Ladies Leinster Junior & Intermediate Club Championships Back On Track After Controversy Surrounding Team Competing In Wrong Grade Is Resolved
WE HAVE A RESOLUTION!!!
The Leinster Ladies Club Championships always provide the edge of the seat gripping action on the field but this year the action off the field has been the focal point of most peoples interest so far this campaign after unprecedented events threw the both the Leinster Junior & Intermediate Championships into complete limbo! For anyone not up to speed here’s a quick summary of events:
Leinster Junior Club Championship 2019
So here’s the clubs who won the respective county finals to qualify for the Leinster Club Championship:
Wicklow Champions: Valleymount
Kilkenny Champions: Kilkenny City
Westmeath Champions: Moate
Wexford Champions: Clongeen
Longford Champions: Grattan
Kildare Champion: Kilcock
Dublin Champions: Man O War
Louth Champions: St Patricks
Offaly Champions: Rhode
Laois Champion: Clonaslee St Manmans
Meath Champions: Navan O Mahonys
Carlow Champions: Old Leighlin
All straightforward so far but here’s where the problem arises. In 2018 the Carlow Champions, Old Leighlin produced some wonderful performances to see them crowned Leinster Junior Club Football Champions. Ordinarily a championship winning club at junior grade would be promoted to intermediate football the following year but the ladies competitions are slightly different as some counties Senior and Intermediate Champions get entered into the Leinster Junior Club Championship as was the case of Carlow Senior Football Champions Old Leighlin. Having won the Carlow Senior Title in 2018 they were entered into the 2018 Leinster Junior Club Championship which they won and as they were already at the top level in Carlow, no promotion was possible in their own Counties competition but the Leinster win in 2018 should have seen them up at Intermediate level for this years Leinster campaign. Unfortunately an oversight meant that this was not taken into account and they were scheduled to take on Westmeath Champions Moate in the 2019 Junior Championship.
Ladies Leinster Junior Football Championship 2019
4-15 - 4-02
Kilkenny City LGFA vs Valleymount LGFA
6-16 - 4-07
Grattans LGFA vs Clonaslee St Manmans LGFA
2-12 - 2-06
Navan O Mahonys LGFA vs Clongeen LGFA
1-07 - 5-10
Moate Juniors LGFA vs Old Leighlin Juniors LGFA
2-07 - 3-03
Old Leighlin LGFA v Kilcock LGFA
8-11 - 3-09
Grattans LGFA v Rhode LGFA
1-15 - 0-07
Kilkenny City LGFA v St Patricks LGFA (Louth)
2-09 - 1-02
Navan O Mahonys LGFA v Man O War LGFA
3-11 - 2-11
Kilcock LGFA vs Grattans LGFA
Old Leighin’s soon to be ill-fated Leinster campaign began with a 15 point win over Moate and the wheels were in motion on the defence of their title and that opening round victory set up a quarter final clash with Kildare Champions Kilcock which Old Leighlin won in a thrilling one point victory and the Carlow Champs looked like they were heading all the way once again. Their semi final opponents were the high flying Grattans Ladies from Longford who had been in flying form on the way to this semi final encounter but the ladies of Old Leighlin were to prove a bridge too far as the Carlow champs won out on a 6-07 to 3-05 scoreline to book a Leinster Final date with Meath Champions Navan O Mahonys but there was to be a big twist in the tail of this story.
Shortly after the semi final victory a query was lodged as to how it was possible that the reigning champions were back to defend their crown when promotion would and should ordinarily take place and that query was to turn out to be fully justified as Leinster LGFA issued a statement that would send shockwaves throughout the competition and ultimately dump Old Leighlin out of the championship and see Moate, Kilcock and Grattans reinstated to the championship and fixtures scheduled to give those teams a second bite at the cherry.
A raw deal you might argue for Old Leighlin who fulfilled the fixtures scheduled for them but now found themselves out of the Leinster Championship despite an unbeaten record after 3 games and they obviously felt that to be the case as they appealed the decision which was to have ramifications for a whole new set of teams who had not had any interface with any of the aforementioned teams. Wicklow Champions Tinahely had been busy working their way to the Leinster Intermediate Final and the plight of Old Leighlin and the goings on in the Junior Championship was none of their concern as was the case for Offaly Champions and last years beaten Leinster Intermediate finalists Naomh Ciaran who had been in devastating form on their way to a 2019 Leinster Intermediate final date with Tinahely. They had their sights set on capturing a title they last won in 2016 and preparations in Offaly were in full flow as they were in Wicklow until news filtered through that their Leinster Intermediate Final clash scheduled for this Saturday was now postponed pending the outcome of the Old Leighlin appeal as the Carlow champions had argued they should have been given a chance to compete in the Intermediate grade as merited by their 2018 Junior winning campaign.
An outcome was to be found and despite the errors made there can be a relatively happy outcome as all going to plan Naomh Ciaran will host Old Leighlin in the Leinster Intermediate Championship Semi Final with the winner facing Tinahely in this years Leinster decider while in the Junior Championship, Kilcock and Grattan will meet to see who takes on Navan O Mahonys in the Junior Showpiece. A huge well done must go to Naomh Ciaran and Tinahely for the magnificent sporting gesture to ensure that Old Leighlins late entry into the Intermediate grade was facilitated without issue and the games can be played out in the spirit of how it was always intended. The very best of luck to all clubs in their respective games and congratulations to all the clubs on winning their respective county titles.
All is well that ends well and for any clubs involved who may be reading this we hoped to keep a top scorers table for both these grades so if teams could send us in your scorers from the Leinster games, we would be extremely grateful. You can get in touch with us on any of our social media platforms or by email with all the details below.
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