in Tipperary. Bad junior team who 25 years later won their way up to a senior A County champions. Winning all irelands, several North's and produced a huge amount of county men across all grades.

greenairfield
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Re: Club Managements

Post by greenairfield »

Jimbob hold on here for a second. Its very hard to wipe the floor as you say in any county Birr might of done it for years due to the fact of the presentation brothers were feeding Birr with numbers every year with a huge amount of talent amongst them players.
That is not the case anymore due to the fact the brothers are no longer there and the school gives as much time ot things ike rugby,soccer music art whatever it may be.
So then it just down to the club and huge work is been put in while they mihght not be sweeping the floor like they use they have 7 or 8 lads from the age of 18-21 who were on Offaly underage teams the last few year and thats all they need and thats all they need as a club.

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