Very difficult for it to happen but with an ever increasing population in a hurling mad part of the country, they’d eventually become a success.
Someone previously said on here, Threecastles could be an option and it’s at that side of the city.
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Threecastles is in the Freshford Parish. Anyone promising in Threecastles goes and hurls with St Lachtain’s. Anyone promising from Threecastles who attends St Canice’s NS ends up, happily, with Dicksboro.
But I guess the nub is as follows: how long a stretch is “eventually”…? Am for the idea in principle but cannot see how this idea would fly in practical terms. You would need an immediate raft of around 100 volunteers. You would need access to at least two pitches. All GAA clubs need a fulcrum in at least one national school. What would that national school be in the context of a fourth Kilkenny City club?
There is another less obvious problem. How would you prevent this fourth club becoming a de facto ‘ghetto’ for ‘cast offs’ from the other three clubs? And how would you prevent, relatedly, any significant talent in the fourth club being poached by one of the other three city clubs?
You also have the fact that the current three city clubs all hurl Senior at the moment. If a fourth club somehow started off in 2024 – at Junior C, say, – it would take a minimum of five years for them to reach Senior. The reality? Doing so, if possible at all, would take far longer. And where would the motivation be for a young lad (and for his family, more to the point) to hurl adult at Junior or below when he could hurl Senior with another city club?
This topic often comes up in pub conversation. Have to say an awful lot of wishful thinking emerges. People say: ‘You could get lads to play with a new club who are fed up not making the Boro/OLG/Village second team.’ I gingerly reply: ‘Why would lads not happy making a Junior or an Intermediate team be happy to drop back to Junior C? And what would happen, if you got 30 lads to sign up for adult hurling with Kilkenny Gaels, when 15 of them did not get a start at Junior C? Do these lads not tend to be egotistical and full of notions? Would there not be strops and defections aplenty? And would you ever, if you had 30 lads content to hurl at Junior C, ever get out of Junior C?’
Silence usually descends and we order more pints.
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Pat Hartley is a South Kilkenny legend on and off the field, what a man to be still giving it everything for a club with a small pick…training underage teams there for Years too, a hugely consistent club hurler and an alright sort of ever there was one.
Tullogher will win the junior…Wally,Conor Hennessy,Glennon,Cian O Donohoe, Marty & Lar Murphy,Coleman Sullivan,Hartley that’s a lot of quality for junior hurling.
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Big win for St Martins over Conahy in the intermediate tonight…if they beat Fenians(another assumed relegation definite) Conahy will need to win 3 of their next 4 games to overtake St Martins…a tall order. It’s a great start for Chedder basically.
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In the case of Roanmore, they were a successful breakaway club due to a falling out with Mount Sion. Garrycastle being a breakaway of Athlone another case in point.
It would take a seismic event to split any of the 3 city clubs who all look to be well run from the outside looking in.
You’d imagine that said 4th club could get to Junior A relatively quickly which is a decent standard in Kilkenny.
Easier said than done. No 2nd club in Portlaoise. The 2nd clubs in Thurles ain’t pulling up trees either.
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Don’t they have a habit of shitting the course in knockout games. The fact they went down in the first place with that quality speaks volumes.
It needs a split from the original club to bring people across to the second club.
This hasn’t happened in thurles, in fact it’s actually the opposite with old school Fennellys and Rahealty generally going into Sars.
Dicksboro = St Canice’s Parish (largely country area west of city) + St Mary’s Parish (central in the city, around High Street, Parliament Street, Dean Street, The Butts, Old Callan Road, Dominic Street, Emmet Street/Fatima Place/Fr Murphy Square etc, Freshford Road, Talbot’s Inch).
James Stephens = St Patrick’s Parish (up Patrick Street/Kells Road/Loughboy/Ring Road/College Road etc, south [Waterford Road/Wallslough] and east of city [Bennettsbridge Road]).
O’Loughlin Gaels == St John’s Parish (over John’s Bridge and up John Street/Castlecomer Road/Barrack Street/Dublin Road/Newpark/Johnswell Road etc, north [Johnswell] and west of city [Dunmore]).
Not clear to me – at all. Only possible option might be St Canice’s, where there are a lot of new houses being built. But a new national school would also need to be built out there and there would have to be strict rules, down the line, about transfers between city clubs, a measure that did not work several times in the past. Human nature is human nature.
Even those comments do not address the factor of access to pitches. One possibility would be access to a suite of pitches, if created, at the new Kilkenny CBS site out the Dunningstown Road, which is in St Canice’s Parish.
I guess there is a slight chance – extremely slight – a new club (named St Canice’s? – but there is already a national school of that name) could be created. But I would not be optimistic, best will in the world. Where would funding for the necessary new national school be located?
Has there not been tension in Clonmel about St Mary’s trying to poach players from Clonmel Óg? Do not get me wrong, though. The latter club was an excellent initiative.
I could foresee many tensions and problems along this line if a fourth club got created in Kilkenny City.
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Hard to see the powerbrokers in KK push for this.
Sure ye are one of the few counties that won’t allow streaming of games.
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Well, I have heard some of the powerbrokers in Kilkenny GAA salute the idea – in principle.
Its practicalities are the problem.
What is this issue about streaming?
But is a split ever a good thing, ultimately?
I think they would be afraid of losing footfall/revenue on the gate.
Yes. Kilkenny has three Senior clubs. If Dicksboro or OLG got out of Kilkenny, they would have a go at a Club All Ireland. I think three Senior clubs in a town/city of 20000 population is pretty good.
They would gain revenue, ultimately. The current County Board leaves an awful lot to be desired.
To turn one senior club into two would be a success in my view.
The biggest issue in Waterford is the lack of a second club in the Ballygunnar parish.
Junior A is fourth tier and a reasonable standard – but a long way off Senior for an ambitious and talented young hurler.
There will be no split in any of the current three city clubs. The County Board, plus 100 volunteers, would have to create a new one. Best will in the world, I do not see where the resources, of various kinds, would be found.
Very true on Ballygunner.
But you could not create a fourth Senior club in Kilkenny City by splitting one of the current three clubs. The new club would have to start off its first adult team between Junior A and Junior F, with its juvenile teams competing in the appropriate Roinn as regards individual team standard. I cannot see beyond these coordinates. To get 100 volunteers willing to give 15 years of their life to such a project would be an extraordinary phenomenon.
How would you create a fourth city in Kilkenny? In practical terms, I mean?
I suppose your own point about a new school is the only realistic option.
With the likely expansion of the urban areas these extra clubs will be needed in the next 25-30 years.