Laois Senior Football Championship 2018

[the sash]

O'Dempseys is in Killenard not Portarlington

well why is the open rule that if your from portarlington you can play for o'dempseys and vice versa if it wasn't the same catchment area

[The PRO]

. for example my own club portarlington, we have 1 u13 team , o'dempseys have 2 u13 teams and gracefield have 1 u13 team so thats 4 teams in the one town.

Bit of a stretch there to describe the area those 3 clubs cover as one town. Gracefield stretches out to beyond Cloneygowan and Cushina. O'Dempseys pick right out to the edge of Ballybrittas and sometimes into Emo parish depending on what school a lad goes to. And Killenard itself is hardly underpopulated.

[BallyroanAbu]

Hello Football Folk,

I'm a hurling man but would  be very interested to hear more detail on the Portlaoise set up & the culture created by Malachy McNulty, how their management team is set up & operates?
Ballyroan Abu referred to it & plenty of more Portlaoise contributors here, just as an overall interest in top class set ups with successfully clubs, very little detail out there,
Obviously he's a shrewd manager with mature, committed players, has anyone more of the nuts & bolts of the set up??

Would he be in line to replace John Sugrue down the line

One player is a shining example of the culture of Portlaoise " Ricky Maher" 3 or 4 years ago an intermediate player all day long.  I would be shocked now if his not one of the first names down.  He has improved out of all recognition.  Moving on, I do think we have serious problems in Laois GAA the lack of GDA's and games promotion is killing us.  There is not enough GDA's we need more, how we finance this is open to debate.  I have said many times the Center of Excellence will destroy us, unless we can find additional funding.  We seem to be budgeting (Exceptionally well may I add) to pay for a Center of Excellence but there is a cost to this in Games Promotion, GDA's, Development Squads etc.   I don't have the answer to this but we need more money or we will have a fine Center of Excellence without the players to grace it. 

If Malachy was not in for consideration when Sugrue steps down I would be highly surprised,  if anyone remembers the rumors when he took over Portlaoise were meant to be on the decline.  I have a feeling they are better than ever and this might be a big year for them.

[Don Draper]

Hello Football Folk,

I'm a hurling man but would  be very interested to hear more detail on the Portlaoise set up & the culture created by Malachy McNulty, how their management team is set up & operates?
Ballyroan Abu referred to it & plenty of more Portlaoise contributors here, just as an overall interest in top class set ups with successfully clubs, very little detail out there,
Obviously he's a shrewd manager with mature, committed players, has anyone more of the nuts & bolts of the set up??

Would he be in line to replace John Sugrue down the line

One player is a shining example of the culture of Portlaoise " Ricky Maher" 3 or 4 years ago an intermediate player all day long.  I would be shocked now if his not one of the first names down.  He has improved out of all recognition.  Moving on, I do think we have serious problems in Laois GAA the lack of GDA's and games promotion is killing us.  There is not enough GDA's we need more, how we finance this is open to debate.  I have said many times the Center of Excellence will destroy us, unless we can find additional funding.  We seem to be budgeting (Exceptionally well may I add) to pay for a Center of Excellence but there is a cost to this in Games Promotion, GDA's, Development Squads etc.   I don't have the answer to this but we need more money or we will have a fine Center of Excellence without the players to grace it. 

If Malachy was not in for consideration when Sugrue steps down I would be highly surprised,  if anyone remembers the rumors when he took over Portlaoise were meant to be on the decline.  I have a feeling they are better than ever and this might be a big year for them.

Agree 100% with all of that.

[clonadmad]

Hello Football Folk,

I'm a hurling man but would  be very interested to hear more detail on the Portlaoise set up & the culture created by Malachy McNulty, how their management team is set up & operates?
Ballyroan Abu referred to it & plenty of more Portlaoise contributors here, just as an overall interest in top class set ups with successfully clubs, very little detail out there,
Obviously he's a shrewd manager with mature, committed players, has anyone more of the nuts & bolts of the set up??

Would he be in line to replace John Sugrue down the line

One player is a shining example of the culture of Portlaoise " Ricky Maher" 3 or 4 years ago an intermediate player all day long.  I would be shocked now if his not one of the first names down.  He has improved out of all recognition.  Moving on, I do think we have serious problems in Laois GAA the lack of GDA's and games promotion is killing us.  There is not enough GDA's we need more, how we finance this is open to debate.  I have said many times the Center of Excellence will destroy us, unless we can find additional funding.  We seem to be budgeting (Exceptionally well may I add) to pay for a Center of Excellence but there is a cost to this in Games Promotion, GDA's, Development Squads etc.   I don't have the answer to this but we need more money or we will have a fine Center of Excellence without the players to grace it. 

If Malachy was not in for consideration when Sugrue steps down I would be highly surprised,  if anyone remembers the rumors when he took over Portlaoise were meant to be on the decline.  I have a feeling they are better than ever and this might be a big year for them.

We have 4 GDA's,we had 5 but Ciaran Muldowney has left and that job is being advertised.

Tipp/Kerry and Kilkenny have 4 GDA's each so the statement that we need more given our size and playing population is a little wide of the mark.

On the upside however,both u14 development squads are starting tonight,a twice weekly S&C program for the next few months,the u15's start tomorrow night

[Jd]

I'd like to think that the gdas would run seminars  and coaching  nights with the clubs to show best practise for various  age groups  and make sure  clubs adhere  to it then when  players  go into development squads  they will have a Base level to start at and will have a fair idea what is expected of them.  These need to be run early  January  before clubs get back and implement  their own ad hoc arrangements

[clonadmad]

I'd like to think that the gdas would run seminars  and coaching  nights with the clubs to show best practise for various  age groups  and make sure  clubs adhere  to it then when  players  go into development squads  they will have a Base level to start at and will have a fair idea what is expected of them.  These need to be run early  January  before clubs get back and implement  their own ad hoc arrangements

In Fairness to the GDA's,that request has to come from the clubs and in fairness to the lads they will facilitate what ye want,

have ye put in a request?

Is running the s&c program starting tonight not giving lads a base level to start at?

There was a meeting last weds night in one of the hotels in portlaoise to give the parents of development squad members in both codes, a fair idea of what was expected of them

[Giovanni]

I know Joe's were poor but Portlaose looked awesome, with a superb bench as well. Hadn't seen much club football over the last year but from reading here I expected Joe's to have a young, pacy team that might hurt Portlaoise. It looked like Portlaoise had all the pace in fact. They look very well prepared.

40-1 for the All-Ireland looks a good bet to me.

On the other match, I thought the entire O Dempseys half forward line could step up to a higher level. All 3 looked very good to me.

[Jd]

Fair enough  clonad
Then the clubs are lacking in looking  for assistance.  I know what you mean about the s+c and it's brilliant  that they're doing it but what I meant was a system of football sessions for all underage players so that if one or two are unearthed  during  the year they'll  fit straight  in

[Laoiseabu]

I wouldn't back them for an all Ireland . Leinster will be very very hard won judging by the draw. I'm impressed with Portlaoise but I wouldn't get too ahead of myself as the standard in Laois is very very poor . I'm looking foward to seeing how they get on in Leinster when they meet a team that's at the same fitness level as them . Should be an exciting journey all the same

[Portbush]

Just example. Portlaoise and Newbridge are two towns of similar size little over 20,000 in both. Newbridge has two very successful teams both have won senior championships both have players that represented Kildare.so I could see the benefits of  another club in portlaoise. Another problem in my opinion is there far to few underage teams.

[Laoiseabu]

Was talking to a youngster today from Portlaoise let's say about 19 years of age and Irish . Has never heard of Graham Brody , Paul Cahillane , Gareth Dillon , Kieran Lillis etc before . Dosent know  where Rathleague grounds are either . Just shows u the exposure some youngsters get to Gaelic games in the town .

[BallyroanAbu]

I know Joe's were poor but Portlaose looked awesome, with a superb bench as well. Hadn't seen much club football over the last year but from reading here I expected Joe's to have a young, pacy team that might hurt Portlaoise. It looked like Portlaoise had all the pace in fact. They look very well prepared.

40-1 for the All-Ireland looks a good bet to me.

On the other match, I thought the entire O Dempseys half forward line could step up to a higher level. All 3 looked very good to me.

I think they look serious, because they are so dominant, people are overlooking how much they improved over the last year.

[Laoiseabu]

Leinster will tell us how much they have improved

[Laois Rising]

On the need for another club in Laois you could look at a town like Tralee with very similar population. There are seven clubs in and around the attachment area of the town (granted football has a much higher status in Kerry). The result is that every youngster in Tralee is exposed to GAA and depending where they are living/familly connection has a connection/afflication to a specific club. That allows for link up between coaching within schools and clubs. Pointless having a GDA in Laois going into primary schools in Portlaoise for a couple of weeks doing a half hour sessions when those youngsters and have no affiliation to a GAA club. The coaching ends up going nowhere.

I would take a wager that the majority of youngster in Potlaoise have not been to see "their club" playing in any county final, name the players on the team or have even set foot inside O'Moore park for any championship game. It really is a huge issue for Laois GAA to try and readdress.     

On the flip side it's all well and good looking to establish a second GAA club but who will run it and get it off the ground? Need people from Portlaoise to buy in and commit for the long haul if it is going to get off the ground. I don't know if they are there.