Laois Senior Hurling Championship 2016

[Ogie]

Draws made last night for the 2016 Championship

Rathdowney Errill v Camross
Abbeyleix v Borris Kilcotton
Ballinakill v The Harps
Portlaoise v Clough Ballacolla

[merman]

Great draw for Ballinakill and The Harps.
The Harps are the one team who needed a favourable draw and though Ballinakill will fancy their chances; they don't carry the same threat as one or two others.

Tough draw for Portlaoise. Two years ago, they should have beaten Camross in the first round and went on to be relegated. They will know the importance of getting off to a good start but that's as tough an opener as they could have asked for.
CB have been slow starters in recent years but will be satisfied with that draw.

B/K will start as favourites against Abbeyleix and if they play as many feel they are capable, they should come through. Tough draw for Abbeyleix; a loss could see them struggle.

RE and Camross is the undoubted tie of the round. RE have edged these battles for a while now and it is a year ending in an even number but Camross will relish a crack at them and it really could go anyway.

Cheddar has agreed to release players for 4 of the 7 senior league games. I think these are rounds 2,3,4 and 5. I can't speak for any other divisions.
U21s are to be released for all games where possible but no minor will be allowed play any adult hurling until Laois exit the championship. 

[Unlaoised]

Great draw for Ballinakill and The Harps.
The Harps are the one team who needed a favourable draw and though Ballinakill will fancy their chances; they don't carry the same threat as one or two others.

Tough draw for Portlaoise. Two years ago, they should have beaten Camross in the first round and went on to be relegated. They will know the importance of getting off to a good start but that's as tough an opener as they could have asked for.
CB have been slow starters in recent years but will be satisfied with that draw.

B/K will start as favourites against Abbeyleix and if they play as many feel they are capable, they should come through. Tough draw for Abbeyleix; a loss could see them struggle.

RE and Camross is the undoubted tie of the round. RE have edged these battles for a while now and it is a year ending in an even number but Camross will relish a crack at them and it really could go anyway.

Cheddar has agreed to release players for 4 of the 7 senior league games. I think these are rounds 2,3,4 and 5. I can't speak for any other divisions.
U21s are to be released for all games where possible but no minor will be allowed play any adult hurling until Laois exit the championship.

Decent review I'd say Borris are delighted with that draw but abbeyleix on the other hand will be delghted they avoided R/E and C/B

Portlaoise will know they will have to improve to get close to Ballacolla but getting C/b early is the only time to beat them.

[blueandwhite1]

Draws made last night for the 2016 Championship

Rathdowney Errill v Camross
Abbeyleix v Borris Kilcotton
Ballinakill v The Harps
Portlaoise v Clough Ballacolla

The thing that stands out about our senior championship these days is that there really is nowhere to hide. All 8 teams will see themselves as having a tough game, whether they are fighting for survival or to go on to contest a final. Great that 4 out of 7 league games will include county players, will make things even more competitive. Already looking forward to an exciting year of hurling.

[Dave like the tv channel]

Draws made last night for the 2016 Championship

Rathdowney Errill v Camross
Abbeyleix v Borris Kilcotton
Ballinakill v The Harps
Portlaoise v Clough Ballacolla

The thing that stands out about our senior championship these days is that there really is nowhere to hide. All 8 teams will see themselves as having a tough game, whether they are fighting for survival or to go on to contest a final. Great that 4 out of 7 league games will include county players, will make things even more competitive. Already looking forward to an exciting year of hurling.

Which is what should be done with the SFC. The CB should simply relegate a load of teams and tighten things up.

[Goku]

Weekend Predictions:

R/E vs Camross - 
Camross to nick it with R/E without the services of Mark Kavanagh & Liam O'Connell, Reports of Zane hitting a patch of form too.

Abbeyleix vs Borris Kilcotton -
B/K to win but Abbeyleix could give them a big scare. Could be game of the weekend

Ballinakill vs The Harps -
Ballinakill should come out on top with The Harps struggling and Cha on fire in the league.

Portlaoise vs Clough Ballacolla -
C/B will be expecting to win but Portlaoise will fancy an upset with Picky stateside for this game.

[merman]

RE vs Camross
Cant wait for this one. Camross have been the most consistent team in Laois over the last three years but they haven't cracked RE yet. Mark Kavanagh is a loss but I still fancy them to come through, if they can keep Keenan quiet.
RE by 4...

Abbeyleix vs BK
There's nearly always a shock in the first round...but I don't think this will happen here. If BK defend with discipline then I don't see Abbeyleix scoring anywhere near enough. BK to win by 8; championship favourites for me right now.

CB vs Portlaoise
CB should have too much firepower but are missing three guaranteed starters and struggled a bit in the league. I feel success for Portlaoise would be staying up this year and though I can't bring myself to completely rule it out, I can't see them claiming a win here.
CB by 5...

Ballinakill Gaels vs The Harps
B/Kill should not be written off as championship darkhorses. Cha is capable of dismantling any defence and I just don't see how The Harps can hold him. If they do, maybe doubling 2 Dunnes on him then they might have a chance here. This could be closer than some think but on the balance of probabilities, it's hard to go against Ballinakill, I'll say by 2...

[finbar o tool]

R/E, Abbeyleix, CB and Ballinakill all to win, Ballinakill to be only team with 3 or more points to spare at the end.i expect the other 3 games to be tight. Abbeyleix to be the "shock" result.

[Keyser Söze]

Clough Ballacolla are an absolute certainty to win.
Rathdowney Erill are almost as definite. They are a very good side. Has Zane not been in US for past few weeks?
Abbeyleix will put it up to Borris Kilcotton but won't win.
I would not be at all shocked if The Harps beat Ballinakill. It's the least certain result IMO.

All just my opinion- we shall see. Interesting weekend ahead!
Fantastically competitive championship. Seems like a long time ago since we had 2/3 matches in each round won by 12-15 points.

The only people suffering are the clubs ranked 10-13 in the county- Mountrath, Colt, Ballyfin  (in whatever order!). When are they realistically going to get a chance to hurl Senior again with this system?

[Keyser Söze]

Clough Ballacolla are an absolute certainty to win.
Rathdowney Erill are almost as definite. They are a very good side. Has Zane not been in US for past few weeks?
Abbeyleix will put it up to Borris Kilcotton but won't win.
I would not be at all shocked if The Harps beat Ballinakill. It's the least certain result IMO.

All just my opinion- we shall see. Interesting weekend ahead!
Fantastically competitive championship. Seems like a long time ago since we had 2/3 matches in each round won by 12-15 points.

The only people suffering are the clubs ranked 10-13 in the county- Mountrath, Colt, Ballyfin  (in whatever order!). When are they realistically going to get a chance to hurl Senior again with this system?

Sure what do i know!
Great win for Camross, great game by the sounds of it!

[SCFC]

Any reports from last nights double header?

[merman]

2nd Round Draw

Borris/Kilcotton vs Ballinakill Gaels
Clough/Ballacolla vs Camross

Rathdowney/Errill vs Abbeyleix
Portlaoise vs The Harps

Impressed with Camross, Borris/Kilcotton, Ballinakill and Abbeyleix.
CB and particularly RE with plenty of room for improvement.
Portlaoise gave CB plenty of if and they'd have to be favourites to see off The Harps.

[Unlaoised]

Can see only see a winner coming from R/D Camross or maybe B/K after the weekend.

Harps are certs for the drop.As Portlaoise will beat them and so will Abbeyleix.

R/D will get stronger and could yet meet Camross in the final.

Ballinakill v B/K will be a decent game to look at.....

[Goku]

Weekend Predictions:

R/E vs Camross - 
Camross to nick it with R/E without the services of Mark Kavanagh & Liam O'Connell, Reports of Zane hitting a patch of form too.

Abbeyleix vs Borris Kilcotton -
B/K to win but Abbeyleix could give them a big scare. Could be game of the weekend

Ballinakill vs The Harps -
Ballinakill should come out on top with The Harps struggling and Cha on fire in the league.

Portlaoise vs Clough Ballacolla -
C/B will be expecting to win but Portlaoise will fancy an upset with Picky stateside for this game.

Not too Far off with my Predictions, If only i put money on it
Camross and Ballinakill will be most happy after the first round but with B/K and C/B due back some big players for the next round it makes for an exciting 2nd Round..

[finbar o tool]

Jesus its all football on here lately, hurling side of things is very quiet! 

Just getting the predictions going for the coming weekend:

Ballinakill vs BK
im gona say BK here, unfortunately Ballinakill seem to be a one man show. BK should be able to keep that man to a minimum and if they use the ball a bit better than the last day they will win with a few points to spare.

Portlaosie vs The Harps
Portlaoise were impressive in patches the last day and i think they will win this win by 4/5 points. Harps are struggling.

Camross vs CB
should be the game of the weekend, CB were impressive in patches too vs Portlaoise the last day, Willie Dunphy inparticular looked very sharp. something about Camross though, they seemed to always win the mental battles and come out on top in the end. will be very tight, im going for a draw here.

Abbeyleix vs RE
RE for me here, i can see Abbeyleix putting it up to them for 45 minutes but RE to pull away from there. could be a nervy start from RE though so unless Abbeyleix can get a really good start, i dont think they have enough to see it out.

hope there is a couple of good quality games this weekend to get the crowd going. atmosphere was fairly dead in the first round.