Demise of Grange Ladies

Strange the lack of discussion here about the demise of Grange Ladies, anyone any opinion.
Lack of underage competition might have had a bearing on it, Geraldines did have a Minor team this year not too sure about the split between the clubs, however there is no other underage coming through for any of the three clubs involved so long term not looking good for Rheban or Castlemitchell either.
This will be a big boost to Athy as under ladies rules girls from the above clubs can't play outside the parish.
Any thoughts?

There's no discussion on it because it's no surprise. Grange ladies were never a club, but a senio team. They never invested in underage structures whilst the clubs around them did and now they've paid the price.
It's incorrect to say they can't play outside the parish. When their team disbands, the players are then entitled to play for whatever club they like. That's how half of them ended up playing for Grange in the first place.
The worry now will be for clubs in the Intermediate and junior championships. If a batch of former Grange players went to play for the likes of Athy or St. Laurence's, would those clubs be allowed to remain at junior/int?

Still it's strange that an intermediate team can disband and not a murmur.
I agree re. the underage structures, a few years ago Geraldines were a very strong underage club, supplying players to the three clubs, now they are reduced to a single Minor team.
Also, if you check the rule, once the team disbands within Athy parish and another team exists within the same parish, in this case Athy, any girl living in Athy parish must go to a club in the parish, which means Athy, Rheban or Castlemitchell.
If there was no other club in the parish the player would be free to go wherever she wished.
Re. the grading of Athy or Larries if a load of girls joined from Grange, I would reckon they would remain at the same grading unless they looked to be regraded. It's similar to Monasterevin who had a number of Ballykelly and other transfers yet are graded as Junior D while Ballykelly are graded at Intermediate.

That's a bit of a joke. So Monasterevan are playing junior D, after receiving transfers from senior clubs? Is that true?

I still think there's no fuss being created because this has been coming for years. A lack of effort combined with short sightedness has seen them become the artists of their own demise.

It will be interesting for next years county panel. If they font register with other clubs, can they still play county?? I don't think they can.

All that said, there's only 5 or 6 players that would be interesting. Do you know where they are going Seathestars?

No idea. Like I say if they reside in the Parish they must stay with a club in the parish.

Ah I see - but the thing about that Grange team is, very few of them live in the parish. They come from Rathangan, Nurney, Naas, Sallins & God knows where else. I think you'll find they will go where they please!

it wil be interestin 2 c indeed wher players mite go, the parish rule does exist but then again it existed when a player residing in rathangan(and still doin so) transfered into a club in the monasterevin parish??an ex county player at that?? rathangan did then and still do have a senior ladies team.
the parish rule is only applied when suits

so can these girls transfer to larries then?

Can't argue with what you say NMTF, I don't know who or what you are talking about. I did see Monasterevan play this year though & they were far from impressive.
From my experiences of playing against Rathangan, I can't blame people for not wanting to be involved. Dicipline is appaling, football is worse. There's a lot of footballers from that place playing football all aroun the county. Grange, Confey, Athgarvan, Ballykelly, Sarsfields & apparently M'evin all
have benefitted from that clubs failings. But at least they took the time to invest in an
underage structure. Unlike Grange

The Parish Rule, otherwise known as the Club Catchment Area seems to be getting a renewed focus by the county board this year. All clubs were required to submit maps by the May county board meeting showing their CCA.
Then at this weeks county board meeting a number of Grange players looked to transfer to the Larries, they were refused as they were outside St Laurences CCA. They have to play with either Athy or Castlemitchell (or do a Seanie Johnson). The chairman stated at the meeting that rule 128 applies to all transfers, both temporary and permanent. "Where a player resides in a CCA where there is a Ladies Gaelic Football Club, she must play with that Club, unless she is exempted as in Rules 126 and 127"
I would imagine that the Rathangan lady playing for Monasterevin got her transfer before the new rules came into force.
Consensus seems to be (and not just on this forum) that Grange were the authors of their own misfortune by not building on their success and putting a strong underage structure in place.
It would be an interesting exercise to look five or ten years into the future and try to predict what ladies clubs will be still around and what clubs will have folded, for example; long term can Monasterevin Town maintain two clubs or will they both see the light, will the sleeping giant that is Round Towers awaken from it's slumbers, and will the Larries build on their current under-age success.
South of the county St Laurences and Athy are doing good work at underage, In Monasterevin parish, Ballykelly , Monasterevin and Kildangan Nurney all seem to be doing the business, Na Fianna are always competitive and up North there are three or four clubs such as Leixlip, Maynooth and Celbridge which are putting a huge effort into Ladies football. This is not any scientific survey, it's just based on results from under age leagues. Out of 33 ladies clubs I am sure I have left a few out.

Update

40 Clubs this year but the Under Age amalgamations ( St Brigids & Geraldine's could be discounted) so after Grange this 37.

Their demise saddens, they had some great years, great players & people eg Paddy C.

It proves the need to invest in Under Age. As far as I know all except 2 clubs are/have at least 1 Underage team. Most Under Age comps have 30+ teams

I'm delighted to hear the Grange players were stopped from transferring into a successful club with a thriving underage structure. Let them play by the rules & either do some work for their own club or play by the rules.
I think some of te comments about existing clubs are wide if the mark. Round Towers a sleeping giant? Since when? Monasterevin & Ballykelly "see the light"? Bight those clubs are doing tremendous work at underage. I believe the competition between the two keep them on their toes. If anything I would worry for Kildangan. A lot of players in the Nurney/Kildangan amalgamation appear to be from the Nurney area. If Nurney decide they are strong enough to field in their own right, Kildangan will be in trouble.

As for amalgamations, I think these should be made play at a higher level than what most are at. It's very unfair to have the likes of St. Brigids (Athgarvan & Kilcullen) who are both strong in their own right, competing in the lower divisions of leagues and championships.

Finally. What do people think of the refereeing standards lately? Are there any new referees being trained or encouraged? My club have had a couple in recent weeks who are truly diplorable. Their refereeing is nothing short of disgusting, as is the carry on of the mentors of some clubs on the line.

STS, Ballykelly seen the light 18 years ago, Monasterevin copped on to it 3 years ago. Some very good work being done down here, the competition is great for the young girls of the town as they ALL get to play, it can't be elitist as its a numbers game. The All Ireland u12 girls community games was won two years ago, this years team are in the Leinster semi final, 16 of the 20 players involved play for Ballykelly

Community games is about the community, not club bias!
Hopefully that little parish of Monasterevin can sustain the 3 clubs and allow them to keep growing. Likewise hopefully you can keep the wolf fro mthe door Ballboy and keep providing training for your side of the town.

Back to the topic here. Is it true that the 2 Leahy's have transferred to St. Laurences?? I heard it over the weekend but sort of thought it was just a rumour as neither live in the St. Laurences parish.

The little parish has sustained 3-4 clubs for the last 50 years and I make no apologies for my club bias as for the big bad wolf, he can huff and puff but he won't blow our house down

There was 6 transfers in to go to Larries, didn't hear who got through would assume the Leahy's did as they live in the Moone parish as far as I know and there is now no ladies football club in that parish so they can go where they like

Some very intersting scenes before the Confey v Larries match last night. It must have been a very interesting letter that Confey presented to the referee. I suspect we havent heard the last of this one!!

Yea and I saw an interesting item which I was not aware of

a player who transfers may complete a competitiion, other than a Championship, than she started with her previous club !!!!

So were Confey wasting paper !!!

On addresses have Confey clean hands ?

Didn't mean to get you riled Ballyboy, I have great time for Ballykelly and the hard work that your club has put in at underage. I do think that the three Monasterevin parish clubs will keep going,. If you look at the population of the catchment area there is enough there to keep it going. Monasterevin extends from Conlans of Booleigh(south) up to The Commons(east) as far North as Mountrice and over to the badlands of Laois so its a huge area.
The challenge for every club is to keep the girl playing at 13/14 playing football until adult, over 60% of this category fall away.
My point about Towers is that with the catchment area that they have, great facilities etc they are seriously under performing. No Minor Team, No Under 16 team, No Under 14 Team, they did field a team in the Under 12 league this year which is a start. Grange is a lesson to any ladies club which thinks it can survive without putting time and effort into underage football.
Catchment areas are going to lead to many heated debates, for instance Johnstownbridge club is in Carbury parish, where should they draw their players from?

Correction to an earlier post I made, Leahy's don't live in Moone parish its Athy parish. Should get very interesting over the next few weeks

ballyboy wrote:

Correction to an earlier post I made, Leahy's don't live in Moone parish its Athy parish. Should get very interesting over the next few weeks

Are you sure, my reading would be that the Grange/ballyroe area is split depending on the road - Ballyroe & Carlow Rd area would be Athy, areas of Grangenolvin would be either St Laurence's/Crookstown parish and other areas Kilkee/Castledermot/Moone parish. In terms of nearest club Laurence's is probably closest to some of grange

kelf wrote:

Yea and I saw an interesting item which I was not aware of

a player who transfers may complete a competitiion, other than a Championship, than she started with her previous club !!!!

So were Confey wasting paper !!!

On addresses have Confey clean hands ?

Quite funny how Confey should be questioning transfers, it's only a few weeks ago that they well allowed transfer a Prosperous player, with no proof of address, on the word of then fixtures secretary. Now they're up in arms over other transfers.

That said, if the Leahy's are not in the Laurence's parish, they shouldn't be allowed play for them.
And does a referee have the power to prevent players from taking part in a match? I don't think they do. I can see this turning into a big ball of wool!

The Referee would not have any say in who plays

Why then did the referee prevent these 2 players from playin the match?

It's not based on which club is nearest, it's based on your townland. Every club had to submit a list of townlands or a map.So the girls in question would need to be resident in one of the townlands that make up the St Laurences catchment area.
Anyway if the girls got their transfers on Thursday night i would be unlikely (but not impossible) that they would be registered in their new club by the following Tuesday evening.

That's a matter for the CB to rule on. It's nothing to do with Confey and it's definitely nothing to do with the referee. If the Larries take this to Leinster, I can see the league being delayed for a while!

I would imagine people will be avoiding that dodgey referee aswell!