Messages

Grand. Get rid. Another journeyman manager making the rounds of the lesser counties, making hay while the sun shines for him.

Where to now though? The setanta programme needs a reboot if we're pulling through players to be hammered by f**king Carlow. No excuses now. Smaller population, does both codes. smaller funding.....

F**king Carlow!

6 Westmeath
4 Antrim & Carlow
2 Laois & Kerry
0 Meath

If Kerry, Laois & Westmeath win next...

8 Westmeath
4 Laois Antrim, Kerry & Carlow
0 Meath

Then Laois, Westmeath & Antrim

10 Westmeath
6 Laois & Antrim
4 Kerry & Carlow
0 Meath

Laois win on head-to-head? A Kerry win over Antrim would see us out, in that scenario. An Antrim win over Westmeath would see us out.

Great win.

You'd imagine after this weekend.....

Antrim, Kerry, Carlow & Westmeath all on 4pts
Laois on 2pts
Meath 0pts

If Laois beat Carlow & Westmeath, we finish on 6pts.
Meath will finish on zero, you'd imagine.

After that:

Carlow v Laois & Westmeath
Antrim v Westmeath & Kerry
Kerry v Meath & Antrim
Westmeath v Antrim & Carlow

Laois win both.
Carlow to beat Westmeath.
Westmeath to beat Antrim.
Antrim to beat Kerry.

All five teams finish on 6pts. Laois need to beat Carlow & beat the living sh8t out of Meath.

His and Pats plan for driving on Laois hurling sits on a shelf up there, gathering dust.

"there's only so much funding to go around" was more or less the response to Cheddar's request for funding for Laois. The responder had a Dublin accent and spoke on behalf of Croke Park. Meanwhile, Dublin has been absolutely coining it for the past 10-12 years.

we're trying to be a dual county, when we don't have the resources. We should pick one and essentially drop the other code.

Simply not viable.

You can't tell the people of Portarlington that we're dropping football no more than you tell the people of Ballacolla that we're dropping hurling.

Anything is possible. We're too small for two, especially given the work on the players coming through.

Can you tell me any team in the last 10 years came back from a half time scoreline like that away from home in a championship game and went on to win??

It'd be rare enough in hurling, let alone football.

We really haven't recovered from the retirements over the past two years. We lost some real hard men from the team and the have been replaced with young skillful 'nice' hurlers. Enda Lyons is correct in what he says, Laois over the years might not have been great but by god you would know you were in a match with them. That real toughness/intensity is lost on this group, they don't have or don't show that raw aggression that we used to associate with Laois teams. They are probably the most talented group of hurlers we have ever had but that doesn't win the dirty ball and burst through the tackles. Granted most of these lads are young but its not a good enough excuse for me. Along with having all the skills you must have all the other qualities too to make a county hurler. A lot of our guys are small too which doesn't help.

The current management team must take some blame for this, when Cheddar was there we played at a much higher intensity (granted we had better players). The management also must take blame for the way/tactics we are playing, there seems to be no real pattern. Its looks like 15 guys are picked to play in their positions and it a 'go out and hurl' attitude, the game has evolved a lot since those days.

Since the retirements of two/three years ago we haven't blooded any new players of real quality. We have had reasonably decent minor teams over the past few years. We got to one minor leinster final and one U21 leinster final which we hadn't been doing previously and we consistently beat Offaly at minor level. However Offaly look to have got more players from their teams than we have. The question must be asked why that is happening?

Our clubs hurling isn't tough enough. Our U13s played in KK a few years back and our lads were calling for frees from the outset. The ref (a young lad) said that it's a "man's game" and told them to get on with it. Their choices were to crumble or stand up and fight. They chose to fight and started giving as good as they got.

Plus, we're trying to be a dual county, when we don't have the resources. We should pick one and essentially drop the other code.

Finally, it's not over. We've a few tough games to come, but Westmeath have to play Antrim, Kerry & Westmeath. Carlow have to play Westmeath. Kerry have to play Antrim.

Teams are beating each other, so we have a chance. Going away to Antrim on a low ebb will be very tough, but we're not out of this yet.

Huge game today. Could decide the rest of the season. Laois must win this one, especially with Antrim away coming up too.

I'm gutted for that young Reilly chap hear is hoping he will av good recovery

I despise you you f**king ****. Have you no shame? p***k.

What's the problem?

Not sure, I'd say he has a form of Kildare inbreeding.

Lol.

Was it he named the player? Or was it his truncated syntax?

I'm gutted for that young Reilly chap hear is hoping he will av good recovery

I despise you you f**king ****. Have you no shame? p***k.

What's the problem?

Maybe Croke Park will give you some of Dublin's financial doping money. GAA is dying all over the country, due to poor structures and to modern lifestyles, where it's just not important to kids anymore.

The GAA would want to wake up pronto.

We can't stand on both sides of the fence. We can't argue that we need more money to be successful because Dublin got more, while at the same time denying that counties that got less than us are more successful.
I'm not looking to blame anyone individually, but it would seem our county development model is not working. I have had some experience of the hurling development squads over the last five or six years and I have to say hand on heart it hasn't been great. Similarly our Setanta programme has been poor in terms of the coaching delivered. Some of our intercounty players have been involved and while I thank them for their effort, their coaching skills leave a lot to be desired. It takes years to become an effective coach and some of the greatest hurlers make the worst coaches.
Development squads can only be as good as the players coming from the clubs and as anyone involved in underage coaching will tell you, that is a very mixed bag.
Forget about the development squads, put more resources into up-skilling club coaches and you will see better county teams.

There's a lot to play with. Dublin would have been successful, simply with the money. That this f**king "plan" is there as well, is either a smoke & mirrors job, but producing some good or is actually working and

The financial doping of Dublin has and is continuing to be a disgraceful blight on the GAA. If the CP plan was to make them successful, then the tap should have been turned off after 2011. If the Dublin plan was to completely dominate football, then they want the tap to keep flowing.

One journalist made a good point, in that he said that the Dubs are getting money based on potential numbers, but spending it on much smaller, current numbers.

The money without the plan would have worked. The plan without the money would never have worked. Therefore, the money is the key and thus we have financial doping.

Re Laois, I think that we have (at least) four issues:

(1) We're too small. We've a population that puts us in the bottom 10 in the country and it tells.
(2) We're a dual county. We have divided the county 1/3rd hurling, 2/3rds football. That leaves both our hurling county (c.28,000) and our football county (c.56,000) even further down the pecking order. It's also reduces focus, even within the 'other' area.
Ideally, we pick one sport and drive our way forward with that.
(3) Our structures are not good. Our CB has lacked leadership for years and permitted such debacles as the 2014? SFC to happen, when they should have faced down the clubs and stuck to the agreement, that EVERY club agreed to for that championship. We have had problems with clubs sidling into B & C competitions, just to win shitty titles, instead of aiming for the top division as much as possible. It should be an honour to hurl or kick ball in the A and B or C should be entered into, when you've really no choice.
We have 48 clubs in 26 parishes (or so), which is retarded and lazy. Galway, in the 1960s, FORCED clubs within parishes to amalgamate. We could still have as many leagues & teams, just amongst fewer clubs. We'd also have a richer, more competitive pool of players in our top divisions. Of course, that would mean less money for the CB.
(4) Generally, we're a poor county. If we had fewer clubs to run and more people per club, we could manage to start financing our clubs to better standards.

Do we have the leadership to restructure the club setup, impose rules on clubs, implement a county-wide plan and use the funding wisely? Just not sure that we do.

Plus we're going for six-in-a-row v the Dubs in the league.

Are we?!

Yep.

Yes. We're in Div4, but we need to get out. You cannot do that without winning games. It's a three-horse race and we have to play numbers 2, 3 & 4 in the league yet. A lot of football yet to be played and one of three teams will be disappointed.

I know it doesn't necessarily translate, but our results (apart from the Offaly game (1pt diff)) have been better than the Dublin results.

Plus we'll be at home.
Plus we're going for six-in-a-row v the Dubs in the league.

I'd be hopeful of a win. The worry is our size, but then again, what's new?