2025 National Hurling League

[Mossy Bruce]

Saturday, 25 January, at 14:00
Westmeath v. Laois
Cusack Park

Sunday, 2 February, at 14:00
Laois v. Offaly
O'Moore Park

Sunday, 9 February, at 14:00
Waterford v. Laois
Walsh Park

Sunday, 23 February, at 14:00
Laois v. Carlow
O'Moore Park

Sunday, 9 March, at 12:30
Antrim v. Laois
Ballycastle

Saturday, 22 March, at 17:00
Laois v. Dublin
O'Moore Park

(From the GAA website)

[les Antiques]

Tipp 4.39
Laois 0.19

Challenge match tonight in Tipp.
Strong Laois panel on paper assembled for the year . No major casualties judging by the panel tonight. 

[les Antiques]

Laois: Enda Rowland; Padraic Dunne, Lee Cleere, Donnacha Hartnett; Podge Delaney, Tom Cuddy, Fiachra Fennell; Aidan Corby, Jordan Walshe; Cormac Hogan, Tomas Keyes, Aaron Dunphy; Martin Phelan, Jer Quinlan, Charles Dwyer.

Subs used: Ciaran Flynn, Liam O'Connell, Noah Quinlan, David O'Brien, James Keyes, Cormac Byrne, John Lennon, Ben Conroy, PJ Scully, Willie Dunphy, Eoin Gaughan, Mark Dowling, David Dooley, Paddy Purcell

[The infidel in exile]

32 point defeat certainly doesn't bode very well

[The infidel in exile]

Is the other Byrne brother from Abbeyleix not or the panel. Iv been told that he is the better of the two

[County Man]

Looking forward to the year ahead. I'd be hopeful we can have a good year.

For the league, there's no reason why we can't take care of Westmeath and Carlow and be competitive against Offaly, Antrim and Dublin.

For the McDonagh, our main rivals look to be Westmeath and Carlow. We should get back to the final and hopefully produce the goods and lift silverware.

The panel above looks strong. We can finish off the year by having a crack off one of the big boys.

[Blueforever]

At the challenge match v Tipperary Tuesday night did not expect a win but our performance was embarrassing I know that Tipperary hurling is streets ahead of us but what I saw was there fitness levels were miles ahead There is no excuse for that whatsoever all players have access to a Gym it's going to be a long long year if what I witnessed is going to be the norm.

[Sir Alex7]

Would agree with Blueforever bout de match Tuesday and de league ahead...don't win de first match against Westmeath and we could struggle to avoid relegation

[The infidel in exile]

With absolutely no disrespect meant towards Tommy Fitzgerald, I firmly believe that we could and should have looked at someone from Kilkenny. Irrespective of what anyone says, their were possible candidates from north Kilkenny, good ex hurlers with a total winning mentality.

Of course it's early on, but the first round of the league is 9 days away. And if the previous text ( which I have absolutely no reason to disbelieve) is correct, then a lack of fitness on a poor ground like Cusack which seriously cuts up, then this was not what I wanted to hear ad apparently Westmeath started training 3 weeks prior to Laois.

I actually felt that under Gleeson we could have giver yhe league a right blast, but this sounds ominous, heads drop, 32 point defeat. Same old same old. Finally what happened with the challenge match with Down in Portlaoise? Was it off

[georgedoylesrightleg]

tpical laois, cuttin back off one o dere own 1 game in. poor tomy.

[Voice of tReason]

With absolutely no disrespect meant towards Tommy Fitzgerald..

With absolutely no disrespect to Tommy I'm going to anonymously slag a Laois man who hurled for a decade, has been a coach at county and club level and took the job about 2 months after Tipp had started...

We'd be in an awful spot if tommy had declined the role.
Someone from north kk would be still trying to get a handle on who he has.
Tommy knows every hurler in Laois and has the vast majority of the right lads in apparently.
Shanahan, Mullaney and Conway all missing at the same time is incredibly hard and leaves us very tight in the full back line. A team like Tipp with the work they've done were always going to smell blood and go for the throat.

The league could be tough as we were already years behind a lot of counties and then we gave them a further 2 month head-start because of very difficult and sad circumstances outside anyone's control.

Tommy is the right man for the job in the short, medium and long term. It might need reminding over the next few weeks.

[Voice of tReason]

Is the other Byrne brother from Abbeyleix not or the panel. Iv been told that he is the better of the two

There are three brothers hurling senior for Abbeyleix. All good hurlers in their own right.
Colin and Cormac are with the seniors; and Cormac is still U20 both this year and next. The third, Ciaran, is mid-20s and hasn't been involved in the last 2 years.

[georgedoylesrightleg]

typical shoneen leix, wantin de Kilkenny man ta cum in an show him how ta hurl. youd wonder why a man like Tommy wud bother

[Giovanni]

Seems to be a bit of an overreaction to a defeat in the middle of what is presumably a stiff pre-season training programme. From my point of view, it means absolutely nothing at all. On the contrary, I'd be happy to see some of the older lads carrying on and the likes of Cha rejoining the group.

[The infidel in exile]

First of all I really apologise for some of my comments, although if what i wrote was read in the true light of what i meant as I should have explained it better. I have nothing but the upmost respect for Tommy and knew him personally, although I knew his brother Barry more.

Going by past managers as a whole, with the exception of Chedder in his first stint as manager of the senior hurlers. For whatever reason, Men from our own county historically have not be able to get the best from the teams. I remember the team in the eighths under John Lally scoring 6.10 against Offaly who won by Horans goal through the side netting and going on to win an all Ireland. 1984 centenary final and annualy in division 1. Before I'm inundated with the truth that Laois hurling was in a far better place. With kelly in goal, the Bohans,Cuddy, moggy God rest him and declan Rooney before he emigrated and a few more. I didn't mean to cut the back off of Tommy Fitzgerald and believe me, I would love to see it work out. I was reacting to the score, and the honest opinion in a previous comment that When it came to fitness, Tipp were miles ahead. Are Westmeath like Tipperary, of course not and in 8 days we will know, or at least have a better idea where the are both fitness and hurling wise.