Messages

Would be nice to see Offaly game played somewhere other than Portlaoise in December.

Agree. The Bahamas would be nice.

Minor 2020 championship should be a cracker as long as there are none of the recent marriage of convenience style amalgamations. B/K, R/E, Portlaoise, C/B, Harps and Abbeyleix would all fancy their chances. Rosenallis and Camross won't be far behind.

Portlaoise,The Harps,Abbeyleix and Camross would be my 4  to make a semifinal in 2020

Rosenallis are my dark horse

B/K,R/E and C/B I don't think will be in the mix as they weren't strong this year and their u15's did little this year also.

I completely agree with you,as regards those one year amalgamations,they shouldn't be allowed full stop.

B/K won the u15 two years ago, comfortably beating Portlaoise in the final. R/E won the league without losing a game, and only lost to both Portlaoise and B/K in championship by a point each time. Both of these and C/B would consider themselves stronger for 2020 than 2019.

Minor 2020 championship should be a cracker as long as there are none of the recent marriage of convenience style amalgamations. B/K, R/E, Portlaoise, C/B, Harps and Abbeyleix would all fancy their chances. Rosenallis and Camross won't be far behind.

Hopefully we'll get a repeat of the classic from a few years ago.

Hopefully with a different result.

Forecast not good and football replay midweek wont help . Could be two messy encounters at the weekend unfortunately.

If that's the case then the Borris/CB game should be moved to Rathdowney on Saturday evening and just have the one game in the park on sunday. Not going to happen though

The pitch in Rathdowney is being redeveloped at the moment and won't be ready until next year.

     

Well from what I can gather, is that the management team opted to enter one team only in the tony Forristal (albeit with fantastic results) when this group where u14. This went against the grain of every other year when Laois sent 2 teams. I think the majority of the problem is that other chaps not involved in the click have no interest or desire to be ask in to make up the numbers in what essentially is a closed shop.

The fact that the panel has never had trials and are handpicked by the selectors in the intervening years is unbelievable. The mentors who call the shots are involved with their club teams so they never get to view other games independently.
I again reiterate the fact that Laois had only three subs last Saturday a week or two out from their important end of season tournament. Is their any other development panel in the country managed in this way. I believe that one chap playing corner forward is a back and has been playing in that position since he was small. No surprise when I heard he was from one of the selectors club.

Ditto with this years u16 team

We had 2/3 lads who we thought might be worthy of consideration,only to be told that it was a closed shop also,there’s been no trials for this group also since u14.

Unbelievable carry on

Also the 2 u15 teams were cut to 1 this year.

I’ve seen Ye hurl on numerous occasions over the last few years and I’d question who these 2/3 lads are. To say the standard is low would be an understatement. Huge numbers of players unable to perform even the most basic skills. I didn’t see any potential county players.  In fairness, maybe those lads weren’t playing on any of those nights. I’m still struggling to believe that one of the mentors actually told you it’s a closed shop.

What is really amazing is that 4or 5 of the Kilkenny team that Laois beat at u14 we’re playing in the minor final last Sunday.

That's a bit of an unfair dig at young players Zooming Around. We need to include players from every club in our county squads. There were several lads from that u14 Laois team that played minor this year so what's your point? It's easier to play better when you have better players around you and there's a long way between u14 and u17.
    Without a doubt next year's minors will be potentially our most talented group for years, but this will be nothing to do with the county board and arguably even the management team who have been over them since u14. It may already be too late to get the best out of these lads as there has been no co-ordinated development work done in the intervening years. This year especially has been very disjointed. The minor management wanted a minor panel of thirty, so they could have fifteen v fifteen matches in training. However this meant that there were some lads in their final year minor - who weren't getting game time - or even getting on a match day panel of 24, and who felt they were only being used as training fodder. At the same time, there was a Celtic Challenge squad - also u17 - and some lads opted to "drop down" to this in order to get game time. This squad was mainly u16's and only two u17s were used on the pitch at any one time. A couple of the u16's were subsequently moved up to the minor panel to fill in for injuries. Once you had played minor you couldn't go back to Celtic Challenge. This team struggled a bit as they were predominantly up against teams where they were all u17.
     There seemed to be a big lack of coordination between the two squads and no joined up thinking as to how to get the best out of all the players available. It would appear that each management team - at all age groups - are just let get on with it as they see fit. Similarly to the club scene, it is left to parents to take on these management roles and the county board seem happy to allow this to continue. The Setanta programme seems to have disappeared. It wasn't without its flaws, but at least it gave any young lad who wanted it, a chance to be part of a bigger set up outside the club.
      The minor team management in my opinion should be co-ordinated with all the development squads below it with a chance for all players and coaches to feed into it. Everyone working to a plan and with as many players involved as possible.
      There is a temptation at every level to have a winning team, that leads to a neglect of the long term development of the county. While it is great to be competitive at the Tony Forristal, you are already down the road of picking players just to be successful in the short term. I would be far more impressed to see a big name come in to organise the overall development of players from u14 to minor.

Has the 2020 Laois Minor Hurling Management been finalised yet?

Few details to be ironed out but I think it best to not to speculate until anything is confirmed.

It's a very important appointment and i hope our hapless board get it right. Knowing them they'll probably appoint Eamon Kelly.

I presume it would be between Enda Lyons who has been manager for the last two years, or the current u16 management team of Liam Dunne, Tim Fahy and Ollie Quinlan. 

Since the break up with Castletown, are Slieve Bloom in danger of disappearing off the map? Their juveniles seem to have been absorbed into the Camross Gaels conglomerate, Junior C's conceding in the championship and the Senior A's heading for relegation.

It must have been difficult for Enda to talk about a team which he had a legitimate claim to be part of.

For me its always been a hurl. Hurley sounds a bit......girly.

The conditions this evening had a huge effect. The u20 match earlier was the same.

What are we expecting from the senior football manager? John Sugrue went beyond what I would expect a senior manager to do by instigating the divisional championship and putting in numerous appearances around the county.  Would he be expected to do this in any other county? Is setting up the structures to ensure we have talented players for the future not the job of the county board, and by extension, the clubs? Eddie Brennan has fired up the hurling end of the county but it is still up to the clubs and county board to drive it forward. The Joe McDonagh cup has done the rounds of the Cùl camps but Eddie hasn't been carrying it. No disrespect to him as it's not his job. For a very short time we had the best football and hurling managers we could have hoped for. If Brian Cody resigned after the All Ireland, we could lose both of them in the one year.
Until the clubs fully grasp the reality that it is up to them to drive it forward, we will never sustain a successful county team.

Neil Browne played Junior B for Rathdowney Errill last week. He has to be 57 at least. His 19 year old nephew Sean also played. Beat that.😀

The Laois manager's job is a far more attractive position today, to any prospective manager than it was two years ago - which is a huge credit to Sugrue. A squad that are going forward with the potential to challenge for the Super 8's and playing in Division two should entice a few genuine contenders you would hope. There must be some young ambitious managers out there looking to do the footballing equivalent of Eddie Brennan. A journeyman is precisely what we don't need now.

It didn't take long for the hurling v football "who pissed higher up the wall?" debate to start.