2019 Allianz Football League Division 3.

Started by Junior Ex Laoistalk, September 06, 2018, 12:26:09 AM

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Nameless

Definitely an overreaction from some here. Especially from some who weren't at the match and were probably watching it from their bedsit somewhere in Kildare.

It's clear we still have a lot to work on. Our lack of pace is something that continues to pop up and our lack of scorers is an issue. The ball wasn't put in early until late on in the match because Westmeath had an extra man back there. That left space elsewhere but our half forwards aren't great score getters, unfortunately. That's no matter who we bring in there. Kingston actually had a fine game, O'Carroll had an off day with the shooting but his conversion rate is never 100%.

They are very good footballers, great at club level and have many strengths but Boyle and Lillis are just too slow, especially when playing against a running team like Westmeath. They don't do enough in other areas to accommodate them I'm afraid. Benny Carroll adds a lot of pace and attacking threat. Like others, he isn't a great scorer but he's likely to start in the championship. Scully hadn't his best game of the league but adds directness to the attack.

It's clear that Sugrue wasn't treating this game as the be all and end all and I think we'll have up to 5 or 6 changes come May 26th. No matter what he goes with however, we'll have to face up to the facts that we have certain limitations. We have many strengths also and gaining promotion to division 2 means it was an extremely successful league campaign. The final was just a bonus game and although it would have been nice to win, it's definitely not the end of the world to lose it.

Giovanni

This was almost a carbon copy of the first match with Laois on top for the first 15-20 minutes, missing loads of chances and eventually the life being squeezed out of them.

I don't know whether the game was being played with one eye on the championship but it's hard to account for some of the play. The likes of Boyle and Lillis are well capable of looking up and popping accurate balls into the full forward line but instead of that they more often than not decided to run with it (when they weren't going sideways or backwards) which is definitely not their game. Pace is not just about how fast someone can run but how quickly they can use the ball. It must be said, that the inside line weren't making too much effort to make space either. It was all a bit static. After the first Westmeath game, John Sugrue talked about there being too much structure and I thought that was right. I thought yesterday was much the same.

Laois are in Division 2 next year because we were the second best team in the League. We're there on merit so I wouldn't be too down about this game. On the other hand, you'd hope that you'd see an improvement for the third meeting.


Junior Ex Laoistalk

#482
To be honest, while we didn't play well yesterday I think it was the perfect result as it exposed a lot of weaknesses in the team and in individual players who seemed to be believing all the hype that was going around and what was been written about them. Lack of pace is the most obvious one but decision making and real team play is another problem that will have to be addressed before the championship.

Brody's antics was always a disaster waiting to happen and the amazing thing was how he got away with it for so long. While it can be a good tactic at the back, especially if we are a man down, there really is no need for him to be going up into the half forward line looking for glory and leaving a defender to cover for him. Hopefully both he and management will learn from this and I'm glad it happened now rather than in a championship game. He is a top class goalkeeper and that's his primary job on the team.

Another thing is our team play especially when attacking. We have lads who make bad decisions when in possession and never seem to see a runner or a teammate in a better position to score. They run across and back before passing and lose any momentum that had been built up and a lot of times turn over the ball easily. Lads need to have more trust in their teammates and not be looking for particular lads to give the ball to. They are all good footballers and the team as a whole need to realise that.

The real problem we have is our scoring rate, I think Paul Kingston is too good to be left off this team and is always a danger to any defence. The quality of ball into the full forward line is awful and if any of these lads were getting a good, plentiful supply of the ball they would put up a good score. All this can be worked on and I'm sure it will be and overall I am happy with the progress we have made since John took over. If every player seriously looks at his own performance yesterday and lessons are learned from that game then it will have been a very worthwhile day out. In fairness we kicked 16 wides to their 6 wides and we gave then a present of a goal. If we had taken half of those chances we would have won so all is far from being bad.
Winners are not those who never fail, but those who never quit!

portlaoisekid

I thought it was poor enough stuff from Laois and Westmeath Saturday, it was a weird match as there was zero atmosphere in Croke park and I think this impacted the game.

I thought Laois were average at best, we have major problems around the middle third in terms of the ball they give into the inside line as it tends to be neither quick enough or smart enough. We have good players inside but they need quality quick ball. Nothing we do seems to be at pace.

I dont think the team will change a great deal for championship but I do think , especially with the match being in O'Connor park, that Quigley is nailed on to start. We always seem to be a hairs breath from clicking, we can only but improve and I think we will be in much better shape come championship.


Nameless

They say you learn more in defeat and since we've lost to these twice, we should have learned a good bit. One of the big things is the kick outs. They gave up possession to us for the majority of our kick outs. For 20 minutes that was because they were down to 14 but even when they had 15, we were rarely forced to go long. They also didn't want to go long on their kick outs. When they were forced to, we generally won them. Working it short and running at us from there resulted in a high number of scores, usually with overlapping runners, our lack of pace was exposed this way. This is something we can target. We'll have to be brave to do it but we can push up on their kickouts and force them long. With Quigley likely to be starting, I think we can boss the midfield this way.
The other obvious thing we've learned is they have a huge amount of speed and some players with power to break tackles. With the extra numbers they bring back to the defence, they need that speed to counter attack. A few of their defenders are extremely quick. We're going to have to add pace to the team to counter this. Not just for this Westmeath game, Meath have the same threat if we play them, in fact all the top teams have speedsters throughout their teams. We don't have many that have speed, are good distributors and score takers, unfortunately. We have a few that have 2 out of 3 of those qualities. I think we might just have to select our fast players for the half forward and half back lines.
Move Attride to the half back line if we put Seale in the corner. Bring Carroll in at centre forward, have Scully beside him and then one of O'Connor or Reilly on the other wing. Cahilane had a bad day on Saturday, that other corner forward spot is still up for grabs.

on the hop

#485
I wonder how big the panel is at the moment, going by the league programmes and what I can remember we have had 39 players involved in some form, a huge number. Probably a core 20 but a lot of room for championship bolters. Open to correction if I missed any.

Keepers- brody, Osborne sub in all games bar one when Comerford from Stradbally was listed

Full back line - finished as Timmons, Attride and Dillon. Seale played first 4 games before his injury and managed to get back to be a sub in the last two. Nerney started at full back for the first three, sub the next game and gone off the match panel since then. Campion played the first two, appeared once more as a unused sub and gone since then. Booth started for two and as a sub every other game. James Kelly sub for six games but didn't make it the last two panels.

Half backs- finished as Collins, Begley and O'Flynn. O Flynn came as a late bolter and Collins returned after injury. Piggott baring injury looks the preferred centre back choice. Scully got a foothold in the early games but is now a forward. O Sullivan came onto the panel late as cover like buggie as Crowley seems to have gone off the panel. A bit light in this area.

Midfield- is essentially four, Lillis, jol, meaney and the returned Quigley. His return has pushed back meaney and Tyrell involved in the first few but never appeared since.

Half forwards - Damien o Connor has been on and off, Lowry a bit of the same but more consistent. Boyle should be a starter. Sean Byrne started well, got injured and came back but wasn't the same. Didn't make the panel the last two games. Danny Reilly was involved early but hasn't appeared since. Benny came back late in the campaign and will push hard for the summer. Alan Farrell listed once as a sub.

Full forwards- some of them have seen action in a few positions but all are probably full forwards options. Core starters are Evan, Donie and Paul C. Ross is probably first sub, Paul
Kingston seems to have got ahead Murphy. Mark Barry is a strong possibility of a bolter. Alan Kinsella has appeared as an unused sub in a few of the later games.


High Fielder

At the moment, the full forward line worries me the most. They are too static, and I have a feeling that Evan and Donie don't play well together. When the two of them are on the pitch at the same time, teams can go forward with a little more abandon and in numbers, knowing that they have time to track back. I found it amazing that Westmeath"s full back was so adventurous, and even managed to score a point. Timmons did too, but that was a rare foray. This guy was at it all second half.

On top of the above, we are too easy to score against. Playing a sweeper now looks like a necessity. That doesn't bother me, but pace from deep should be the focus, rather than lack of pace up front. We might just have found our level and for all our players, it looked to me like Westmeath had the two best players on the pitch. Stop Heslin and Egan and it's game on. That has to be the priority

Don Draper

Quote from: High Fielder on April 09, 2019, 08:48:09 AM
At the moment, the full forward line worries me the most. They are too static, and I have a feeling that Evan and Donie don't play well together. When the two of them are on the pitch at the same time, teams can go forward with a little more abandon and in numbers, knowing that they have time to track back. I found it amazing that Westmeath"s full back was so adventurous, and even managed to score a point. Timmons did too, but that was a rare foray. This guy was at it all second half.

On top of the above, we are too easy to score against. Playing a sweeper now looks like a necessity. That doesn't bother me, but pace from deep should be the focus, rather than lack of pace up front. We might just have found our level and for all our players, it looked to me like Westmeath had the two best players on the pitch. Stop Heslin and Egan and it's game on. That has to be the priority
I have a lot of time for Donie, and also understand his shortcomings, which aren't going to change at this point. But lets ask ourselves this, who has he ever played well with? I don't mean this as a criticism of him, far from it, he is a gifted player, supremely so, but who has ever been his best foil? This is the nub of your problem.

Him and Evan can of course play beside each other, it just needs to be worked on how best this happens.

Laoiseabu


Don Draper

Quote from: Laoiseabu on April 09, 2019, 03:03:08 PM
What does bolter mean ?

A bastardised term from thugby, and specifically the Lions, to signify a player who will come from nowhere to make the starting 15.

Example in GAA terms, Munnelly in 2003.

Unlaoised

We lost we played bad ...we move on and we learn

Great boost getting promoted
LAOIS ABÚ

SCFC

Quote from: Unlaoised on April 10, 2019, 08:19:56 AM
We lost we played bad ...we move on and we learn

Great boost getting promoted

I'm thinking the same.

It was a good league. It was an 8 out 10 league. We got promoted which was brilliant and we looked at in or around 30 players. We might have unearthed a couple of good ones in O'Flynn and Scully. We also got to see the likes of Campion, Byrne, Barry and Lowry, who all have potential.

Yes, Saturday was disappointing but I still think we can take them in Tullamore in 6 weeks' time.

Overall, we're a world away from where we were under Creedon and Lillis.


Tony

Westmeath are a small bit ahead of us at the moment, but a lot can happen in 7 weeks before championship. They really are around our level, and there was only a kick of a ball in it in both of our games. Whoever makes the most progress and positive adjustments in those 7 weeks will win in Late May. As far as I'm concerned, 2019 has already been a successful year for Laois football, no matter what happens in the championship. Lads have short term memories sometimes - we've seen good performances in a lot of games against better opposition this year but consistency is lacking. We have a lot to work on, but this is where we're at. We're about mid to low level division 2 standard. If we can be competitive with other teams around our level (which we are) and beat the lower teams, that's all we can ask for currently, and that's what we're getting. Sugrue and co are getting a lot out of these players and I'm delighted that's happening. I'm also delighted with the attitude the players and management are showing post league final. They're not happy with it and are very hungry to improve.

A great championship for us would be : Beat Westmeath; be competitive against Meath; 2 / 3 qualifier games.

Countyminor

Quote from: Don Draper on April 09, 2019, 03:44:35 PM
Quote from: Laoiseabu on April 09, 2019, 03:03:08 PM
What does bolter mean ?

A bastardised term from thugby, and specifically the Lions, to signify a player who will come from nowhere to make the starting 15.

Example in GAA terms, Munnelly in 2003.

Thugby
. If you don't already, you should definitely start commenting on The Journal's sports articles. Feathers would be ruffled.

We won't see another Ross. There was a time when he couldn't even make the Arles U14 team. Luckily for him and Laois football that man hasn't known anything other than Ballygowen. Unreal servant.

Chrimtain

#494
Should probably start a new thread for this, but, (like Micko and John Sugrue) hopefully this Kerry man can prove a success in Laois too...

https://www.laoistoday.ie/2019/04/10/laois-gaa-appoint-first-ever-games-development-manager/