Messages

Eddie Brennan gained instant respect from the squad because of his name as a multi All-Ireland winner with Kilkenny. He is also a good character and players liked him. It created a real feel good factor within the squad and players bought in as a result. We gained momentum as they year progressed and that year we didn't suffer hugely with injuries and had as strong a side as Laois have had many years with a number of key players at their peak in mid twenties. Right time right place for Eddie. He was the figurehead (the John Kiely role) but players will tell you that Tommy was the head coach (Kinnerk role) to that team and dictated a lot in how we played and set up.

Tommy is trying to build something and its going to take time. Lads giving out that we are at our worst but we have developed some decent underage sides the last few years and there is a pool of very decent players who will hopefully step in over the next few years and help to drive Laois hurling onwards and upwards.   

The Heath, Ballylinan, Courtwood, Crettyard-you already have the makings of a decent intermediate championship instead of the current nonsense we have. Senior and Intermediate championships should have 12 teams in each. The intermediate is a joke with usual three of the eight teams in it second teams.   

There's only one second team in the intermediate football, Portlaoise

Read what I said more carefully, I said usual as opposed to this year specifically. Last year 2 of the eight teams were second teams, the year before that we had three second teams and the year before that was 2 as well. I might have embellished my point but the argument is valid. The intermediate championship has been propped up by second teams to make up the eight when a more evenly distributed 12 senior and 12 intermediate would make perfect sense. Some of the intermediate games (I've attended a fair few in recent years) have been ridiculously one sided as well with some very weak teams making up the numbers. An intermediate championship should still be of a good standard with at least half a dozen teams battling it out and in with a realistic shot of winning it. If we went 12 and 12 that would be the reality. I'd enjoy going to see intermediate quarter finals involving e.g. The Heath v Crettyard, Ballylinan v Courtwood, Rosenallis v Arles Kileen, Emo v Mountmellick.

 

The Heath, Ballylinan, Courtwood, Crettyard-you already have the makings of a decent intermediate championship instead of the current nonsense we have. Senior and Intermediate championships should have 12 teams in each. The intermediate is a joke with usual three of the eight teams in it second teams.   

Fair play to Kildare. In the last twenty minutes they showed huge fitness, skill, determination and confidence in what their gameplan. We were the opposite. Gave away two goals from turnovers which was down to a complete lack of composure when Kildare started to get the upper hand on us. The All-Ireland series needs to change. Let the two fourth place teams in the Munster and Leinster championships play off to play the third place finishing team. Having Laois turn around to face a Tipp team with three weeks rest and chomping at the bit is madness. I'd be fearful that the margin of defeat could reach close to 30 points. How do you pick a team up after that performance yesterday?

We also have too many physically small, stick men in our team. Carrying a couple is perfectly fine but not enough ball winners or players with the physicality to win 50/50 ball and put in the hard tackles. Kildare dominated in that department in the last twenty. They won the majority of puck outs in that time period and it was wave after wave of attack. Next year, a rejuvenated Antrim and a Carlow team that is our equal will prove a stern test to get back to a Joe McDonagh Final.

Perhaps it might work in our favour to not go up to Leinster next year as we are miles off the standard. Tommy now has a two year building block- next year get the team to a standard where they can hopefully win the Joe McD and the following year progress the team to a point where they can challenge to stay in the Leinster championship and be competitive. We have some decent young talent. I'm optimistic that in 24 months time we will be in a far better and healthier position to where we are at present. After the unfortunate Offaly loss last year I was full sure Laois would be able to kick on this year. Sadly, we went in reverse but things can equally as quickly turnaround again.
 

I think Joey is right here. I've seen Naas play in Croke Park twice in recent years (granted one of those games was a wet winter's day) and the bigger pitch suited their style of play. Kildare raked up big score in Christy Ring Final there last year and have a nice balance to their team with some physicality and direct runners who could thrive in Croke Park if they get the space to operate. We are not favourites for this game. Our performance against Carlow confirms that.

Cha is a serious loss as I think he would have been ideal type player to bring on with twenty minutes to go. Management were left with no option and no one player is bigger than the collective. It's a shame as Laois cannot afford to lose calibre players.

Midlands derby between Laois and Westmeath could be a humdinger. One game from each knock out round of competition should be shown on national tv and give it the promotion it deserves. I still think that the Joe McD and Tailteann Cup should be handed to TG4 with even one game from each competition shown live each week. Carlow and Laois last week was a proper knock out game of hurling with a real local rivalry thrown in to boot and it got all of thirty seconds air time on Sunday Game with presenter and panel having a joke about the commentary of the last minute goal instead of providing any insight into the game. These competitions are not being provided with the oxygen needed to ignite and grow. 

Less than two weeks out from the final. While he didn't score from play against Kildare or Carlow, he was hardly berated for his performances in those games either. The team for the final wouldn't be picked yet and you would imagine that Tommy would have one serious in house training game this week giving players an opportunity to stake a claim for a starting position come final. Be interesting to hear was filters through on the grapevine regarding the reasons for his decision.

A very simple change in format would help things. As opposed to the losing Joe McDonagh team progressing to the prelim quarter final why not have the two fourth place teams in the Leinster and Munster round robin play off against one another at a neutral venue. This year you would have Wexford v Clare. If Clare won then they face the 3rd place team from the Leinster championship (Dublin) at that team's home ground. If Wexford won then they face the third place Munster team (Tipperary) at that team's home ground. The Joe McDonagh winners (Laois hopefully) would face the other third place team at their own home venue.

I think this solution solves two problems. The losing Joe McDonagh team's season is effectively done in losing the final. Impossible to rebuild themselves in a week to face a stronger opposition coming off a gut wrenching defeat. It is better to have them out of championship than receive a further kicking a week on from losing their final. Secondly, it gives a team in both the Leinster and Munster championship who picked up a number of points in the group stages a route to continue their All-Ireland ambitions and hurl into at least the beginning of June. They are still at a disadvantage by finishing 4th in their group as they have an extra game to win to make the prelim quarter final and if they make the prelim quarter final are conceding home advantage to the opposition. Having this tweak in place takes away further dead rubbers e.g. Clare needing to beat Limerick in the last game to progress as oppose to playing simply for pride.

John Mullane was advocating for 4 quarter finals involving the top four Leinster sides and top four Munster sides was very disingenuous to the Joe McDonagh sides. I feel that a pathway to the All-Ireland series should not be closed off to those teams and in this system the winners have that opportunity to progress into an All-Ireland series. Laois showed in the past that coming off a successful Joe McD campaign that these teams are very capable of being taking a scalp and being competitive.

Any thoughts on this tweak to current structures?

Leinster's decline at underage level is incredible when you look at the minor championship statistics. Since 2012 when Meath and Dublin faced one another in both the Leinster and All-Ireland final only one Leinster team has appeared in a final since then. Meath winning the All-Ireland in 2021. Looking at that Tyrone team's performance it is hard to see either Louth or Offaly competing with them this year. While both Louth and Offaly play a lovely brand of football it is hard to see how they can live with the sheer athleticism, power and scoring ability of a side like Tyrone. Armagh's demolition of Dublin further highlighting the gulf in standards between the development of Northern teams to teams in Leinster currently. Last two Leinster champions, Longford 2024 and Dublin 2023 were torn asunder when they faced Northern opposition.

Carlow are backboned by three fantastic hurlers in Marty Kavanagh, Chris Nolan and James Doyle. We will need a better plan to the one we went out with against Kildare if we are to negate their threat. Cathal McCabe did huge damage for Kildare from centre forward and it was a good eye opener for Laois as to where we will need to improve. If Nolan gets similar space to operate in he could do serious damage. Both teams have rattled in the goals throughout the campaign and played very open hurling. I wonder if we will see a change of approach from either team this weekend.

That was 1999. Year before, had the winning of the game against Kilkenny but froze with finish line in slight and Ken O'Shea scored 1-1 to win it at the death. The team was in decline though by 99. Despite that a huge Laois support travelled to the game with optimism. I remember a sideline ball by Andy Comerford being dropped into the net by Ricky Cashin in the first few minutes of the game and that completely took the wind out of the Laois sails. It was one way traffic after that despite Niall Rigney being head and shoulders the best player on the field. It was unfortunate that a very decent Laois hurling side in the 90s never won a championship game in that decade. They had some notable league wins in that time but just didn't have the rub of the green in championship.

Laois didn't have their best game yesterday. It's incredible to think that that Kildare side were beaten by Kerry in their opening game of the Joe Mc. Laois players given a reality check yesterday which could work out as a blessing in disguise. I definitely think that the Laois players took their eyes of the ball for this one and Kildare bought huge intensity and physicality to their performance which we were not prepared for. It does make for an exciting end to the Joe McDonagh. Had we won were were guaranteed a place in the final. Now, we must get a result in the final game and so do Carlow. Should really add to the occasion and ensure a big crowd in for the game in Dr. Cullen. There will be a proper knock out championship feel to the game, which, on form, looks likely to be a close, high scoring encounter. I'm really looking forward to it actually as you cannot beat proper, championship, knock out hurling. Win this weekend and Laois will be prepared for the Kildare threat this time around. Had we walked into the final, we could easily have been ambushed in the way we were on Sunday. Now, there is absolutely no fear of that.

Kildare have done some trojan work to develop hurling within the county. Tradition will not keep us ahead of counties like Kildare in the modern era. They have a greater playing population and their underage hurlers and clubs are exposed to playing in leagues and competitions in other counties e.g. Kilkenny. As their own competitions and structures grow and more hurling clubs are formed and developed, it is evitable that their underage teams and senior team will do. However, you have also got to respect the fact that we are producing some good underage teams too (despite what people may think). We have some fine young hurlers that are starting to filter into the senior set up at present. I think Tommy is the perfect fit to nurture and bring those players through over the next few years. Judging Tommy off of less than 6 months in the job is madness and every team can have an off day like Sunday. Realistically Laois are in transition with some very established players having stepped away or will do in the next year or so. It will take a very good coach to keep Laois on an upward trajectory while bringing through the young talent. Antrim is a great example of how things can quickly go wrong when you are working off a small pool of players and bring in a "big name", "expert" outside coach. Tommy will do things right and I can guarantee you he will leave the Laois hurling team in a better place when he does step away from the job (hopefully not for a good many years).

Completely ran out of steam and once game got away from them Kilkenny were free to tag on scores. needed that second goal early in second when game was still close but unfortunately didn't get it.  Excellent post regarding the minors. Very informed and honest of things.

Unlikely to be Wexford. They have now lost to Dublin and Galway so realistically it will be either Dublin or Galway who finish third. Wexford will need Dublin to beat Kilkenny and then beat Kilkenny themselves. They would then need Galway to beat Dublin in the final game to avoid three teams finishing with three wins and two losses as their score difference will in likely be inferior to Kilkenny and Galway. If that sequence of results plays out they will finish third on head to head rule. Dublin look to be building some momentum under new management this year. Their clash with Kilkenny should be one to watch. They need to atone for the disaster that was last year's Leinster Final.

That's not my point. Duignan did an excellent job in Offaly. However, posters here were lauding the upturn in Offaly to messiah like figure coming in as chairperson. Reality is, Laois like Offaly will have a cycle of good and bad teams. Yes, we could certainly do more in the county to improve standards but when a minor team, U20 or senior team takes a bad beaten the onslaught of posts here saying that "these are the worst Laois teams ever" and "the county board are all ~~~~~ must all resign" does not reflect the reality or what is happening in the county.