The Town's

In case you haven't heard, Portlaoise won their 6th Laois title in a row Sunday, 29th in total, nearly double their nearest counterpart on the honours list. 

'Good for them' i hear you say.

'this is a Louth Blog' so whats your point?

My point is, that there is only one team in the whole of Portlaoise. 

1 team per town.

If the same set up existed in Louth how would it effect us as a county at inter county or club level.

Firstly, lets look at what a current day team from each town would look like.

Drogheda 

Made up of 5 teams Newtown Blues, O'Raghaillaighs, Oliver Plunketts, St Nicholas and Wolfe Tones.

Possible Team

1.Joe Flanagan

2.Graham Leech

3. Aidan O'Brien

4. Andrew Tinley

5. Stephen Moonan

6. Graham Murray

7. Jimmy Murray

8. Brian Kermode

9. Emmett Kelleher 

10. Ruairi Moore

11. Andy McDonnell
12. Cian Mathews

13. Paddy O'Boyle
14. Colm Judge

15. John Horan

Dundalk 

Made up of 6 teams, Dundalk Gaels, Clan na gael, Sean O'Mahony's, Na Piarsaigh and Dundalk Young Irelands and last but not least Dowdashill.

Possible Team

1. Kevin Brennan

2. Ciaran Murray

3. Jaime Faulkner

4. John O'Brien

5. David McComish

6. Eamon McAuley
7. Stephen Fitzpatrick

8. Derek Crilly

9. Donal Hegarty been informed he is now retired Conor Crawley takes his place

10. JJ Quigley
11. Billy Smith

12. Stephen Fisher

13. Drew Duffy

14. Derek Maguire

15. Mark Larkin

Plenty of food for thought there with Both sides selections but As would be expected, when merging the best of 5 teams you will produce a pretty formidable outfit. 

But would it be good or bad for football within the County?

Domination

Both sides would certain be joint favourites for the Senior title every year.

With such large playing numbers available they would dominate the club scene at all levels.

As we've seen in Laois, Antrim and Armagh Domination does not automatically mean inter county success.

In fact, such dominance from a club makes the inter county set up very dysfunctional with jealousy and an inability to merge into one team a constant factor. 

High Standard 

One positive of synergy is raising the Standard, be it for a players exposure or level of competition.

Dundalk Schools has been a success having won the Leinster on numerous occasions since it began in 2001 and giving our most talented players from that end of the county experience of a high standard of football.

I know for certain Paddy Keenan and Ciaran Byrne would not be the players they are if they weren't exposed to that level of competition. 

And the standard of minor in this county has risen due to strong amalgamation sides competing. this year for example the infamous o'connells/stabannon and Joes combination have risen the standard of the competition this year because, teams on their own like the Clans and Plunketts will have to be exceptional to beat them.

Playing Numbers

If there was only 1 team per town you would be losing a lot of players 

Basic maths, each team above has at least 25 players on their panel that is 125 players per town. 

If both town's had 1 senior team with a strong panel of 30 that's a loss of 95 players from each town.
(sure, there might be an intermediate panel but still losing 65 players from each town 130 players overall)

The haemorrhage of players would be due to elitism at adult level and a very serious lack of fun approach at under-age.

Surely the more kids and people playing the better for the county and for the health of county? as it is not all about winning is it!?

Clonclusion 

I think the situation in Laois is a farce and another team should be formed. 

Whereas in Louth, the opposite might be the case, we have too many teams saturating their overall quality and maybe the clubscene within the county.

If it is too easy for the team to dominate then it is not useful for the particular team or county team and too many teams cause a drain on the standard of competition.

However the fact that we have two large towns would raise the standard of club level and split the domination somewhat but what would be the point if the two towns couldn't put their difference's aside for inter county level?

The county has north versus south paranoia divide as it is without having two teams to represent that.

Kerry have the best of both worlds club and County championships 

where amalgamation sides take on senior sides for the county

and have their respective club championship to compete in also.

It raises the standard of players in the amalgamation but it has the size and playing numbers to do so. 

Unfortunately in Louth wee don't....but like i said food for thought.

Let me know you're thoughts

could it work? 

would you like it to work?

who would be on your team? did I miss somebody?

how would the country teams react?