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This day 20 years ago most of us would have been nursing hangovers after our Leinster final win the day before.

Lads were celebrating for the best part of a week.

Think we'll be waiting 20 years for the next one if we're lucky.

What a few days it was though.

Just talking about the margin of defeats, I thought the Dublin defeat was the worst in my memory but the Down game surpassed that.

When were we last beaten, if ever, by that much in a championship game?

Handicap is 5 points.

We will see how much Billy and the team have learned over the past few weeks.

They know how Down are going to play.

Use of the mark similar to Kildare last weekend would be something they could try.

Fair play to the Laois team it certainly lifted the mood among a few of us in Athens.

Great finish to the game and lets be honest, after the group stages, we are in real bonus territory now and credit must go to all involved. It would have been easy to throw in the towel and write of the year.

Traditionally we've never done well in Limerick and I didn't think that would change so fair play to all.

Looking forward to going to Croke Park next weekend now.

We're as well off keeping it in-house at the moment,

There isn't much point in spending money on an outside manager to keep hings ticking over.

Delegates need to stand up at county board meetings and demand change, push proposals etc

The clubs have the power to make change but as somebody said it's up to individuals to put themselves forward to inspire the change.

Really exciting game to watch and to see what it meant to the Carlow people.

As Marty Kavanagh said it was their All Ireland.

A game against the Dubs now and they should give it a right go.

You have to feel though that we left this one behind with that draw against Carlow. No doubts Carlow were good and Offaly maybe underestimated them but we were playing well and that performance in Kerry showed that.

To have Dublin back in O'Moore Park would have been a great day again. But not to be.

Offaly on a steep upward curve.  U20 Leinster on top of last years minor win.

If the will is there, there is a way.

I have very little knowledge of the in's and out's of county board business or who may or may not be the type(s) of individuals who would drive things on.

When our young minor hurlers starting competing well in the Leinster championship about 10 years ago or so we had Zoom involved with Setanta and Cheddar managing the minor team.

I would happily have both men involved in the running of hurling in the county from the youngest age.

Pay them for their time and give them a reasonably free hand in appointing coaches they want etc with a view to producing competitive underage hurling teams over the next few years with a goal of winning a minor leinster championship. . Both men have more than enough credit in the bank to get others involved. How many lads, former team mates and ex county players would turn down a few hours a week if asked by Critchley or Cheddar.

Would they want it though? Have they ever been asked?

https://www.facebook.com/claresupporter

Craig Rogers retweeted this from The CLARE TIMES asking the County Board to take note!
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What a difference a couple of years make:
2 years ago our minor lads were massively let down, they were sent out to championship battle under prepared and poorly coached, the result was they suffered a humiliating 40 point drubbing at the hands of Cork.
Our county board at the time was toxic and people got given coaching roles based on loyalty rather than ability, we were sinking fast and all hurling people in the county could see radical change was needed
The Change came: following a bloody campaign, the County board changed and with that change came a fresh and new approach to how we promoted/coached and administered the GAA in Clare
Just  2 short years on from that 40 point drubbing and we are now Munster Minor champions, our u20 side are in a Munster final next week and our seniors just handed Limerick their first defeat in a long long while
We stood together, we removed the toxic culture from the Board and we won the battle
The minors now have a passionate and talented Management team and the rest is history
We have so much to be grateful for
HON THE BANNER

Offaly will want to win the game. Yes they might not play a full strength team but they will be out to win the game. Why would they want to lose against their potential final opponents?

A draw in that game would suit us provided we beat Kerry which won't be easy down there.

Amidst all the doom and gloom lets not forget that the mighty Kilkenny almost beat our AI winning minor team back in the day.

Anyone at the game last night.

Kildare seemed to be on top for the whole game and were convincing winners.

Kildare putting uppety Laois back in their box!

Very disappointing. Kildare always on top. Tough place to be for our lads when that's unfolding in front of you.