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it was a good win, all away ones are and hopefully it won't pancake like last year when we won in Louth in the opening game as well. conditions were tough for both teams with the pitch very heavy and a swirling type of wind. the misty rain that fell in the second half made it much more awkward and the game really dropped off in quality with endless hand passing over and back across the field. realistically it was awful stuff, both teams had really poor periods, Sligo were really bad and seemed obsessed with the hand passing game with no end product.

There failure to make any real head way was probably down to our defensive structure, Timmons mostly played as sweeper, with both wing backs tucked back in line with him, with the two wing forwards back in the wing back position and both midfielders in the space in front of Timmons. at times we had no forward in the opposite half so it was a lot of bodies for them to get through. they had no real target man and didn't try to change it up either which suited us. then we pushed forward we really only went with four forwards and it was noticeable that the wing backs, midfield never pushed up in support. many of our scores came from counter attacks in the first half or from winning kick outs and moving the ball quickly, in fairness we scored some excellent points. downside, was that with none or one forward alone inside we ended up crabbing across the field, this was more of a problem in the second half. we don't have the pace or mobility currently at 6, 8 or 9 to make that big line break from deep when the space appears. we hung on after a very long period of the second half when we didn't score and missed some awful chances and probably a few changes should have been made to spark it on. in fairness once we got the late goal , they gave up and we kicked a point to give the scoreboard a better reflection.

in terms of the team, Osborne didn't have much to do and the kick outs weren't really tested, full back line was solid with Timmons as the cover, whether he is suitable for later in the year remains to be seen. both wing backs did ok and pushed on near the end when it opened up a bit. As a pair midfield was solid, Lillis probably had his best first half in a long time and caught a lot of ball, they didn't really push forward. the forwards were probably so/so. all at times had their moments but collectively it wasn't great. evan, barry and corbett were average enough, evan having no real luck with his shooting, lowry was very good in the first half and kingston was very clinical with his shots. Swayne was very busy when he came in and walker once again was lively capped off with a goal. none of the other raft of subs were on long enough to do anything.

first time to see the team live this year. wasn't a bad game, ref let a bit of edge in it which helped. gale of a wind  straight down the pitch made it tough at times. both seemed more comfortable against it as it allowed them to put the ball through the hands and use runners, its a pity more long kicking wasn't used as there was space inside at times. meath started with the wind but for some reason would not shoot to the annoyance of their crowd. when they did, a lot of wides and drop shorts, we were doing ok but there scores came from our mistakes especially the goal.we seemed to have problems generally tracking runners and they overloaded a lot on the wings. We  came into it well in the last 15 minutes of the half when evan in particular kicked some great scores from frees especially and play. We really slowed the game down at this time. thought we were more economical with our shooting.

i was hoping after half time with the strong wind and that they were far more experimental than us that we would pull ahead of them. they were well on top of us for most of this half, again the hand passing and running game suited them and we couldn't win a ball in midfield. a bit of indiscipline in the backs which possibly was down to the fitness of players didn't help conceding soft frees. there was a period of a lot of changes and meath probably thought they were over the line but the subs we brought in had a bit more zip and we kicked the last few points to get an unlikely draw.

a bit of work to do before the league, todays team barring injuries is probably the league starting team. osborne will probably be the keeper, i think Piggott is wasted in the corner and he looked to go over on his knee, collins will probably stay at full, greene is a battler but i don't know whether he is a corner man. not a great day for the half back line, the positioning of timmons was baffling so deep, his man was an outlet most times, both wing men had there moments but are not the greatest markers. midfield will probably see lillis and finn as unfortunately damon larkin looked like a hamstring which was a pity as he offered mobility, young doyle has a good bit to go to be considered an option. in fairness swayne did a lot of work but i don't think he is a midfielder. the forwards at times were sluggish, i would prefer o sullivan in the backs but evan was probably the most consistent doing a lot of work. bar walker who brought a bit of zip it looks like the same set of forwards mostly last year, colm murphy i think is a more central player than been in the corner isolated.

in the end 16 points is a good score as we mostly are around 12 scores in the last few years, again goals or even goal chances are a problem. as i said good bit of work to do before the league and hopefully the injuries aren't too bad before the difficult opener in sligo.

I wonder will there be retirements? Will there be management changes?

really disappointing performance last night, more to the fact that they were very beatable like antrim. three home games and only a point to show for it is such a poor return. it confirms though that we are division three team and possibly a division four team depending on the longford game and any early notions after the louth game that we could be promoted were quickly dispelled. that louth game now was a classic hit and run and we were lucky not to get them further into the league when they hit their stride. we would be murdered in division 2 in our present state. Billy hasn't been a lucky general which he needed to be, the withdrawals and refusals to join the panel, along with injuries have really weakened his hand. the panel has had been said before is one of the weakest that ever represented the county. two more injuries last night along with Paddy o sullivan won't help the situation.

the game itself was much like the others, and the management and players have to take the blame for what was going on. we defended in mass, ultra conservative against a team that got 1-6 the last day, with the whole team in our own half many times. this didn't work as on two distinct occasions when they went  the length of the field from a short kickout to a point. on one occasion 14 passes in a row without a hand laid on them, no pressure on the ball carrier and players just shadowing their player, once a player didn't make the required effort to get close they could work it in to a shooting position. some players haven't the pace to stay with players, others are too lazy to do it and the system fails. what's the point in having JOL as a sweeper if the opposition are shooting points from outside his zone. the wing forward got four points from play and three of them were from just outside this area.

with no one up the field in the cases we got turnovers we were back to the slow play and lateral handpassing, it was quicker than previous games but it reminded me of basketball where we had to wait for players to travel up the field to get into a position to receive a ball to shoot. why was Mark Barry not told to stay forward than float around, only near the end when he scored was he really involved in the paly. on the times we got it in , some of the ball was terrible. gary walsh will not win contested high balls lashed in at him with two markers near him. At the same time Evan was out the field contesting kickouts and then kicking the ball into the space where he should have been. the kickouts again were a huge problem as they have been all the league. in contrast to Limericks short kickouts which they won, we lamped nearly everything out the field. to see the players actually go out to the side in a pod and call the kickout to that area made many of them contested. While the pod of three or four players did well on breaking ball the contrast to the short handy kickouts limerick worked all night gave them control of the ball to work it up the field. in the end the referee was even giving us a chance of a draw and we lashed a few efforts at the goals, some by experienced players which could have been worked better, but it summed up the night.

i know its a bit of a rant, but its worrying that we are in the position again that like a few years ago we could be sliding down the divisions again into four. really big game against longford now.

Big game for the footballers today, win and we are in the mix but a draw/loss could drag us into a relegation scrape. Limerick will be motivated and coming for the win to push them on. Westmeath got on top of them the last day and they only scored 1-6 , our scoring rate has been poor and will have to improve to get out the live tonight

I suppose the reality of where we are at is starting to emerge. It's a young panel in most parts buts it's weak, the options off the bench are very weak at present, taking into consideration injuries etc. the loss of the three port players is huge as potentially that could have been the spine of the team. To off set this the management have relocated Collins to full back and JOL to centre back, though he appears to be playing more a shield/ sweeper role. So far this has had varying degrees of success until yesterday. A very mobile sweeper is essential for the system we are playing but also one that can move the ball quickly to the 4 forwards we are playing up when turnovers occur. This is not happening at the moment. Paddy o Sullivan at wing forward makes no sense where he is completely lost and his excellent kick pass ability especially coming out of defense with a ball is lost. While there are plenty of players that might do a job in certain areas the lack of a ball winning but especially mobile  midfielder is one of our biggest problems. We have had problems in this area for a while and there is no real solution with Sean Byrnes non involvement, potential candidates on the u-20's teams in the last few few haven't progressed from what I have seen at club level.

With three vital games going up the management will be under pressure to at least win one to stop relegation and possibly a second one in such a competitive division. We will probably stick with the four forwards up the field and two wing forwards deep protecting our backs, even more so after yesterday's game. It's asking a lot for the wing backs/ forwards to help with scores with the amount of running they have been doing. In a perfect world we would have a midfield chipping in with a couple of scores in every game. Hopefully our very poor scoring rate improves, at present we are stuck at around 12 scores a game, the three goals in two games ( mistakes from opposite kickouts in both games) give a better look to our average. In fairness there was good presses on for some of them but we won't win to many games with those totals. A lot of work to do but we have home games to give us some advantage

it was a tough slog up there but its a good start considering that they had so much possession, but they seemed to be obsessed with constantly recycling it.  they had probably there best forward inside who was policed well by Collins bar one very harsh challenge and could have done a bit of damage if they kicked it in but they seemed slaves to their system much to the moans of the crowd.

they will be kicking themselves with the amount of goal chances they missed, four or five of them should have been goals which was worrying considering how many defenders we played back. in fairness the keeper is a good shot stopper. I thought we had awful problems on our kickouts, the strong wind didn't help along with the press they employed which meant everything went long. Anything we did kick long was very high and hung in the air and suited them to break. we did combat it at times by crowding the area for breaking ball and got a few clean catches but we still struggled at times even in the second half when we tried a few very direct ones down the middle. Fermanagh and Antrim are probably going to employ much the same tactics so at least we know what we are facing. The Westmeath game is already starting to look like a real big game and hopefully a decent crowd will be there.   

Shocking result, would be acceptable for hurling... not football.
Can't find any match report or lineup anywhere.

The Laois Today blog had the two teams, one in each half

Wasn't much quality for the new manager who was in the stand today. Worryingly some of the possibles don't seem to be progressing and a few of the older players look way off form.

The tactics were bizarre yesterday which didn't help, Wexford won 40/42 of their own puckouts and won a further 20 of our puckouts which was nearly half. I would love to see the explanation on why we decided to tactically concede to them and let them build up play

there seems to be a great belief, especially on social media that there is a team of ready made young lads going to immediately come into this team. in reality the majority of the team that played this years league will be playing next years league. there might be an odd positional switch, maybe one or two new faces but there won't be some major overhaul, whether its Quirke or not the next management group aren't going to go into a competitive enough division 3 with a completely different team. realistically unless a player is super talented or have the right physical attributes, there are very few of them ready made for senior football straight from the u20's. Dublin have hockeyed us in two u20 finals and little or none of those players are making their senior panel, admittingly we are competing at a much lower standard. it takes a while for a player to develop the fitness and strength for senior football.

At the start of the year, the players themselves commented on the strength of the panel and bar an odd player is there anybody really standing out that could go straight into that team, I haven't seen anything we badly need, like two tight marking natural corner backs, a pacey, mobile box to box midfielder, a killer pacey (accurate) inside forward or a speedy, direct linebreaking wing forward. even if we found one or two of these, is there even the patience to develop them as it appears the standard comment after each game is "the worst ever".

the league this year exposed problems that were brewing for a year or two, the lack of pace, an older team, the repeated concession of big scores and the lack of real cutting edge or accurately in the forwards. maybe Sugure saw it coming and reckoned we had got the most he could out the players available? It wasn't all plain sailing for him either, there were some poor performances that we managed to salvage a win out of.  quirke has been dealt an unlucky hand with Covid and the new structures in the last two years, he has made a few mistakes but I reckon he will probably stay on for another year.

just announced

Corbett, Collins, Timmons, Piggott, o Sullivan, Begley, Dillon, lillis, o loughlin, barry, o carroll, o reilly, Kingston p, d Kingston, lowry

https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/gaa/arid-40214039.html?type=amp

Looks like things won't be changing

I see LT have a podcast on the go with Liam O' Neill. I haven't listened yet, but look forward to doing so. I wonder is there any chance he could be persuaded to stand for the Chair in the next year or two?
He's done everything else, and it would probably benefit any future runs for Laois County Council also. Things are certainly less challenging than the last time he held office in Laois.

I would love to see it. A traditionalist in ways, he also has taken some very progressive stances over the years. I'd imagine Laois Camogie & LGFA would be delighted to see him get there, or at least they should be.

It's probably unlikely, and I'd imagine unprecedented for an ex president to return to county officership,  but it would be great.

interesting interview, very traditionalist in his view on some things especially I thought in relation to the amalgamation of teams. they are his views and he is entitled to them. not surprising that he wouldn't accept his part in the current Dublin destruction of leinster football, in fairness Stephen pushed him a bit on it and he really didn't cover himself in some of his answers, a bit flippant I thought. A more aggressive interview would have exposed him but this was more a wide ranging interview and this was only a part of it.

I am amazed to see that top ten, What's happening in Mountmellick, stradbally and mountrath if rural areas are ahead of them ?