LAOIS SENIOR FOOTBALL 2016

[OTF]

OTF, team was as follows

Brody, Kehoe, Timmons, Seale, Strong, Cotter, Dillon, O'Loughlin, Meaney, Jamie Farrell, Nigel Murphy, Alan Farrell, Kingston, O'Carroll, Cahillane. Lillis came in for Seale after about 20 minutes. Trevor Collins, Paul Kingston, Danny O'Reilly and Gary Walsh all came in at half time, and Damien O'Connor came in near the end.

Thanks SS

[Unlaoised]

management out of their depth, poor team selection, no discernible set up.....mick and co would have been more suited to a county like Carlow with no expectations.

woolly's tweet about the number of starters linked to the selectors home clubs did hit home today, 4 of them hooked by half time.
take out Kingston and we are a middle table div 3 team, now on a par with offaly.

I cannot start to imagine what Dublin would do to us in the championship judged on that performance today.

Could you post the starting team please.

won't say on par with offaly they have won Sam laois haven't anyway they could be in divison 2 next year as laois head for division 3.

A lovely a Laois hurling man backing up the Biffos says it all really

[Tony]

Comments a bit premature here. Wait for a few more games. Jury is still out. Willing to give the benefit of the doubt, but if we see this type of performance again throughout the league, the manager will have to answer some serious questions. Willing to give him time, though. I believe we have a good enough panel to get mid table or higher, with a good manager. Lillis needs to prove himself. Until then, i'm not going to slate him. This performance was not good but Give the man time.

[High Fielder]

It's not really about Mick Lillis. He got the job because nobody else wanted it. He has all the enthusiasm in the world, but is surrounded by a lot of players who are half decent club footballers at best. We have 4 or 5 lads who are capable of playing at this and higher levels, but in general, our standards are slipping as a county. Anyone saying anyone to the contrary obviously has a vested interest or is just blind. It will of course get a bit better if the few lads return, but let's face it, it couldn't get any worse than yesterday. We are a Division 3 side in all but name anyway. I have no doubt that Kildare and Westmeath would beat us at the moment.

[Tony]

Have you seen the up and coming laois teams? Plenty of talent. The squad is strong this year, make no mistake : plenty of potential here (by Laois standards). With the right manager, the team could do well. The manager IS EXTREMELY important. Just look at what Donegal did with McGuinness. I HOPE Mick Lillis is the man. He needs to prove himself.

[TheGreatGame]

management out of their depth, poor team selection, no discernible set up.....mick and co would have been more suited to a county like Carlow with no expectations.

woolly's tweet about the number of starters linked to the selectors home clubs did hit home today, 4 of them hooked by half time.
take out Kingston and we are a middle table div 3 team, now on a par with offaly.

I cannot start to imagine what Dublin would do to us in the championship judged on that performance today.

Could you post the starting team please.

won't say on par with offaly they have won Sam laois haven't anyway they could be in divison 2 next year as laois head for division 3.

A lovely a Laois hurling man backing up the Biffos says it all really

Thewildcat is no more a Laois man than Elvis.  He is a Biffo.

[High Fielder]

Have you seen the up and coming laois teams? Plenty of talent. The squad is strong this year, make no mistake : plenty of potential here (by Laois standards). With the right manager, the team could do well. The manager IS EXTREMELY important. Just look at what Donegal did with McGuinness. I HOPE Mick Lillis is the man. He needs to prove himself.

Laois people have a terrible habit of getting excited about Laois lads based on what they do in Laois. It's a different ball game when we go outside of Laois. We're in a bad way Tony. Fair play if you have yourself convinced otherwise

[Giovanni]

I see from the other thread that the u-21s are no good either in your view.

As a matter of interest, when is the last time that you were excited by a Laois team?

[Tony]

I'm not excited by our lads really. I just think we have a decent squad this year by our standards. Apart from 2003 - 2007, we haven't had a successful team. Ever. No sam. So I don't know why people are thinking we're "worse than ever" when we're about PAR for ever. Somewhere around the middle.

My point is that, with the right manager, we can reach our potential. That's not all-ireland winning, but it's probably quarter final standard. I hope Lillis is the man and we can only give him time to prove that.

[les Antiques]

 A successful year for many counties is not about winning Sam .
Very early to start judging just yet but the next 3-4 games will tell us a lot about this current regime . Laois looked looked extremely disorganised yesterday but let's wait and see what the next few weeks bring . The league generally can tell how a team takes shape for a year and how much influence the manager has !

[Unlaoised]

Was disgusted at the first half performance like so many in attendance.

They seemed clueless and the Shape was all wrong it didn't help that our forwards and midfielders didn't track the runners.
Seale was hard done by I thought the full back line did okay against a really good Galway full forward line and the time the Galway players got on the ball to find their inside forwards made it very difficult for the backs in the first half.

Kieran Lillis made a big difference when he came in as did the subs at half time and we looked more like a team in the second half.

I'm not sure if nerves got to the two Farrells or Murphy but sadly for them they just didn't turn up in the opening 35 minutes.

Plus point have to be the fact that we didn't give up O'Carroll cahilanne and Kingston showed they can be a threat and Paul Kingston and Gary walsh were certainly an improvement to proceedings why the didn't start i'm not so sure.

Meaney gave his all in the middle and Robbie Kehoe and Timmons were decent in defense especially in the second half.

I hope Begley attride Meridith and Munnelly can all add something and I hope Lillis bites the bullet and invites in Eoin Lowry to the fray even tho it seems he doesn't rate him for some reason.

I'll wait a few games before I make up my mind but I think players and management will have learned  a lot in defeat Sunday which they can use in Armagh saturday night!

[les Antiques]

Would agree with unlaoised assessment . We are not in the position as a county to be overlooking players in form . Yes Lillis is correct in saying Lowry did not have the best of championships but surely he's worth a place on hen Senior panel . Seen him  twice this year and on both occasions looked impressive .
Kieran Lillis certainly made a difference when he arrived on the field on Sunday and I can see a lot of positional changed for crossmaglen on Saturday night . Laois always bring a decent following up there so hopefully the same will happen this weekend .

[SCFC]

management out of their depth, poor team selection, no discernible set up.....mick and co would have been more suited to a county like Carlow with no expectations.

woolly's tweet about the number of starters linked to the selectors home clubs did hit home today, 4 of them hooked by half time.
take out Kingston and we are a middle table div 3 team, now on a par with offaly.

I cannot start to imagine what Dublin would do to us in the championship judged on that performance today.

Could you post the starting team please.

won't say on par with offaly they have won Sam laois haven't anyway they could be in divison 2 next year as laois head for division 3.

A lovely a Laois hurling man backing up the Biffos says it all really

Pay no attention to Thewildcat folks. A thick biffo who doesn't know where he comes from! Posts as townman on uibhfhaili.com, safe to say there's a village missing its idiot.

[redsetanta]

Meredith won't be back this year and Lowry has been asked but declined to come in. That first half on Sunday was very poor, We were favourites for relegation before Sunday and that display only shortened our odds.

The goals were handed to Galway and weren't hard worked for.  The third one so early in the second half killed off the game. Brody should have got his hand to it.

Anyhow we are where we are and in fairness we were favourites for relegation this time last year and survived by kicking Roscommon our of O'Moore Park and rescuing a draw against Meath. We also should have got something out of the Armagh game so all is not lost yet.

Hopefully Lillis makes a better selection next weekend because he made some poor choices with his starting 15 yesterday. It's not going to get any easier so there's very little room for error from here on in.

[Junior Ex Laoistalk]

Wont be too hard on Lillis yet but my God did he get off to a stinker. The whole team looked like they were stuck to the ground in the opening half. I was looking towards Kingston and O'Loughlin to lead them out of the rut but it never happened. I suppose the fact that they have very little football played was a factor but the way Galway walked through them was embarrassing at times and our forwards were awful.

Balls falling into the keepers hands and simple passes going astray or behind the intended receiver were happening far too often and Galway punished us almost every time we handed them possession. The penalty was won by Evan O'Carroll who was very good throughout the game and should have been the kickstart we needed but Donie simply passed the ball to the keeper with a tame shot and a great chance was lost. Why Cahallaine didn't take it I'll never know.....

Having said that the changes at half time worked to some extent and we dominated for long periods but still found it hard to score. Our goal came from another great run from O'Carroll and finished brilliantly by young O'Reilly. Then an awful mistake by Brody, who should have stayed on his line handed them another handy goal and we were struggling again. Still they fought back well and but for some dreadful passing and decision making at times we could have gotten a lot closer.

With a few lads coming back and that first game out of the way there seems to be a lot of talent on that team, hopefully enough to at least keep us in this division.