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I watched the KK v Westmeath game last night. I think its the worst KK team that I have ever seen. If our seniors lost heavily to them the future is very very bleak indeed!
Sorry guys but its the reality of the situation we are in.

felt our management were quite naïve against Wexford in not counter acting Shaun Murphy.

I felt they were even more naive in how they chose to eventually counteract it!

felt our management were quite naïve against Wexford in not counter acting Shaun Murphy. Presuming everyone is fit id start the following team..
Rowland
Palmer
Bergin
Cleere
Whelan
Collier
Healy
Purcell
King
Downey
Cha
W Dunphy
Picky
Foyle
M Kavanagh

Collier centre back? That'd be a huge ask!
If Healy is back then Palmer probably has to go based on the last day.
Don't think Mark Kavanagh did enough to earn a spot either.
Interesting team though

Collier at CB might be a bit of a surprise but I feel most teams are now running at defenses from deep (as we are now with Paddy Purcell), so we need a guy with pace and energy at centre back so that when we are turned he can get back to challenge . He's been excellent since he came back from injury and he would have good support from Matthew and Healy on the wings.
Palmer hadn't his best game the last day but he was very good in the league against good opposition and imo doesn't deserve to be dropped, also by playing him and bringing Cahir back in it allows Cha to go back to the half forward line where he is badly needed.
I would give Mark Kavanagh a chance, he was probably our best forward in the u21 until injured. Bar maybe Downey, have any of the other forwards done enough to keep their place?? We were very lightweight against Wexford in the forward line and without trying to be too harsh im not sure if some of the forwards playing the last day will ever be good enough to play at this level. The news about Willie Dunphy is unfortunate as he should have more to offer, I would have played him in the half forward line as he can both win ball and score, one of our strengths in recent years has been getting scores from out the field, to do this we need good strikers in the half forward line and midfield.

Big and very comfortable win for Carlow yesterday. I don't think that was expected. It will be a local derby now in a neutral venue(possibly Nowlan park). I think a lot will depend on the attitude of the Laois team. We are good enough to beat Carlow without question. Unfortunately the qualifier route has not been a happy hunting ground for us, Im not sure if we have ever won a qualifier game.I felt that after we were knocked out of the Leinster Championship the sting was taken out of us. This year however we have a chance to progress a bit in the Championship and its something the players deserve for all their efforts. Carlow will be a tough proposition though and will be high on confidence. We will have to be mentally right for this one and come out all guns blazing. I hope our management were at the Christy ring cup final and have identified their strengths and weaknesses, our felt our management were quite naïve against Wexford in not counter acting Shaun Murphy. Presuming everyone is fit id start the following team..
Rowland
Palmer
Bergin
Cleere
Whelan
Collier
Healy
Purcell
King
Downey
Cha
W Dunphy
Picky
Foyle
M Kavanagh

This will be a very tough game for Laois. Westmeath have approx 10 of the starting team that beat Kilkenny last year, like us they would be hugely disappointed to lose this game. We need a win badly though to give these guys the confidence that Laois hurling is worth fighting for and that there is a future. I actually don't think the team is as strong as some ppl here are making out. Although they are all senior panelists, at least one player was not starting on his club senior team last year. Also, looking at the half forward line and forwards in general I hope scoring wont be an issue. While they are all good lads and will work their socks off, If Mark Kavanagh and Aaron Dunphy were to be well marked or have an off day I think we could struggle on the scoreboard. The backline does look strong and the fact that these lads have all been exposed to a very high level of training should stand to us and hopefully will be enough to get us over the line.

Personally, I think it's a waste of money. Now we have an outside manager, two high profile outside coaches Ollie Moran and Conor Gleeson and now Oisin McConville. Sure they are probably adding to the set up but at what cost? I'm pretty sure they are not doing it for nothing and according to the Offaly boys Eamonn Kelly stuck them for big money. It's great to see such a professional set up, however I'm not sure how much our senior team can be improved that much and I think we are as far off a provincial final appearance as we have been for 30 years. I've said all of this before...until we sort out a real proper nursery/underage development structure I don't think we will improve enough to start challenging for bigger honours. We need to start producing competitive development squads every year to feed into the minor teams and start challenging at minor and under 21 level before we see a notable improvement in our seniors. Sadly our Co Board have no interest in developing the game for the future.

Big wknd for laois hurling starting on Saturday with the minors. I have been pleasantly surprised with this group, they were very weak at u14,15 & 16 level but they seemed to be heading in the right direction. Great win against Offaly albeit Offaly are missing a good few who won't commit due to the management apparently. Then a big performance in Dublin, unfortunately they couldn't see it out. Meath will be no walkover tho as they hammered Westmeath by a cricket score. I believe Enda Parlon is available this weekend so that's a plus. Hopefully they can beat Meath and have a crack at one of the big guns. Fair play to the management team they seem to have the team fit and finely tuned. They remind me of some of the Offaly teams of old, getting the best out of themselves and not afraid to have a go. It's funny, this team were given no chance at the start of the year while last years team was supposed to be one of the best ever. Anyway best of luck to all concerned on Saturday.

Just a word on the under 21s, I'd be hoping they will do better than last years group anyway which was a disaster. Cha is gone but there are 13 guys getting good experience with the senior panel. I think  D Hartnett, R Mullaney, L Bergin, S Downey, L Cleere, E Killeen, A Dunphy, P Simms, L O Connell, A Corby, M Kavanagh, J Lennon and B Corby are all on the senior panel. S Phelan, R Phelan, J Geaney, S Dunphy, A Bergin, A Mortimer, E Cuddy would be other notable additions if available
C Phelan is injured.

It's all very quiet on here lads with only a few days to go before championship.
Reading the hoganstand website it looks like we could be without half a team. Picky, Matthew, Cha, Podge law lor, Lennon and Leigh Bergin are all on the treatment table. I think foyle is suspended too so if all those are missing we could be in bother. A minimum requirement in the championship would be to get out of the group, anything less and the year is a disaster really. Westmeath will be no pushover and Kerry away is a tough game so we need to get off to a good start on Sunday.
I'll have a go at what I think should be the starting team assuming all are available
E Fleming
Cleere
Bergin
Palmer
Healy
Matthew
L O Connell
R King
P Purcell
P Maher
C Dwyer
C Collier
W Dunphy
N Foyle
A Dunphy
C Taylor or P Whelan to come in for foyle presuming he's out.
Any word on PJ Scully, Mark Kavanagh or Tom Delaney?

I would lay a lot of the blame at the management team door for this one. This supposedly great back room team that was assembled leaves much to be desired in my opinion. I really felt sorry for the full back line, even though we conceded over 50 points I thought Healy, Bergin and Palmer were very good for long periods considering the pressure they were under. A blind man could see what Limerick were doing, dragging our half back line all over the place and leaving huge space for their full forward line and runners coming from deep. This is the area where we were destroyed last night. There was 60 yards of space between our full back and half back lines. Our half back line were taken to the cleaners as Hegarty beat us on his own in the first half, I don't know how they left Mullaney on him for so long. Midfield were ok at times but were second best overall. In fairness to our forward line the all had their moments with Cha leading the charge and Aaron Dunphy scoring 4 points off Seamus Hickey on his first start. 1-19 is no bad score against Limerick so it's obvious where the problem was.
Is a sweeper the answer?...for me no it's not. All other top teams have developed a defensive strategy of not conceding goals by funnelling guys from the half forward line and midfield back to help out defensively and close down space. Apart from Tipp kk game last night where 5 goals we're scored, there have been very very few goals scored in the league this year. Laois more than anyone need to adopt this type of defensive system, what went on last night was criminal.
When this system is followed you get your scores from out the field and leave one or two ball winners inside for the ones that won't reach the target i.e
Shane O Donnell and Aaron Shanagher - Clare
Maurice Shanahan - Waterford
Seamie Callanan and John McGrath - Tipp etc etc
We have guys who can take scores from out the field i.e Cha, Purcell, picky and leave Foyle and maybe Willie Dunphy inside. The game is built on a huge work rate and intensity to win the battles out the field. I really hope we are not as naive in Wexford, put in a performance and for God sake not be handing soft goals away. We really missed Mathew last night too, our half back line was very porous, it's such an important line and we need men in there to stand up and drive the team forward.

Fleming is a great lad and a technically sound keeper but Rowland has a far higher ceiling. That's the reason every single underage coach picked him as #1....

I can't see us keeping within 8 of Offaly to be honest...

I think our half-back line will get ripped to shreds.


I don't agree, Offaly are no better than we are and they have a few lads injured. We need to be more consistent and perform for the 70 minutes. I think we have a good chance of winning this. I wouldn't be worried about our half back line, I think it's a strong line in fact.

There can be a debate about clubs amalgamating etc but the key point that I keep going back to is the lack of planning for the future at Co level. As I've said on so many occasions a plan for laois hurling must be devised structurally, financially supported and followed through by a full time director of hurling and a team working under him. I believe it's a travesty that the one man that had the vision and the passion to make it happen is no longer involved at any County level.

I see Cha is not on the panel for the match against Meath. Is he injured? What's the story with Cahir Healy and Darren Maher?

Tobias, can you see any positives at all?

There are some positives but not many tbh. I'm just frustrated that nothing is being done to turn things around at Croke park or co board level. I take my hat off to the players that give up so much and come back every year they really deserve huge credit. I just feel that even though it's so early in the year we are looking at another bleak year. You have to admit the facts are there in the last paragraph of my previous post, I'd love to be optimistic but it's very hard to be.
Offaly are in a bad state too but they have put the plans and structures in place to turn it around, I just feel we are not doing enough and until we do nothing will change.
The powers that be in HQ have a lot to answer for in terms of the state of hurling throughout the country. The year for teams like laois are inevitable really before they start. I think the provincial championships need to be scraped and have a 8 team Liam McCarthy cup that starts much earlier in the year and accommodates the club championships in each county. We are not so bad in Laois but club players in top tier counties suffer every year. I would put laois offaly Kerry westmeath etc into an 8 team Christy ring cup that is played before the all Ireland final every year. In this case every team could potentially see themselves playing in croke park on all Ireland final day with the winners being promoted to the Liam McCarthy the following year and one team being relegated. These teams are not good enough to play in the top 8 division. This would generate much more interest in hurling, avoid the big beatings and have competitive competition every year. It would also give the second tier counties some light at the end of a long depressing tunnel! Minor finals could be played with the 21 final. Again apologies for the pessimism.

Interesting to hear the news of Donal Og Cusacks imminent arrival to Clare. It's a very shrewd move by Davy Fitz following a bit of a turbulent season west of the Shannon. Things were going stale down there but the arrival of Cusack as coach will really give the players renewed optimism and they will be excited by the new approach that he will bring.
I think a similar appointment in Laois would be very welcome, in the same role as a coach to work under cheddar. I think laois were a little short on ideas this year and the likes of galway found out how to play against us. I think Ger Cunningham has been good but I think a change is needed and a bit of a shake up to keep the interest of the players. I know it might be difficult to get a high profile coach, the likes of Cusack would have been ideal for us. There are people out there but I know Laois might not be the most attractive proposition.

The decision of Pat Crichley to return back to the underage structures is absolutely vital for the future of the game in our County. I think the minor set-up also needs a new approach and a new impetus. The Management appointment is a huge one as this minor team has got real potential, it hasn't happened over the past couple of years for our minors as they have had good teams but hopefully our fortunes will change next year.

In my opinion our current county team is not good enough to succeed at the highest level, our minors and under 21s have failed over the past few years with what we considered to be reasonably good sides. Our development squads 14,15,16 this year were not at the races which is a real shame and a concern, hence my reasoning for starting this thread.
I think Pat Critchley is the man to head up a complete overhaul  of our outdated underage structures and I feel it's a root and branch plan needs to be drawn up that will ultimately produce better players to play for our County at development squad and County minor level. People have a perception in laois and indeed outside of laois that we have underage structures that puts other counties to shame, that's not the case. Compared with some counties we are well behind.

Maybe we don't have the resources for this but a 'Laois hurling school of excellence' should be set up with a number of different strands to it. I would set up a player development committee to monitor each County players progress from the age of 13 to 18. Plans would be drawn up by each respective development squad management and reviewed by members of the committee and monitored regularly from year to year. Players would be put on strength and conditioning (within reason for juveniles)programmes as well as  a hurling skills programme to work on the weaknesses. Top coaches with minimum of level one coaching coarse should be deployed to look after these teams with the help of the development commitee.
I would also regionalise the setanta programme, divide it into four hurling strongholds in Laois. The reason for this is kids wouldn't have to travel to portlaoise every weekend and it would encourage more to get involved. We would then have four strong divisions rather than one. Supervised Buses should also be provided to transport our young hurlers to 'county training'.

I am well aware the we probably don't have the funds to implement the structures we would like and to be fair Cheddar has done his fair share of campaigning to the powers that be to get us the funding we need.
Basically I think we need to go back to the drawing board and try to put something in place that would give us a some chance of success in the future. I hate being too pessimistic about our chances but I am a realist and we just can't keep doing what we are doing. Any thoughts on this?

I started this post approx 15 months ago. Since then, we have shipped our heaviest ever senior hurling championship defeat at the hands of Clare who were easily enough beaten by Galway. Our minor team who a few years ago were heralded as the future stars of the game were beaten by a very poor Offaly team, our 21s beaten by Carlow and our development squads performing very poorly. Laois hurling is in a very bad place and again nothing is being done at croke park or co board level. The one man trying to turn the whole thing around walked away in frustration or was pushed out the door. It's an awful shame and unfortunately I don't see our fortunes changing.

On another note this isn't a bad 15...
Eoin Reilly
Brian Stapleton
Brian Campion
J A Delaney
J Fitz
M McEvoy
J Walsh
C Stapleton
C Collier
W Hyland
Z Keenan
J Campion
T Dowling
T Fitz
J Purcell

if that is the back 6 for laois then we are heading for the Christy ring.......not one would get near a top 8 inter county side.

with retirements we are lacking big time in defence. yes healy and a few others will return, the lack of proper defenders amongst the youth is a serious worry. could we perhaps try out cha at centre back and build a solid spine. the likes of bergin, mullaney and carroll are not up to senior inter county standard and never will be. if we have little option but to use them for now, it highlights the weakness in our set up.

I think this is a bit harsh on those lads, they are young and have a chance of developing, I remember Joe Fitz never played county minor and didn't become a good senior hurler overnight. We do need experience in defence and I'd imagine Darren Maher Matthew Whelan and Cahir Healy will be there to provide that. Dwayne Palmer is likely to be corner back. I think Tom Delaney should be given a chance this yr in the league to see if he's up to it. Paddy Whelans best position might well be at half back too. we need to find paddy Purcell a good partner in midfield, is Zane Keenan on the panel?. I would totally disagree with moving our best player and best forward to centre back. We need Cha both winning ball and scoring in the half forward line. Picky, Foyle, Scully, King, Campion,and Willie Dunphy are 6 established guys that are all good club hurlers but they need to prove themselves at County level, Laois need them to drive on this year. It will be interesting to see how Liam O Connell gets on this year and whether he will play in defence or attack, personally I would prob play him at half back. Ciaran Collier, Colm Stapleton, John Lennon and Ben Conroy are other useful options if available.
I presume Mark Kavanagh won't be available for a few months yet.
There are a few good young lads coming through but maybe they should be left with the 21s for one year, Aaron Dunphy, Lee Cleere, Robbie Phelan, Stephen Phelan, Conor Phelan, Joe Geaney off the top of my head.

Laoiseabu nobody wants to be listening to your tripe talk.
Merman I'm with Clonadmad, your opinion is valued here.