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Poor stuff on Sunday, make no mistake about that. I know a win is a win but that was a hard watch for most of the game. On the positive side the 6 backs, and keeper obviously, look to be well settled and set up for the year. BD and MT were solid throughout. Our midfield had a quiet day but that's on the back of 3 really good performances previously, so no big problems there. Honestly thought two of the 6 forwards, who shall remain nameless, could have gone at half time though.. their contribution was minimal. Evan was good again and you could feel the energy leaving the team when he got the black card, the flip side of that I suppose is everyone got a big lift when he came back in, coupled with a few good subs at the same time. A worry is that we looked lethargic again in the first half, very similar to that bad 20 min spell vs Carlow. That needs sorting as we hopefully near a league final. Final point, this craic with Killian Roches crusades is exciting, and profitable. He's causing a real conundrum for opposing keepers on their kick-outs, and long may it continue. It actually makes sense what he's doing and we got massive joy from it particularly against Carlow and Longford in the 2nd halves, BUT...I'd like to see him stay put when we're a point up with 2mins left!! Tipp went for broke and had 3 vs 2 in our half and our keeper was STILL up contesting a kick-out. In general though, we're benefiting big time from this, and even if/when it goes wrong once we should persist with it. IT WORKS! Overall, great to stay winning, plenty to work on, and still looking like twice the team and setup of the last few years.

Looking forward to Tipp next Sunday. We are where we are as regards Division 4 football and there's no point in lamenting the quality of opposition. It's not too long ago that Carlow gave us a bit to think about in a Leinster semifinal in Croke Park.  I'd give the lads a lot of credit for sticking to the plan when we went 5-0 down, and to be very fair, it looks like there's a bit of a plan and structure in place. Yet again Shaun Fitz was excellent, he's getting on a tonne of ball in games and always looks like he can make something positive happen. We look pretty fit and mobile and there's a lot of honest hard graft being put in on all lines. And for the first time in many years there's a bit of size about the team. Damon Larkin was influential again, Kevin Swayne was a ball of energy and workrate, and I thin in Ben Dempsey we have a really good prospect. He's very mobile, always trying to get forward, and a solid defender. Getting Rioghan Murphy back will also improve the team. In all, there's nothing to be critical of, and plenty to be positive about. We have a young, fit and hungry team who look fully bought in. Looking forward to Thurles!

no gud Will COme of this

Correct.

Have to give credit where it's due and say that was a very solid performance last night. We were easily 7/8 points a better team. Their goal at the end was sloppy/fortunate and we could have had a couple more goals (James Kellys chance and the disallowed goal from Seamus Lacey being two). Obviously Killian Roche is going to get a lot of the plaudits following on from kicking 5pts but Damon Larkin had a massive game in midfield. He's powerful and more mobile than I'd previously thought. Shaun Fitz went thru a tonne of ball and used it well too. The thing that pleased the most was our willingness to be direct when facing a massed Longford defence (how do teams still put 15 behind the ball when losing by 7pts!!!???). We didn't do the whole forward and backward bullshit around midfield and there was great effort put into supporting the man on the ball. Really pleased with what I saw.. definite green shoots.

Just to bring it back on topic, I think we'd be lost without Laois Today, such is the poor fare on offer from all other outlets. Laois Today cover a hell of a lot of games, make a good fist of the Ladies football and Camogie, and I never found them too far wrong with accuracy of results or match reports. Their podcasts were decent, and good craic, in the build up to finals this year and all in all I don't think you'd get better for a relatively small sum of €7 a month.

The negativity regarding the Laois Senior Football team on this board saddens me. Yes, we are down in Division 4, hammered by Dublin in Leinster SFC and by Down in the Tailteann Cup. We have had one poster here asking should we consider withdrawing from championship and league !

Ciaran Fitzgerald famously said to his Ireland rugby teammates  "where's your f*****g pride ?" and the same applies here. The Laois Senior football team are the flagship football team in the county. Down the years young lads would dream of emulating Curly Prendergast, Barney Maher, Joe Higgins and many more. Do we really want to consider going down the same road as Kilkenny ?

Of course our pool of talent seems very shallow at present and we've had no success at underage since 2007. The structure of club football in Laois has it's shortcomings that doesn't help either. On the other hand the split season and the increased number of games gives inter-county players the opportunities to develop that were lacking previously. Many will also have the experience of playing in high-quality 3rd level competitions. We all know too that a team can be better than the sum of it's parts – no county demonstrated this better than Offaly under the late Eugene McGee.

Laois supporters have a role to play too. If you are totally demoralised then it might be better to just walk away rather than contributing to the negative background noise. Of course lads will be hesitant to commit where there is such a mood of doom and gloom surrounding the Laois Senior Football team. Now is the time that the players and new manager need our support most. Remember Offaly supporters Croke Park sit down protest in 1998 and Kildare's Newbridge or Nowhere protest in 2018. We as Laois supporters should have taken the same stance and refused to play the Dubs in Nowlan Park Kilkenny back in 2016.

Laois Abú!

It's not my intention to offend you but this is just pure virtue signalling. Let's all get behind the team and be good little supporters and everything will be grand. For a proud dual county we're now an embarrassment on the football side. Players not committing, being outnumbered in support at every home game for the last 5 years, that debacle vs Down on national tv and so on. I've been to probably 90% of Laois matches in the last 50 years but enough is enough. I'll stand by my previous post... channel everything and anything we have into starting from scratch with underage, see where we could get to in 5/7 years. Take the emotion or whatever out of this and answer this question for me..,what county would you hand on heart say we'd definitely beat in next years Leinster championship? But maybe you're right.. the 250 of us that go to games should sit on the middle of the pitch in OMP next time we're losing and everything will sort itself out.

You know, if even half of the above posts are to be believed (about who's committing or not) then I'm going to ask the question... should we honestly consider withdrawing our Senior football team from the championship/league. And before anyone jumps down my neck.. I think A) it'd for once and for all expose the complete apathy that exists in the county at the minute, B) it'd give the county a clean start to channel a lot or all of the available funding into where its clearly needed, underage C) it'd make the GAA sit up and realise how f*cked the whole model is now.. the imbalance between the haves and have nots, the population disparity, the funding disparity, and so on. I honestly believe at some point in the next couple of years some county is going to take this drastic measure. Now, away ye go..let fly 

Absolutely, I can't think  of a better way to close the gap to the top counties than just not playing 

Isn't this what the players are doing? They've had enough. The last +5 years have been held together by a handful of committed long term servants coupled with the continuous cycle of new young lads coming in, getting burnt, and leaving again. Its starting to look like that scene in the great WW2 film Enemy at the Gates where the poor Russians charge the German line and get mowed down, and then another few Russians charge and pick up the dropped guns and makes another few yards before getting mowed down again, and the cycle continues.

You know, if even half of the above posts are to be believed (about who's committing or not) then I'm going to ask the question... should we honestly consider withdrawing our Senior football team from the championship/league. And before anyone jumps down my neck.. I think A) it'd for once and for all expose the complete apathy that exists in the county at the minute, B) it'd give the county a clean start to channel a lot or all of the available funding into where its clearly needed, underage C) it'd make the GAA sit up and realise how f*cked the whole model is now.. the imbalance between the haves and have nots, the population disparity, the funding disparity, and so on. I honestly believe at some point in the next couple of years some county is going to take this drastic measure. Now, away ye go..let fly 

I'd say we should go after all three of them... Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

It was the best of times... I remember leaving the local at 8am Monday morning... actually, I don't remember 😂

I think we have a myriad of problems. - The last 5 management appointments have been very flat, and even though John Sugrue is in the middle of all that, and did a really good job,  I'm still saying that we haven't managed to get anyone that'd be of high quality, high profile or in any way visionary. Every successful team responds a real leader, whether in sport or in work. Have we put mgmt teams in place that young lads will really want to stand up and follow? - For whatever reason we're just not turning out enough high calibre players nowadays either. And the lack of quality in our club championship really speaks to that. Underage development in Laois is probably similar to 20 yrs ago, but everyone else has moved on. We haven't. - I'm just not sure how much of a contributing factor the "Portlaoise problem" is? I mean, what's peoples ultimate vision here? Throw the kitchen sink at improving Portlaoise and increasing participation numbers, and turn them into an unstoppable machine in Laois, similar to Dublin in Leinster? Why is it the Portlaoise problem... surely its the St Josephs problem, Stradbally problem, Graigue problem, Portarlington problem etc etc etc too. And I don't mean that to sound small-minded or parochial ! We won minor all-Irelands with lads from the 4 corners of Laois, not just Portlaoise. I get the population piece, but that hasn't drastically changed in the last 20yrs, whereas our standard and competitiveness has. - I'd be really concerned with what the prize is on offer for committing to Laois now... just supposing we had sneaked promotion to Div 3 for example... I couldn't see anything other than an instant return to Div 4... so what's really in it for these young lads at the minute? -  On the plus side we have a great county ground, centre of excellence and when the thing is done right we have a good base of support. People will get behind Laois when we've even got a punchers chance... but do we even have that?  I just think right now we've descended to such a low point that its almost impossible to know where to even start!

How many former inter county managers operating in Laois now , Ryan at Graigue , Cunningham at Port , Sugrue at Park ...?

Mick Dempsey St Josephs

Portlaoise vs Clonaslee - Portlaoise by 5
O' Dempseys vs St Josephs  - Draw, extra time, Josephs win on penalties
Courtwood vs Graiguecullen - Graigue by 7
Portarlington vs Ballyroan Abbey - Port by 5

It's that time of the year where Josephs get all excited before exiting in a heroic two point defeat.  Graigue think they are back but that's every year since 1965.  Ballyroanabbey talk about 92.  O Dempsey's are just O Dempsey's.  Courtwood and St Man's realize they are just making up the numbers.  Portlaoise dream of the good old days and Port win a 3rd County in a row. 

Laois Championship and we love it

I've read this 3 times and there's not a word of a lie in any of it!!😃

Bally abbey v defensive but kicked 4-13 so you know your football 🤦‍♂️😂so I predict a massive battle and agree o Dempsey a dark horse bad today but joes are not good in my opinion ,,the town are well in it and graigue to win easy

Ballyroan 3pts from play vs Josephs if I remember correctly, with a very defensive setup, as Josephs had also. Not exactly Harlem globetrotters stuff was it??? But that's just my opinion.