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What was the team?

Couldn't tell you the exact team but names I heard were involved were Roche in goals, Lacey, Buggie, Ben Dempsey, Swayne, Simon Fingleton, Corbet, Niall Dunne, Damon Larkin, Mark Barry, Lowry. O'Flynn came on at half time.

Any word on the game last night v Clare?

Laois won comfortably enough. Team for first league game will probably resemble last night's team with maybe Daly and Rioghan Murphy from the Wicklow game to be in contention too.

Recently I met a lifelong Laois supporter (now in his 80's) who asked me how we can help Laois GAA to rise again. We both agreed on investment in youth, better quality club teams amongst other things.

Then he turned to me and sadly said
'What is it with Laois? We seem to have no pride. No unity. Why is that?'

It got me thinking and overall I'd agree with him. Only for short bouts of time have I ever felt that the county felt proud. During Micko's reign and Eddie Brennans were two. Minor success 96 to 98 was another time.

Our pride feels like it is at an all time low right now.

Do you agree?

How do we change that?

Are we too club focused?

Can we turn it around?

It's hard to see a way back at the moment but the starting point has to be the urban centres of Portlaoise, Portarlington and Mountmellick. Portlaoise really should be one of the biggest clubs in the country, but they'll never be anything if they're not supported; and I mean that in every definition of that word.

That is where I'd start. I'd be hoping that strong urban clubs would be the tide that rises all boats, and that amalgamated senior clubs with resources similar to Josephs would compete with them. We have too many clubs that are no addition to anything and are preventing players from progressing. They are cult like;obsessed with the idea of staying senior or getting promoted.

It has been particularly sad in recent years to see the lack of interest. I've long since thought that our league football is no more than a kickabout anyway, and it feels at times like we could tell everyone just to come back for the Championship. That mindset has to change. There are club players in neighbouring counties training away as we speak. Most of ours won't be seen until the end of January at least.

Look through the college lists. Very few Laois lads. We're down there with all the worst performing counties, and it's not by accident. Of course there's so much to it, there's no right answer, and you could write a book. There are a million factors that have brought us to this point, and at least we can say that this Keegan chap looks like he has a plan. It's a start, but so much needs to change and coincide with that plan

How many gaa clubs are there in Portlaoise town?

Just the one really. Clonad hurling club also operate on the edge of the town and draw some players from the town as far as I know.
The Heath and Park-Ratheniska are also in the same parish and might pick up the odd lad from the town.

Emo have replaced Pat Ryan with ex Offaly player Jimmy Stewart.

I've not had Sky in 20 years now.
No interest in most of its output or monthly bills.
So paying €70ish for GAAGo is fine by me.

Any idea of who's in training with the seniors?

Michael Dempsey and Rioghan Murphy were two new names I heard.

I think you mean Camross have a man w/ Courtwood, no?!

I'd forgotten about him! Robbie Boland of Courtwood hurled a number of times this year with Clonad in league.
Also, Paddy Hosey of Emo with Trumera.
And there's a couple of Portarlington lads who were minor last year but not this year.

Wins for Raheen Parish Gaels and Portarlington in the minor 'B' final and shield final last night. RPG had 8 Clonad, 5 Emo lads, and 2 Colt-Shanahoe.....
You'd wonder where those Port. lads will end up.

Wouldn't it be good for long term development of hurling to put the 5 Emo lads with the Portarlington lads and any other lads from O'Dempseys and Courtwood to form a parish adult hurling team?
There's already Fionn Holland, Dan McCormack hurling with Clonad. And a couple of Emo lads hurling with Mountmellick. There's one lad from Courtwood with Clonad. There's also a couple of Portarlington lads who were minor last year but not this year.

Appointment expected by end of week apparently.

Don't think so. Interviews only completed on Friday and at least three being brought back for a second interview next week. We'll have someone by Christmas!

Last year's Carlow champions Palatine are in the relegation final of this year's championship.

Slow or not responding at all. Very difficult to use the site for the past few days.

Expect Crettyard and Ballylinan to go through to the final this weekend.
Mountmellick should give Ballylinan a decent enough run for it but I think there's a lot of quality players in the Ballylinan team and I expect them to go straight back up to senior.
Don't know much about Portlaoise's second team but I think they will struggle to stop O'Carroll, Murphy, young Kelly lad and Burke.

Think Port and Graigue will have comfortable enough wins. 5 or 6 points. Joe's should beat Emo but maybe only by 2 or 3 and the other one is very hard to call. Maybe O'Dempseys after extra time.

Ballyroan Abbey and Stradbally should win in the B. They could meet in the final if they avoid each other in the draw. Ballyfin to edge Killeen and can't call the other. Heath and Clonaslee are both very unpredictable teams.

I wanted to compare the club setups around the country but there was enough statistical significance in 5.
The problem with the clubs is the all Ireland at the end. Leinster and Ulster need 4 weekends to run off . The all Ireland is another 2.

County Boards are incredibly busy running off myriad competitions.

Here are 5 counties with latest status this weekend.

Laois
Number in Round Robin Groups : 8

Latest RRG round : 3


http://gaaboard.com/board/index.php?topic=31915.0
https://laoisgaa.ie/fixtures-results/?owner=2160&orderTBCLast=Y&resultsOnly=Y&noTBC=Y&showByeGames=N&compStyle=football

2.Antrim. Already at quarter final stage

3. Derry
RRG group size : 6
Latest RRG group : 4
https://derrygaa.ie/results/?countyBoardID=7&resultsOnly=Y&daysPrevious=28&reverseDateOrder=Y

4. Galway
RRGs 3
Size of RRG : 6
Latest round 3

5. Tyrone
It's a knockout .
So there are 32 different systems.
This is not good enough especially with the provincial/all Ireland at the end.

If there are qfs add 3
Add 4 for provincial
Add 2 for all Ireland
That's 9 weeks.
Add a margin.

The player load has been moved to the clubs. Especially dual clubs.

I counted 13 weeks to the first week in December.

Laois SFC doesn't have round robin groups. It has an open draw for 16 teams with a backdoor and a SFC "B" and relegation process for those who don't make the quarter finals.

Dis Ballyroan keep the receipt? What a waste of money. An extremely talented team playing that way. Wall and Garrigan should be ran.

I'd have to agree with that. They seem to have a lot of good young players who are being constrained by a dreadful system of defensive football.