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Has the 2020 Laois Minor Hurling Management been finalised yet?

In theory, you're spot on Merman. Then there's the flip side of the coin. Lads with ability in smaller clubs or clubs not going too well tend to blend in to their surroundings. Do we discard them altogether?

The key here could be to play a couple of rounds of the Senior Championship in May, and allow interested players to play Senior with clubs at that point. Then in August, they can still kick with the senior club and play with their own club in the lower grades. It would need dedication, bit surely these are the type of players we're looking for anyway? There's no need for a Divisional side, but it's certainly more appealing than a 16 team Senior and 8 team Intermediate. That makes no sense at all, particularly with some Senior teams only getting to play 2 Championship matches. How can that ever lead to personal improvement in a county where the League is largely irrelevant

Is it not a minimum of three games in the Senior no matter what

With Waterford sounding out Eddie Brennan,we might need to change the thread title

The fact that John had to literally beg and try and recruit key people to his backroom team when the county board should have been doing it might have been a factor in his departure.

The fact that we couldn't appoint a doctor for our senior county team says it all.

It seems to be all coming out now. Apparently, our glorious County Board, with things going so well under John Sugrue, were just not prepared to go that extra mile to accommodate a good man. That was the case with Cheddar as well. So, if it turns out that all of this is true, they should all be booted out and replaced with competent, progressive people.

As for Eddie Brennan, it would not surprise me in the slightest if they lose him as well.

Some of them, especially one of those in a non-elected position, should have been removed forcibly by the clubs years ago. They are simply not fit for purpose and are piggy backing on who they know in the cosy cartel. Clubs need to be proactive at this right now as we head towards convention time before we slip back in both hurling and football yet again. The amount of good people working tirelessly behind the scenes deserve more. Of course there's no problem getting them to stand in for a photo with John Horan. It's time for action.

It struck me as very strange both the decision and the timing. It didn't smell of a long, carefully thought out "Family and Business" decision. Wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if they fucked it up yet again. If there's one thing they are uncomfortable with it's a manager doing well. Incompetent wouldn't even begin to describe it.

Darragh O'Se must be one.

Jason Sherlock
Padraig Joyce

An outstanding campaign of success and development. Well done to everybody concerned. It's important now that the players all view this as the start of the journey, not the destination. Tough and all as this year was, training wise, next year will be even tougher. Year two of a S+C and fitness program involves a hell of a lot harder work than year one. The players will have to embrace this. Imagine how much more physically difficult it will be playing Wexford instead of Westmeath. They will probably need to be doing something on their own outside of their own club training even before the county panel re-assemble. The hurling, which is much improved, needs to go to another level again. The Leinster championship is nowhere for a 95% touch. It must be 100% all the time. The encouraging thing is that I think we have a group of players who will want to do this. I'm not sure that bringing back those lads who said no this time last year is the way forward. I'd leave them where they are.
Finally, i have to compliment the players on how brave and composed they have been in all the games. They played some great hurling, always looking to pick out a man in a good position, not belting aimless balls away. It was brilliant to see. Well done to them all. The building blocks of many years are now finally firmly in place. Time to build again. 

He was useless, one of the worst presidents in the history of the GAA.

It's fair stupid out of the Leinster Express to interview him about last Sunday.

I agree with those talking about development, that's the key. What what the difference between us and Cork? They had players with power and pace who could take their men on and kick off both feet. Better teams than Cork have more players with this ability. We had Kingston who could do this and O'Carroll also has it but his shooting is very inconsistent. Players like Scully take on their men but he doesn't have the kicking ability, O'Loughlin can beat his man but doesn't have the pace to burst away. The top teams have the speed and power on every line. That's why we have struggled and will struggle against teams like this. Tyrone, Dublin, Donegal etc. We're not the only ones, of course, not many will be able to compete against that level of opposition and I'd say Cork will struggle as well. So identifying youngsters at an early age who show signs of potential in this regard is important and then get them down to the centre of excellence.
That's all for the future anyway, we can only work with what we have and Sugrue has to be commended for the job he has done. The way he sets up the team also has to be commended I suppose, they give it a go, they push up and take everyone on man v man. This has provided results against teams from division 3 and 4 and brought us up to division 2 and given us runs into the last 12 in the last 2 championships. Unfortunately, when we have come up against counties from division 1 and 2, we have been beaten by 18 points against Dublin, 11 points against Meath, 14 points against Cork and the only single digit defeat was to Monaghan where we lost by 5.
People have talked about our tackling needing to improve but do we also need to tighten things up? Is going 15 v 15 wise against these teams? We learned a lot more playing against Cork than we did the week before against Offaly. That's why it was so important to get up to division 2. We can test ourselves against better teams and I'm sure Sugrue has plenty of ideas on how to deal with the step up. A disappointing end to a good season where we've gained a few players who've shown they can step up and hopefully the u20's go well tomorrow night and we get a few more involved next year.

It's amazing how hundreds of young footballers are allowed to progress through the ranks without being taught to kick off both feet.

[Look, we all know that the hurling clubs put out a football team but it doesn't equate to encouraging football.]

Because he seems to have a similar attitude to football,  we will all have to live together.  Biggest problem Laois GAA has is non participation not which sport they pick.  If every child in Laois played sport that would be far better than trying to one up each other.

The biggest problem is whole swathes of laois clubs not allowing hurling in their gates.

Start with that,the non participation in hurling

I'm not sure "not allowing hurling in their gates" is entirely fair or accurate. Not in all cases anyway.
For sure, there's not much interest in hurling in big parts of Laois but the same applies to football in big parts of the county too.
Look, we all know that the hurling clubs put out a football team but it doesn't equate to encouraging football.
Cyril Duggan was principal in Emo school there for a number of years and did his best to get hurling going and a few lads stuck with it and now hurl with Mountmellick.
Anyone from Stradbally or The Heath could play with Park Ratheniska. Anyone from Crettyard or Killeshin or Joseph's could play with Ballypickas or Ballinakill.

Remarkable comment

the so called hurling clubs have football teams,give similar time at juvenile level to coaching and player development to both codes and play games every second week and this "does'nt equate to encouraging football"!!!!!

Well I look forward to the day when the football clubs in the county do similar for hurling

and then in the same breath you suggest driving kids out of their home clubs to clubs 20/30mins away, from their existing clubs if they want to play hurling

Remarkable just remarkable.

I wouldn't be wasting my breath on that.

We all know what's going on and it is being organised and driven from the very top. The smary little county board official i referred to earlier was fit to burst with anger yesterday. A truly contemptible, nasty individual. Well done to the hurlers in spite of everything. Unlike others, they are a credit to Laois and the GAA.

Because he seems to have a similar attitude to football,  we will all have to live together.  Biggest problem Laois GAA has is non participation not which sport they pick.  If every child in Laois played sport that would be far better than trying to one up each other.

What makes you say i have a similar attitude to football. I am a hurling man so i spend most my time at that game but i have no problem with football. I wish all Laois teams well.

What an outstanding win that was. Brilliant in every detail. Despite Dublin coming back at us we responded with key scores, ones that steadied an already steady ship. Nobody lost the head yesterday, on the field, on the line and in the crowd. There was a steely composure right through the game backed up by brilliant tactics and outstanding skill. Brilliant.

Now is the time for the Laois hurling people to grasp the chance. Get hurling people involved in the key positions on what is essentially Laois county football board. Get rid of the officials who despise hurling, especially the one bitter little p***k who spent yesterday evening giving out about how much the hurlers success is costing. Drive it on in the schools and development squads. This is a great time for Laois hurling. Build, build, build.

Your just as bad as whoever that person is.

I doubt it.

1. I spent an hour on the pitch celebrating,
2. I am passionate about Laois hurling,
3. I want Laois hurling to improve and succeed,
4. I have respect for the great work done by so many in our clubs and squads

He has none of those attributes and would prefer if hurling didn't exist.

What an outstanding win that was. Brilliant in every detail. Despite Dublin coming back at us we responded with key scores, ones that steadied an already steady ship. Nobody lost the head yesterday, on the field, on the line and in the crowd. There was a steely composure right through the game backed up by brilliant tactics and outstanding skill. Brilliant.

Now is the time for the Laois hurling people to grasp the chance. Get hurling people involved in the key positions on what is essentially Laois county football board. Get rid of the officials who despise hurling, especially the one bitter little p***k who spent yesterday evening giving out about how much the hurlers success is costing. Drive it on in the schools and development squads. This is a great time for Laois hurling. Build, build, build.

Hopefully dosent..... by all accounts he's very poor

You're very quick to have a go at lads who put huge levels of time and commitment into these roles. Why don't you apply for the job yourself?

Ryan Mullaney, Cha, Paddy Purcell, Donnchadha Hartnett amongst others all injured for Sunday. Hopefully they'll be back for the final

Is there any realistic way that the final won't be Laois v Westmeath?