Problems in Laois

mchurl

http://www.rte.ie/aertel/p243.htm

The Portlaoise club has withdrawn its
players from the Laois football and
hurling panels.

The move comes after their county
players were not made available for
training for a club championship game
against St Joseph's which should have
been played last Friday week.

Portlaoise did not fulfil the fixture
which was subsequently awarded to St
Joseph's.

The club has also made its facilities
unavailable.

This is a problem for Laois as a lot of their county panel play for Portlaoise. It can only hamper their preperations and the sooner they get a conclusion to the problem the better for all concerned. How do people think this will affect them?

kaimera

wtf?

ok, I fail to see how[why] the county players were not made available for training for portlaose.

fs, most of the contingent is from PL. Not good tbh.

Mossin

While i think its disgraceful that county players are not made available for club championship matches, i think the action taken by Portlaoise is a bit drastic!!

They are apparently withdrawing their players from inter-county duty, closing the use of their facilities to other clubs, and their referees and not to officiate games either.

What a bunch of babies. Get over it. Just because its Portlaoise, they feel that they can boss the county, just because something doesnt go their way they get all high and mighty...

Well i say let them, might be better for the rest of the county not to have to listen to them anyway.

As for the county team, its not dominated by Portlaoise players by any means...
You would only be takig out Fennelly, Fitzpatrick, Parkinson, and maybe a couple of U21 players, thats all.

Granted two of them are major players and consistent performers but no one is irreplaceable.

Danno

If Laois fail to do well this Summer then Portlaoise will be on the recieving end of alot of "THANK YOU PORTLAOISE" from county supporters...

Could make themselves out to be nasty targets yet...

Imposter

If every county board did this (not allow players to play a championship match for their club 9 days before a county match) then you'd have fixture chaos OR county players wouldn't play for their club for most of the summer OR county championships would be reduced to a shootout once the county team is out of the all-ireland. I agree with Portlaoises stance on this. If the county board once the championship matches played then then it has to come to a satisfactory arrangement regarding county players playing.

The Rooster

The players were available for the club game.

However, they were not available for training in the week leading up to the game and this is what has upset Portlaoise.

Portloaise decided not to play the game even though all teams were in the same boat (i.e. players available for the game but had trained with the county rather than the club during the week). The Laois County Board thus docked Portloaise 2 points for not fulfilling the fixture. Portaloise retaliated by preventing their players from playing and prevented the county from using their facilities. Last night this ban was "temporaily lifted" by Portlaoise.

Bully boy tactics by Portlaoise (I dont know enough to say whether they are justified or not, leaning towards NOT) and I'd guess the county board will cave and give them back their two points and re-fix the game.

BigCon

The Rooster wrote:

The players were available for the club game.

However, they were not available for training in the week leading up to the game and this is what has upset Portlaoise.

Portloaise decided not to play the game even though all teams were in the same boat (i.e. players available for the game but had trained with the county rather than the club during the week). The Laois County Board thus docked Portloaise 2 points for not fulfilling the fixture. Portaloise retaliated by preventing their players from playing and prevented the county from using their facilities. Last night this ban was "temporaily lifted" by Portlaoise.

Bully boy tactics by Portlaoise (I dont know enough to say whether they are justified or not, leaning towards NOT) and I'd guess the county board will cave and give them back their two points and re-fix the game.

2 players were doing exams in Galway on the Friday and were not available for the game. They would have been available for the game had it been fixed for Saturday, however it was fixed for Friday because of the "13 day rule" imposed at the request of Dinny Cahill (hurling manager) which prevents players playing with their clubs within 13 days of the championship...

Shaque attack

this was all handled poorly by portloaise. The measures taken by portlaoise went too far, i mean it was a round-robin game against josephs who were in the same boat as us. portlaoise have the depth to cope with it and qualify for the knock-outs.
having said that a club that has fewer intercounty players suffers less than a club with more intercounty players as its easier to adjust for one or two people missing from the team but to replace 7 is going to disrupt the team alot. also the question must be asked, why couldnt a comprimise be found? this kind of thing has been going on alot in recent years and there still has been no solution found. i guess there's just not enough days in the year to play football.

their decision will cause alot of hassle for the two hurling games being played in o'moore park on sunday, one of which is laois v offaly a massive game in these parts.

Joe Phelan will be missed big time on the hurling panel as will aiden fennely on the football but after that the other portloaise players withdrawn won't make a huge difference to the laois starting 15. at least now micko wont be able to bring on ian fitzgerald when things are going bad!

cruiserweight

Peace for the moment anyway

AN UNEASY peace was restored to Laois football last night when the Portlaoise players returned to county training and their club agreed to sit down with the County Board to try and thrash out their differences.

The Portlaoise club sensationally withdrew its players, officials and facilities from the county on Monday in a row over lack of access to their inter-county players.

They cancelled that boycott yesterday but they stressed that the matter has not been resolved and that they were only doing so "temporarily, pending the outcome of our meeting with members of the Laois Executive".

Porlaoise will include a senior player in their delegation at tonight's meeting, but whether the summit will produce any solution to the crux of the row - clubs' lack of access to their inter-county stars - remains to be seen.

Last night, the club said that they had threatened the County Board with such extreme action in order to highlight the ongoing battle between clubs and county.

The contentious issue blew up when Portlaoise had a championship match brought forward by a week but refused to play it because they did not have enough access to their players for training beforehand.

They claim that, since Laois's last inter-county game on April 16, the club only had access to their players for three-to-four nights.

"We wanted to raise this issue, we wanted it acknowledged and highlighted and not just for ourselves," said Portlaoise secretary Peter O'Neill.

"For every three county players, there are 300 training and playing but clubs are not being accommodated.

"We are happy to put this behind us if something can be done about it but this was not a once-off thing, this is an ongoing problem and we took a stand to highlight it," he added.

"Clubs and county boards have to take back control of fixtures within a county," O'Neill continued.

"I've never yet seen a county manager appointed to a fixtures board, yet they can get fixtures changed at the drop of a hat!"

"Ideally, we would like to see a committee set up in Croke Park to look at it because everyone is affected by it.

"We're a big club and have a lot of players involved with the county but this affects all clubs, big and small and we believe we should lead from the front.

"We got a lot of support from inside and outside the county," O'Neill insisted. "People may not have voiced it publicly but a lot of clubs contacted us."

Portlaoise's decision to allow their players resume action with the county will be a huge relief to Laois managers Dinny Cahill and Mick O'Dwyer.

Portlaoise have two players - Cahir Healy and Joe Phelan - on the Laois hurling team who take on Offaly in the Leinster championship next Sunday.

And they have five players - Kevin Fitzpatrick, Ian Fitzgerald, Brian McCormack, Colm Parkinson and Aidan Fennelly - and a selector, involved with the county senior footballers.

It is also a relief to Leinster Council ahead of their hurling double-header in O'Moore Park on Sunday as the adjacent Portlaoise club always provides a lot of parking space and also the warm-up pitch for the home team.

Shaque attack

interesting - hopefully it can be resolved but something definitely needs to be done to stop this happening everytime theres a disagreement over fixtures