will Sarsfields go down the Leinster Council route ???????

The controversy over whether the county minor football final should be postponed is continuing.

Sarsfields are involved in both the Minor "A" and Senior Finals on October 19.

At Tuesday’s monthly county board meeting, Sarsfields asked for the Minor game to be moved, as 13 players are involved in both panels with 4 playing last Saturday's senior semi-final win over Athy. In that game, two minors - Seán Dempsey & Ben McCormack - scored 2-3 between them.

The Co Board decided against moving the game.

Following a club meeting last night, Sarsfields have written to the Kildare GAA CCC appealing for the Minor game to be postponed. They also copied the letter to the Leinster Council, but haven't appealed that route yet.

I think this has taking the gloss of the final already and they have made a big distraction from a players point of view as in preparing for the final whos starting and who is not.........All playing into Moorefields hands

No doubt they probably will once they don't get their own way. But are Leinster allowed interfere? Isn't each cb entitled to run their competitions how they see fit?

If Sarsfields were to run to Leinster with their gripe. Whats stopping Athy doing the same?

Surely the minors are entitled to play their final on the biggest day in the year in front of a large crowd? Sarsfields are probably the biggest club in Kildare and their panel shouldn't be reliant on minors to win.
Its difficult for the 4 players involved with the seniors but what about the 30 or so from both teams who are not involved and should take priority in my opinion. Fair play to Sarsfields for doing so well and hopefully the county will see the benefit in the future.

Too many clubs, too many grades, not enough players.

My lad has played in 3 grades this year, plus county.

Rugby has it right, not so many clubs right beside each other. More clubs have to merge.

Cant believe this now there running to the airwaves,can they not just get on with it.....

"The club Chairman John Holden will be on KFM tomorrow morning at 10 O Clock to discuss the situation where we are been forced to play two Finals on the same Day where there is an overlap of players. We would like for as many as our supporters to listen in to the Interview and send E-mails of support after to KFM."

After 20 years of trying John Holden finally gets on local radio. Imagine having that sort as a club chairman.

They are getting cringey now. Athy & Moorefield must be laughing

Very hard on the minor players I feel. You get one or two chances at a minor title at best. They have another 15 years or more to win a senior. Its the lads themselves that are caught in the middle and they are only 17 years old.

Agree though its all playing into Athy and Moorefields hands.

Unfair on the Athy minors too if they miss out playing on the county final day as is tradition.

Listening to Mr Holden on Clem FM here at the mo. Claiming they don't have a team to play in the senior final if they don't get their own way.

Mouthing about player welfare, claiming that Sarsfields were against the change in 2005. If player welfare is a concern in that club, why were they against the change in 2005?
Also brings Moorefield into the debate - THIS IS A SARSFIELDS ISSUE - NOBODY ELSE!!!!
Pathetic but as expected from this type of man.

Seriously, this is not a Kildare CB problem. Sarsfields have built their senior panel from underage players. Nobody asked or forced them to build their panel in that way.

The Kildare County Board have a long history of not supporting Sarsfields when the need arose. Cast your mind to 1998 after the All Ireland Final.
Knuckser Buckley has played his heart out all year for Kildare and then was selected for the Irish Compromise Rules Team but the biased CB fixed Sarsfields Championship match for the same day and would not compromise on a re-fixture (excuse the pun). Coincidently Towers match was arranged for midweek so Glen Ryan could play for Ireland.
With the current issue the same CB are sending out a very bad signal to these future Kildare players that ultimately they do not give a damn about their personal ambitions and welfare. It is a credit to these young players that they have the talent to play at Senior level at such a young age and yet they are not encouraged by their own CB.
If Sarsfields go to the Leinster Council they have a favour in the bank that they can call upon. Cast your mind back to the 2001 Leinster Club Semi. Na Fianna played six subs but rather than call on the Leinster Council to enforce the law and eliminate Na Fianna, Sarsfields graciously offered a replay which was a thriller.
These players are the future of Kildare GAA.

Does not everybody build their club from underage players? All of the Athy team came through their underage setup to the best of my knowledge. Moorefields success over the last decade has been built upon the 4 u/16 titles in a row that they won from 1998-2001. I am not sure how else clubs can build their squads BTA, are u suggesting clubs should be going around enticing players from outside the underage set up to join them?

disrespectful to the minor C players that were pushed aside, disrespectful to the Senior players, disrespectful to Athy and Moorefield. but most of all, disrespectful to the minor lads that are being put under pressure by a club that just wants to win at all cost. that is IMO

Surely if Sarsfields' concern over player welfare is so great, then their club policy should be that no minor players play at senior level.
At underage level, players are not permitted to play at two grades above their own age group. If this approach was taken with minors, then they would be allowed to play at Minor & U-21 level, and only when they are out of minor grade would they become eligible for Senior grade.
This is not necessarily what I think should be the case,but it would certainly help Sarsfields to overcome/avoid any situations like the one they now face.

mikeyhastheball wrote:

disrespectful to the minor C players that were pushed aside, disrespectful to the Senior players, disrespectful to Athy and Moorefield. but most of all, disrespectful to the minor lads that are being put under pressure by a club that just wants to win at all cost. that is IMO

Nail on the head. Let the minors play at their own level. It's Sarsfields problem completely, they have plenty of adults they can play in the senior game and let the minors away at the minor level.

I suspect if the carry on in the C championship hadn't happened, Sarsfields might have received a lot more support from other clubs.

Sensored again - surprise surprise.

I will re-iterate. Holden had no business dragging Athy, Towers or Moorefield into the debate to try strengthen his clubs 'win at all costs' argument. This scenario is solely a Sarsfields one and one for them to solve.

Amusing to hear him claim that there is a 'ground swell of support' for their argument. More lies, anybody I have heard talk about it is laughing at them. Most people on here are not in support and most comments on Clem fm were supporting the cb.

Time to put up and shut up Sarsfields.

topcat wrote:

Does not everybody build their club from underage players? All of the Athy team came through their underage setup to the best of my knowledge. Moorefields success over the last decade has been built upon the 4 u/16 titles in a row that they won from 1998-2001. I am not sure how else clubs can build their squads BTA, are u suggesting clubs should be going around enticing players from outside the underage set up to join them?

I suspect you're being deliberately obtuse here. Quite obvious what was meant: Sarsfields have built their current senior team on current underage players. Other clubs build their current teams on former underage players.

And nice to see the mention of enticing players from outside. We all know just how much of that Sarsfields have done in the past. It's not that long ago that that yoke Foley in the Indo had a picture of young lads from Athgarvan standing outside Sarsfields looking forlorn after Sarsfields had at least tried to facilitate their transfers.

Of course I was being obtuse. BTA's comment facilitated that!! This is starting to become tiresome, a final decision will be reached over the next few days, hopefully in our favour but if not we will have to deal with it and try our level best to be somewhat competitive in the county final!!

Tiresome? according to the radio interview today. "The Sash" have only 17 competitive senior players in the club. your chairman was quiet frank in pointing that out. The Sash posters on this forum have mentioned on more than one occasion that the other clubs need to get our house in order. But you are going on national radio saying that your minor team is propping up your Senior team. you would expect that from a small club, but not a club that has 22 senior titles.  win at all cost. maybe you have answered the question of why your Senior team is depleted. Tiresome is right. what an insult to the senior lads that have emptied the tank for you over the years

My two cents as Kent Brockman says - I think it should be moved. Do the opposition really want to beat a Sarsfields side in such circumstances? Everyone will just say anyway, "Well, Sarsfields weren't at their best."

Play it in Newbridge in a couple of weeks, everyone's happy (yeah, right).

Anyway, that's what I think should be done.

And btw, I am a 100% neutral arbiter.

I am also neutral, well as neutral as I can considering Sash & P Dunney as County Chair refused to facilitate Leixlip in 86................


but CB did facilitate Larries in 2005  so should Sash not get the same facility as Larries.............

"The Sash" have only 17 competitive senior players in the club. your chairman was quiet frank in pointing that out.


What a terrible statement to make and how disrespectful to the remainder of the ' over 18 years old' players.

As far as I know they can play 13 a side if the oppostition agree..

God help Kildare if they ever reach the All Ireland Senior and Minor final in the same year !!!!!!

once in a blue moon you get a great minor team like sarsfields have now, and its a super achievement to have 4 starters for the seniors and 9 others on the panel. well done to all involved in bringing so many quality players through. im sure a lot of these YOUNG MEN will play for kildare in the near future. so cop on county board and give these lads a fair chance to play in both finals. it doesnt happen too often, so why punish a club whos doing so much at underage to promote the game in the club and county. been punished by been successful is a disgrace. a complete neutral here by the way!!

Its is simple as far as I am concerned. if you were a small club that had the scrapings of a minor and senior team, I would say, absolutely, give these guys a change of date. but this stinks of "Wanting to Have your cake and eat it" and if thing dont go right you will "go home with the ball"When we argued the point to death about Sarsfields second minor team being in Champ C, eventually “The Sash” posters agreed they were two strong and should have been in Champ B, blaming the CCC for their imcompetence and saying the grading was out of Sash's hands. By then the cup was in Sarsfield so it was an empty admission.  Poster showing great concern about the sash minor lads who have excelled and play senior.  You can take nothing from them. that is for sure but, what about the Athy lads,  training in Muc, rain and wind since last January. They deserve their big day in Newbridge on the 19th, the mentors, the parent, the fans deserve it.
Do you think when they were bursting their arses that their goal was a mickey mouse day out in Hawkfield the week after the main event because” The Mighty Sash” put all their eggs in one basket and threw out the lads that were loyal to them over the last few years.

the meeting is monday night in portlaoise and athy want final on 19 oct