Leinster Senior Football Championship 2017

[Butch Cassidy]

Johnno have club championship with Brigids this week?

What was the team?

Meaney on his day is a big player for Laois but needs to channel his aggresion. He has to start and could operate as a 3rd midfielder as Creedon likes this

[Don Draper]

Your opinions Don. I don't share them. I always rated Kevin highly. All Stars are like hen's teeth in Laois so your last point is out of context. McNulty gambled to suit himself and failed.

He gambled to suit the team. Meaney was a functional, hard working, honest to god midfielder, with questionable distribution. You're making him out to be Sean Cavanagh. He and Quigley should have sorted out their indiscipline a long time ago however, they both have that in common.

[High Fielder]

Your opinions Don. I don't share them. I always rated Kevin highly. All Stars are like hen's teeth in Laois so your last point is out of context. McNulty gambled to suit himself and failed.

He gambled to suit the team. Meaney was a functional, hard working, honest to god midfielder, with questionable distribution. You're making him out to be Sean Cavanagh. He and Quigley should have sorted out their indiscipline a long time ago however, they both have that in common.

God far from it re: Kavanagh. I agree about the distribution and to be honest, some players are the players they are because they have an edge. I disagree with you about McNulty's decision. It was leftfield and Kevin suffered as a result in my opinion

[Clubber Lang]

Meaney never had the discipline, decision-making or distribution to be a top midfielder. At club-level he will dominate due to his size and athleticism. However, at inter-county level to be a really top midfielder that is not enough. He also has a tendency to concede needless frees in scoring positions when tracking back which can be infuriating.

For those reasons McNulty tried something different with Kevin-with his size and physical attributes it was a no brainer to try him full back and he did reasonable well there that year. Laois recorded some impressive championship victories and pushed Dublin well in an All-Ireland Quarter Final and lost only to the concession of a deflected goal. I think it is worth trialing Meaney in a centre back position (not ideal I know on eve of first round of Leinster championship). He actually may be better suited to holding a centre back position and if he shows restraint from rushing in or trying to execute the 'big hit' he could be effective in that position. Too often over the last number of years, Laois have been torn asunder with teams simply running straight at them. As few other posters have identified-we need to be smarter defensively this year in the championship and hopefully this will be evidence in our opening game against Longford.   

[Tony]

I disagree with High Fielder on this one: a good player shouldn't be negatively affected by playing him out of position for a season or two. Kevin is a good lad and wants to play for Laois whether it's full back or full forward. Ideally of course in a perfect world he'd be in midfield. If you asked him if he was affected negatively by being tried out at FB he'd say no - he'll play anywhere. We all have our favourite positions but it's good to be versatile. The likes of JOL for example could do a job on the half-back line, midfield or half forward line, same with strong, attride and to a certain extent, Meaney. The way we are at the moment, we simply have to play our best players, even if it means playing them out of position. I see your point High Fielder but in our position with lack of strength in depth, sometimes it must be done. I really don't see it as McNulty "abusing" Kevin; rather he tried him at FB due to lack of many options and had mixed results.

[justinn]

Maybe team v Longford.?
Brody
Strong
Booth
Kelly
Attrite
Meaney
Begley
O loughlin
Quigley
Donoher
O Carroll
O Connor
P Kingston
D Kingston
D Conway

[Dave like the tv channel]

How many brothers have started for Laois seniors together, even in the past 30 years?

Irwins, Turleys, Lawlors, Kellys, Kingstons, Conways, Brownes, Prendergasts, O'Briens?, Delaneys......any others?

[ollie12]

Dempsey's from Joseph's and Rowes from The Heath.

[Heshs Umpire]

How many brothers have started for Laois seniors together, even in the past 30 years?

Irwins, Turleys, Lawlors, Kellys, Kingstons, Conways, Brownes, Prendergasts, O'Briens?, Delaneys......any others?

Damien and Ruairi O'Connor? Possibly two Rooneys from Clonaslee, maybe Mark and Declan.
Two Begleys.

[The Monument Road]

How many brothers have started for Laois seniors together, even in the past 30 years?

Irwins, Turleys, Lawlors, Kellys, Kingstons, Conways, Brownes, Prendergasts, O'Briens?, Delaneys......any others?

Damien and Ruairi O'Connor? Possibly two Rooneys from Clonaslee, maybe Mark and Declan.
Two Begleys.

Damien and Ruairi are not brothers

[OTF]

Do you not remember the whole full back experiment? I'm all for experimenting with a player you want to use but can't find a position for but no need when a lad is on top of his game in his favoured place. Meaney was too honest and went along with it and arguably never came back from it. It makes me laugh reading this McNulty love in. He sent a Laois team out against Louth who couldn't even run because the y were so over trained. And he didn't become a politician overnight after leaving Laois. Nobody came looking for him.

We had John O'Loughlin and Brendan Quigley at midfield. Meaney wasn't going to start there. He was asked to play full back, I don't recall him being chained to a stake on the edge of the square. Plenty of footballers have been asked to play out of position for the better of a team. If a Cormac McAnallen or Seamus Moynihan could do it, I don't think it was exactly an insult to try a Kevin Meaney there.

Never came back from it? Its not like he was winning All Stars before he moved back there.

John O Keeffe Sean Walsh Seamus Moynihan Tommy Griffin and Aidan O Mahony ..... 14 or 15 All Ireland's not bad and not a natural fullback among them.

[High Fielder]

Firstly that's debatable. Secondly they had more than enough around them to compensate. It was obvious enough in challenge matches that Kevin wasn't comfortable there but McNulty persisted. John O'Loughlin, as fine a player as he is, wouldn't be the best possession getter. Kevin was at that time. Anyway, the general consensus is that it was worth trying. Rather than rocking the boat until it capsizes, let's just agree to disagree

[Junior Ex Laoistalk]

The countdown is on .......

[Unlaoised]

God it's come around quick....

Few things I heard about the Limerick game last weekend.

James Finn and Quigley were midfield and were very good together Finn picking up a lot of breaks and distributing long with that monster kick of his to the full forward line where Paul Donie and Evan O'Carroll were in fine form.

O'Loughlin did play at Centre forward and was also very good.

Damien O'Connor was good at corner back and Attride was in fine form at number five.


No sure what shape Limerick were in but its a far cry better than what we seen in Jan against the same opposition .



Begley ,Strong and McMahon didn't play not sure about the first two but heard from a Ballyroan man yesterday Pauric will be doing very well to make the weekend.

O'Loughlin played for his Dublin club at the weekend and I think they won!

My Team

                       BRODY
STRONG       BOOTH     O'CONNOR
ATTRIDE      MEANEY    DILLION/BUGGIE
           O'LOUGHLIN   QUIGLEY

DONOHER O'CARROLL  BEGLEY

D.KINGSTON O'CARROLL P.KINGSTON

That leaves
KEHOE(keeper mountmellick)
WALSH
MCMAHON
FINN
MOORE
KELLY
COLLINS
FARRELL
DILLION/BUGGIE
LUTTRELL

Sorry if I missed anyone I know O'Reilly has left the squad ...Haven't heard much about David Conway or Ambrose Doran for a few weeks either so not sure if they are still there..

[Don Draper]

Nothing against the personnel, but it says a lot about where we are at if we're going into championship with those 6 "backs" lined up as they are. Whatever about Creedon, there isn't a manager on the planet who could wire a team or a defensive unit/plan around 1, 2 at best, natural backs in a backline.