2023 National Football League Division 4

[SCFC]

It's not Billy's fault, it's not the county board's fault, it's not anyone's fault in particular but until we get the best 15 footballers playing for the county, we're at nothing.
There's lads in there at the moment and fair play to them for committing but some of them are simply not up to it.

[on the hop]

I agree with you on some of those points, the two costly red cards against carlow found us with a very weak team and even lesser options on the bench. Definitely the quality present at the moment is not there but I would fault billy on not coming up with a plan to replicate what Evan brings to us. It was a tough ask and maybe he did have a plan , but it got tougher after Murphy went off but having Daly in his own full back slot on two occasions because we have invested heavily in this ultra defensive system was not ever going to work. Having him behind the play trying to get back up the field to be an outlet for an attacking ball in makes little or no sense. At least if he stayed up there we wouldn't have had their influential fullback so far up the field.

Once Lowry ran out of legs and mark Barry was offering nothing the only real option but to have put Paul Kingston in there who would at least the scoring threat in him. By the time we did that the game was effectively over. Overall it was such a sloppy performance with poor options, misplaced passes and no real shape to the team. It's a killer when we have players soloing to the half way line and no option or player ahead of them, once they delay they got swallowed up and turned over the ball. Top teams can play that system because they have more athleticism in their team, at present we don't have that .  Once their two midfielders started to dominate especially Healy at 8 we were under massive pressure with their athletic advantage. We will probably beat Waterford to keep us in it but in a division where everyone can beat each other we are left with two difficult away games. They might suit us as we seem to find it very hard to win at home.

[County Man]

Disappointing to lose last night but have to say that Wicklow fully deserved their win. Wicklow missed a number of scorable chances in the first half including balls dropping into our keeper's hands and their keeper missing 4 placed balls (one hitting the post). Our first goal came from a dreadful defensive mix up leading to the penalty. Mark Barry took both penalties very well.

Wicklow were much more economical in the second half with their goalkeeper Jackson kicking 2 out of 3 placed balls, their midfield began to dominate and they have a superb forward in Kevin Quinn.

For us, the loss of Evan O'Carroll was massive. Added to that Colm Murphy was unfortunate to pull his hamstring early on. Nearly all of our scores from play came from way out in both the first and second half and some excellent scores they were from Eoin Lowry, Paul Kingston, Kieran Lillis and Kevin Swayne who really tried hard.

Some positives were that we got game time to some of the newers members of our panel. Dylan Kavanagh returned to the team, Kevin Swayne gained more experience in the middle, Brian Daly had a go at full forward and Damon Larkin tried hard in the second half. They will learn from this.

We have a quick turnaround and a good chance to get back on track for promotion v Waterford next Saturday.

[Laois Rising]

Wheels came off the wagon last night big time. Last night's performance shows up the severe lack in depth in the Laois panel. The majority of lads in with laois are decent,committed club footballers but are not really at the level of a decent intercounty side. With Evan suspended this was a game we needed Murphy to take on the mantel of the main ball winner in close to goal. Unfortunately an early injury deprived us of that option and we really struggled to put together any semblance of a plan B to counteract Wicklow once they claimed dominance in the middle third.

Once Wicklow figured out the limitations of this Laois team there was only going to be only one winner. Long kick outs to an area of the pitch where they physically and athletically dominated Laois. I'm afraid it probably won't be the last time this year we see a similar outcome to a game. 

[Spiritof86]

It's not Billy's fault, it's not the county board's fault, it's not anyone's fault in particular but until we get the best 15 footballers playing for the county, we're at nothing.
There's lads in there at the moment and fair play to them for committing but some of them are simply not up to it.

I believe these are the 15 best footballers playing for Laois at the moment . What lads not on the panel would make things better ?

In fairness last night was coming . Anyone at the Sligo, Wexford and Carlow matches would probably say the same thing .
In fairness good to see the likes of Larkin get more exposure . Our lack of depth is evident but this entirely what we have to work with at the moment.
Waterford probably the worst team in the country at the moment . Two difficult away trips then to London and Leitrim who handed Carlow a right trimming today will determine promotion.

[SCFC]

It's not Billy's fault, it's not the county board's fault, it's not anyone's fault in particular but until we get the best 15 footballers playing for the county, we're at nothing.
There's lads in there at the moment and fair play to them for committing but some of them are simply not up to it.

I believe these are the 15 best footballers playing for Laois at the moment . What lads not on the panel would make things better ?

In fairness last night was coming . Anyone at the Sligo, Wexford and Carlow matches would probably say the same thing .
In fairness good to see the likes of Larkin get more exposure . Our lack of depth is evident but this entirely what we have to work with at the moment.
Waterford probably the worst team in the country at the moment . Two difficult away trips then to London and Leitrim who handed Carlow a right trimming today will determine promotion.

Look, they are amateur lads. It's certainly not fair to start naming lads who aren't up to it but anyone at all could name at least 5 or 6 lads who would hugely improve the current squad. But again, until there's a structure in place that every footballer in the county wants to play for the county, we are pissing against the wind.

[The PRO]

We (Laois) are three from three now but honestly were very unimpressive yesterday. I wouldn't suggest lumping on it or anything but I would give Wicklow a decent chance of turning us over next Saturday night in Portlaoise. It's a very flattering league table.

No great pleasure in being right with this.
It was a very poor performance but not a massive surprise.
When we were down a few starters, O'Carroll, Byrne, Finn, we were left with a very thin, inexperienced bench.

[Spiritof86]

It's not Billy's fault, it's not the county board's fault, it's not anyone's fault in particular but until we get the best 15 footballers playing for the county, we're at nothing.
There's lads in there at the moment and fair play to them for committing but some of them are simply not up to it.

I believe these are the 15 best footballers playing for Laois at the moment . What lads not on the panel would make things better ?

In fairness last night was coming . Anyone at the Sligo, Wexford and Carlow matches would probably say the same thing .
In fairness good to see the likes of Larkin get more exposure . Our lack of depth is evident but this entirely what we have to work with at the moment.
Waterford probably the worst team in the country at the moment . Two difficult away trips then to London and Leitrim who handed Carlow a right trimming today will determine promotion.

Look, they are amateur lads. It's certainly not fair to start naming lads who aren't up to it but anyone at all could name at least 5 or 6 lads who would hugely improve the current squad. But again, until there's a structure in place that every footballer in the county wants to play for the county, we are pissing against the wind.

I agree that there is no structure in place which would entice every footballer to play for the county .

However judging from last year's senior and intermediate championships I really believe we have the majority of the best players involved with the county .
We don't have the strength in depth anymore and we don't have the quality in the county at the moment.
This is all evidently clear to see from the local championships.

[High Fielder]

Numbers wise, things just don't stack up for us. We're a proper dual county with a small population with no real history of success. We also suffer more than most with emigration and commuting long distances to work. In this day and age, by the time you become an adult, playing high level sport could be the last thing on your mind. Irrespective of the investments or changes that we make, we will always be faced with these and many other issues.

[Joeythelips]

What?? Stop making excuses. It's not easy being on county board and most dont want to give up teh time and energy required for CB roles but dont say its nothing to do with CB when the county team has just lost to Wicklow in Div 4. Dont say its nothing do do with management. Are we mad? Lets wake up.

Why did Laois win '03 Leinster title?

1. We had good underage structures in place in mid 90s to mid 00s which produced highly skilled footballers. Where did this structure come from? who put it inn place, I'm sure CB at time would have had a say and deserve credit for it.

2. Just having a pool of good footballers to choose from is not a solution in itself as a look at the 2002 Laois team and results will testify (most same players were Leinster champions next year after a dreadful 02. So Management teams obviously play a big part. Micko in this case had a massive impact as not only was not one
not committing, the opposite in fact, players were returning to the fold and doing endless laps at the chance of a medal.

Laois were still a midlands county in late 90s early 00s, with a large part of the population working in Dublin or similar issues as we have today. I get its not nice to point the finger of blame but its also silly not to point out if others are simply not good at their job.

[Spiritof86]

What?? Stop making excuses. It's not easy being on county board and most dont want to give up teh time and energy required for CB roles but dont say its nothing to do with CB when the county team has just lost to Wicklow in Div 4. Dont say its nothing do do with management. Are we mad? Lets wake up.

Why did Laois win '03 Leinster title?

1. We had good underage structures in place in mid 90s to mid 00s which produced highly skilled footballers. Where did this structure come from? who put it inn place, I'm sure CB at time would have had a say and deserve credit for it.

2. Just having a pool of good footballers to choose from is not a solution in itself as a look at the 2002 Laois team and results will testify (most same players were Leinster champions next year after a dreadful 02. So Management teams obviously play a big part. Micko in this case had a massive impact as not only was not one
not committing, the opposite in fact, players were returning to the fold and doing endless laps at the chance of a medal.

Laois were still a midlands county in late 90s early 00s, with a large part of the population working in Dublin or similar issues as we have today. I get its not nice to point the finger of blame but its also silly not to point out if others are simply not good at their job.

i

Hard to disagree with any of that .

Laois were beaten in the O'Byrne Cup in Port in 2002, beaten by a poor offaly side in the championship and embarrassed by Meath in Portlaoise in the Qualifiers . Clearly a new manager and a new set up influenced things majorly  the following year .
Laois went from Division 4 to Division 2 under the Sugrue set-up . This is clearly not going to happen under the current regime . This is absolutely disrespect to the current set-up who are doing their best for Laois football .

[The PRO]

What?? Stop making excuses. It's not easy being on county board and most dont want to give up teh time and energy required for CB roles but dont say its nothing to do with CB when the county team has just lost to Wicklow in Div 4. Dont say its nothing do do with management. Are we mad? Lets wake up.

Why did Laois win '03 Leinster title?

1. We had good underage structures in place in mid 90s to mid 00s which produced highly skilled footballers. Where did this structure come from? who put it inn place, I'm sure CB at time would have had a say and deserve credit for it.

2. Just having a pool of good footballers to choose from is not a solution in itself as a look at the 2002 Laois team and results will testify (most same players were Leinster champions next year after a dreadful 02. So Management teams obviously play a big part. Micko in this case had a massive impact as not only was not one
not committing, the opposite in fact, players were returning to the fold and doing endless laps at the chance of a medal.

Laois were still a midlands county in late 90s early 00s, with a large part of the population working in Dublin or similar issues as we have today. I get its not nice to point the finger of blame but its also silly not to point out if others are simply not good at their job.

i

Hard to disagree with any of that .

Laois were beaten in the O'Byrne Cup in Port in 2002, beaten by a poor offaly side in the championship and embarrassed by Meath in Portlaoise in the Qualifiers . Clearly a new manager and a new set up influenced things majorly  the following year .
Laois went from Division 4 to Division 2 under the Sugrue set-up . This is clearly not going to happen under the current regime . This is absolutely disrespect to the current set-up who are doing their best for Laois football .

Fair points but I don't think anyone could compare the quality of players Micko had at his disposal in 2003 to the ones Billy has in 2023. But Billy has to take some citicism. There's no way the net was cast wide enough for players over the last 4 months.

Should the county board be above criticism? No, they're the ones who put Billy in place. But then again, was there a big queue of quality managers interested? I don't think so.

[High Fielder]

What?? Stop making excuses. It's not easy being on county board and most dont want to give up teh time and energy required for CB roles but dont say its nothing to do with CB when the county team has just lost to Wicklow in Div 4. Dont say its nothing do do with management. Are we mad? Lets wake up.

Why did Laois win '03 Leinster title?

1. We had good underage structures in place in mid 90s to mid 00s which produced highly skilled footballers. Where did this structure come from? who put it inn place, I'm sure CB at time would have had a say and deserve credit for it.

2. Just having a pool of good footballers to choose from is not a solution in itself as a look at the 2002 Laois team and results will testify (most same players were Leinster champions next year after a dreadful 02. So Management teams obviously play a big part. Micko in this case had a massive impact as not only was not one
not committing, the opposite in fact, players were returning to the fold and doing endless laps at the chance of a medal.

Laois were still a midlands county in late 90s early 00s, with a large part of the population working in Dublin or similar issues as we have today. I get its not nice to point the finger of blame but its also silly not to point out if others are simply not good at their job.

Uh, I made no mention of the CB. For once. That's a whole other topic. Right now, we don't have the players good enough to get us much further than we are .Just the way it is sadly.  Not Billie's fault, and it's possible he's not up to the task either. Again, a whole other debate.

[Junior Ex Laoistalk]

I don't think Billy is good at man management judging by the way he treats the squad. In both games against Wexford and Carlow he brought on young Burke from Crettyard with 2 minutes to go.
That's an awful way to treat a good young player and it must be embarrassing for him to go through that twice.

He brought on Walker from Graiguecullen in the first game against Sligo, he's scored a vital goal and he hasn't got any minutes since that. I think he has now quit the panel.

That's not the way to build team moral or to encourage guys to hang around and they'll get their opportunities to play.

If he doesn't change his attitude I can only see more defections from the squad and then we will be in big trouble

[High Fielder]

In fairness Junior, whilst I agree with your specific points about the treatment of players, I don't think we can fall much further than we are at the moment. As for lads walking away, I wouldn't worry too much about anyone who couldn't even last the league. He didn't exactly stay long enough to prove anyone wrong, did he? And it's not like we got him from Kerry or Dublin either. We have as good amongst our own, and sadly that's not saying much