Laois footballers the Championship 2018 What went on and the review!

Started by Unlaoised, April 10, 2018, 10:25:13 AM

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BallyroanAbu

Thats it this forum has finally infected me,  I am now TERMINAL with

OPTIMISM

I am now firmly in the "there is a chance we can win this on Sunday" I am prepared for an awful dose of REALITY Sunday at 18.00 hrs but till then I am

DELIRIOUS

:) :) :) :)

redsetanta

The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. VinceLombardi

Junior Ex Laoistalk

A never to be forgotten day. Let's have some more of this please...
https://twitter.com/i/status/1009497633239396352

And this, One of the best first halves of football we've ever played against the Dubs. This is what we need on Sunday..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcdNumgT8m0
Winners are not those who never fail, but those who never quit!

portlaoisekid

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on June 20, 2018, 09:56:16 PM
Thats it this forum has finally infected me,  I am now TERMINAL with

OPTIMISM

I am now firmly in the "there is a chance we can win this on Sunday" I am prepared for an awful dose of REALITY Sunday at 18.00 hrs but till then I am

DELIRIOUS

:) :) :) :)
Stop right there BallyroanABu, I'm not getting dragged into this optimism business............ :-\ :-\

seafoid

Sugrue is impressive in terms of what he has done with Laois in less than a year.
"f**k it, just score"- Donaghy   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbxG2WwVRjU

Junior Ex Laoistalk

Winners are not those who never fail, but those who never quit!

justinn

Alan Brogan

June 21 2018 7:21 PM


LAOIS evoke two very different memories from my time with Dublin. The 2003 clash, our only defeat to them, is probably the one people most vividly recall.

That was a bad loss for us.

We won our first Leinster title after seven years in 2002 with a young team and got within half the width of a post to force an All-Ireland semi-final replay.

So we expected to continue our rapid ascendancy into the realms of All-Ireland contenders, accelerating up a certain path to Sam Maguire.

And then Laois beat us.

Funnily enough, my abiding memory of that game was the row that broke out at half-time, an incident GAA PRO Danny Lynch called "more sizzle than steak" when the reports of an investigation being launched hit the papers on Monday morning.

A fair few got involved at the time though. Back then, there was a small room off the main corridor in  the tunnel under the Hogan Stand, presumably for officials of some description.

For reasons best known to themselves, Peadar Andrews and Hugh Emerson squared off and wound up in that the little room, sorting it out between themselves.

Now, Peadar's a big man but if I had to pick a fella from Laois I'd least like to be caged in a small room with, it'd probably be Hughie Emerson!

There was only two points in it that day but the stinging truth was they beat us well.

People were quick to assign the victory as another of Micko miracle and no doubt he brought a lift to the county that year.

But Laois had a good team.

Fergal Byron, Tom Kelly, Joe Higgins, Pádraic Clancy, 'Beano' McDonald, Ross Munnelly – strong players who deserved their Leinster medal and probably a bit more that they didn't win.

It set us back, though. And that momentum from '02 vanished.

We had a couple of poor years and that's why the 2005 Leinster final is such a good memory for me.

Micko was still with Laois at the time and the players had a bit of a swagger about them.

A fair few of them had All-Ireland minor medals and it showed in the way that they carried themselves on the pitch.

But again, that was a good team.

Higgins was as good a man-marker as I ever came across.

Chris Conway and Noel Garvan both had big seasons that year.

'Mossie' Quinn showed huge guts for us that day and it was him, more than any other Dublin player, that I was most delighted for.

He kicked a free from 46 metres after exactly 70 minutes to level the match and then, four minutes into injury-time, nailed a '45 to win it after I bundled Higgins over the end line.

And we celebrated it like it was a moon landing!

There was 81,025 in Croke Park that day and it was probably the last great Leinster final.

We went on to get a stranglehold on Leinster under 'Pillar' Caffrey after that and Laois had their moments too, but it always felt like we had it over them.

Funnily enough though, they always seemed like a threat.

You weren't quite sure what you were going to get from Laois because they had the talent to spring a big performance from nowhere.

But they probably never made full use of their generation of underage stars and they've chopped and changed managers a lot over the last decade.

That they haven't been in a Leinster final in 11 years, given the paucity of contenders in the province in that time, probably tells its own story.

But they're on a roll this year, even if the early part of it was spent in Division 4.

They showed admirable patience and nerve to grind Carlow down in a dangerous semi-final two weeks ago but Sunday will be a test of an altogether different nature.

Dublin were poor in the second half against a Longford team with 14 men, so I'd expect a reaction.

John Sugrue's team don't have it in them to beat Dublin on Sunday but a performance could go a long way to making sure they get the best out of the rest of their summer.

They'll only be one win away from a spot in the 'Super 8s' on Sunday evening. That's an opportunity they can't let slip through their fingers.


Tony

Fine article by Ciaran Whelan in the herald below about Laois' chances against Dublin. I think Ciaran has always rated the talent in Laois, he always has a good word to say about us on Sunday game etc. He was mooted to be our new manager in years past, who knows how that would have worked out. Anyway, here's the article: https://m.herald.ie/sport/gaa/laois-have-skills-to-give-dublin-a-real-leinster-final-test-37035493.html

Joeythelips

It really is a strange game on Sunday, the heart cries out for a Laois performance of the ages and really put it up to the Dubs, whereas the head struggles to see how we will beat the spread of 15 points.  Looking at Laois logically if they were to perform to their maximum they would be a competative Division 2 side at best, but they would struggle in the top tier, and now they meet teh big dog from the top tier.

Regardless of results all most posters have wanted on here is to see Laois be well organised and go out and give it 100%, they are certainly doing it so far this year which is a joy to see. We can ask no more of them if they do the same Sunday. Best of luck Lads

High Fielder

Bonus territory for us. We've achieved as much as we could possibly have expected in Sugrue's first year. I hope the players enjoy the occasion and give it a good lash. Dublin are streets ahead of us in so many ways but we need to harness that and allow it to make us better too. Good luck to all. I'm very proud of what we've done this year anyway.

Tony

Agreed, high fielder. Fantastic year for Laois, given the context. Even if we see 2 fairly big losses to Div 1/2 teams over the next 2 games, it's still been a very good year for Laois. In that respect, I think the players will really enjoy the occasion on Sunday with no pressure or expectation on their backs. Hopefully we can *unlaois a good performance, and as Sugrue says, let's see where that can take us.

Expecting a similar team named as against Carlow but it'll be interesting to see if Sugrue opts for Holland in or O Connor to move back etc. Really hoping that Evan O carroll is named in starting 15 as I think he can cause damage. The good news for us is that we do have 4/5 players who can cause problems for Dublin; we're not just relying on 1 man up there. Any one of Donie, P Kingston, Ross on his day, Evan and Niall Donoher can pose questions. We also have a good spine with Begley, Timmons, Brody, Lillis and JOL all having good years so far, and the likes of Dillon, Collins and Crowley all very impressive. I know Dublin are at the top of the perch, I'm just looking forward to the occasion really, Best of luck and big respect to all involved.

redsetanta

There should be a good crowd from Laois on Sunday. Most people I talk to are going and I have a brother flying in from London Sunday morning. I'm sure he won't be the only one. Others who wouldn't normally go to games are also heading to Croke Park.
Weather will be good and hopefully there's plenty of blue and white in the stands for the lads when they take to the field. People are buying into the honesty of effort from all involved, here's to a great day on Sunday.
The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. VinceLombardi

Tony

Some very good, interesting audio interviews with Colm Begley, JOL, Niall Donoher and Brian Glynn pre Dublin, are on this Midlands 103 soundcloud page below. Worth a listen, in my opinion - all the lads seem to be in a good mindframe for the game :

https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/tracks

SCFC


on the hop

Looks like we are going long ball, with Donie and Evan inside. Evan is going to have to really run hard as Donie isn't the most mobile. Best we can hope for