Tullamore threaten to field only one team in Football Leagues if second team not in Division 5

TULLAMORE GAA Club have issued a no bones warning that they will only field one team in the Offaly Football Leagues in 2026 if their second team is not graded in Division 5.

Club chairman Tom Moloney told a County Board meeting on Tuesday evening that they would withdraw their second team and only field in Division 1 if their request was not granted.

His comment was a reaction to a decision by the Competitions Control Committee to place them in the Division 1 and 2 Football Leagues.

Stating that they had entered Division 1 and 5 Football Leagues, he said he was very disappointed the CCC had not consulted them before making the decision.

He said they wanted to play in those divisions as they have a lot of players on county squads and their second team would not be strong enough to compete in Division 2.

Tullamore won both the Senior and Intermediate Football Championships last year but only competed in Divisions 1 and 5, losing both finals, after they surprisingly withdrew their team from Division 3 at the start of the leagues. Mr Moloney said they had entered three teams by mistake and withdrew from Division 3 once the numbers and strength of the teams became apparent.

CCC secretary Pat Teehan explained that they placed a number of teams in different divisions than they entered to balance the leagues with 10 teams in two groups of 5 in Division 1 and groups of six in Divisions 2, 3, 4 and 5. Pointing out that Tullamore won the Senior and Intermediate Football Championships, he said they felt they should be able to compete in both Divisions 1 and 2. He also said that if they weren't in Division 2, teams there would only have four games.

Mr Moloney made it clear that Tullamore would only field one team if the CCC insisted on their second team being in Division 2. He stressed that their decision was based on availability and not trying to pick up easy titles. “Tullamore will not be playing in Division 2,” he stressed.

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It was agreed that the CCC will look at their request again and make a decision at their next meeting.

Delegates voted in favour of two groups of five in Division 1, with them playing the teams in the opposite group, giving each club five games. The teams will be seeded according to last year's championship after an initial CCC proposal that they play the opposing teams from their championship group was shot down – it was pointed out that there was a weak group in this year's championship and those teams would face bad beatings if all their games were against teams from the strong groups.

Clonbullogue's Brian O'Neill proposed that all ten Division 1 teams be in the one group to give more games but this was well beaten on a vote.