Club amalgamation in Laois ends up biting players in the hole

This is the problem small parishes face.

It's not uncommon that two clubs come together so they can actually field a team, maybe in your football and hurling strongholds such as Dublin and Kilkenny they are blessed but it happens all around the country. One place where it recently occurred was down in Laois, Clonad GAA joined up with Colt GAA in Raheen so they could form a Senior A Hurling Championship side. Great, fair play to them, having lads that are genuinely good enough to play at the top level is what GAA is all about so nobody can begrudge that, the only problem is that there's a scheduling clash. You see, Laois Today, reported that a number of Clonad hurlers will be facing a bit of a tricky situation after what just went down. Although Clonad teamed up with Colt to form a Gaels team the club also entered a team into the Intermediate Hurling Championship and have progressed to the semi-finals of that competition. Great! Semi-final, nothing wrong with that, right? Well, the problem is simple, both teams play within a very short space of time. Clonad have their semi-final on Saturday, 23rd September at 4:30 PM and Colt Gaels play their Senior Championship match the very next day at 2 PM. (Image Credit: Laois GAA)  So now some of the Clonad players have a tough decision to make, do they play for the Senior A Hurling Championship on the Sunday with their amalgamated team or do they stay with their roots and play the intermediate game, it's an unenviable position to be in. There is always the option, however, to play both but as any GAA player over the age of 20 will know that the body does not hold up too well after an intense game so playing intermediate then be expected to line out for the senior hurlers a day later wouldn't be ideal.