A club bypassing a grade in the championship. Just wondering has anyone heard of this before?

It happened during the 1980's when Leixlip won the Kildare JFC. A certain Jack O'Shea joined them and they were subsequently promoted to the senior ranks. On the basis of having Jacko.

Anyway this came up in recent conversation after Leixlip were relegated from the Kildare SFC at the weekend. A town with a population of over 15,000. The fourth biggest in the county after Newbridge, Naas and Celbridge I believe. There are two GAA clubs in the town as Confey are based there since 1989. Last year the two had to amalgamate at minor level as both of them couldn't field a team on their own.

Toney (Meath) - Posts: 298 - 08/10/2018 17:23:56    2145631

I havnt heard of that happening before. That said leixlip is a funny one how they struggle with success for such a big place.

Bon (Kildare) - Posts: 2418 - 08/10/2018 22:30:46    2145690

A big slice of the senior footballers living in Leixlip are renting there and travelling home to play for their clubs/counties on their days off. Arguably you could have a team of intercounty standard players from those working in Leixlip but without any ties to Kildare. Wouldn't take some creative thinking from Leixlip and Confey to convince non-natives to change their habits of playing for their home teams, meeting partners, friends and family.

GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 8155 - 09/10/2018 21:06:32    2145836