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Laois Shopping Centre Senior Football Championship - Arles Killeen v  Portarlington, The Heath v Portlaoise, Clonaslee St Manmans v Stradbally, Emo v Crettyard Gaels, Killeshin v Arles Kilcruise, St Josephs v Ballyfin Gaels, Graiguecullen v Ballylinan, Ballyroan Abbey v Mountmellick Gaels.

Joes and Ballyfin again lets hope Seamus Mulhare avoids this one!!!!1 :) :) :) :)

Who's relegated will be more interesting than the title. Think Ballylinan will struggle myself. But Clonaslee are very inconsistent too. Could beat Strad though and that's them safe.

Strad seem to be going well early this year. Have an experienced man in charge in Murphy and couldn't see Manmans beating them.

Ballyfin and Clonaslee will be hot favourites with Crettyard and Killeshin and Ballylinan being close as well..

Ballyroan and Mountmellick would be happy with their draw against each other and who ever looses that could aslo be in the mix I think it will be Mountmellick who looses

Ballyfin Killeshin Ballylinan and Crettyard all have tough matches in Joes Killcruise Graigue and Emo so will need a favourable draw after that you would think...

Clonaslee might just fancy upsetting Stradbally but I can't see it...

28/07/2016
19:45   Clonaslee St Manmans/Cluain na Slí Naomh Meanmain   -   vs   -   Stradbally     
29/07/2016
19:45   Graiguecullen GAA   -   vs   -   Baile Uí Laigheanáin/Ballylinan     
30/07/2016
00:00   Arles/Killeen   -   vs   -   Portarlington     
00:00   Ballyroan Abbey   -   vs   -   Mountmellick Gaels     
00:00   Emo   -   vs   -   Crettyard Gaels     
00:00   The Heath/An Fraoch Mór   -   vs   -   Portlaoise GAA     
31/07/2016
18:00   Killeshin   -   vs   -   Arles Kilcruise     
19:30   St Joseph's   -   vs   -   Ballyfin Gaels     


The second draw will be so important will Crettyard's luck hold out again they have got either a bye or the weakest team in the competition for the last few years I fancy this year it might run out.

All these teams will want to avoid the loosers of Portlaoise and the Heath

There is not an asses roar of Crettyard been in any relegation mix.  Ballyfin are the outstanding favourites for this.

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on April 28, 2016, 09:25:10 AM
There is not an asses roar of Crettyard been in any relegation mix.  Ballyfin are the outstanding favourites for this.

No doubting Ballyfin will be everyone's favourites like last year and the draw against a coming Joes team won't help them but if they loose that a favourable draw could see them stay up...

You could be right about Crettyard but I think they have been lucky for a few years now...In saying that they have a few players starting to come again and in Evan O'Carroll they have a match winner!

Has to be either Ballyfin or Clonaslee for the drop.
Hear a lot of talk about Portlaoise being caught this year but can't see who the outstanding candidate to replace them is. I think they'll win it again.

I'll go Strad, Graigue, Killeen, Emo And Joes as certain wins.
Portlaoise to edge The Heath, Mountmellick and Ballyroan to draw and Arles to scrape over Killeshin.

New times and dates for the weekend games


All Games in O'Moore Park

28/07/2016
19:45 - Clonaslee St Manmans  v  Stradbally

29/07/2016
19:45 - Graiguecullen  v  Ballylinan

30/07/2016
19:00 - The Heath  v  Portlaoise

31/07/2016
12:00 - St Joseph's  v  Ballyfin Gaels
17:30 - Emo  v  Crettyard Gaels 
19:00 - Ballyroan Abbey  v  Mountmellick Gaels

01/08/2016
14:00 - Arles/Killeen  v  Portarlington 
15:30 - Killeshin  v  Arles Kilcruise

I don't get the obsession with playing all games in HQ. wouldn't Arles v Killeshin be a lot better in Crettyard? Heath v Town in Ratheniska?

It is solely down to money. They can keep a closer eye on it when the games are in O'Moore Park, as they have the turnstiles and facilities to monitor the money coming in. They don't have that anywhere else, so they wouldn't make as much money from the games. I'm sure it's packaged as 'we're giving teams the chance to play in our county grounds', but it is a fiscal decision, undoubtedly.

Our Co Board spent much of the year complaining about the loss of business to Portlaoise over the Dublin game being in Nowlan Park. How much of a boost would it be to towns like Portarlington, Stradbally, Mountmellick etc, or even Abbeyleix, Rathdowney, Mountrath in hurling, to get a few championship games? All the games would bring a few hundred people with them that wouldn't normally be in those towns and boost local shops/pubs/chippers etc (which is close to the heart of the Laois CB, as we know), and you might even get a bit of an atmosphere at some of them. Games in OMP are so lifeless. Maybe all grounds listed above are not good enough for SFC/SHC games, but a good few of them are. I won't hold my breath on seeing it happen though.

Taking championship games out of O'Moore park has been mentioned more than once here before. again it's up to club delegates to raise the issue a county board meetings so it can be debated.

It would certainly be far better from an atmosphere point of view. When was the decision made to play all games in O'Moore Park initially?

i agree taking some of the matches out of omoores park..its ridiculous having only portlaoise and the heath there sat night :D

Surely Clonaslee for the drop straight back down. They would make Ballyfin look like Kerry.

Ballyfin and Clonaslee are playing tonight up in Clonaslee so that could be interesting to look at.

The Heath might just pip Portlaoise, but that will only kick the town into gear for the rest of the championship.

I believe Clifford Ward is in charge of Joes and Ballyfin. Lets see if he can do better than Mulhare last year

Not playing in the league will harm Ballyfin and I believe they have a long long list of injuries added to be some chap breaking his hand in the hurling game against Colt last weekend.

Is their any slieve Bloom players going to make the team?

Stradbally v Clonaslee isn't a very attractive opening fixture tomorrow night.
Can only see this game going one way with Clonaslee reportedly down a number of players from last year while Strad have Begley back and Gary Comerford committing to GAA for the first time in many years.

First game went as many expected. Hard for Clonaslee with the lads they are missing, a club like theirs with so many dual players will struggle when missing a few. Stradbally are improved on previous years but probably won't trouble any of the big guns!

Quote from: Uisce on July 28, 2016, 10:37:32 PM
First game went as many expected. Hard for Clonaslee with the lads they are missing, a club like theirs with so many dual players will struggle when missing a few. Stradbally are improved on previous years but probably won't trouble any of the big guns!

Result:

Clonaslee St Manmans:   1-05
Stradbally:                     2-19 

Great to see championship football back.. we need a seriously competitive senior championship to aid the county..

Huge match for the Heath Saturday ...if they don't beat Portlaoise this time they will never get a better chance . Portlaoise haven't been going well in challenge matches but they have played some good teams , I wouldn't rule out Portlaoise just yet.

Arles Killeen still best placed to take Portlaoises title.

Killeen not going well in challenge games either, Baltinglass hammered them recently..

Ballylinan beat Graiguecullen tonight 3-10 to 2-10 and just about deserved it. Graiguecullen had a nightmare first half and went in at half time 5 points behind after kicking about 10 balls wide and a few goal chances saved by the keeper. A lot of 50-50 calls by Mr. Deegan went the way of Ballylinan and a penalty for a foot block resulted in a goal for Gary Walsh and really put them in the driving seat.
Graiguecullen came out for the second half meaning business and were unlucky not to have a goal or two in the net in the first few minutes. Then Ballylinan played some of their best football and scored two brilliant goals in two minutes and Graiguecullen looked a beaten ticket . To their credit they fought back and played some brilliant football in the last 20 minutes and brought the score back to three points with two goals being scored by substitute Danny Doogue who last played senior football about 12 years ago. He even had another goal chance with the last kick of the game but hit it straight at the keeper who saved it.

The one gripe I had about the ref was his use of the advantage rule. Near the end of the game when Graiguecullen were coming back strongly Aaron Forbes, who had a great game at full forward, won a high ball around the 21 meter line and was swung out of by two players but managed to shake them off and headed towards goal with only the keeper to beat. He was gone about 10 meters from where he was fouled and just about to shoot when Mr. Deegan blew the whistle and called him back for a 21 meter free. If ever there was a case for advantage to be played this was it but one of the top referees in the country saw fit to overrule the advantage law and gave the benefit to the fouling team. Is it any wonder players are disillusioned by referees...

It was a good, exciting game to watch and Ballylinan were the better team for two thirds of the game and deserved their win but Graiguecullen looked very good when they brought on the subs and played like they had nothing to lose. A draw would probably have been a fair result and maybe that would have been the outcome with a different ref. Not Maurice's best day at the office, I'm afraid..

QuoteBallylinan were the better team for two thirds of the game and deserved their win but Graiguecullen looked very good when they brought on the subs and played like they had nothing to lose. A draw would probably have been a fair result

I think you're contradicting yourself a bit there Junior  ;)

Great result for Ballylinan. No flirting with relegation for them this year!

it was a good game to watch as a neutral and ballylinan on the overall run of the 60 odd minutes deserved to win.

I think our friends in graigue are entitled to feel a little aggrieved about some decisions.

one would have to question the wisdom of appointing a referee to this fixture when one of his fellow clubmen was managing/coaching one of the teams. I thought that was a general no-no.

another game should bring graigue on a bit.

Quote from: oneflewoverthecuckoonest on July 30, 2016, 12:39:58 PM
it was a good game to watch as a neutral and ballylinan on the overall run of the 60 odd minutes deserved to win.

I think our friends in graigue are entitled to feel a little aggrieved about some decisions.

one would have to question the wisdom of appointing a referee to this fixture when one of his fellow clubmen was managing/coaching one of the teams. I thought that was a general no-no.

another game should bring graigue on a bit.

Didn't like to bring that up as I thought one of the top referees in the country would be above that carry-on but obviously not. There were also at least two penalty appeals that could have gone against Ballylinan but that was never going to happen.

Don't think I contradicted myself in my post above "steven seagal", I said " A draw would probably have been a fair result", fair being the important word there...

You can't take too much from 1st round games. Teams who win can forget about the fear of relegation which means there mightn't be the same level of intesity the next day. The best games to see are the second round losers matches as lose that and you're in trouble.

If Graigue and Ballylinan meet at the knock out stage my money would be on Graigue!

My money would be on Ballylinan, What have Graigue done to be rated highly?  Back a few years ago Graigue fluked a win against Portlaoise in the 1st round they certaintly thought alot of it then.

They've consistantly been a better team than Ballylinan. They couldn't get the better of Kilcruise  over the last few years when they played them but would be a step up from Ballylinan.
Ballylinan have won first round games before maybe upsetting the odds but didn't build on it.

Consistently What? they get knocked out most years in the quarter.  Would not have taken a whole heap of improvement for Ballylinan to get by Graigue.  Which is what has happened.  Ballylinan beat Josephs two years ago went mad partying after it, also they had the beating of Emo last year.  They were improved this year, Graigue no great shakes i.e not a massive improvement

Yes but they make the quarter finals and they've been in a couple of semi finals. No consistancy with with Ballylinan. They usually only have the one big game. Maybe they're improved this year but how many of the top teams have they beaten over the last 10 years?

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on July 30, 2016, 08:47:37 PM
My money would be on Ballylinan, What have Graigue done to be rated highly?  Back a few years ago Graigue fluked a win against Portlaoise in the 1st round they certaintly thought alot of it then.

If i remember correctly Graigue were 11 or 12 points down in the second half and came back to win...Hardly what you would call a fluke.

Any details on Portlaoise v Heath last night? Thought The Heath would be closer than that.

Weekend Results:


Friday
Graiguecullen      2-12   
Ballylinan            3-12

Saturday
The Heath           0-6   
Portlaoise           2-12

Sunday
St Joseph's         4-11
Ballyfin               0-8

Emo                   0-14
Crettyard Gaels   0-15

Monday 
Arles Killeen       1-13
Portarlington      1-09

Arles Kilcruise    1-16
Killeshin             1-6

Crettyard look much improved from the league Cormac Murphy was outstanding and kicked about 9 points. With a lucky draw and Evan O'Carroll back they could yet make a quarter final playing like they did today.

Quote from: County baller on July 31, 2016, 11:38:42 PM
Crettyard look much improved from the league Cormac Murphy was outstanding and kicked about 9 points. With a lucky draw and Evan O'Carroll back they could yet make a quarter final playing like they did today.

The Spink lads made a difference as they gave them a bit more depth especially in the 2nd half. I think results like this will see more clubs looking at their junior and intermediate neighbours to beef up teams. The Portlaoise demolition of The Heath doesn't bode well.

Well done to Crettyard, always a good hard working team who deserve a bit of luck..

Quote from: Junior Ex Laoistalk on July 30, 2016, 02:28:24 AM

The one gripe I had about the ref was his use of the advantage rule. Near the end of the game when Graiguecullen were coming back strongly Aaron Forbes, who had a great game at full forward, won a high ball around the 21 meter line and was swung out of by two players but managed to shake them off and headed towards goal with only the keeper to beat. He was gone about 10 meters from where he was fouled and just about to shoot when Mr. Deegan blew the whistle and called him back for a 21 meter free. If ever there was a case for advantage to be played this was it but one of the top referees in the country saw fit to overrule the advantage law and gave the benefit to the fouling team. Is it any wonder players are disillusioned by referees...

Don't want to keep going on about this but the very same situation arose in the Kerry v Clare game today when a Kerry player was running through on goal and was fouled by two Clare defenders. He shook them off and was allowed his shot on goal which was saved and then it was brought back for a free. That was what the advantage rule was brought in for, to punish the fouling team and the referee was 100% right. And who was the referee, non other than our own Mr Maurice Deegan. Now I wonder why he didn't interpret the very same foul like that on Friday night against Ballylinan. ?????

Quote from: Downtheroad on July 31, 2016, 11:49:16 PM

Quote from: County baller on July 31, 2016, 11:38:42 PM
Crettyard look much improved from the league Cormac Murphy was outstanding and kicked about 9 points. With a lucky draw and Evan O'Carroll back they could yet make a quarter final playing like they did today.

The Spink lads made a difference as they gave them a bit more depth especially in the 2nd half. I think results like this will see more clubs looking at their junior and intermediate neighbours to beef up teams. The Portlaoise demolition of The Heath doesn't bode well.

Looking at Cretty beating Emo you'd have to think Emo would be real contenders with 5/6 of the Courtwood lads on board. Same goes for Mountmellick who could use Kilcavan players. Maybe The Heath needs to resume a working relationship with Park Rath at underage AND adult level?! could Joes use a few Barrowhouse lads?

A truly powerful performance from Portlaoise. Of portlaoise are beatable but with Healy back quicker than expected and cotter and Zach to come in its hard not to see portlaoise getting stronger .

Portlaoise really had their homework done on The Heath, and snuffed out their main threats. It was fairly evenly contested for 25 minutes or so, but then Paul Cahillane scored an outrageous goal and Portlaoise never looked back. As PK said, with Healy, Cotter and Tuohy to come back, it's hard to see anyone getting close to them. I think the scare they got against Emo last year has them more wary of the competition in Laois, so they'll be keen to hand out a few hammerings this year. The first of those came on Saturday.

Portlaoise dominated in pretty much every aspect of the game and had it not been for Chris Bergin who had a great first half, there would have been a lot more in it at half time. Hard to see anyone coming close to Portlaoise again this year.

Although it wasn't his best ever game for Portlaoise, I've often wondered why Brian Smith never got a chance with the county. He has a terrific football brain, a good engine and uses the ball very well most of the time. Shame really.

SFC Rd 2 Draw - Winners:
St Joes v Kilcruise;
Crettyard Gaels v Stradbally;
Ballyroan Abbey v Ballylinan;
Portlaoise v Arles killeen       

Quote from: Giovanni on August 01, 2016, 03:54:32 PM
Although it wasn't his best ever game for Portlaoise, I've often wondered why Brian Smith never got a chance with the county. He has a terrific football brain, a good engine and uses the ball very well most of the time. Shame really.

Isn't he based in the UK?

Did anyone see the losers side of the draw?

SFC Rd 2 Draw - Losers: The Heath v Mountmellick; Portarlington v Graigue; Ballyfin Gaels v Emo; Clonaslee v Killeshin

St Joes v Arles Kilcruise: There won't be much between Joes and Kilcruise but if Kilcruise reproduce their first half performance from today I think they should win by 2 or 3 points.

Crettyard v Stradbally: Crettyard will be delighted to have escaped relegation and if they repeat their performance from the last day Stradbally could be caught out. I think Strad will have just enough a 4 point win.

Ballyroan v Ballylinan: Ballyroan werent convincing against a poor Mountmellick side where as Ballylinan are coming off a good game and should win by 5 or 6.

Portlaoise v Arles Killeen: Probably the 2 favourites for the title after The Heaths collapse, Killeen looked suspect at the back today while Portlaoise will only get stronger with Paul Cotter and Cahir Healy to come back. I don't see anyone getting near Portlaoise, they'll win by 5.

There was plenty there for Port against Killeen today but they are physically weak and more than a little naive. Kingston was the difference although the tacking was non existent. Both defences all over the place and lots of last gasp defending going on.

It never ceases to amaze me how well Kilcruise do with the tiny resources they have. It helps of course that there are good players in there too, but everyone has a job and they do it to the best of their ability. Killeshin just not at the races.

Portlaoise still well ahead with good options from the bench if necessary. Everyone else relying on 3 or 4 players max to keep the show on the road. Result of the weekend has to be Crettyard. The bit of strength in depth aided by the new players really paid dividends. Good progressive thinking by all involved

Can't see Killeen doing much against Portlaoise next day out. How they are being touted as potential county champs is beyond me. Next round of games have a couple of tasty encounters.
Hard to know what way the big defeat will affect The Heath. Graigue should get back into the reckoning, Emo and Killeshin to win the other games.
Crettyard will look forward to playing Strad after a good win and the Josephs v Kilcruise encounter should be one of the ties of the round.
The battle of the Bally's could go either way!

You would expect The Heath to bounce back, Denis Booth returning will help but hard to know how they'll react to that defeat and the manner of it. No score in the second half and only one scorer in the game is a bad day at the office! Portlaoise looked very impressive and cruised in the second half, should have enough for Killeen too.

Other games are hard to call, Emo probably the only certs. Killeshin will be favorites too but could be tight.  Kilcruise experience will bring them through against Josephs I feel. Port to surprise Graigue,  with Stradbally and Ballyroan to win the others for me!

Fixtures:
All Games in O'Moore Park


11/08/2016
19:45    Arles Kilcruise v St Joseph's

12/08/2016
19:45    Graiguecullen v Portarlington

13/08/2016
18:00    Ballylinan v Ballyroan Abbey

19:30    Arles/Killeen v Portlaoise

14/08/2016
12:00    Ballyfin Gaels v Emo

13:30    Mountmellick Gaels v The Heath

17:30    Clonaslee St Manmans v Killeshin

19:00    Crettyard Gaels  v Stradbally

Another 12 O'clock throw in for two teams on a Sunday morning which is a terrible time for a game once again its Ballyfin which are involved in it I think four of their five senior games thus far in the two years have being Sunday morning throw in's heard it being said in O'Moore Park a the Joes game.

Looking at the games  to come

Kilcruise v Joes will be interesting but I think Kilcruise will just have enough to win they look very sharp this year and in great shape. Prediction Kilcruise 2-12  Joes 2-9

Graige v Port is very hard to call Port were great in spells against Kileen  and this could be a right battle.

I Think Port might do it  but they will need a goal or two ..Port 1-12 Graigue 1-11

Ballylinan v Ballyroan will again be a close battle that both will be looking forward to.

I think Ballylinan might get over the line on a scorline of 2-8 to 1-10

Kileen v Portlaoise should be good game if Paul Kingston is back Kileen will have enough to trouble portlaoise but their defence will have to be a lot better it will be close up untill last 20  Portlaoise 2-14 Kileen 0-13 points

Ballyfin v Emo looks a miss match and can only see one winner.

Ballyfin 1-8 Emo 2-11

Mountmellick v Heath again I can see the Heath bouncing back here and handing out a nice trimming

Heath 1-15 Mountmellick 1-9

Clonaslee v Killeshin might be tighter than people thing especially if Lowry and Attride are still not back i still expect them to come through tho on a low score of Killeshin 0-11 Clonaslee 0-7

Crettyard Gaels v stradbally will be interesting and could be a physical encounter as the Spink players will add some spice to this.

I'm going for a draw!

Good game tonight in OMP. Josephs will be kicking themselves after being in control for long periods. They were wasteful when on top and could never properly pull away from Kilcruise, who kept plugging on in the way that only they know how. No Ross tonight either, and you could see how much they missed him. For that reason alone, they deserve so much credit for sticking with it and getting the late goal.

Some odd decisions on the line from Josephs who lacked experience and panicked when Kilcruise came on strong. James Kelly will be a serious footballer if given freedom to express himself, and it was a poor decision to drop him back tonight when he was the one player capable of causing Kilcruise problems. Josephs are young and will improve in the coming years, but it was a bad call in my opinion to turn down the senior amalgamation with Barrowhouse.

Give Kilcruise credit though, that was a serious result considering where they were at half time without Ross. A huge win for them tonight. Never wilted and kept coming at Josephs who were very fearful of them. You can never write them off despite the miles on the clock of some of the players. Brilliant performance and well deserved.

Graigue V Port Graigue I suppose with no confidence
ballylinan v Ballyroan Ballyroan
Killeen V Portlaoise Portlaoise
Ballyfin V Emo Emo
Mountmellick V Heath Heath
Clonaslee V Killeshin Killeshin
Stradbally V Crettyard Shock Here Cretty

Big win for Portarlington tonight against a very poor Graiguecullen. I haven't seen Graigue as bad in a long time. Port have a few nice young footballers (as usual), but are a long way off challenging the likes of Portlaoise.

The problem with Port seems to be that they cannot keep a consistent team from year to year, so that they are unable to build a team capable of challenging for the championship.

Jaysus thats a very heavy defeat for Graigue. Balyroan Abu you had that right. Takes a bir of gloss away from Ballylinan. What is happening down in Graigue?  They have some fine footballers there.

Great win for Port. Nice young team and a few more young lads coming through in the next 2/3 years. They will be there or thereabouts by the turn of the decade.

I would not read a whole pile into any game against Graigue at the moment. 

Graiguecullen terrible last night, couldn't even get the basics right. Timmons is a massive loss for them but they should be giving Portarlington at least a challenge, last night they went down like lambs and are now prime candidates for relegation playing like they are. They don't seem to be fit mentally or physically and are starting players that are worse than the lads they are bringing on late in the game.
Tonight Portlaoise beat the favourites to beat them this year so it looks like the same old story once again, Portlaoise at the top and everyone else playing catch-up.

Portlaoise handy enough winners tonight but they struggled to contain Kingston who was the best player on the pitch. They had three on him at one point and he still made yards. Portlaoise just too strong overall tonight but strength in depth beyond the Laois championship will be an issue.

Ballylinan lost a match they should have won. Scott Conroy going off galvanised Ballyroan who just seemed hungrier. Ballylinan lost focus in the forwards and heaped pressure on their back line. Time after time they ran into cul de sacs in the second half, were turned over and were lazy without the ball. Their back line couldn't cope with the extra pressure. Credit to Ballyroan for sticking at it, but Ballylinan only have themselves to blame.

The overall standard of defensive play so far in all games has been very poor.

Quote from: Junior Ex Laoistalk on August 14, 2016, 12:20:55 AM
Graiguecullen terrible last night, couldn't even get the basics right. Timmons is a massive loss for them but they should be giving Portarlington at least a challenge, last night they went down like lambs and are now prime candidates for relegation playing like they are. They don't seem to be fit mentally or physically and are starting players that are worse than the lads they are bringing on late in the game.
Tonight Portlaoise beat the favourites to beat them this year so it looks like the same old story once again, Portlaoise at the top and everyone else playing catch-up.

In my opinion the big problem with Graigue is their ability to implode. Its been like that with them for years. They have an abundance of talent and should be regular challengers to Portlaoise. They are forever changing managers which leads to instability within the club. I dont know why, mabe its internal politics or player power but to get rid of Joe Higgins a couple of years ago after winning a Kelly cup and the league and reaching a county final was pure pure madness. I know Joe was very disapointed as he was very confident they would have won it with him. But that madnes is there for years now and goes back to when i first saw Graigue...the mid 70s....my opinion

I thought Danny O'Reilly in midfield was very good for Graiguecullen against Port. Looks like a good footballer.

Some upsets after occurring so far this weekend. First time in a while I've made it to a few club games.
Ballylinan v Ballyroan Abbey last night had a fantastic last 20 minutes with Ballyroan playing some great football when down to 14, they really upped their work rate as Ballylinan faded out of the game and resorted to high aimless balls being pumped in on top of a very solid full back line for Ballyroan. Special mention to Ballyroan keeper who kept them in the game with some outstanding saves in the first half.
Portlaoise v Killeen was a fairly poor game, with Killeen resorting to parking the bus and hoping for Kingstons brilliance to keep them in the game. Portlaoise won fairly comfortably and never looked like they were in danger of losing. With Paul and Donie Brennan to come back again, hopefully it'll be a better contest if they meet again.
Missed the Emo V Ballyfin game, Emo up by 9 points at half time to lose by 8 with no notable wind is beyond belief. Any one any match report on this?
The Heath v Mountmellick Gaels was a huge surprise to me. The Heath who were fancier their chances to topple the town, now find themselves back in relegation. Credit to MM who played with huge intensity and hunger just blew a very lethargic Heath out of it. Some great scores from Mullins, while their midfield pinned the Heath back in their half for 10 mins. The second goal was the killer, as Grennan lobbed the keeper from about 15-20 metres out. It may have been accidental but it was splendid as it was important.
Going by the results thus far, besides Portlaoise any side could beat each other on any given day.

Convincing wins for Mountmellick & Ballyfin, the later games also looked very one sided.
Ballyfin vs Emo game was pure crazy in terms of scoring. Ballyfin must have been furious to go in 9pts down, after coughing up 2 ridiculous goals, with some short play in their own back line going wrong. They missed a couple of goal chances themselves, along with a few close in frees, and must have been fearing the worst. In the second half the owned midfield with Finn & Dunphy causing havoc, and Sean Moore went to town inside, along with an impressive display from Darragh Connolly at 12. On the face of it, it's one of the best comebacks you'll see, but in reality, ballyfin should never have been 9 behind at half time. The "Hot" and "outstanding" favourites for relegation may wait till next year to exit the senior ranks.

The Heath were very disappointing in the 2nd game, difficult to see why the have been fancied by so many. The still should have enough to see off graigue, who have been very poor. A relegation final appearance may be what graigue need to allow them take stock of their situation, and stop blaming maurice deegan, higgins, bealin or other external factors for things going wrong.

As was said here previous, apart from portlaoise, theres a good few teams could make a county final appearance, any of the teams left, with the exception of ballyfin/cretty IMO,  must feel they can make it to the final.

In my opinion they are all intermediates/junior teams with the exception of portlaoise. It's easy to see why Laois are in division 3. The only outstanding player that you could say is a cert for a good county team is Kingston

Ballyfin were not the outstanding favs for relegation as long as they have players like Moore, Finn, Connolly etc however whats the point in having a senior team if avoiding relegation is the most you aspire to ?   Our club has been guilty of this in the past.   The Heath lost their game in their heads not a shadow of the team that won the league.  Graigue are in freefall and can thank their lucky stars Clonaslee are around.  Thats bull  Laoisabu for instance that  Farrell chap at no 6 for Ballylinan would make plenty of county teams and I think you will find the problem is Portlaoise are an outstanding team not that the rest are all that bad just Portlaoise are exceptional.

Emo were beat by a crettyard team that were woeful this evening against stradbally and emo let ballyfin score 4 17 today who only scored 7 points against st joes yet they were in a county final last year what does that say about the rest of the teams. Emo got relegated to intermediate a few years ago with the same players and ended up nearly winning the county final last year

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on August 14, 2016, 09:44:50 PM
Ballyfin were not the outstanding favs for relegation as long as they have players like Moore, Finn, Connolly etc however whats the point in having a senior team if avoiding relegation is the most you aspire to ?   

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on April 28, 2016, 09:25:10 AM
There is not an asses roar of Crettyard been in any relegation mix.  Ballyfin are the outstanding favourites for this.

I never would have had Ballyfin in as outstanding favourites, i got this quote from yourself BallyroanAbu, as above.

Ballyfin are aspiring to contest a final, i never said they'd be happy with survival alone. It's just odd sometimes how some can disregard them, and big up other clubs that have done f**k all to justify it.

The Heath beat st joes handy in the league final this year and are now in relegation what does this say about joes. These are supposed to be portlaoise closest challengers

Quote from: Laoiseabu on August 14, 2016, 10:04:59 PM
Emo were beat by a crettyard team that were woeful this evening against stradbally and emo let ballyfin score 4 17 today who only scored 7 points against st joes yet they were in a county final last year what does that say about the rest of the teams. Emo got relegated to intermediate a few years ago with the same players and ended up nearly winning the county final last year

Pat Ryan not being around for much of their summer has to have had an effect, that said Emo would obviously have known his commitments. Evan costello only appeared as a sub late on today, also is a significant loss to their forward line, but more importantly i'd say Pat Ryan's absence cannot be understated when comparing to last year.

I wouldn't agree the rest are intermediate/junior with the exception of Portlaoise. Portlaoise have been strong against most leinster club sides the past few years, with the exception of the Dublin champions, IMO they would be an exceptional club side.

Ballyroan have improved a bit I might say

It's such a pity the two Arles aren't together they have thrown away so many county titles and even all Ireland's could of been a golden generation in such a small area

Quote from: Laoiseabu on August 14, 2016, 10:35:48 PM
It's such a pity the two Arles aren't together they have thrown away so many county titles and even all Ireland's could of been a golden generation in such a small area

Only themselves to blame. You can't help people who don't want to help themselves. Kilcruise no doubt cherish their title, maybe more than winning a dozen with their "beloved" neighbours?

Touche LaoisAbu, Thats when been a Keyboard warrior comes back to haunt you.  Anyway I forgot to mention in the meantime while Ballyfin were my favs in a fit of pique back then I had heard the news of a practice match which took place between Clonaslee and Ballyfin 5 weeks ago. Which was abandoned due to how awful Clonaslee had been.  I had not updated that here for my outstanding favs for relegation column.  Ballyfin still could be a whole pile better if they got theri act together and played a full year of football this year. I don't think they will win another game.  Emo were silly but I don't thiink the guy they pay the big bucks to was present on the line I feel he may have made a difference when things were going wrong.  Championship is Championship teams will improve in it and teams will blow up in it.  Must say very disappointed with the Heath & Crettyard

Just wondering Ballyroanabbeyabu is there much more coming through in ballyroan over the next 4,5,6 years they seem to be doing well at underage especially u14 and minors in county final . It's great having the abbeeix lads on board . By the way I wouldn't be surprised in fact I'd expect ballyfin to beat crettyard next day out

The most defining lesson we learned at the weekend is that there is nobody going to come within an asses roar of troubling Portlaoise. They are a credit, they show some hunger year after year. Relegation is fairly tasty, Clonaslee will be favourites, but with Will Young and a few others to come back they won't go down without a fight.. A real capitulation from The Heath, really thought they could give it a good go this year..

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on August 14, 2016, 09:44:50 PM
Ballyfin were not the outstanding favs for relegation as long as they have players like Moore, Finn, Connolly etc however whats the point in having a senior team if avoiding relegation is the most you aspire to ? Portlaoise are an outstanding team not that the rest are all that bad just Portlaoise are exceptional.

What a result for Ballyfin yesterday! all the keyboard warriors choking on their lattes this morning!!Few points in relation to you BallyroanAbu as you have had enough to say about Ballyfin over the past couple of months.

Championship is where it matters and league performance or participation does not have much bearing on football in August / September just ask the Heath that. I'm sure they would swap a league cup for a relegation semi final at this stage.

And I think in only our 2nd year ever at senior level, consolidating our  status and avoiding relegation is ambitious enough considering over half that team also hurl at a very high level similar to only 2 other clubs in the county , Clonaslee and Portlaoise. 

Finally I also disagree with your comment on Portlaoise being an outstanding team. To think Emo could have won a county final last year kind of sums up the standard of football in Laois. The structure is shocking and really needs to follow the hurling model of a senior and senior B championship. To have 16 "senior" teams is a joke. Portlaoise miles ahead of everyone but always get found put against any sort of quality in Leinster. There are at least 8-10 teams in Laois not at senior level our own club included. A competitive senior B and Intermediate championsjip could only improve the standard?

Jimmy P  delighted to see Ballyfin stay up knew they wouldn't go down have a good chance against a poor crettyard the next day aswell . League means nothing it's all about what happens on the day and ballyfin blew emo away in the second half yesterday

jimmy you are dead right in your assessment of the senior football scene.
if portlaoise are tuned in, then nobody, barring biased referees will stop them.
after that about ten of the other senior teams may at the start of every year fancy their prospects of getting to the final, in fact without portlaoise, it would be a wide open affair.

in truth, the hurling model of 8 senior a, 8 senior b, is needed in football.......trouble here is that you would have to try convincing 8 that they would have to lose their "a" status, and how would you get there....if you were to base it on the 2017 championship....first round losers, being relegated to senior "b", then whoever would draw portlaoise in round 1 would get the wrong end of the stick.

I think it will be a portlaoise, Killeen final, heavier defeat for latter in the final than last Saturday night.

Ballyfin decided not to play the league is where my issue starts and stops.  I don't agree with it and I don't think I can be persuaded that this is a good thing.  Ballyfin have some great footballers in Moore, Finn & Connolly plus others I am not aware of.  If all they are going to get each year is 2-3 games of football how can this be a good thing for Ballyfin football or Laois football.  Good Luck to you against Crettyard, however maybe you should be asking the question how far can this team go with the right structures around them. 

Personally I think any team that has been in 2 out of the last 3 Leinster club  finals only to be beaten by the All Ireland Club champions each time is a pretty exceptional club team to have in any championship.  I may be wrong.

I don't think there is anything wrong with Laois Senior Football Club Championship.  My comparison is Ballyroan and Abbeyleix both are in similar stages in development.  I just feel the Football Senior Championship gives teams abit more time to find form and themselves.  Whereas the Hurling is too tough too early.  Some teams take 3-5 games before they are hitting peak and I feel in hurling you don't get this chance but in football you do. If the hurling championship structure  is so strong why has no Laois Club had any success in Leinster Club Championship while even if Portlaoise are not so good, does a Laois Club Football team regularly qualify for Leinster Finals.

Very disappointed with Kileen on Saturday, sat with 14/14 players behind the ball and hoped that hoofing it from deep up to Donie would win them the game. They got a favourable enough draw, if it was a few other teams they might be a bit worried.

Ballyfin were a joy to behold in the second half. Were very much in the game int he first half, bar two sloppy goals from mistakes from defenders. But once they came on the field for the second half there was a real sense of determination about them. With the older Moore and the centre back Duff due back from the US this week, along with Finn Moore Connolly, they should feel rightly confident going into the Crettyard game. All Depends on whether O'Carroll is back from the US, from all reports Crettyard were disappointing against Stradbally.

Clonaslee should go down, but it will be a scrap. Going to be interesting to see how it unfolds.

Still cant see past Portlaoise for ten in a row.

The Heath took the league seriously and won it. It done them no good whatsoever in the Championship, and it proves how poor and irrelevant the league is. Ballyfin made a good decision in my opinion. There are 4 clubs who would love to be in their position right now. If you don't like what they did, and don't believe it serves Laois football well, then you should petition your club to get an early couple of rounds going in the Championship. The structure as it stands aided and abetted Ballyfin's progression. There are good footballers there and some with the potential to maybe play at a higher level. Their participation or non participation in a phoney league doesn't change that, and they proved as much.

Killeen were short a couple of their better players in Paul Kingston and Donie Brennan. They had little choice but to park the bus because defensively they are ordinary. Most clubs are carrying at least 3 players well below Senior standard, and for that reason sacrifices have to be made against Portlaoise, who don't have such issues.

It is very easy to get caught up in the excitement of Championship and start to look at lads in a different light. There's a gulf between inter county and club and not many can bridge the gap. I'm not seeing much new fresh talent. There are some with potential, but that is all

Does anyone have the full draw for the next round? Have missed it somehow..

I agree with high fielder in that there isn't a whole lot of fresh talent there to bridge that gap.. However I won't be convinced that the decision they made out in Ballyfin regarding the league was a good one, pretty sure the Ballyfin lads don't even think so.. Wasn't at the game but you have to hand it to them, it was some win.

I also disagree with Ballyfin's decision to pull out of the league- but I presume it was done partly because of their Gaels set up?

They would have been without the Slieve Bloom players in the league, plus their county seniors & minors for some rounds. I'm only presuming, but I'd have thought this was the reasoning.

There seems to only be Ben Conroy from Slieve Bloom involved at all.

Majority of the club would be involved in both hurling and football, perhaps it was to combat injury and burn out, an issue Ballyfin have suffered with many years previously with many involved in 4 or 6 teams in the club. Whatever it was Ballyfin looked very fresh on Sunday, and played a free flowing brand of football throughout the match

Quote from: Laoischat on August 16, 2016, 12:00:17 PM
and played a free flowing brand of football throughout the match

That free flowing brand of football didn't seem to be doing them much good in the opening half?

To the winners the spoils, and Emo didn't quite hand the game to them, but they did assist in their own downfall to quite a large extent. Good luck to Ballyfin, they're a fine Club working hard at two codes, not an easy thing, but I think this one is being overanalysed somewhat.

Many so called superior football clubs are no better for their participating in the league. It shows how backward our system is that a team can just rock up and advance. As a club they did not lose out by avoiding the league. That is my point. Some may not like it, but it is what it is.

Wouldn't agree with Ballyfin's reasoning to pull out of the league but if it served their Dual players to be fresher and hungry for the challange then it paid off.

They had an unreal win in the hurling against Shanahoe and then produced what they produced Sunday.

It was a joy to be there I'm glad I made the effort to go to the two early games.Neutrals from everywhere applauded them off the field it's not often you see that in O'Moore Park!

In truth they were very unlucky to be 8 points down at half time they kicked 10 wides in the first half and only for two Sloppy goals right on the half time whistle they were giving as good as they were getting all over the field.

What happened in the second half was something I've not seen up in O'Moore park for a long long time.

They brand of open attacking footbal they played had neutrals on their feet in the stand it was amazing!

Sean Moore was just pure class his movement even while double marked is something you'd pay to see every week.

James Finn gave an exibition of Fielding and running with the ball (how he wasn't in with the county again last year I don't know)He powered past 5 players for his goal two being county men and buried it into the roof of the net its as good a goal as you'll see up there.

They were missing last years Laois u21 centre forward James Moore and Ciaran Duff also a Laois u21 panelist so maybe they can improve.

As a dual club who have competed at the top level or very near the top in both codes for the past four or five years you have to give them great credit.

They are operating from a very small pool of players and you have about 11 playing both hurling and football.

Apart from Portlaoise and Clonaslee(to a certain degree)their isn't too many clubs that can say that.


The second game up there got it hard to live up to the first but Mountmellick were impressive and seemed hungrier than the Heath...I still think the Heath will beat Graigue


Portlaoise will win ten have no doubt it will be an Arles in the final but there will be 6-8 points in it.


Clonaslee will go down but not with out a fight they got the draw they wanted in emo and remember only 3 years ago they beat them in the relegation final.

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on August 15, 2016, 06:55:14 PM
Ballyfin decided not to play the league is where my issue starts and stops.  I don't agree with it and I don't think I can be persuaded that this is a good thing.  Ballyfin have some great footballers in Moore, Finn & Connolly plus others I am not aware of.  If all they are going to get each year is 2-3 games of football how can this be a good thing for Ballyfin football or Laois football.  Good Luck to you against Crettyard, however maybe you should be asking the question how far can this team go with the right structures around them. 

Personally I think any team that has been in 2 out of the last 3 Leinster club  finals only to be beaten by the All Ireland Club champions each time is a pretty exceptional club team to have in any championship.  I may be wrong.

I don't think there is anything wrong with Laois Senior Football Club Championship.  My comparison is Ballyroan and Abbeyleix both are in similar stages in development.  I just feel the Football Senior Championship gives teams abit more time to find form and themselves.  Whereas the Hurling is too tough too early.  Some teams take 3-5 games before they are hitting peak and I feel in hurling you don't get this chance but in football you do. If the hurling championship structure  is so strong why has no Laois Club had any success in Leinster Club Championship while even if Portlaoise are not so good, does a Laois Club Football team regularly qualify for Leinster Finals.

I think the standard of club football in Leinster is quite poor to be honest. Lets not forget here that Portlaoise, outside of the Dublin superpowers are probably the biggest club population wise in Leinster and as such are well equipped to swat away the majority of what the province has to offer until they ultimately meet the Dublin champs. There arnt many county towns which have only one club but alas that story has been told more than once at this stage!

Too tough too early?? I think the football layout in its current format encourages mediocrity of which we are witnessing constantly. We need a competitive championship to improve standards to in turn improve the county setup.

The championships should be reduced down to 8 or 12 and gales teams should be encouraged, if you had emo with donoher and o'halrahan etc, josephs with daly e malone etc, and other gales teams the competitiveness in laois would increase immediately, imagine stradbally with a few of the timahoe players. Its a good way of allowing the best players play at the highest level while allowing areas/clubs keep their identity if amalgamations is something they do not want to entertain.
If you look at the teams that went with the gales concept this year you could argue that the 3 of them would of been regarded as been in the relegation mix this year

Is quality and competitive the same thing as the Laois Hurling Championship is competitive but quality wise is quite poor.  Gaels teams of course should be allowed but not at the destruction of clubs who do not want to be involved.   Is the problem with the senior football championship in Laois or the fact that Portlaoise has over 60% of the population of the county to pick from. 

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on August 16, 2016, 02:17:53 PM
Is quality and competitive the same thing as the Laois Hurling Championship is competitive but quality wise is quite poor.  Gaels teams of course should be allowed but not at the destruction of clubs who do not want to be involved.   Is the problem with the senior football championship in Laois or the fact that Portlaoise has over 60% of the population of the county to pick from.
[/quote

The best way to make the championship more competitive is to increase the quality of the teams in it. If you have 8 teams in the championship and have the best players from the teams below senior playing with those clubs too you would imagine the quality would automatically increase, because at the moment portlaoise are several levels above everyone else.

Also there is around 20 thousand in portlaoise, theres 80 thousand in laois so 60% is a gross overestimation

I was just guessing on population as I don't really care, as for me it's a non issue.  But what I am saying is that Gael's teams are fine but they have to be a choice of the clubs not pushed on them.  I think teams should have 2 games in the championship excluding relegation.  But I would be careful on quality means less teams as some of the worst teams in the championship over the last couple of years have not necessarily been relegated.  O Dempsey's who quality wise last year there was nothing wrong with just got into a rut they could not manage to get out of.  BallyroanAbbey in 2007 and possibly Emo this year even though I find it hard to see Clonaslee beating anyone.  I would also hang fire on the success of GAELS teams until you hear back on clubs over a couple of years as there will be issues between Hurling & Football that can mess up the whole equilibrium.

P.S BallyroanAbbey do you not think that Portlaoise are something to aspire to ,  they have not always been this strong nor will they always be. 

Gaels is the way to go but it should be more structured I don't see the connection between Mountmellick and castletown.

Why not Mountmellick with Kilcavan ...

Or Mountmellick and Ballyfin like they are in Juvenile level?

I don't think Castletwon or slieve bloom really improved Mountmellick or Ballyfin as there was only one player from each on the teams.

You could argue that Spink/Ballinakill made Crettyard stronger!

Do Ballyroan get many from abbeyleix?

Imagine this for a 12 team championship

Portlaoise
Ballyfin/Mountmellick
Arles(kileen and killcruise)
Ballylinan/Crettyard/Spink
Emo/Courtwood/The Rock
O Dempseys
St Joes/Barrowhouse
Graiguecullen
Stradbally/Timahoe/Annanough
Portarlington
The Heath
Ballyroan Abbey/Abbeyleix/Durrow


I know they all ain't perfect only a rough drawn out plan of how it might look!

P.S BallyroanAbbey do you not think that Portlaoise are something to aspire to ,  they have not always been this strong nor will they always be.
[/quote

I fully believe that they are something to aspire to, you were the one who brought up population. I also believe that they need to be tested and until clubs get their acts together at underage gales teams are the best way of doing that.

Your going to leave odempseys and the Heath on their own especially with the two struggling

And graigue/killeshin is an option

Quote from: Unlaoised on August 16, 2016, 03:16:11 PM
Gaels is the way to go but it should be more structured I don't see the connection between Mountmellick and castletown.

Why not Mountmellick with Kilcavan ...

Or Mountmellick and Ballyfin like they are in Juvenile level?

I don't think Castletwon or slieve bloom really improved Mountmellick or Ballyfin as there was only one player from each on the teams.

You could argue that Spink/Ballinakill made Crettyard stronger!

Do Ballyroan get many from abbeyleix?

Imagine this for a 12 team championship

Portlaoise
Ballyfin/Mountmellick
Arles(kileen and killcruise)
Ballylinan/Crettyard/Spink
Emo/Courtwood/The Rock
O Dempseys
St Joes/Barrowhouse
Graiguecullen
Stradbally/Timahoe/Annanough
Portarlington
The Heath
Ballyroan Abbey/Abbeyleix/Durrow


I know they all ain't perfect only a rough drawn out plan of how it might look!

From my understanding of it you can only have one team in with a senior club to make a gales team. You could end up with a senior championship like
Portlaoise
Portarlington gales (o dempseys)
mountmellick gales (ballyfin)
St joesphs ggales (barrowhouse)
Emo gales (courtwood)
Arles Kilcruise Gales (ballylinan)
Stradbally gales (timahoe)
Arles Killen

Then have an intermediate of
Ballyroan Abbey
Mountmellick
O dempseys
Ballylinan
Ballyfin
Crettyard
Killeshin
Graiguecullen

This would make the current intermediate junior a, overall you would be talking about a serious increase in competitiveness and quality

It wide be easier to just stick the two Arles together and put ballyfin an with crettyard and killeshin with graigue

Sorry ballylynan with crettyard

Was basing it off clubs that play together underage and one that realistically would get relegated, as for the two arles's they are still amongst the best teams in the county and the chances of them joining is slim to none whereas you could see one of them going in with ballylinan, if kikeshin and cretty went up surely they would go with each other considering they are together underage and are beside each other

Quote from: Ballyroan Abbey on August 16, 2016, 04:24:47 PM

Quote from: Unlaoised on August 16, 2016, 03:16:11 PM
Gaels is the way to go but it should be more structured I don't see the connection between Mountmellick and castletown.

Why not Mountmellick with Kilcavan ...

Or Mountmellick and Ballyfin like they are in Juvenile level?

I don't think Castletwon or slieve bloom really improved Mountmellick or Ballyfin as there was only one player from each on the teams.

You could argue that Spink/Ballinakill made Crettyard stronger!

Do Ballyroan get many from abbeyleix?

Imagine this for a 12 team championship

Portlaoise
Ballyfin/Mountmellick
Arles(kileen and killcruise)
Ballylinan/Crettyard/Spink
Emo/Courtwood/The Rock
O Dempseys
St Joes/Barrowhouse
Graiguecullen
Stradbally/Timahoe/Annanough
Portarlington
The Heath
Ballyroan Abbey/Abbeyleix/Durrow


I know they all ain't perfect only a rough drawn out plan of how it might look!

From my understanding of it you can only have one team in with a senior club to make a gales team. You could end up with a senior championship like
Portlaoise
Portarlington gales (o dempseys)
mountmellick gales (ballyfin)
St joesphs ggales (barrowhouse)
Emo gales (courtwood)
Arles Kilcruise Gales (ballylinan)
Stradbally gales (timahoe)
Arles Killen

Then have an intermediate of
Ballyroan Abbey
Mountmellick
O dempseys
Ballylinan
Ballyfin
Crettyard
Killeshin
Graiguecullen

This would make the current intermediate junior a, overall you would be talking about a serious increase in competitiveness and quality

just a couple of points

- A senior club is not restricted to drawing from one club
- Castletown is Brendan Reddin and no one else. 

Is the minor football championship final on this evening or has it been put back

Minor final is next Thursday in OMP.

Looking forward to the minor final this week( bit disapointing that it is being played mid week), i know we bet st pauls at u16 level but wouldnt be too sure on the opposition bar kinsella, would there be many from the rock and courtwood or is it mainly emo players?

About 8 Emo, 5 Courtwood and 2 The Rock I think. Something like that anyway.

Quote from: Heshs Umpire on August 23, 2016, 09:23:34 AM
About 8 Emo, 5 Courtwood and 2 The Rock I think. Something like that anyway.

These three should be amalgamating at senior level. But, there are a lot of flat-earthers in each of the three clubs, unfortunately.

Predictions for weekend:

27/08/2016
16:30   Graiguecullen GAA vs The Heath/An Fraoch Mór : The Heath - Surely they won't be in a relegation final after the promise they showed through the league.
18:00   Arles/Killeen vs Killeshin : Killeen to get their year back on track with a win here.
18:30   Clonaslee St Manmans/Cluain na Slí Naomh Meanmain vs Emo : A dogfight, with Emo's experience seeing them through.
19:30   St Joseph's vs Mountmellick Gaels : Think Mountmellick will manage a win. Looked impressive against The Heath.
28/08/2016
18:00   Baile Uí Laigheanáin/Ballylinan vs Portarlington : Portarlington to keep their topsy-turvy year going!
19:30   Crettyard Gaels vs Ballyfin Gaels : Crettyard to scrape this one with O'Carroll back.

Are attride and Lowry back for killeshin and what about Paul Kingston for kileen

Quote from: Laoiseabu on August 24, 2016, 11:45:27 AM
Are attride and Lowry back for killeshin and what about Paul Kingston for kileen

Kileshin boys back i hear....P Kingston is rumoured to be on crutches with a knee injury recieved in Boston but this may be a distracting rumour

I heard Paul Kingstone done his cruciate...

Evan O'Carroll will be a massive boost for Crettyard if he is back ..Probably worth 1-5 straight away

Quote from: Unison on August 23, 2016, 12:33:44 PM

Quote from: Heshs Umpire on August 23, 2016, 09:23:34 AM
About 8 Emo, 5 Courtwood and 2 The Rock I think. Something like that anyway.

These three should be amalgamating at senior level. But, there are a lot of flat-earthers in each of the three clubs, unfortunately.

The Rock lads are an eclectic mix. 2 of them are on the far side  of Mountmellick and another is from Heath/ Portlaoise. Not one from their so called traditional catchment area. Technically it could be argued that the team is illegally constituted as it consists of isolated Courtwood and Emo going into Mountmellick parish. If the county board was doing its job all of the Courtwood and Emo players should have been named in the minutes of the Co board meeting and completed permission forms.   Ballyroan probably can't object because they are likely to be question marks about the constitution of their team as well as they are a right league of nations.

Go on explain our league of nations
1 isolated player
1 player from colt who comes under our gaels banner

the rest are eligible for the rest of their lives to play with ballyroan

To be fair to Ballyroan Abbey, they are a designated Gaels team and have been since the start of the year.

There would be no question regarding the eligibility of any of their players.
I think there is crossover of 13 from the Minor A Hurling Panel. Incredible achievement.

Its actually 2 from colt, one from ballacolla, to be fair we have had lads from anywhere between cullohill to mountrath in the past, but its probably as many ballyroan abbey players on the gales teams as theres ever been

whose the other from colt on the team think he is on the panel

moffit and keys started the semi, although i know delaney will be starting tonight so that may change.

Keyes a sub

Is this Ballyroan team any good ?

Whose the lad from ballacolla

Diarmuid Conway from CB. He was on the minor hurling panel this year.

There must be some link with Ballyroan as his father is a selector on the team.

It's 1979 since Ballyroan last won a minor so it's a big deal for Ballyroan.  They have 5 Senior players plus 1 or 2 that are too young for Senior.  Also a lot of Abbeyleix hurlers and Moffitt & Conway so they are pretty decent.  Ballacolla has always had isolated footballers with Ballyroan

Thought Ballacolla players played with The Heath as well? Not to mention an intercounty hurler who played football with Annanough.

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on August 25, 2016, 02:49:54 PM
It's 1979 since Ballyroan last won a minor so it's a big deal for Ballyroan.  They have 5 Senior players plus 1 or 2 that are too young for Senior.  Also a lot of Abbeyleix hurlers and Moffitt & Conway so they are pretty decent.  Ballacolla has always had isolated footballers with Ballyroan

1971. I'd say ?

I got in a bit of trouble with some posters on the hurling page for saying that abbeyleix bottled the minor hurling but im afraid that with the same group of players they did not learn their lesson, having a 5 point lead with 15 minutes to go is the same as having a 10 point lead in hurling and the exact same that happened in the hurling happened tonight except this time we were caught. We got in a position where the game should of been closed out and it wasnt, panic set in when they got the goal, albeit they got some cracking points to equalize and go ahead.
The only consolation is that some of those boys are cracking players and that tonight defeat will allow them to learn the lessons they clearly didnt against ballacolla in the hurling

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on August 25, 2016, 02:49:54 PM
It's 1979 since Ballyroan last won a minor so it's a big deal for Ballyroan.  They have 5 Senior players plus 1 or 2 that are too young for Senior.  Also a lot of Abbeyleix hurlers and Moffitt & Conway so they are pretty decent.  Ballacolla has always had isolated footballers with Ballyroan

It's 1965 since Emo parish won a minor A so a fair big deal for us tonight! ;)

Quote from: Heshs Umpire on August 25, 2016, 09:54:38 PM

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on August 25, 2016, 02:49:54 PM
It's 1979 since Ballyroan last won a minor so it's a big deal for Ballyroan.  They have 5 Senior players plus 1 or 2 that are too young for Senior.  Also a lot of Abbeyleix hurlers and Moffitt & Conway so they are pretty decent.  Ballacolla has always had isolated footballers with Ballyroan

It's 1965 since Emo parish won a minor A so a fair big deal for us tonight! ;)

In fairness you have a chunk of Mountmellick town playing with you as well which is a bit of a joke. Nevertheless congrats the best team won.

Congrats to the winners!

The constitution of many juvenile teams is strange these days. In fact, I think it is worrying! Take the two teams involved tonight.
As previously mentioned the eligibility of some of those Rock players could be questioned- although I'd imagine that once they became Rock players back as 8/10 year olds (or whenever) that's the end of it. The Rock are renowned for having an "eclectic mix"- and drawing players from unusual places.

Ballyroan Abbey Gaels is very interesting! I'm not questioning it's eligibility but as you look down the grades it's very interesting!

Minor Hurling-
Abbeyleix Gaels- Abbeyleix (with Ballyroan players) plus Ballypickas
Clough Ballacolla (on their own!)

Minor Football-
Ballyroan Abbey Gaels- Ballyroan (with Abbeyleix players) plus St Fintan's Raheen, plus an isolated player from Clough Ballacolla.

U16 Hurling-
Abbeyleix Gaels- Abbeyleix (with Ballyroan players) plus Clough Ballacolla
St Fintan's Ballypickas- St Fintan's Raheen plus Ballypickas.

So in the minor hurling final you will potentially have players playing against each other who play together at U16 level (Abbeyleix & Ballacolla) and players playing with each other who play against each other at U16 level (Abbeyleix & Ballypickas!)

This all seems messy to me!

And by my calculations, there was the opportunity to have up up to 8 clubs "legally" represented tonight?

1) Ballyroan, Abbeyleix, Colt, Shanahoe, Clough Ballacolla
2) Emo, Courtwood, The Rock.

Is this not taking things a bit far?

Quote from: Keyser Söze on August 25, 2016, 11:10:40 PM
Congrats to the winners!

The constitution of many juvenile teams is strange these days. In fact, I think it is worrying! Take the two teams involved tonight.
As previously mentioned the eligibility of some of those Rock players could be questioned- although I'd imagine that once they became Rock players back as 8/10 year olds (or whenever) that's the end of it. The Rock are renowned for having an "eclectic mix"- and drawing players from unusual places.

Ballyroan Abbey Gaels is very interesting! I'm not questioning it's eligibility but as you look down the grades it's very interesting!

Minor Hurling-
Abbeyleix Gaels- Abbeyleix (with Ballyroan players) plus Ballypickas
Clough Ballacolla (on their own!)

Minor Football-
Ballyroan Abbey Gaels- Ballyroan (with Abbeyleix players) plus St Fintan's Raheen, plus an isolated player from Clough Ballacolla.

U16 Hurling-
Abbeyleix Gaels- Abbeyleix (with Ballyroan players) plus Clough Ballacolla
St Fintan's Ballypickas- St Fintan's Raheen plus Ballypickas.

So in the minor hurling final you will potentially have players playing against each other who play together at U16 level (Abbeyleix & Ballacolla) and players playing with each other who play against each other at U16 level (Abbeyleix & Ballypickas!)

This all seems messy to me!

Thats f**king hilarious.

Quote from: Don Draper on August 25, 2016, 11:34:07 PM

Quote from: Keyser Söze on August 25, 2016, 11:10:40 PM
Congrats to the winners!

The constitution of many juvenile teams is strange these days. In fact, I think it is worrying! Take the two teams involved tonight.
As previously mentioned the eligibility of some of those Rock players could be questioned- although I'd imagine that once they became Rock players back as 8/10 year olds (or whenever) that's the end of it. The Rock are renowned for having an "eclectic mix"- and drawing players from unusual places.

Ballyroan Abbey Gaels is very interesting! I'm not questioning it's eligibility but as you look down the grades it's very interesting!

Minor Hurling-
Abbeyleix Gaels- Abbeyleix (with Ballyroan players) plus Ballypickas
Clough Ballacolla (on their own!)

Minor Football-
Ballyroan Abbey Gaels- Ballyroan (with Abbeyleix players) plus St Fintan's Raheen, plus an isolated player from Clough Ballacolla.

U16 Hurling-
Abbeyleix Gaels- Abbeyleix (with Ballyroan players) plus Clough Ballacolla
St Fintan's Ballypickas- St Fintan's Raheen plus Ballypickas.

So in the minor hurling final you will potentially have players playing against each other who play together at U16 level (Abbeyleix & Ballacolla) and players playing with each other who play against each other at U16 level (Abbeyleix & Ballypickas!)

This all seems messy to me!

Thats f**king hilarious.

There were some good players on view tonight most notably on the winning side as they had 4 under 16s in the forward line who all look like county players. However, I don't think Ballyroan and Emo, the two senior clubs with players tonight will get many senior standard players out of it in the next year or two. On the Ballyroan side, some lads are going to opt for hurling while Courtwood had some very good players on the winning team. 

Josephs barrowhouse beat sarsfields in the minor championship this year...sarsfield are mountmellick so how come MM players still won a minor....

Quote from: The Monument Road on August 26, 2016, 12:10:50 AM
Josephs barrowhouse beat sarsfields in the minor championship this year...sarsfield are mountmellick so how come MM players still won a minor....

This could only happen in Laois. In order for the Courtwood Emo Rock amalgamation to take place, Courtwood and Emo were deemed by the Co board to be isolated players so they could play with The Rock who are based in Mountmellick parish.  You had the ludicrous situation  last night where 25 players were technically isolated  in order to facilitate a handful of players. A strict interpretation of the rules would suggest that each Emo and Courtwood player should have filled a permission form in order to play with the amalgamation. The Rock players are not illegal, it's the other way around. With this application of the rule, EMO/Courtwood can pick up players from Mountmellick parish who are playing with the Rock which isn't far off poaching.

Quote from: Downtheroad on August 25, 2016, 11:00:14 PM
In fairness you have a chunk of Mountmellick town playing with you as well which is a bit of a joke. Nevertheless congrats the best team won.

Who do they have from Mountmellick?

It's 1965 since Emo parish won a minor A so a fair big deal for us tonight! ;)
[/quote]

There were some good one on that team, between Lawlors, Dunnes etc.

Am I right in thinking the Emo/Courtwood/Rock amalgamation has been in existence in differing grades for a few years now? Is it a case that no one gave a f**k until they won something?

Think it's going a couple years at this stage alright. The rock have teams up to u14 but haven't had numbers to field teams above that. They approached Emo and Courtwood so the couple of lads they do have could each play at their own age group. Downtheroad I think your over thinking things here, its just a sensible solution to get a couple extra lads some football. They are a nice team, and a lot of the players have been successful up along. I think only 4 that started were up to the age.

It's a good alternative to letting stinky old suits dictate what goes on in clubs. It's progressive thinking and no harm whatsoever to see two strong panels lining up against each other. There should always be an avenue into football/hurling in your local club, but there should also be a a stage on which you can better yourself. That's not always possible in some smaller clubs, so I'm all for these amalgamations. There were young lads winning medals there last night that might never have seen the day if someone didn't do something constructive. This can only be a good thing as it ups the ante for all other minor teams in the county, and will in turn make them better.

well done to both sides in an entertaining minor final, and congrats to the winners.

in the debate on amalgams, don draper has hammered home the nail....no one pays a bit of notice to amalgams if they exit in round 1 or 2...if they have the brassneck to be still in come final time, then suddenly an amalgam becomes a problem.

this board, bar the rare exception, agrees there must be change to the senior football structure with clubs twinning or trebling up to form a competitive team. dinosaurs in single clubs tend to be the biggest stumbling block to change.

by  embracing amalgams at minor level, you are in a sounder position to promote them at adult level.

in a perfect world, at minor level for instance, it would be super if there was a spread of titles over a ten year period won by various amalgams mixed with single club wins for the likes of the town, or port or graigue.

Clonaslee staying up! Unbelievable. Emo are in real trouble.

Quote from: SCFC on August 28, 2016, 07:45:55 AM
Clonaslee staying up! Unbelievable. Emo are in real trouble.

6 9 to 0 24 is a bizarre score. Was in OMP so missed what I what always thought was going to be a white knuckle ride for whoever had the misfortune to run into Clonaslee. While Emo are not gone yet, it's looking bad as either The Heath and Graigcullen will be formidable. Emo's problem is that they lack depth and the very fact that Michael and Conor Lawlor are getting games doesn't bode well. The minor win the other night is welcome but is not going to address the lack of quality for a few years yet. Funny enough, I think The Heath are vulnerable in a way O'Dempseys were last year  as they will be in shell shock if they lose to Graig in replay.

Both The Heath and Emos downward spirals have really been incredible but I think it again highlights how after Portlaoise and possibly Killeen how the other 14 clubs in senior are pretty much on a par.
The Heath and Graiguecullen could go either way, I think it's more important for The Heath to win as they're clearly lacking motivation and I couldn't see them winning a relegation final where as Graiguecullen are a team who I'd fancy to grind out a result against emo.

Was it the same clinaslee team that played the first two matches or were some of the missing players back . Emo must have real trouble in the back line . 4-17 against ballyfin and now 6-9 against clonaslee who are "supposed" to be the two weakest teams in it.

Never bet against Clonaslee when they're backed into a corner. Ever.

Emo lost to cretty, ballyfin and clonaslee there is no doubt they deserve to go down, there is a bit of a hiatory of club having an awful season after reaching the highs that they did last year, ballyroan champions in 06 relegated in 07, Timahoe finalist in 07 relegated in 08, Kilcruise semis in 13 and regular finalist beforehand would of been relegated if county board had a set of balls,  o dempseys in 14 semi finalist relegated last year,

Take portlaoise away and its a very even championship but a very poor one too

Weekend Results:

27/08/2016
Graiguecullen                  0-13
The Heath                       0-13    AET.
   
Arles/Killeen                   3-14
Killeshin                         0-16

Clonaslee St Manmans     6-9
Emo                               0-24

St Joseph's                     3-8
Mountmellick Gaels         2-6

 
28/08/2016
Ballylinan                       3-10 
Portarlington                  1-13

Crettyard Gaels              2-11
Ballyfin Gaels                 0-15

The standard is through the floor. I think most teams would be a grade below what they are in Laois if for instance, they played in Meath or Kildare. So many changes are now necessary to put the county straight.

SFC Quarter Final draw:

Stradbally v Ballylinan
Portlaoise v St Joseph's
Arles Kilcruise v Crettyard Gaels
Ballyroan Abbey v Arles Killeen


SFC Relegation Semi Final replay
The Heath v Graiguecullen is on Wednesday 31st August 7.30pm in Stradbally GAA

Emo's defeat to Clonaslee puts Ballyfins supposed wonder comeback into context, with further context coming last night with defeat to Crettyard. And a little more context on their decision to pull out of the league.

Quote from: Don Draper on August 29, 2016, 08:26:11 AM
Emo's defeat to Clonaslee puts Ballyfins supposed wonder comeback into context, with further context coming last night with defeat to Crettyard. And a little more context on their decision to pull out of the league.

Fair Comment. Crettyard didn't seem to have Spink players last night either from what I could make out. The standard in general was shocking over the weekend. If Emo stay up, I imagine, they will grab the Courtwood lifeline and form a gaels team.   If they go down, they won't be able to form a gaels team for at least a year unless some of their players opt to play with one the existing senior clubs. I still think that The Heath are the most vulnerable of the 3 left.   

Ballyfins comeback against emo was always going to be overstated, due to the pattern the game took. The 2 teams in the game were evenly matched enough in the 1st half, but Ballyfin coughed up 2 crazy soft goals, leaving the scores as it did at half time. The game was similar in the 2nd half, except they took their chances, and omitted mistakes in their own defence.

Emo should not be written off in the relegation final, they are scoring heavily enough all year, but obviously conceding a truck load of scores, if they somehow stem the tide at the back, tighten it up a bit, Heath & graiguemay struggle to out score them.

Not sure Don how last nights defeat for Ballyfin puts anything into context regarding their decision to pull out of the league? They pulled out of the league due to 1) the division they were in & 2) their previous difficulties in trying to get teams together to fulfill fixtures in it, especially in the earlier rounds, when you're ending up calling on a lads from junior teams to keep it going, and they possibly involved with 2 teams in hurling also. What "context" would you put the championship showing of the Heath into, following their league exploits?

Quote from: Downtheroad on August 29, 2016, 01:39:35 PM

Quote from: Don Draper on August 29, 2016, 08:26:11 AM
Emo's defeat to Clonaslee puts Ballyfins supposed wonder comeback into context, with further context coming last night with defeat to Crettyard. And a little more context on their decision to pull out of the league.

Fair Comment. Crettyard didn't seem to have Spink players last night either from what I could make out. The standard in general was shocking over the weekend. If Emo stay up, I imagine, they will grab the Courtwood lifeline and form a gaels team.   If they go down, they won't be able to form a gaels team for at least a year unless some of their players opt to play with one the existing senior clubs. I still think that The Heath are the most vulnerable of the 3 left.

Can a gaels team consist of players from an intermediate side or does it have to be from a junior team?

Quote from: Timmy on August 29, 2016, 01:59:44 PM

Quote from: Downtheroad on August 29, 2016, 01:39:35 PM

Quote from: Don Draper on August 29, 2016, 08:26:11 AM
Emo's defeat to Clonaslee puts Ballyfins supposed wonder comeback into context, with further context coming last night with defeat to Crettyard. And a little more context on their decision to pull out of the league.

Fair Comment. Crettyard didn't seem to have Spink players last night either from what I could make out. The standard in general was shocking over the weekend. If Emo stay up, I imagine, they will grab the Courtwood lifeline and form a gaels team.   If they go down, they won't be able to form a gaels team for at least a year unless some of their players opt to play with one the existing senior clubs. I still think that The Heath are the most vulnerable of the 3 left.

Both intermediate and junior players can play on a gaels team.  Not restricted to one club either.
Can a gaels team consist of players from an intermediate side or does it have to be from a junior team?

Both intermediate and junior players can play on a gaels team.  Not restricted to one club either.

Quote from: Downtheroad on August 29, 2016, 01:39:35 PM

Quote from: Don Draper on August 29, 2016, 08:26:11 AM
Emo's defeat to Clonaslee puts Ballyfins supposed wonder comeback into context, with further context coming last night with defeat to Crettyard. And a little more context on their decision to pull out of the league.

Fair Comment. Crettyard didn't seem to have Spink players last night either from what I could make out. The standard in general was shocking over the weekend. If Emo stay up, I imagine, they will grab the Courtwood lifeline and form a gaels team.   If they go down, they won't be able to form a gaels team for at least a year unless some of their players opt to play with one the existing senior clubs. I still think that The Heath are the most vulnerable of the 3 left.   

Was 2 spink lads on it one scored 1-1 the rest of the ballinakill lads involved with hurling didnt turn up

Quote from: Downtheroad on August 29, 2016, 01:39:35 PM
If Emo stay up, I imagine, they will grab the Courtwood lifeline and form a gaels team.   If they go down, they won't be able to form a gaels team for at least a year unless some of their players opt to play with one the existing senior clubs.

Not as I understand it. If Emo went down, they could form a group senior team with Courtwood or The Rock or Annanough or any combination of those teams.
The rule doesn't refer to a "Gaels team", it's called a group team.

That said it didn't happen the last time Emo went down! And theyre not gone yet this year either!

Quote from: SCFC on August 29, 2016, 04:30:23 PM

Quote from: Downtheroad on August 29, 2016, 01:39:35 PM
If Emo stay up, I imagine, they will grab the Courtwood lifeline and form a gaels team.   If they go down, they won't be able to form a gaels team for at least a year unless some of their players opt to play with one the existing senior clubs.

Not as I understand it. If Emo went down, they could form a group senior team with Courtwood or The Rock or Annanough or any combination of those teams.
The rule doesn't refer to a "Gaels team", it's called a group team.

That said it didn't happen the last time Emo went down! And theyre not gone yet this year either!

Fair point that there are not gone yet. The point I was making was that co board are not going to allow a 17th team in Senior championship. Remember what happened a few years ago.

They should of went ahead with the idea of reducing the senior to 12 and adding four extra intermediate teams that would leave it 12 senior teams 12 intermediate teams

I enjoyed the Ballylinan Port game altho eddie's reffing was not up to its usual standard...

There was some very dodgy calls in the Ballyfin game as well...Ballyfin not getting the goal in the first half at a crucial stage when he blew for a free just before it was dispatched into the net.

Some of the tackles on James Finn near the end as he steam rolled through the Crettyard defence should have been straight Red's not black(I think on was)

Standard over the weekend wasn't good.

Crettyard will feel they were very lucky to get over the line helped by Murphy's frees and as soft a goal you'll see in the championshipin the first half when the ball bounced into the net from 55 yards

St.Joes just did enough to get past a Mountmellick team that lacked belief.

Ballylinan and Port was by far the highest standard of the weekend and Ballylinan will beat Stradbally on that performance.

Kileen did the bear amount needed to beat Killeshin who I would put in the same bracket as Mountmellick,Ballyfin,Crettyard and Clonaslee as lucky to be senior teams.

I didn't see the Heath game so I can't comment but I'll go to the replay in Stradbally tomorrow night!

Quote from: Cruella De Vil on August 29, 2016, 01:54:10 PM


Not sure Don how last nights defeat for Ballyfin puts anything into context regarding their decision to pull out of the league? They pulled out of the league due to 1) the division they were in

And now they have gone down another division what exactly are they going to do?

Keyser, I believe they drop to 2b from 2a, if so, they can still get to div 2 semis by coming in the top 2 of same.
But, I stand to be corrected on this, as I'm not sure.

Nothing to do with this thread but this was some left hook from Paudie....  ;D

https://youtu.be/z0h3QQIBH6Y (https://youtu.be/z0h3QQIBH6Y)

Genuinely can't see how its good for Ballyfin Football not to participate in the League or for the players.  I do realize they have hurling with a small base of players however lets be honest they are getting success in Football I just wonder why it's not the priority.

I don't think if they win Div 2B and win semi and final they automatically go to Div 1 B. 

Relegation semi-final result:

Graiguecullen  1-15
The Heath       0-8

Quote from: Junior Ex Laoistalk on August 31, 2016, 09:41:16 PM
Relegation semi-final result:

Graiguecullen  1-15
The Heath       0-8

That's fairly comprehensive. My money will be on Emo to stay up as the Heath have registered another poor score and are in a bad place.

Graiguecullen were by far the better team tonight, everyone upped their game from the first match and even without the injured Mark Timmons they were always on top. Things were not going too good at the club and weren't helped by their manager walking away after the defeat to Portarlington.  They seemed rudderless during the first game with The Heath but turned it all around tonight. The Heath looked a tired team and could be in trouble in the final against Emo.
http://www.midlands103.com/sport-centre/graiguecullen-retain-laois-senior-football-championship-status/ (http://www.midlands103.com/sport-centre/graiguecullen-retain-laois-senior-football-championship-status/)

Not too many expected that pairing in this years relegation final, last years finalists and this years league winners...

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on August 31, 2016, 10:20:58 AM
Genuinely can't see how its good for Ballyfin Football not to participate in the League or for the players.  I do realize they have hurling with a small base of players however lets be honest they are getting success in Football I just wonder why it's not the priority.

I don't think if they win Div 2B and win semi and final they automatically go to Div 1 B.

The league is a busted flush. That is why. It means nothing and Ballyfin have proven that point. The winners of it are in a relegation final. In the main, people like the championship and league format, but it does zilch for the development of players in the county. Two early rounds of the championship are needed badly.

Two early rounds when? you're talking April if you want to do it before Laois begin championship. So play two rounds and you'll have four teams out of the championship by the end of April?

Maybe any teams who fall by the wayside in those two rounds could come back into the Intermediate Championship. Most counties have early rounds of the championship. Squashing it into a two month period is only asking for mediocrity, and that's what we're getting.

Very good idea in my opinion.

Not sure how easy it would be to get the clubs to agree.

Don't think the suggestion of losers going back into intermediate championship would be fair. Not fair on teams in the intermediate championship to have perceived stronger outfits bounced in on them mid competition, I think it'd be crazy.
I believe the problem with the league is there are simply too many games, playing a dozen or so games, starting lads back around February drags out the whole year too long, 5/6 league games starting in May, split divisions smaller, winners of say A & B contest a final, losers play relegation final, no semis etc, should give lads more interest, towards slogging away for 3 months with it.

Fair play to Graigue on a big performance, a lot of credit must go to them for producing their best showing of the championship, whilst under the most pressure. The Heath vs Emo will be very tight, and probably the best remaining spectacle of this years championship!!

Quote from: Giovanni on September 01, 2016, 04:41:30 PM
Very good idea in my opinion.

Not sure how easy it would be to get the clubs to agree.

An awful idea imo, and shocking unfair on the Intermediate Clubs.

We're trying to raise the standard here. The 4 worst teams in Senior would hardly do the world of damage in Intermediate. If anything, I'd fancy Portlaoise Intermediates and O Dempseys to beat any of them. There is no huge gap so don't be trying to make out they are powerhouses. There's an imbalance there anyway with 16 Senior teams and 8 Intermediate. Some Senior teams are Senior only in name, and exist only to keep that status. That doesn't interest me at all and so what if a few Intermediate teams are found out? There is always Junior A. This is Laois all over.

Quote from: High Fielder on September 02, 2016, 09:08:59 AM
We're trying to raise the standard here. The 4 worst teams in Senior would hardly do the world of damage in Intermediate. If anything, I'd fancy Portlaoise Intermediates and O Dempseys to beat any of them. There is no huge gap so don't be trying to make out they are powerhouses. There's an imbalance there anyway with 16 Senior teams and 8 Intermediate. Some Senior teams are Senior only in name, and exist only to keep that status. That doesn't interest me at all and so what if a few Intermediate teams are found out? There is always Junior A. This is Laois all over.

No its not f**king Laois all over, its railroading Intermediate Clubs to try and solve a problem in Senior. If you want to put Senior Clubs down Intermediate, then f**king relegate them properly, and restructure the Championships and now be acting the shite with f**king band aids over a gaping wound!

Railroading? You actually said railroading. Bringing the 4 worst teams out of Senior into Intermediate, which if restructured anyway would only address the imbalance. Railroading.

Quote from: High Fielder on September 02, 2016, 09:16:10 AM
Railroading? You actually said railroading. Bringing the 4 worst teams out of Senior into Intermediate, which if restructured anyway would only address the imbalance. Railroading.

No, I said restructure it properly at the start of the year. Instead of letting the Intermediate start, and then drop 4 new teams into it just because you want to suit the Senior teams. If you want to put them down, do it f**king right. Do it at this years convention. Propose it now.

There is no one single, right or wrong way. No club wants to drop to Intermediate overnight so just picking 4 clubs couldn't work. What I have suggested is probably no more or less than will be proposed at inter county level where eventually, teams will play in A and B championships. It happens in soccer too. Champions League non qualification and you drop into the Europa.

I would like to see 2 rounds of the Senior Championship played before any other grade, not just for the above reasons, but also to negate the possibility of clubs playing lads at a much inferior grade

Personally I don't like this idea but we should be open to ideas.  A lot of talk about amalgamations however if 4-5 amalgamations happen then the benefit of amalgamations is nullified ie. it becomes hard to win.  Thus why amalgamate, clubs are only going to amalgamate to win stuff not for the good of the overall standard of football in the county.  Personally the league I feel should be the major tournament with the top four of div 1(A) playing in semi-finals, can't see it happening. 

yes perhaps it is time to address the numbers of clubs at senior level.

if we want to make it 12 senior and 12 intermediate in perhaps 2 years times...here is the way to do it.


next year, 2017, we will have 16 senior clubs.

revert to 4 groups of 4.
group winners to quarters.
group 2nd and 3rds into a play off for the 4 other quarter spots.#
bottom of each group relegated.

to make it fair, at draw stage...the 4 semi finalists from 2016 would be seeded, one into each group and the remaining places randomly drawn.

an idea.....sure to be shot down!.

Turkeys will never vote for Christmas cuskoo, but going as we are is not getting us anywhere. I personally have no problem with 16 Senior clubs but adding and subtracting one each year dilutes any ambition some clubs have. Staying Senior is everything. Grand, but some clubs bring nothing to the table either for the Championship or themselves. I see no problem asking 4 clubs to play Intermediate football if they couldn't cut it at Senior. It would never pass because clubs look after their own interests and would vote it down, but they can't in all seriousness expect to find a good Laois team out of the shite that we're looking at

A good Laois team will not be a product of a competitive senior championship. They are two separate issues. Anyone who has, or potentially has the ability to play with Laois should be picked up by development squads.

I think you're putting too much faith in our development squads which are severely under rwsourced

Maybe so, but there's not many lads who have played senior with Laois over the last 20 years who haven't played underage with Laois. It's a small county, the county standard players are known from early on.

If development squads were the safety net that you're saying they are, then why are we producing very little? Lads don't live their life in the bubble of a development squad; sooner or later they go back to clubs where for the most part of the year, lads are playing in half speed league football. The whole ethos of Laois football is wrong and needs to be changed before we fall off the cliff altogether. There is very little to recommend what we're currently doing.

on laois gaa website, the fixture is up for relegation final of Graigue vs Emo is this just an error or have graigue done something wrong vs the heath?

Quote from: From the Terrace on September 05, 2016, 04:26:12 PM
on laois gaa website, the fixture is up for relegation final of Graigue vs Emo is this just an error or have graigue done something wrong vs the heath?

It's unlikely the Laois GAA website is wrong.  :)

True. On the championship portlaoise are not going to be ran close this year after last years scare, interesting thing will they add the intermediate or junior to their inevitable senior title.. 

Quote from: From the Terrace on September 05, 2016, 04:26:12 PM
on laois gaa website, the fixture is up for relegation final of Graigue vs Emo is this just an error or have graigue done something wrong vs the heath?

Think it's just a mistake (another one), there was certainly no problems at the game and Graiguecullen won it convincingly..

Quote from: From the Terrace on September 05, 2016, 04:26:12 PM
on laois gaa website, the fixture is up for relegation final of Graigue vs Emo is this just an error or have graigue done something wrong vs the heath?

Noticed that. Thought I was misinformed about Graigue winning. The Heath play Emo.

One thing that needs to be put right in this county is that every player should have the opertunity to play Senior football if good enough.

This can be done with area teams very easily and I can't understand why it isn't in place already.

I'm not suggesting it's the answer to all problems but it is something that can be done and has a lot of positives to it.

Ideally, relegate teams from senior (how many is debatable) and establish 2,3 or 4 area teams. Allow any team that is not senior to represent an area.

Gives all players a chance to play senior
Creates a bit of interest in the local championship
Strengthens the intermediate grade
Takes pressure off clubs to keep players at small clubs

Fixtures


16/09/2016
19:45 Arles Kilcruise  v Crettyard Gaels           O'Moore Park   

17/09/2016
15:30 The Heath  v  Emo                                McCann Park  (Relegation Final )
18:00 Ballyroan Abbey  v   Arles/Killeen           O'Moore Park   
19:30 Portlaoise GAA  v  St Joseph's                O'Moore Park

18/09/2016
19:00 Stradbally  v  Ballylinan                         O'Moore Park

I expect Portlaoise, the 2 Arles teams and Strad to come through.
Would be nice to see Ballylinan or Ballyroan Abbey getting a win.
Presume Killeen will be all out to "win it for Danny"!

16/09/2016
19:45 Arles Kilcruise  v Crettyard Gaels           O'Moore Park   -> Crettyard aren't a bad side but Arles experience should see them through.

17/09/2016
15:30 The Heath  v  Emo                                McCann Park  (Relegation Final ) -> I have a feeling Emo might just pull it out of the fire. Could be game of the weekend!
18:00 Ballyroan Abbey  v   Arles/Killeen           O'Moore Park   -> Hard enough to call but think Arles will prevail if Kingston's are on form.
19:30 Portlaoise GAA  v  St Joseph's                O'Moore Park -> Portlaoise.

18/09/2016
19:00 Stradbally  v  Ballylinan                         O'Moore Park -> Probably not much of a surprise but I think Ballylinan will nick this one.

Hopefully we will be in for some good games anyway!

Kilcruise V Cretty has to be Kilcruise with Cretty having no Ballinakill players, all those for amalgamations would think again if they had this one. 
BallyroanAbbey V Kileen  Tough game Ballyroan fingers crossed
Portlaoise V St Josephs  I am going for the shock of shocks here ST JOSEPHS
Ballylinan V Stradbally Draw   

some accum

St Joesphs may have learned alot from their defeat to Kilcruise however I don't think they would have learned enough to beat Portlaoise. They did look to be in a commanding position at half time in that game mind.

Here's hoping though.

Like the majority I think it'll be the Arles two, Portlaoise & Stradbally but maybe Ballylinan might be the surprise one
Emo v The Heath is a tough one to call, could be a serious battle

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on September 16, 2016, 02:00:01 PM
Kilcruise V Cretty has to be Kilcruise with Cretty having no Ballinakill players, all those for amalgamations would think again if they had this one.   

Oh dear

Quote from: Don Draper on September 16, 2016, 09:18:42 PM

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on September 16, 2016, 02:00:01 PM
Kilcruise V Cretty has to be Kilcruise with Cretty having no Ballinakill players, all those for amalgamations would think again if they had this one.   

Oh dear

Lol

Ouch imagine what they would be like when Ballinakill come only two Spink players.  Fair play to Crettyard Gaels is this the first time they have been in a semi final of the senior.

P.S Aftertimers

In fairness its a great day for cretty and indeed the few spink lads, having said that you do the to fear this could be the start of a very steep fall for a kilcruise team who for the last 15 years have made the absolute most of what they had (unlike their fellow villagers)

Result:

The Heath  0-15
Emo          2-08

Quote from: Ballyroan Abbey on September 16, 2016, 10:00:35 PM
In fairness its a great day for cretty and indeed the few spink lads, having said that you do the to fear this could be the start of a very steep fall for a kilcruise team who for the last 15 years have made the absolute most of what they had (unlike their fellow villagers)

under achieved badly tonight only won by 3

Result :

Arles Killeen   3-10
Ballyroan         2-10

From county finalists to relegation. Only thing predictable about the senior championship is Portlaoise winning it.

Result :

Portlaoise      1-11
St. Josephs    1-11

Fair play to Josephs but you only get one shot at Portlaoise.

true, honestly didnt think anyone would come close to the town this year, serious effort.

Credit to Josephs, but they hardly did anything ground breaking. It was a seriously flat Portlaoise performance, and that is becoming a theme most years for them now. They always seem to put in at least one very ordinary display. We never see the best of Portlaoise in the Laois Championship, and even in the first round of Leinster, they can look ring rusty. They also don't benefit from a very poor in standard Laois Championship. One player dominated the whole evening's football, and to be honest, it was frightening how far ahead Donal Kingston was of any other player on that field yesterday. Frightening because he had nowhere near that sort of influence for Laois this year, which tells you a lot about what we're watching. Defences were abysmal yesterday, particularly in the Killeen/Ballyroan game.

Portlaoise lack leaders and a bit of ruthlessness. They could do with finding a couple of lads who don't mind getting their hands dirty. It can all look a bit nice at times.

Fair play to Joseph's ,they were excellent and their game play was spot on and they could not have asked for things to pan out better . Although Portlaoise played into their hands it was a serious effort from Joseph's and the replay is by no means a foregone conclusion but at least that clown of a referee won't be in charge ,he is in good company in this company in Laois but by god he is a walking joke .

Great effort by Joseph's really tested portlaoise. First 20 mins was so much faster than previous game. Other teams tried to play like that v portlaoise but didn't have the pace to move the ball when they won it or fitness to last the hour. Joseph's do.

That game will bring portlaoise on though after the long lay off. You'd imagine they'll learn from last night. Whoever wins the replay will be in great condition for rest of championship.

Flynn tried to let game flow but some decisions were baffling. Luckily it was 2 teams out to play good fast football

Portlaoise very below par - won't be caught  next day, I think.
Was at Emo v Heath in Port.
Emo may find life in intermediate a bit more difficult than the last time they were down 4 or 5 years ago.

Result:


Stradbally:   2-19
Ballylinan:    0-12


 

SFC Semi Final Draw:

Stradbally v Crettyard Gaels
Portlaoise or St Joseph's v Arles Killeen

Emo were very dependent on Strong, too dependent really. Thought The Heath were by far the better team but Emo got their goals at critical times which brought them back into it and they kicked on for a few minutes afterwards but The Heath deserved it. Losing Costello didn't help Emo's cause as their bench didn't look too strong

Is there a big twist from the Ballyroan game against Arles Killeen from the weekend.

Ballyroan Abbey considering appeal against result of Saturday's loss to Arles/Killeen but Laois GAA say they've not received an appeal yet

https://twitter.com/willocallaghan/status/777894140910731268

Over what?

Quote from: El Jefe on September 19, 2016, 09:31:16 AM
Emo were very dependent on Strong, too dependent really. Thought The Heath were by far the better team but Emo got their goals at critical times which brought them back into it and they kicked on for a few minutes afterwards but The Heath deserved it. Losing Costello didn't help Emo's cause as their bench didn't look too strong

Not sure they were by far the better team, but did edge it alright. Emo got off to a terrible start down 5-1 after ten minutes. Was fairly even after that I thought. Disappointing year for both clubs really. Emo will probably be favourites to bounce straight back up, but as was seen with o'dempseys the other night it can be tricky.

Quote from: El Jefe on September 19, 2016, 05:11:26 PM
Over what?

Killeen supposedly had 15 on the field after a sending off?

I think Portlaoise got their annual warning last weekend and cant see them loosing the replay. I was at the u-21 final last year and was very impressed with St.Josephs so if they bring that form again it will be a close encounter.  Stradbally looked best team over the entire weekend.  Interesting games coming up.

Portlaoise are at least a 6 or 7 point better team than Josephs. There is something wrong when they are not able to show that. I actually think Portlaoise have enough strength in depth now to look seriously at Leinster, but they need to be more ruthless. I do wonder about one or two of their starting 15 because to my mind, I saw better in the Intermediates.

Quote from: High Fielder on September 22, 2016, 11:14:54 AM
Portlaoise are at least a 6 or 7 point better team than Josephs. There is something wrong when they are not able to show that. I actually think Portlaoise have enough strength in depth now to look seriously at Leinster, but they need to be more ruthless. I do wonder about one or two of their starting 15 because to my mind, I saw better in the Intermediates.

agree fully....josephs had at least 8 of that u21 team from last year playing and 7 are still u21 I hear so portlaoise should easily beat them . Kileen depend too much on kingston .....stradbally are my favourites for an upset...

Joes v Town replay tonight. Any thoughts? I think Portlaoise will win but might not win the championship.

Portlaoise pretty awesome tonight.
1-4 to 0-1 down going into first half injury time having played with a storm. Won the rest of the game
0-11 to 0-1!!

Quote from: SCFC on September 23, 2016, 10:05:50 PM
Portlaoise pretty awesome tonight.
1-4 to 0-1 down going into first half injury time having played with a storm. Won the rest of the game
0-11 to 0-1!!

Just to be clear- Portlaoise had the wind in the first half?
Jesus that's some position Joseph's were in so!

Quote from: Keyser Söze on September 23, 2016, 10:09:40 PM

Quote from: SCFC on September 23, 2016, 10:05:50 PM
Portlaoise pretty awesome tonight.
1-4 to 0-1 down going into first half injury time having played with a storm. Won the rest of the game
0-11 to 0-1!!

Just to be clear- Portlaoise had the wind in the first half?
Jesus that's some position Joseph's were in so!

Correct. They couldn't push on and win it. Too defensive. Didn't go for it.

as a long time supporter of portlaoise u have to admire dem..year after year to show de same hunger..fair play to josephs de came with a plan it nearly worked...its unreal what commitment this team give year after year...

Quote from: SCFC on September 23, 2016, 10:10:54 PM

Quote from: Keyser Söze on September 23, 2016, 10:09:40 PM

Quote from: SCFC on September 23, 2016, 10:05:50 PM
Portlaoise pretty awesome tonight.
1-4 to 0-1 down going into first half injury time having played with a storm. Won the rest of the game
0-11 to 0-1!!

Just to be clear- Portlaoise had the wind in the first half?
Jesus that's some position Joseph's were in so!

Correct. They couldn't push on and win it. Too defensive. Didn't go for it.

Whatever Joseph's did or didn't do that is still some comeback!

Over to Arles Kileen to try stop Portlaoise now for 10 in a row. All about taking Donie Kingston out of game who for me has been one of the players of championship.
Eoin Buggie from Stradbally also been excellent and is worth a call up when Laois seniors reconvene.

as a big fan of laois football and especially Portlaoise as to what they have achieved this ranks up there with their best performance to come back from 6 down against that breeze.  Credit Malachy and the lads.

Laois Senior Football Semi-Finals:

O Moore Park.   2-10-2016
   
14:00.   Crettyard Gaels v  Stradbally     
15:30.   Arles/Killeen v  Portlaoise

Can't see past a Portlaoise Stradbally final

Already have my Sunday planned out sitting in the stand and can see Portlaoise by 7 points and Stradbally by 9.

Stradbally would do well to be wary of Crettyard, especially with the Ballinakill boys to fall back in.

Dont think the Cretty Stradbally match will be that straightforward . The Town are due a big big performance .Whether it happens this weekend remains to be seen . By all accounts Killeen have been targeting this match for a while . Is James Mahon suspended for this ?

It'll be very tight between portlaoise and killeen, killeen  fancy their chances quite naturally. I'm not actually sure where Portlaoise are at TBH as I don't think they have played that well this year  but from chatting to a couple of people involved, the half time break versus Joseph's was pretty epic in the portlaoise dressing room and it could be the real kick start to this championship for Portlaoise. 

Portlaoise by 3points I think and stradbally by at least 5 points .

I fancy Kileen to overturn the Town its just a gut feeling I have!

considering that portlaoise bet killen by 5 or 6 a few weeks ago without healy i cant see how they will overturn the town this time.
Crettyard from what i know wont play the ballinakill lads bar the 2 who started the last two matches and the sub they had as a number of them who were due to start never showed up before the ballyfin game and never informed management they wouldnt be showing up beforehand, regardless I think stradbally will win this handy enough.

While I do think that Portlaoise will win the 10th title I think this may be the first year they will have properly been tested in Laois, weather thats from the other clubs improving, Portlaoise slipping or a combination of both remains to be seen, and probably wont be known until the leinster campaign

Baby King and Donie Brennan did not play against Portlaoise first day.  I think Killeen and stradbally

I think at this stage its nieve enough to not back portlaoise seeing as they have given no reason to doubt them (in laois anyway), one loss in 10 years (by a point when they were missing 3 starters who were concentrating on hurling) says it all. I fo feel though that the gap has been closed a bit this year and they will get caught in the next few years, but i cant see it being this year

Hard to see anything other than a tenth title for Portlaoise on what we saw today. Portlaoise won comfortably and always gave the impression there was another gear if needed. I don't think we've seen them properly cut loose yet, and maybe we won't in Laois. They probably don't need to show their full hand in Laois, but I'm not sure that works for them either. Either way, they have many different scoring options, whilst Killeen seemed happy to rely on one. Killeen would probably be relegation material without the Kingstons. That is how much they rely on them, Donal in particular. Someone needs to cop on down there, and in Kilcruise. A bit of bitterness isn't a problem. Stupidity is though.

Progress for Stradbally, who are this years best of the rest. Not near or next to good enough I would have thought to beat Portlaoise, but good luck to them. Stranger things have happened. Saddest sight of the day was watching Evan O'Carroll hobble around trying his best. Not right really, but the lad still deserves credit.

It was bad form today in O Moore Park today that with such a decent crowd and triple header that there were no medical/paramedic personnel designated. The county stewards very slow to bring a stretcher onto field for Crettyard player who was clearly in agony at the end. Similar incident in Intermediate final on Friday night where Timahoe player carried off to sideline by own players.

Portlaoise very comfortable and should be goo for 10 in a row.

Begley best player on show today. Cretty will be wondering what if as O'Carroll's loss killed them.
Portlaoise comfortable, never got out of second gear. Bam Kennedy's red card was idiotic and cost Killeen any chance they might have had.
Strad not too bad, think they'll give Town a good run for it in the final.

Portlaoise had an easy victory and were never in trouble, the Arles Killeen Player sending off (deservedly so) really finished the game as a contest. Portlaoise a long way off what they are capable of producing maybe they have an eye on the Leinster Club Championship. Stradbally will improve in sharpness between now and the final their forwards were wasteful during the first half playing with a strong breeze. the second have Stradbally completely Dominated, Begley was completely in charge. I expect that Stradbally will give Portlaoise a stern test and if they hit it right on the Day could spring a surprise. 

If portlaoise show up and decide to play near their potential they will annialate stradbally. Strad have improved a bit this year and begley is a big help but they have had a very handy run to the final, clonaslee, cretty twice and ballylinan, they took a long time to finish off a very limited cretty team today (bar maher who i felt was excellent in the first half and murphy). Portlaoise to win by 5 minimum.

Fair play to Stradbally for getting to Final but lets be honest route was
Clonaslee
Crettyard
Ballylinan
Crettyard

I suppose you can only beat what is in front of you they have been impressive in the wins but now they face the big dogs.

Poor fair in O'Moore park yesterday in my opinion...

Stradbally did enough to beat a poor Crettyard side.

Portlaoise weren't too impressive in beating a Killeen side who themselves didn't play well..

Bruno Mccormack was the pick of the players on show with Colm Begley and Cahir healy also showing well...

Donie and Paul Kingston were as usual very good for Kileen

Stradbally and Crettyard was desperate at times. The basic skills from some players were below Junior standard. If Colm Begley didn't stand out there, he'd have no business on a county panel. Thankfully he did, in fairness to him. The Killeen tactic of just hoofing the ball to Donie was like something from another era. Back to the old days of lobbing it into the big fella. I don't think they could have done much more though, because they didn't have the pace like Josephs to rush forward and back.

The Killeen/Kilcruise situation is morally wrong in my opinion. It has gone on for far too long. I don't know the exact details of the row, but my understanding is that it started over a field. If that is the case, and I stand corrected, then all involved should be ashamed. Kilcruise have their title in 2003, but many lads on their current panel don't have a medal, and nobody in Killeen has one. They'd still be formidable for a year or two if they joined immediately, but there's also the future to think about. Time to get some sense.

Quote from: High Fielder on October 04, 2016, 09:51:24 AM
Stradbally and Crettyard was desperate at times. The basic skills from some players were below Junior standard. If Colm Begley didn't stand out there, he'd have no business on a county panel. Thankfully he did, in fairness to him. The Killeen tactic of just hoofing the ball to Donie was like something from another era. Back to the old days of lobbing it into the big fella. I don't think they could have done much more though, because they didn't have the pace like Josephs to rush forward and back.

The Killeen/Kilcruise situation is morally wrong in my opinion. It has gone on for far too long. I don't know the exact details of the row, but my understanding is that it started over a field. If that is the case, and I stand corrected, then all involved should be ashamed. Kilcruise have their title in 2003, but many lads on their current panel don't have a medal, and nobody in Killeen has one. They'd still be formidable for a year or two if they joined immediately, but there's also the future to think about. Time to get some sense.


This ....It's just total madness....

Can anyone give the details of the fall out and when it happened ?

Portlaoise by 4 in final. They were far better than Killeen and stradbally will pose a few problems for tjem

I think the split was over the club name and the dispute over the rights to the field happened later on.

Quote from: High Fielder on October 04, 2016, 09:51:24 AM
Stradbally and Crettyard was desperate at times. The basic skills from some players were below Junior standard. If Colm Begley didn't stand out there, he'd have no business on a county panel. Thankfully he did, in fairness to him. The Killeen tactic of just hoofing the ball to Donie was like something from another era. Back to the old days of lobbing it into the big fella. I don't think they could have done much more though, because they didn't have the pace like Josephs to rush forward and back.

The Killeen/Kilcruise situation is morally wrong in my opinion. It has gone on for far too long. I don't know the exact details of the row, but my understanding is that it started over a field. If that is the case, and I stand corrected, then all involved should be ashamed. Kilcruise have their title in 2003, but many lads on their current panel don't have a medal, and nobody in Killeen has one. They'd still be formidable for a year or two if they joined immediately, but there's also the future to think about. Time to get some sense.

I remember the whole fiasco well. It happened well over 20 years ago when an Arles club general meeting decided to change the name to Arles Kileen and the minority at that meeting didnt accept it. The outcome was a new club was set up called Arles Kilcruise with the old Arles club called Arles Kileen. As far as i can remember the whole episode went down the legal route. Ironically the two Arles clubs have joined together this year at under 13. Maybe a sign of things to come :P

Article from the Times back in 2003.

From The Sunday Times
November 23, 2003
Kilcruise relight fire amid the fury

A Laois community was split in two by a dispute at the local club. Now the whole county is united behind their pursuit of Leinster glory, writes Michael Foley
Two years ago, driving through Arles from his home in Kildare for the first time on his way to training, Jim Maguire noticed there was nothing to notice. In the village, he saw a church and the Tall Trees pub. He saw a derelict shop on one side of the road and a few houses collected near the pub. Out the road he came across the pitch, lined out on the side of a gentle incline on a lush part of James Kealy's farm, with a cargo container acting as a dressing room and clubhouse.
This was Arles-Kilcruise. They had little but their spirit, and a stubborn belief in themselves. They had known times as bad as they could ever have been, but now unimaginable things seemed possible. The spirit among the players was intense and seeped into every vein of the community. On the muckiest training nights, knots of locals would linger on the sidelines. The team knew they needed the cold input of an outsider, but it took Maguire, a new co-manager, time to cut his way into their trust.

"They were absolute fanatics for football," says Maguire. "For a club like them to achieve what they have they'd have to be."
The last two weekends have brought those unthinkable dreams to life. Last Saturday Arles-Kilcruise won their first Laois county senior title. The following afternoon they beat O'Hanrahans of Carlow in the Leinster club championship and this afternoon they play Round Towers in a Leinster semi-final.
Less than a decade ago, Arles didn't exist. Three years ago they had no field and almost saw their very existence crushed by a judge's gavel. But they found the resolve to survive, nurture their footballers and live the dream. This is their day.
Arles parish holds about 300 houses and three clubs, which carve those thin resources between them. On one side of Arles-Kilcruise sits Ballylinan, on the other Arles-Killeen. For 30 years the parish had two clubs, Arles and Ballylinan. For years Arles existed in happy obscurity. In 1974 they reached a county semi-final, but it was a rare spark that was quickly extinguished.

Larry Wall captained Arles in 1974, and soon after began calling to Arles national school to coach football. He still turns up every Friday evening, his enthusiasm hardly sapped by the years. The school houses about 40 children and two teachers and provided every player on Kilcruise's current panel. Wastage is considered a crime. No player with even an ounce of talent is left untapped.
Wall's household led the way. His own son Jim played until his mid-teens but after a few years he let it slide. His father worked on him over the year, and eventually he returned. Then a few years ago he broke his leg so badly that he had to have a plate inserted in it, yet he still lined out in midfield last weekend.
"When you drive through the big towns like Portlaoise, with maybe 20,000 people," says Larry, "or see the big clubs like Stradbally or Portarlington, they'd have more in one street than we have in our whole catchment area, but we'd make a team out of what they'd waste. We bring everyone on board and make the most of them."

The circumstances demanded they must. At a meeting in 1993, a group of members from the Killeen side of the parish proposed the club name be changed to Arles-Killeen in order to recognise the input from that end of the parish. Others couldn't understand their gripe. There was talk that the new name might attract a few more players. A vote was taken, and the proposal was passed. Those present who objected — the Kilcruise people — walked out of the meeting, and never came back. The club was ripped in two. At least the Kilcruise group still had people like Wall to fall back on. In 1994, when Laois county board refused to affiliate them while affiliating the rest of the old Arles club under the name of St Michael's, they decided to keep going.
"We tried to hold the club together ourselves," says current chairman JJ Conway. "We knew we had talented young players so we just tried to keep those bunch of players active. We played around 20 challenge matches in 1994. We were only a bunch of junior lads but we went wherever we could get a game."
The following year, the Laois football board decided to affiliate them as a junior B club under the name Arles. Wall took on the job as manager, and has been there since. That year they won the county title. In 1996 Beano McDonald brought home an All-Ireland minor medal to St Michael's, while JJ's son Chris brought one back to Arles, who won the junior A title. Now they were intermediate, and level with their neighbours.
Relations had been tolerable, but both sides kept their distance. The Tall Trees was evacuated by the Kilcruise people, who relocated to Kellys in Ballickmoyler out the road. Brothers and neighbours ended up playing for two different clubs. Little things kept relations strained. The clubs shared the local pitch, but found training sessions were clashing. There might be a comment passed, or a dig given in company, but largely the peace was kept.

In 1996, they met in the intermediate final. Thousands came expecting enough dust-ups and spats to fuel decades of rivalry. Instead, the game was a classic. Arles led to the end but St Michael's sneaked ahead to win. It shattered Arles, but the desolation of losing to St Michael's in a football final was nothing compared to the next twist.
In 1999, Arles won the county intermediate title and St Michael's launched an objection to their retention of the name, which mushroomed into a legal action against Laois county board. Seeing as they had walked out of the club, surely, they argued, Arles had no right to the name or any recognition. There was talk of a High Court action. A priest from Wexford was called in to mediate, but he went home shaking his head. All kinds of old skeletons were allowed to escape.
"I was never in the High Court before," says Conway. "I didn't fancy going up with what was a local dispute. A lot of people were very concerned about the consequences of neighbours fighting over a trivial thing in the High Court."

With the case heading there, Croke Park's turbo-powered disputes committee was called in. With the GAA president and chief executive on board, they set to work on bringing the two together. "You wouldn't believe the tension at the meetings," says one source close to the committee. "All sorts of stuff was raked up. It was a community at war."
After a fortnight of the hardest talking, a resolution was reached. The committee agreed that Arles had acted improperly and were duly banished from the local pitch. However, given their thriving existence, they were allowed to continue under the name Arles-Kilcruise, with St Michael's reverting to Arles- Killeen. For under-age games up to under-21 level, the entire parish, including Ballylinan, would play as one team, called Ballylinan- Glenmore.
Last Saturday, they both fetched up on county final day, Kilcruise in the senior, Killeen in the intermediate. For some in Killeen, although they celebrated when they won their final, the day darkened with the senior result. Others have been able to move on.
"We keep our distance," says Conway. "But last Saturday one of them, a prominent man in the club, came up to me and gave me his congratulations, 'from the bottom of my heart,' he said. Some relations still aren't great. We'd be very good friends with some of them, but there'd still be a certain few. They'd be very much in the minority though."

When they came home to celebrate last Saturday, Arles-Kilcruise headed for Kellys, Killeen headed for the Tall Trees. Still, there have always been cracks in the tension. Some can remember Beano McDonald and Chris Conway high-fiving as teammates with the combined under-age team. Wall works happily as part of a three-man team that has brought the under-21s to the county quarter-finals, while the minors have reached the semis.
"As far as I was concerned," says Kilcruise's Ross Munnelly, "I don't see it as going to play with 'those lads'. The team I play with are my teammates, whoever they are. Any differences can't come into it if you want success."
While the mood has mellowed, they still egg each other on. In the league section of the county championship, Arles-Killeen won their game against Kilcruise by a few points, leaving Kilcruise needing a win against Graiguecullen to progress. The defeat shattered them, but tested the true meaning of their desire for the summer.

"We thought we were flying," says Munnelly. "Then they beat the stuffing out of us. In a way we have them to thank. We were able to refocus and get ready for our last match, which we won quite comprehensively. After that match I said to the lads that now I felt we could win the county championship."
"This is the kernel," says Wall. "We're out to prove a point. We couldn't fail. We had to succeed. There was a lot of people saying we should've stayed together, that we shouldn't have split. But we drove on and strove to get to the top."
Now that things they could never imagined have happened, who can ever tell them what can and cannot be? They have done their recent training in nearby Crettyard, but next spring they move to a new pitch. Jim Maguire's approach has got them far fitter, fusing seamlessly with the natural drive of Wall and selector Leo Flanagan. The entire county has rowed in behind them, and this afternoon the support will be bigger than anything they could have dreamed of.
But for all the fighting, their survival is rooted in the purest expression of their devotion. Every Friday, Larry Wall heads for the national school, teaching and coaxing and encouraging. Every evening, as the children go home, he tells them that while they have homework to do for school, they have football homework to do in their back gardens for him, too.

When they start skipping that, then they'll know trouble.

FFS
That's my first time reading that, I wouldn't hold my breath on that.

Here's a bit more taken from this website. There's a lot more here, worth a read.   http://www.anfearrua.com/topic.aspx?id=589488 (http://www.anfearrua.com/topic.aspx?id=589488)

QuoteI could write a book on this local spat.
Some 14 years ago when at the time I was a member of the Tipp County Board, I was one of 4 independent mediators asked by Croke Park to investigate and try and solve a bitter dispute which had reached the high court with the legal bills mounting on all sides. The 2 clubs, Laois County Board & Croke Park were all parties to the High Court action, so a solution was required otherwise the legal bills would rocket.

There were plots and sub plots along the line, but here goes, these were the true facts upon investigation.

Back up to 1993 2 adult clubs existed in the parish of Ballylinan. Ballylinan Gaa, a small village team, and Arles GAA, another tiny village outfit, with a slightly more rural make up. Few arguments arose as to who belonged to the two adult clubs. They played together as Ballylinan Gaels, or by times St Michaels at underage level. That was the back drop   .

In the January of 1993, Arles adult club held its AGM. A proposal was taken from the floor that the actual name of the adult club be changed from Arles to Arles Killeen. The proposal was seconded and on a vote won substantially, well over 70%.
From our investigations the actual change of name caused no great bother to most members. What lay beneath the surface was the real problem. Within the original Arles, two big GAA families dominated. The Conways, including ex Leinster footballers JJ and John. And on the other side the Brennans, headed up by Danny, another former inter county footballer, his father before him had been a long standing Runai of Laois GAA. So picture two heavyweight families. From our research we believed that a dispute, non GAA related, was the origin of the bad blood between the two families. Danny Brennan was the brainchild behind the club AGM motion to alter the club name. He covertly rounded up enough of members to get the motion passed. The Conways were kept in the dark and the first they knew about the name change was on the day. They got the hump because they were not consulted. Instantly two factions developed.

Fast forward 14 months then to the middle of March 2005. Internally in Laois the Hurling and Football boards ran their own affairs at the time. When it came to the entry for teams and affiliations the fun started. Arles Killeen, the new name for the original club entered two adult teams as they were entitled to, one intermediate and a junior B . Then at the last moment, the Conways and their allies entered up a junior team calling it Arles, still claiming they were the original.

Matters were complicated at the Football affiliations meeting because, the then Chairman of Laois football board was D.ick Miller. He was also a first cousin of the Conways and firmly in their corner.
So as a fudge, he allowed the two teams to enter the Laois championships, and the players from the original Arles club were freely allowed to pick their choice of new club. The championship was played out that year, with neither making any inroads, before the nitty gritty of GAA law and national law arose.

Arles Killeen, took cases to the Leinster Council and Croke Park, and were proven to be 100% correct in their actions and that they were found to be the original club. But as you get with Gaa matters, no organ within the association was prepared to dismiss the other club from the picture.

Arles Killeen had acted correctly by the letter of the GAA law and with a fudge emerging not to their liking, took the decision to thrash the case out in the High Court, a main bugbear with them being that the new club should never have been affiliated by Laois football board, and under no circumstances could it be named Arles.

Along with 3 others, I was appointed, by the then GAA president Jack Boothman, plus a mediating member of the cloth to offer a solution. Our interventions were stonewalled, getting nowhere and the gulf was growing between the factions. After a few high court injunctions, with the legal bills reaching well beyond six figures   (sky high back in mid 90s   )   , a deal was brokered, reluctantly I might add on the part of Arles Killeen.

Arles Killeen was accepted as the original club, they had rights to the original pitch, and it was a poor pitch without dressing rooms at the time. The other club could not use the name Arles, they were given a variety of alternatives, selecting Arles Kilcruise, not to the pleasure of Arles Killeen. My part in this polluted episode ended then, I do know that the legal costs were agreed to be borne by the provincial and national bodies.

Reconciliation was not an outcome, so from my experience I would be convinced the bad blood will remain for a number of decades, assuming the two main families remain at the helm of the different clubs.

From a distance it looked a piece of cake to solve, the more you scratched beneath the surface the more poison emerged, and it still appears to be as toxic as ever.

Never heard that about slurry being spread by the Brennans the day of Chris Conways wedding. And robbing the greyhound and painting it black and white.

I do know that there were plenty of rows in Pedigree Corner back in the day that were directly as a result of the split. All the younger club members would have drank there at the time. It got very bitter with rows and arguments a regular occurence.

They will sort it out themselves in time when their both Junior A, one of the greatest disasters in Laois football.  With the talent they had in the early millennium could have won an All Ireland Club.  St Michaels were a serious underage team back in the day.

The Line ups for the finals will be along the lines of this I reckon ...

Cotter is nearly certainly out

Shiel is struggling for Stradbally


Stradbally
D.Beale
Kavanagh
Knowles
Murphy
Delaney
Buggie
C.Beale

Maher
Begley

Ramsbottom
Comerford
Conor Delaney
Shiel
Dillion
Kelly


Portlaoise
Brody
Seale
Healy
Finn
Mulligan
Lillis
Dillion

Nerney
Boyle

Kelly
Smith
Glynn
Cahillane
Rogers
Bruno



I expect Portlaoise to have too much for them and will go for a scoreline of Portlaoise 2-14 stradbally 1-9

Quote from: Unlaoised on October 05, 2016, 01:00:14 PM
Portlaoise
Brody
Seale
Healy
Finn
Mulligan
Lillis
Dillion

Nerney
Boyle

Kelly
Smith
Glynn
Cahillane
Rogers
Bruno

That team could easily line out for Laois in the O Byrne Cup and do reasonably well. The point being : Portlaoise have good strenght all round the field in key areas : Stradbally are missing 4-5 players to compete at P'Laoise's level. The likes of Rogers, Boyle and Cahilane really excel at club level - Bruno too. Pity they don't have that extra gear in pace and athleticism required for the county. I've always thought Glynn could be good enough to work into the Laois side - he's got a very good football brain.

Anyway - Portlaoise by 7.

I have seen all of portlaoise games this year and I have to say Rogers poor enough by his own standards. Thus far I would give Bruno senior player of the year hands down

Quote from: LaoisHeart on October 05, 2016, 03:24:51 PM
I have seen all of portlaoise games this year and I have to say Rogers poor enough by his own standards. Thus far I would give Bruno senior player of the year hands down

Can't argue with that I've seen maybe all but 4 games in the whole championship Bruno ,Lillis ,Kingston and Colm Begley have been excellent....

New to this whole set up but by far them lads have been excellent,,,Bruno for me the main man again for portlaoise,,, 35 years of age and runing the show,,, without doinie Kingston the old me of Arles are gone,, joes babbey port I all see over taking kileen kilcruise from Nxt yr on ,,, stradbally looking fit and lean but haven't played against a defensive system yet this will be crucial to see how they react if the town play this way

Will Zac not be making his annual appearance for Portlaoise this year ??

Some of the names being mentioned here won't do at county level. They just don't have the work rate required. All perfectly good footballers, but pace and work rate is miles ahead of club standard. Attride, Begley and Healy are typical of what you need nowadays. You have to work just as hard without the ball as you do with it. On The Forty has said it elsewhere and I agree with him; we need to change how we think about football in Laois.

Quote from: Junior Ex Laoistalk on October 06, 2016, 12:24:15 AM
Will Zac not be making his annual appearance for Portlaoise this year ??

Not coming home this year.

Portlaoise have been so far ahead that Zac's involvement didn't make much of a difference.

There's great rivalry between the two towns so it will be an interesting final.

Quote from: redsetanta on October 06, 2016, 01:28:47 PM
Portlaoise have been so far ahead that Zac's involvement didn't make much of a difference.

Tell that to Emo

Quote from: Junior Ex Laoistalk on October 06, 2016, 12:24:15 AM
Will Zac not be making his annual appearance for Portlaoise this year ??

It's probably time he started thinking about his future career. Playing meaningless club matches could impact in his fitness. What Portlaoise really need is for him to surface later in the year, to help them with a Leinster run.

Quote from: Don Draper on October 06, 2016, 11:48:29 AM

Quote from: Junior Ex Laoistalk on October 06, 2016, 12:24:15 AM
Will Zac not be making his annual appearance for Portlaoise this year ??

Not coming home this year.

Zach is home since last Friday

Quote from: BobbyBoucherJr on October 10, 2016, 10:34:24 AM

Quote from: Don Draper on October 06, 2016, 11:48:29 AM

Quote from: Junior Ex Laoistalk on October 06, 2016, 12:24:15 AM
Will Zac not be making his annual appearance for Portlaoise this year ??

Not coming home this year.

Zach is home since last Friday

If true it's good to see him home. Always had great time for him since his minor days. Good luck to him if he makes himself available next sunday

Quote from: BobbyBoucherJr on October 10, 2016, 10:34:24 AM

Quote from: Don Draper on October 06, 2016, 11:48:29 AM

Quote from: Junior Ex Laoistalk on October 06, 2016, 12:24:15 AM
Will Zac not be making his annual appearance for Portlaoise this year ??

Not coming home this year.

Zach is home since last Friday

Change of plan so. Contract negotiations still ongoing. Should make it interesting for Sunday.

Was thinking he would make it in time for the final. Still think it is wrong to allow a professional athlete to play in the final of a competition that he had no hand, act or part in up till now and won't be involved in any of the club championship games if they win it. I have nothing but admiration for Zack but I think the ruling on this type of participation is wrong and unfair to whoever they met in the county final.

(http://cdn1.hoganstand.com/Common/NewGallery/inpho_00865198.jpg)

http://www.hoganstand.com/Laois/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=261877 (http://www.hoganstand.com/Laois/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=261877)

I couldn't. agree more Junior. It just doesn't seem right. Are they not strong enough already!!! If he was back earlier it wouldn't be as bad but the fact his 1st game will be a county final just doesn't sit well.

Lads get over it! Its the same thing every year when Zach comes home, he is a Portlaoise GAA club member and is entitled to play. The reason he is later than usual this year is because of his contract negotiations. Are ye telling me if he was playing for your club, he wouldn't play or you would have the same opinion about him. I don't think so.

Portlaoise is some size of a place to only have one GAA club, I imagine I'm not the first to mention it.

Do you want a bigger spoon Maroon Manc!!!

Don't mind Zach playing. Portlaoise's advantage over the rest of us is greater than most anyway. He's 26 now, you'd imagine he won't be coming home/he'll come home for good soon enough.

There's just no catching them at the mo. I said a few years back when they were on 3 or 4, that they would win 8. Never thought we'd see 10. This means that there are kids heading to college who don't remember anyone else bar a Portlaoise senior winning club! [based on the fact that i remember my first All Ireland at 9yo]

They're dead right to play him if they can. They're not breaking any rules so work away but the rule itself is wrong - he shouldn't be allowed play but seeing as there's no rule against it they'd be mad not to use him. Any club in the country would do the same

Of course they should play him if he's available. "Aren't they big enough already" is not a good reason to disallow him playing, in fairness. If it's within the rules, let him on.

Swap Colm Begley for Zach.
Say Begley was still in Oz and Zach hadn't made it.
Don't think many would be saying Strad shouldn't be playing their man.
I love seeing him play. The thoughts of what we're missing do spring to mind though.

When stradbally played portlaoise in the 07 final begley came home from oz and played so the touhy arguement is absolute nonsense

Absolute nonsense people giving out about Zach playing. Do they say the same for proffessional soccer players , proffessional rugby players. Should Kevin Moran have not played with Dublin, should Mick Galway not have played with Kerry not to mention Shane Byrne playing junior with his home club. Well trained international athlethes from the athletic frternity play for their local clubs. As someone has already mentioned C Begley came home and played for Stradbally when he was away. Total nonsense.

Quote from: The Monument Road on October 11, 2016, 09:38:32 PM
Absolute nonsense people giving out about Zach playing. Do they say the same for proffessional soccer players , proffessional rugby players. Should Kevin Moran have not played with Dublin, should Mick Galway not have played with Kerry not to mention Shane Byrne playing junior with his home club. Well trained international athlethes from the athletic frternity play for their local clubs. As someone has already mentioned C Begley came home and played for Stradbally when he was away. Total nonsense.

Mick Galwey wasn't a professional. Neither are athletes.

The Zach argument is done to death. He's a weapon any team would like to have. Its great for Portlaoise to have him. He was the difference in them beating Emo last year. Although he didn't give them much help against Vincents that year he was home for the wedding.

I don't think Portlaoise are wrong to play him, I don't think Zack is wrong for playing. As I said previously I think the rules are wrong to allow this.
Personally I'm looking forward to watching him playing on Sunday, pity it's the only time this year we will see him....

Zach or not The Town by 10 !!!

Play him if you want, but what is the point? He won't be there if they are in Leinster, and they have enough to beat Stradbally anyway. The handicap is 5 points in Paddy Powers, and Portlaoise are a 10 point better team in my opinion if they put the foot to the floor. Great to see him but no more than a sideshow

why are people still talking about this year in year out,,,,my god forget about this silly debate and concentrate on the game itself,,the contrasting styles of play,,,silly talk regarding zach if his back his back if his not his not

Great contribution to this discussion town 1980... :(

Quote from: High Fielder on October 12, 2016, 09:54:12 AM
Play him if you want, but what is the point? He won't be there if they are in Leinster, and they have enough to beat Stradbally anyway. The handicap is 5 points in Paddy Powers, and Portlaoise are a 10 point better team in my opinion if they put the foot to the floor. Great to see him but no more than a sideshow

What's the point? The point is, there's been occasions over the last 6 or 7 years where he's been needed to haul them over the line, last year in particular. No Zach, no 10 in a row and the 10 in a row is almost a bigger drug than the All Ireland at this stage.

the discussion on xach should end...He is not linding out sunday...We should be focused on the likes of bruno rogers and kevin fitz who is still on the panel..These are the players that got portlaoise to where they are today.and a few more..spare a thought for paul cotter who has to give up football at an early age....

Dreadful for Cotter, mired with injury and misfortune. Still, he leaves with a good haul, more than most will get a sniff of in this county.

Paul's been so unfortunate with injury , as good a player as he is you can't but help imagine if he had stayed serious injury free how good a player he could have become .

As for the match itself , it's the first time in years there has been a real buzz around town for the county final from those non die hard supporters. The final suits both teams, Stradbally are out to win and stop portlaoise 10 in a row and many say it's written in the stars they do that and for Portlaoise the fact we are playing Stradbally certainly puts the fear factor into the final and Imo Portlaoise needed that . For Portlaoise playing Stradbally has nullified all talk of 10 in a row and all that crap , amongst supporters no one cares about 10 in a row this week, in the best possible sense all the talk is that we have to beat that crowd !

Stradbally know exactly how to beat Portlaoise better than any team but I do think Portlaoise will produce their best performance of the year and win.

Quote from: Don Draper on October 12, 2016, 07:04:21 PM

Quote from: High Fielder on October 12, 2016, 09:54:12 AM
Play him if you want, but what is the point? He won't be there if they are in Leinster, and they have enough to beat Stradbally anyway. The handicap is 5 points in Paddy Powers, and Portlaoise are a 10 point better team in my opinion if they put the foot to the floor. Great to see him but no more than a sideshow

What's the point? The point is, there's been occasions over the last 6 or 7 years where he's been needed to haul them over the line, last year in particular. No Zach, no 10 in a row and the 10 in a row is almost a bigger drug than the All Ireland at this stage.

Oh right. They run the All Ireland winners to a point without Tuohy, and they need him to beat Emo. I can see how that would work. Portlaoise are 30 or 40 per cent a better team in Leinster and no Zachary in sight.

So sorry to hear about Paul Cotter.

Quote from: High Fielder on October 13, 2016, 10:26:21 AM

Quote from: Don Draper on October 12, 2016, 07:04:21 PM

Quote from: High Fielder on October 12, 2016, 09:54:12 AM
Play him if you want, but what is the point? He won't be there if they are in Leinster, and they have enough to beat Stradbally anyway. The handicap is 5 points in Paddy Powers, and Portlaoise are a 10 point better team in my opinion if they put the foot to the floor. Great to see him but no more than a sideshow

What's the point? The point is, there's been occasions over the last 6 or 7 years where he's been needed to haul them over the line, last year in particular. No Zach, no 10 in a row and the 10 in a row is almost a bigger drug than the All Ireland at this stage.

Oh right. They run the All Ireland winners to a point without Tuohy, and they need him to beat Emo. I can see how that would work. Portlaoise are 30 or 40 per cent a better team in Leinster and no Zachary in sight.

So sorry to hear about Paul Cotter.

But they did need him to beat Emo. They were beaten the first day until he ran down out of the stand and demanded to be brought on. Different days, and different games, but to say he wasn't needed to beat Emo is foolish. They were shipping water and sent for him. It was the sensible thing to do.

They should have beaten the All Ireland winners.

Maybe Portlaoise just don't take Laois seriously? Complacency often looks like an issue. I think the policy is to ghost through Laois and build towards Leinster. None of the teams in Laois would get near Portlaoise fully wound up.

has joe higgins stepped down as kileen manager???

Unfortunate news about Paul Cotter . Always rated Paul and his brother Sean back in the day .

Quote from: High Fielder on October 13, 2016, 10:59:25 AM
Maybe Portlaoise just don't take Laois seriously? Complacency often looks like an issue. I think the policy is to ghost through Laois and build towards Leinster. None of the teams in Laois would get near Portlaoise fully wound up.

Would agree with you there . Perhaps the only team that have and can get under The Towns skin would be Stradbally .  :)

very unfortunate for paul cotter had the capabilities to play good intercounty football,,,i do think strad wont fear portlaoise,,the tactical game of both sides is differant,stradbally play full on 15/15 and portlaoise do play defensive especially this year,,so looking forward to the game itself,,nice achievment for portlaoise club if they do 10 in a row but again with its population it will always be a superior club to others,,the biggest debate is this in my mind

I actually think the loss of Cotter is absolutely massive, argubly Portlaoise best defender after Healy. They may get over the line without him Sunday but I think it will cost them in Leinster, not even Portlaoise can replace an intercounty player with someone of simular ability

I agree, cotter will be a big loss especially as stradbally do have a few decent forwards . Agree with the whole Zach issue aswell. He's a proud portlaoise man n if there's no rule against it he should keep doing it. We have been on the receiving end aswell. In the 2014 quarter final. We led portlaoise by 6 at half time. Realising they're in trouble Zach comes off the bench 5 mins before half time n finishes the game with 2-5 I think n portlaoise win by seven

The whole Zach thing really is up in the air , not even Zach knows if he is togging out yet. If I was a betting man I'd bet  he will not tog out,his current contract situation is too important to risk his future.

its hard not to say portlaoise but i do believe  that stradballys fitness will come into play and there hunger,,they should be more up for it than portlaoise as im sure they would love to be the little town that end the big towns dream,,
also a few managers have left clubs im hearing,,donie norton has left the heath,,,after bringing them a dividion 1 title,,joe higgins has left kileen

I'd bet Zach togs, and is only used in case of emergency, as has been the case for quite a few years now.

Surely stradbally have to go with the St. Joe's blueprint? While they don't have the same mobility as Joe's have i would argue that they carry a greater scoring threat. I reckon they will leave 2 up top (Kelly & Ram) perhaps, everyone else drops back and then they have a couple of runner, begley, comerford, Delaney's x2 that are going to be asked to carry a lot of ball.

As a Portlaoise man I am nervous about the game, which makes a change from many county finals. This is a good thing for Portlaoise, one thing is for certain Portlaoise do not treat Stradbally with complacency. Both teams are where they want to be mentally i would imagine which will make for an enthralling encounter. Tight game with Portlaoise to get over the line by 3/4 points.

The reason portlaoise play better in leinster is due to the fact that its generally man on man possibly 1 sweeper. People have to remember that a that stage of the competition you are playing champions who in their own right feel justifiably so that they can beat anyone. in most games i would back portlaoise man on man to be beat any team. As would be proven by the fact that the team that has generally beaten portlaoise in club championship over the past decade has either won or come very close to All Ireland success. if only Dublin was in Ulster!!!!! :-\

Cant see portlaoise been bet, i dont think stradbally are that good being honest, struggled big time against a limited cretty team in the first half in the semi, stradbally are probably the worst team they have faced so far in the championship, in terms of stradbally beating portlaoise in finals i dont think it counts for much, you have to remember that all bar healy, rodgers and bruno have never lost to stradbally in championship, I cant see portlaoise being complacent either after emo nearly catching them last year

strad could only beat what is in front of them in fairness,,,my view on the contenders in the years to come to beat portlaoise is the joes who look very strong physically and are very youg,,portarlington who if they train and get there actogether and ballyroan abbey who have made a great impact with a very young side,,excellentprogress  made by joes and broanabbey to date

I can see Stradbally pushing the Town all the way. Think there'll only be a kick of a ball in it.

Some finish to the game today. The GAA cliche of cliche's 'goals win games' was apt today. Well done Stradbally.

Quote from: redsetanta on October 15, 2016, 06:08:52 PM
I can see Stradbally pushing the Town all the way. Think there'll only be a kick of a ball in it.

Well said

Well done Stradbally. Badly needed for Laois football.
Nothing against Portlaoise they've been great champions.
Both St. Josephs and Stradbally now have shown there's more than 1 team in Laois.

Karma for Portlaoise. Maybe they'll appeal it to the DRA.

Roy of the rovers stuff there today. Congrats to stradbally, have they opened up the championship for everybody for the years ahead.?By the way, anybody else think that a stradbally point in the first half was definitely wide

Best game of the year, in fact best game of the last few years. Stradbally are not extraordinary but they have great belief and fighting spirit and that can bring you a long way. The loss of Bruno was huge for Portlaoise and but for Cahillane they really had no go to forward. Dillon was very good but I was very disappointed with Craig Rodgers today. I was surprised they didn't have Zack togged out as he probably would have won it for them but it would have been a shame to see Stradbally lose after the way they played.

The goal in the last minute was as good a goal as has been seen anywhere this year but was even better as it left Portlaoise with no time to get back into it. Well referred by Eddie even if he gave a few handy frees to Portlaoise but it didn't deter Stradbally and they fought man for man till the end when they got their just reward. I didn't see any controversial point as has been mentioned above. 

Stradbally could have a good run in Leinster if they put their minds to it , hopefully they will. Well done all concerned.

Quote from: Junior Ex Laoistalk on October 16, 2016, 06:31:03 PM
Best game of the year, in fact best game of the last few years. Stradbally are not extraordinary but they have great belief and fighting spirit and that can bring you a long way. The loss of Bruno was huge for Portlaoise and but for Cahillane they really had no go to forward. Dillon was very good but I was very disappointed with Craig Rodgers today. I was surprised they didn't have Zack togged out as he probably would have won it for them but it would have been a shame to see Stradbally lose after the way they played.

The goal in the last minute was as good a goal as has been seen anywhere this year but was even better as it left Portlaoise with no time to get back into it. Well referred by Eddie even if he gave a few handy frees to Portlaoise but it didn't deter Stradbally and they fought man for man till the end when they got their just reward. I didn't see any controversial point as has been mentioned above. 

Stradbally could have a good run in Leinster if they put their minds to it , hopefully they will. Well done all concerned.

Not having a go at you at all, but isn't it amazing how we all flip flop from one extreme to the other.
At times we are only a stumble from saying that Portlaoise have the best 15 in the county and then we flip to the idea that one player going off changes the game.

We are all guilty of over doing both the positives and negatives in Laois GAA. Not too many would have been brave enough to put their neck out and call a Stradbally win but isn't that what makes GAA and sport fantastic.
The Stradbally team are heroes now and although it's not possible, every hurler and footballer in Laois should get to experience what they are feeling right now once in their careers.

Portlaoise have been fantastic ambassadors. Bad teams don't get to county finals and to come for nine years in a row to county final day and see off the teams they did is an unbelievable achievement that isn't based on pick or resources. It had to have been based on hard work and ability. It had to happen eventually.

Nothing against Portlaoise but Up the Little Town!

Most committed team won. Portlaoise weakened by loss of Bruno and in general, carrying two to three ordinary enough players. I'd be amazed if Stradbally did anything in Leinster but good luck to them. Eddie lost all control of the game in the first half and his umpires and linesmen might as well not have been there. I saw enough from the stands to see why Tommy Conroy was getting upset, but Eddie, the linesmen and umpires were oblivious. Great work fellas. I hope Bruno is ok.

Thought the game lacked quality to be honest ,however it was exciting for the fact it was so close the whole way through which gave it a little bit of edge. Stradbally deserved their bit of luck at the end of the game because of the way they worked so hard ( typical of Martin Murphy teams). Amazing the way things pan out , jody dillon could have counted himself lucky not too been takin off n then pulls a finish right out of the top drawer. Very few county players on show today really with the exception of begley, cahilanne at times n comerford at centre forward for stradbally who I thought took lillis to d cleaners. Who would have thought that the team that should have been relegated two years ago, lucky to avoid relegation last year would be the ones to topple portlaoise

Quote from: The Rover on October 02, 2016, 09:33:22 PM
Portlaoise had an easy victory and were never in trouble, the Arles Killeen Player sending off (deservedly so) really finished the game as a contest. Portlaoise a long way off what they are capable of producing maybe they have an eye on the Leinster Club Championship. Stradbally will improve in sharpness between now and the final their forwards were wasteful during the first half playing with a strong breeze. the second have Stradbally completely Dominated, Begley was completely in charge. I expect that ]Stradbally will give Portlaoise a stern test and if they hit it right on the Day could spring a surprise. 

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Good Fortune favors the brave, Stradbally were the braver, more determined team and the never say die attitude deserved the victory. I hope they give the Leinster a
good rattle and do the county proud. WELL DONE STRADBALLY A GREAT TRADITIONAL FOOTBALL CLUB ONCE AGAIN SITS ON TOP.

Great win for Stradbally and much needed in Laois football. Portlaoise have been catchable, but the aura surrounding them since 2007 has probably given them an edge and a few extra points in the run.

A new team is top of the pile and the DRA cases and fishing trips they've been doing puts this into context. Portlaoise have seen this coming and now, hopefully, they're back in the pack and we can have a competitive championship again.

Congrats to Stradbally. #16, after 11 years on #15. And what a way to win it!

Quote from: Junior Ex Laoistalk on October 16, 2016, 06:31:03 PM
Best game of the year, in fact best game of the last few years. Stradbally are not extraordinary but they have great belief and fighting spirit and that can bring you a long way. The loss of Bruno was huge for Portlaoise and but for Cahillane they really had no go to forward. Dillon was very good but I was very disappointed with Craig Rodgers today. I was surprised they didn't have Zack togged out as he probably would have won it for them but it would have been a shame to see Stradbally lose after the way they played.

The goal in the last minute was as good a goal as has been seen anywhere this year but was even better as it left Portlaoise with no time to get back into it. Well referred by Eddie even if he gave a few handy frees to Portlaoise but it didn't deter Stradbally and they fought man for man till the end when they got their just reward. I didn't see any controversial point as has been mentioned above. 

Stradbally could have a good run in Leinster if they put their minds to it , hopefully they will. Well done all concerned.

Best game for years???
Most exciting maybe but the general quality of the footballers must be of great concern to the new Laois manager. It was hard to pick out an inter county standard player today.

The future of club football in Laois should be more competitive but we need to start developing quality footballers fast.

Agree with that. It's easy to confuse excitement with quality, but the proof will come when Stradbally and Laois take on teams from other counties. We are guilty in Laois at times of living in our own little bubble, and marking players out because they excel in poor company. The first game today was pitiful to watch, and proof that our underage coaching is terrible. The basic skills at times were way below an acceptable level, and so many lads were physically weak. Good hard tackling and strength in possession were particularly poor, but that wouldn't worry me as much at that age as the crazy amount of wayward passes. All in all, Stradbally winning a title aside, a bad day for football.

Experts on here, saying Portlaoise were ten points the better team. Bad say for them.

Well done to Stradbally. Comerford and Begley were my pick for men of the match. I'd say even a lot of people in portlaoise wont mind this result too much. it's good for Laois Football. Ref had an ok game - he has to get more backing though, too many linesmen / umpires say nothing to play it safe.

Not sure bout that tony, id say portlaoise are sick. Fair play to strad, great for laois football. Sick of listening to all negative stuff here, anyone with a head for football knows laois usually punch over their weight, although last few years haven't been great. Hopefully this new setup will work out well.

what a day for laois football,,the stand was full of man from differant parts of laois supporting stradbally,,bruno and zach have been the main lads getting portlaoise to 9 titles them not on the field and they are pipped and looked very ordinary,,how malachy left craig rodgers on the team is beyond me he was soooo bad ,,,paul cahalaine who got oceans of ball could not punish stradbally he was 1v1 with jamie kav all the second half and for me jamie kav was outstanding to hold him,,,frigi murphy was my mom,,but begly and comerford were also immense,,strad brought great intensity to the game but malachy got it all wrong and tommy conroy getting sent to the stands shows you his arrogence fair play eddie for doing your job,,it gives all of laois great hope i now believe portlaoise are slipping,,,st joes portarlington graigue and broanabbey there are county titles there for yee ,,,stradbally are proof to everyone ,,well done the little town

Quote from: From the Terrace on October 17, 2016, 09:06:46 AM
Not sure bout that tony, id say portlaoise are sick. Fair play to strad, great for laois football. Sick of listening to all negative stuff here, anyone with a head for football knows laois usually punch over their weight, although last few years haven't been great. Hopefully this new setup will work out well.

Laois may have punched above their weight in the past but we always had some really good footballers. The point is that the future is not looking good. The last good crop of players are coming to an end. Our performances underage for the last 10yrs has been poor. 'Anyone with a head for football knows that'🙄

Quote from: Unison on October 17, 2016, 07:13:38 AM
Experts on here, saying Portlaoise were ten points the better team. Bad say for them.

I was one of those people. For what it's worth, I still believe it. There was a period in the second half where Portlaoise were dominant and the Stradbally back line was all at sea. That was the point at which to kill the game off. Portlaoise's lack of ruthlessness rather than anything Stradbally were doing kept it competitive. Fair play to Stradbally. They stuck at itand never gave up and it was nice to see them winning a title. Portlaoise will know they lost it rather than Stradbally winning it though. The Stradbally back line will get a proper doing somewhere along the line.

I think its a bit premature to be saying that this is now a new era for Laois club football. This could be the kick up the arse Portlaoise needed to get going again. I agree that they certainly aren't as strong as previous years but I wouldn't be one bit surprised if they were winners again next year. It was a good result for Laois football however as it was becoming stale. However I can't understand how people are saying it was an outstanding game. It was a relatively poor game and without the excitement at the end I would say it was as forgettable as a previous 9 finals, Portlaoise just playing out to another win. But well done to Strad, written off by most, it was a serious win!

There was a lot of off-the-ball stuff going on especially in the first half but very unfair to say that Eddie lost control of the game. Impossible to see everything but could've definitely done with more support from his officials. He did let the game flow in fairness which added to the excitement
Not the highest standard game every but a great watch and a fairytale ending for Stradbally. Portlaoise looked the better side in the second half and never looked like losing it until the goal. Never seen a team & management in as much shock at the final whistle. Fair play to Stradbally, they kept themselves in it even when Portlaoise stepped things up and never let the gap get too wide. The chap Comerford had a smashing game. Jody Dillon didn't do much in the game and looked knackered with 10 minutes to go but some finish from him.
Been some year of finals in O'Moore Park

Quote from: Uisce on October 17, 2016, 09:34:05 AM
but I wouldn't be one bit surprised if they were winners again next year.

True, but at least there will be a competitive edge. I don't think the scenario is like when Crossmaglen's 13-in-a-row ended....they missed a year and resumed to another seven(?). Portlaoise have been coming back to the pack and I believe that other teams will start next year with a greater expectation.

We need a competitive club scene. We've Port, Pauls and Ballyroan dominating the underage scene, with Joes/Barrowhouse at U21. A bunch of new winning teams would be refreshing.

Portlaoise have been coming back for 3 years now they prob held on because of their belief.  They were a great team but I think they prob never achieved what they should have that is  an "All Ireland Club".  I am sure they will be competitive but I doubt they will be as dominant for sometime again if ever.  The smaller clubs into the future will amalgamate and GAA in Portlaoise is struggling at the moment.  What can you say about Stradbally well fair play their own belief and tradition helped no end and well done.   For those saying the quality was poor, it's club football it usually is but it is one of the great finals for entertainment and tension for me that's enough.   Go on the Little Village now were all coming for you.

well said broan abu,,,your own club is tipping along nicely and producing alot of footballers under age,,yee lost the minor but it might benifit the young lads in the future,,,yee performed excellently and were a whisker away from beating kileen,,joesphs and yee seem to have a crop comming to add titles to yere name,,both clubs with tradition of winning titles

Quote from: High Fielder on October 16, 2016, 11:24:20 PM
Agree with that. It's easy to confuse excitement with quality, but the proof will come when Stradbally and Laois take on teams from other counties. We are guilty in Laois at times of living in our own little bubble, and marking players out because they excel in poor company. The first game today was pitiful to watch, and proof that our underage coaching is terrible. The basic skills at times were way below an acceptable level, and so many lads were physically weak. Good hard tackling and strength in possession were particularly poor, but that wouldn't worry me as much at that age as the crazy amount of wayward passes. All in all, Stradbally winning a title aside, a bad day for football.

You're judging this on one match, if you'd see either of these two teams during the year both at U16 & U17 level you'd know they're both far better than they showed yesterday. Big game with an unusually big crowd for them to play in front of, have to cut them some slack. A good majority of them are part of the Laois U16 side that's probably the best underage side the county has at the minute. Bad game yes but not a fair reflection on either side

Quick question for ballyroanabu. Your underage structure is doing very well at the moment but are the areas of shanahoe n colt lumped in with ye aswell n can those lads play senior football with ye in the future?

None of this underage stuff in St. Paul's is worth a shite because at the end of the day they have to go back to 3 clubs. A lot of the players on show yesterday won't go on to play football when they are older

Ballyroan are in a good position because they are still called Ballyroan abbey at senior

Quote from: the sash on October 17, 2016, 11:57:09 AM
Quick question for ballyroanabu. Your underage structure is doing very well at the moment but are the areas of shanahoe n colt lumped in with ye aswell n can those lads play senior football with ye in the future?

Is Raheen have no adult team, the players can go where they like. If Raheen does, BA have to ask the clubs' permission and will play as a Gaels team.

Any chance any one wud know where I could buy a Ballyroan abbey senior jersey a nice bit of stuff

Shanahoe and Colt have contributed a lot at underage football to Ballyroan over the years, but this is now becoming less and less.  I don't think there are many from Shanhoe or Colt on our U14's downwards .  In saying that I do wish Colt and Shanhoe would allow players to transfer to Ballyroan for football purposes only but they are unwilling to do that.  BallyroanAbbey I doubt ever will become a Gaels team.

Very enjoyable game yesterday with a great crowd. plaois just couldn't put stradbally away,twice they went a couple of scores up but just couldn't kill it off ,stradbally kicked some wonderful long range points in the first half which surprisingly plaois were unable to do.While talk of this being the end of portlaois is premature ,yday showed how heavily they rely on Bruno and Zach ,and that some of there older players naturally are starting to lose that bit of pace and maybe hunger.Hopefully this may be the end of the talk about amalgamations,stradbally showed what can be achieved with some guts and belief and how special it is when you win it with your own club

i have also heard this am that p clancy has stepped down as ballyroanabbey manager,,,surprising as they have done very well under him and seemed to be heading in the right direction under him,,thats kileen, heath, graig, babbey, that i no of looking for managers

The Ballyroan abbey job is a very attractive job kileen have run there race there's no potential there graigue with the right man in place could do better

Quote from: El Jefe on October 17, 2016, 11:27:59 AM

Quote from: High Fielder on October 16, 2016, 11:24:20 PM
Agree with that. It's easy to confuse excitement with quality, but the proof will come when Stradbally and Laois take on teams from other counties. We are guilty in Laois at times of living in our own little bubble, and marking players out because they excel in poor company. The first game today was pitiful to watch, and proof that our underage coaching is terrible. The basic skills at times were way below an acceptable level, and so many lads were physically weak. Good hard tackling and strength in possession were particularly poor, but that wouldn't worry me as much at that age as the crazy amount of wayward passes. All in all, Stradbally winning a title aside, a bad day for football.

You're judging this on one match, if you'd see either of these two teams during the year both at U16 & U17 level you'd know they're both far better than they showed yesterday. Big game with an unusually big crowd for them to play in front of, have to cut them some slack. A good majority of them are part of the Laois U16 side that's probably the best underage side the county has at the minute. Bad game yes but not a fair reflection on either side

I've seen plenty of underage football and it's the same thing everywhere. It won't travel outside of the county the older they get. I can appreciate everything you said above, but the transition from being a nice young footballer to an inter county player, as you know, is a big one. We have a lot of nice young footballers, but individually, how many are making the breakthrough? The return is disappointing and I put that down to poor coaching

i do think any of the clubs would be good for a manager to take ,,,heath including there at a good age

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on October 17, 2016, 12:20:20 PM
Shanahoe and Colt have contributed a lot at underage football to Ballyroan over the years, but this is now becoming less and less.  I don't think there are many from Shanhoe or Colt on our U14's downwards .  In saying that I do wish Colt and Shanhoe would allow players to transfer to Ballyroan for football purposes only but they are unwilling to do that.  BallyroanAbbey I doubt ever will become a Gaels team.

Colt and mountrath are joined up as st fintains, i would assume that any shanahoe lads that would want to play with them are welcomed, being honest i think we have a big enough pick with abbeyleix without having to go to raheen to get players, id rather see colt, shanahoe and mountrath have a football team between them and give it a proper go, because i reckon they could challenge for a junior A if they did so, we arent that far removed from castletown/slieve bloom getting to a junior A final, if they did that then the likes of dunphy wouldnt have to go to portlaoise to be given oppurtunities with the big ball

Can intermediate players play senior football with a Gaels team or is it only Junior lads? You would imagine a few of the Emo boys would want to play Senior.. they would give a serious boost to a club!

Intermediates can play with a Gaels team

Quote from: Uisce on October 17, 2016, 03:00:30 PM
Can intermediate players play senior football with a Gaels team or is it only Junior lads? You would imagine a few of the Emo boys would want to play Senior.. they would give a serious boost to a club!

I'd imagine they'd have enough on their plates trying to win the intermediate!

ballyroanabbey/ballyroan abu,,very surprised yee didnt retain the services of p clancy,,i thought yee wer quiet good under him again came within a whisker of the semi final this year,,why would yee bother going gaels when yee are doing quiet well under age,,,st pauls as stated could win a few titles but it doesnt progress them to senior as they all now play for intermediate sides and that is a bad championship,,,emo v timahoe they will be the ones challanging for senior status

His choice not ours left on good terms always welcome back.

Is there any talks about gales teams happening next year, considering how successful a year crettyard had with spink you would think a few more clubs would consider it, i know josephs and barrowhouse came close last year but considering that they came close to beating portlaoise this year they might not be interested again, i do think barrowhouse would be an interesting option for clubs on the kildare/carlow border, regarding emo/courtwood now would probably be the best time to join if they ever do it as it would give them a strong chance of winning in there first year which tends to help amalgamations

Is there not talk of some of the emo boys kicking with mountmellick next year

i heard that emo lads want to but i do think this will hinder there intermediate chances,,,kick in the ass to the club if you ask me,,seems like a loss for yee in ballyabbey

Quote from: Uisce on October 17, 2016, 03:00:30 PM
Can intermediate players play senior football with a Gaels team or is it only Junior lads? You would imagine a few of the Emo boys would want to play Senior.. they would give a serious boost to a club!

It's an area team or a group team. Not a "Gaels team". And yes, intermediate and junior players can come together to form an area team or now join an existing senior club to form an area team.

For anyone who couldn't make it yesterday...

https://vimeo.com/187629893 (https://vimeo.com/187629893)
http://sportstalk.ie/watch-last-gasp-stradbally-goal-denies-portlaoise-10-in-a-row/ (http://sportstalk.ie/watch-last-gasp-stradbally-goal-denies-portlaoise-10-in-a-row/)

Can anyone from Portlaoise confirm how Bruno is?

Quote from: High Fielder on October 17, 2016, 08:04:19 PM
Can anyone from Portlaoise confirm how Bruno is?

Released from Hospital today,suffering from concussion,doesn't remember anything of the game which is probably a blessing in disguise 😏

That sod in O Moore Park must be awful hard  ::) Sickening. Pity Eddie and his boys missed that.

What i will say is that eddie kinsella behaviour  was disgraceful in letting the match go on and bruno down injured..He deserves better than that..There were 7 officals there yest and not one person saw a thing.The one thing portlaoise will have to do going forward that they may get more physical..being too nice is  getting them nowhere....

Where head injuries are concerned, you stop the game. End of story. Knowing what we know now, this potentially could have been very serious. That's just the tip of the iceberg. We know nothing of the incident itself and how it happened.

it could have ended very bad..tg it didnt...

It's bad enough as it is if you ask me. A lad ends up in hospital with concussion and nobody knows what happened. Worse still, we play on while he lays on the ground concussed. Not good enough on any level

There are 2 cameras on every game in omp for this reason and they should be used. With the amount of Stradbally officials in around omp I doubt if it will.

I actually happened to see bruno's injury and i can honestly say it was a complete accident, bruno had gone in behind the full back and checked to turn back and ran into the full back, there was absolutely no malice in it whatsoever

I'm hearing otherwise but even allowing for that very innocent explanation, why was the game not stopped? A man is lying flat on the pitch. Stop the game. Simple.

If that's what you saw Ballyroan, then I have no reason to doubt you. I thought Kinsella was awful yesterday. No control at all. He sent Conroy to the stand but his own antics in the Minor final were ten times worse against your own team.

At the very least, an inquiry needs to be held into the incident.

Id say there is plenty of sick heads in stradbally today. Congratulations to them in what was a gutsy performance and best of luck in representing the county in leinster. For Portlaoise maybe this will be the kick they needed.
The championship player of the year for me was colm begley. its no coincidence they won it with him in his first year back. Credible mention to eoin buggy also.
The best 2 games I seen all year were Portlaoise v st josephs and Ballyfin vs Emo. 

Quote from: High Fielder on October 17, 2016, 11:48:27 PM
I'm hearing otherwise but even allowing for that very innocent explanation, why was the game not stopped? A man is lying flat on the pitch. Stop the game. Simple.

If that's what you saw Ballyroan, then I have no reason to doubt you. I thought Kinsella was awful yesterday. No control at all. He sent Conroy to the stand but his own antics in the Minor final were ten times worse against your own team.

At the very least, an inquiry needs to be held into the incident.

Seriously? Ballyroan just said above that he saw it and it was an innocent collision. When has an enquiry ever been held into an incident like that? No one argued with the referee over the incident, no one claimed at the time that he got a box etc so maybe it was just as described already

Quote from: Saint75 on October 17, 2016, 11:29:35 PM
There are 2 cameras on every game in omp for this reason and they should be used

For what reason?

Absolutely an inquiry. A lad was unconscious for fucks sake and the ref played on. Irrespective of the circumstances, and Ballyroan'version is not what I've heard, this was a serious failure by all officials. You don't take chances with head injuries

Yes he should definitely have stopped the game, that's dead right but what I'm saying is that no one on the pitch saw it or argued about what happened so maybe it was an innocent collision. Is a poster here said he saw it clear as day then there's your eye witness, no reason to doubt him.
I think Eddie missed a few things alright but definitely needed more support from his officials. In fairness he did let the game flow as much as possible which made for entertaining viewing. He was dead right to send Conroy to the stand, just because he himself got away with it in the minor final doesn't mean he should leave Conroy there. That was up to the referee that day to look after, he looked after this game as he should with the Conroy decision

I'm not interested in the flow of the game if a lad was lying unconscious. It seems this is the second time in Bruno's career that he turned the wrong way against Stradbally. The officials let him down and whilst you would never hear whinging from the Portlaoise club, they weren't well served on the day. There was also a wide in the first half flagged as a point.

This is quite unfair I doubt Eddie or anyone for that matter if they had realised the extent of Bruno's injury would have let the game continue.  I think anyone criticising the referees for this matter are been quite unfair.   Yes Bruno was injured but nobody wants to see anyone suffer any serious injury referee included.   I really think anyone implying this should hold fire and have a good think about it.

I have thought about it. Bruno McCormack is an honourable man. He isn't prone to play acting. I can't think of any reason why that game shouldn't have been stopped. It's actually sickening. I'm just grateful the lad is ok. Nothing else maters after that.

The umpires also seemed to indicate that it was an accidental collision and conroy seemed angry about play continuing yet he wasn't to worried when plaois were in possession firstly

They can have an inquiry if they want but there is nothing there to prosecute anyone with, i hope its picked up on camera because to suggest it was anything other than accidental is just lies

Nobody is questioning Bruno's character nor does anyone want to see him or anyone else lying injured on the field. Yes the game should've been stopped but the extent of the injury obviously wasn't known by the referee nor anyone else for that matter. You're nearly implying that Eddie left him lying there out of spite or something which is crazy

Don't even try to put words in my mouth. When a player is lying flat on the ground, the game should be stopped. Let that be Eddie Kinsella or Donald Duck. You stop the game.

Nobody is debating that at all, it should've been stopped

Quote from: Saint75 on October 17, 2016, 11:29:35 PM
There are 2 cameras on every game in omp for this reason and they should be used. With the amount of Stradbally officials in around omp I doubt if it will.

oooops...a bit over the top me thinks

Having not seen any club games this year is there anyone people have seen in the club championship that could possibly make the county team?

I know people are saying the county final was not great quality from a football point of view, but Stradbally players obviously have good character, they did not hang their heads losing an early goal they rolled up their sleeves and got on with things. They needed a bit of luck but beating a team of Portlaoise's quality is no mean achievement. Portlaoise may not be as good as they were but they had serious experience on the pitch so surely it would indicate there is some potential in some of the Stradbally guys.

There was a lad Comerford playing centre forward for Stradbally, looked very good

Quote from: High Fielder on October 18, 2016, 09:47:31 AM
There was also a wide in the first half flagged as a point.

At which end?

I stated previously aswell I thought that a stradbally point was  wide. In d first half on the town end n  everyone around me thought d same but maybe it was d angle we were looking from I was on d 45 on d town end. Doesn't really matter now

Quote from: the sash on October 18, 2016, 09:27:11 PM
I stated previously aswell I thought that a stradbally point was  wide. In d first half on the town end n  everyone around me thought d same but maybe it was d angle we were looking from I was on d 45 on d town end. Doesn't really matter now

Must've been the angle cos I had the best view of anyone in the ground.  :)
To be fair, there was two tight point calls at the town end in the first half but they were both over. Graham Brody wouldn't be long letting us know if they weren't.

Fair play to you Hesh.

It would be helpful for everyone I think if officials could discuss these things after matches. In the majority of cases, it would help everyone move on.

While no team would want to lose a county final and particularly Portlaoise looking for 10 in a row, I would say that the Portlaoise lads after having time to reflect on it won't mind the time off. This team have been on the go up to December almost every year for the past 10 years. Any county panellists would not have had a break at all from football.
While the defeat will hurt them, the break certainly won't.

alot of amalgamations being muted around,,teams amalgamating manager chice will be very important to them,,strad def wont do 2 in a row but clubs will take alot of heart after last weeks result

well said redsenta...thr break will do them no harm..this is not the end of this team ,as a lot of people would like to think...they owe portlaoise or the county nothing.....

Quote from: redsetanta on October 19, 2016, 11:37:08 AM
While no team would want to lose a county final and particularly Portlaoise looking for 10 in a row, I would say that the Portlaoise lads after having time to reflect on it won't mind the time off. This team have been on the go up to December almost every year for the past 10 years. Any county panellists would not have had a break at all from football.
While the defeat will hurt them, the break certainly won't.

Slightly disagree with you on this as a few other factors combined led to their downfall.Firstly,not a lot of the portlaoise lads were with the county panel this year maybe 3or4. The problem i see with Portlaoise is that hardly any of the senior team play club league football and they have at least 3 permantley living in the UK. (I thought a lot of them were somewhat unfit last sunday). They also lost Paul Cotter, a huge loss plus lost Bruno early in the game. They also have poor quality on the bench to replace these guys due to their lack of success at underage recently. Starting to train in June is not proper preperation these days. As for Stradbally they got everyone on board this year plus they got a few very experienced players back playing. They got a relativley easy enough run to the final and played from a full hand(Bar Colm Kelly).
On another note If you look at the age profile of Stradbally they probably got the last from at least 4 of those who finished last sunday. They are also falling behind at underage. ( I hear the parish cannot field an u21 team this year or last year). So IMO the championship will be very open next year and ongoing. Any team who puts in the preperation that Stradbally put in this year ( along with a bit of luck) will be there or thereabouts.

I never gave it as a reason for the defeat.
Bear in mind they were only beaten by a goal with the last kick of the game. Any other day Portlaoise would have 10 in a row.

Firstly congratulations to stradbally. They really hung in there, left everything on the pitch and were able to produce the moment of brilliance at the exact right time. Hopefully they'll give Leinster a decent run.
People are getting carried away though heralding a new era. Most suspected the town would be caught in the next couple of years. From a county view you'd hope it was a case of another club matching they're magnificent heights rather than portlaoise coming back to the pack. Unfortunately the latter is the case. Portlaoise were poor by their standards Sunday but were still seeing out the game comfortably enough until Jody Dillon struck. Stradbally only scored one point from a 14 yards free in the 2nd half. Portlaoise made some very poor decisions with the ball when normally they would have put the game to bed. You can't help but feel that had portlaoise (in particular one or two of the normal leaders) played even slightly better they would have won.
While it may be good to see new champions it would be better to see standards raised

Quote from: maccer on October 19, 2016, 05:07:17 PM
People are getting carried away though heralding a new era. Most suspected the town would be caught in the next couple of years.

Agree. Kerry in 82 were going for a 5-in-a-row. They were beaten by a late, late by Offaly. They may have come again in 1983, but were beaten by an even later goal from Tadhg Murphy (Cork) in the Munster final. They returned in 84 to win 3-in-a-row....then disappeared for 11 years.

Portlaoise may well simmer for a few years, but the quality of what's coming through is lower than what's gone before. The fact that they're beaten should help take some of the fear-factor away. They're still head and shoulders above nearly ever senior team in the county and that won't change for the next few years at best.

Their actions in looking for other players from within the parish stemmed from the loophole in the rule that meant that they couldn't go looking outside the parish. Hopefully, the loophole will be closed and they will have to make do with their miserable pickings from the 25,000 that hail from the town.

big roumours of the heath gaa going to be a gaels team,,with the timahoe village apart of the amalgamation,,can this work???if so they would be a seriously strong side

Quote from: town1980 on October 21, 2016, 02:14:17 PM
big roumours of the heath gaa going to be a gaels team,,with the timahoe village apart of the amalgamation,,can this work???if so they would be a seriously strong side

Would be a very strong team although silly season is about to kick in and all kinds of rumours are flying about. I hear that a few of the Timahoe lads would like to try out their football skills with Stradbally as a parish gaels team.Also heard that Brian Daly wants to play with St Josephs, JOL wants to play with Portlaoise and that complete unrest has surfaced down in Kileen with a couple of their players looking to leave.

Quote from: town1980 on October 21, 2016, 02:14:17 PM
big roumours of the heath gaa going to be a gaels team,,with the timahoe village apart of the amalgamation,,can this work???if so they would be a seriously strong side

Is Jackie Hyland dead?

Will hardly be passed by the oulder bunch of members surely on the Heath.

Emo players bid to go play with mmelick turned down flat on a vote of 27-6,,, heaths outcome will be the same,,, any managerial news for clubs looking for new people????

Quote from: The Monument Road on October 21, 2016, 03:35:02 PMcomplete unrest has surfaced down in Kileen with a couple of their players looking to leave.

Brothers?!! ;)

Quote from: SCFC on October 23, 2016, 03:29:43 PM

Quote from: The Monument Road on October 21, 2016, 03:35:02 PMcomplete unrest has surfaced down in Kileen with a couple of their players looking to leave.

Brothers?!! ;)

No.....

Firstly want to congratulate Stradbally on their great result against the town. No one gave them a hope, myself included, but hard work and never say die attitude resulted in a famous win for them. (Along with a bit of luck)

Just wanted to see what people made of the team of the year in the Leinster this week.

The main thing that stood out to me was the omission of Kingston, who should have been the first name on the teamsheet. Best Player in the county by some distance. Also thought Padraig MacMahon being overlooked at half back was very harsh, as he was outstanding in two games I saw him in, scoring 5 points I think. I suppose matter of opinion really. Wont argue against both Buggie and Begley collecting their awards as both were huge to Strads win. Comerford also has to get a mention too, very intelligent player from what i saw of him.

thought cormac murphy from cretty was worth inclusion too

mt team of the year foe what its worth
dereck bale,,strad
frigi muruphy,,,strad
liam knowles,,strad
cahir healy,,portlaoise
jamie farrell,,,blinan
eoin buggie,,strad
p macmahon,,,broan
barney maher,,strad
donie kingston,,arles kileen
greg ramsbotton,,strad
sean o shea ,,,kileen
garry walsh,,blinan
paul cahaline,,portlaoise
bruno mcormack,,portlaoise
jody dillon,,strad, just for the last goal

Quote from: Spillane on October 23, 2016, 10:34:19 PM
Firstly want to congratulate Stradbally on their great result against the town. No one gave them a hope, myself included, but hard work and never say die attitude resulted in a famous win for them. (Along with a bit of luck)

Just wanted to see what people made of the team of the year in the Leinster this week.

The main thing that stood out to me was the omission of Kingston, who should have been the first name on the teamsheet. Best Player in the county by some distance. Also thought Padraig MacMahon being overlooked at half back was very harsh, as he was outstanding in two games I saw him in, scoring 5 points I think. I suppose matter of opinion really. Wont argue against both Buggie and Begley collecting their awards as both were huge to Strads win. Comerford also has to get a mention too, very intelligent player from what i saw of him.

It was crazy not to include Kingston. He is so far ahead of the rest of the forwards in Laois. The chap just has everything. The Leinster Express obviously thought otherwise.

Quote from: town1980 on October 24, 2016, 09:24:57 AM
mt team of the year foe what its worth
dereck bale,,strad
frigi muruphy,,,strad
liam knowles,,strad
cahir healy,,portlaoise
jamie farrell,,,blinan
eoin buggie,,strad
p macmahon,,,broan
barney maher,,strad
donie kingston,,arles kileen
greg ramsbotton,,strad
sean o shea ,,,kileen
garry walsh,,blinan
paul cahaline,,portlaoise
bruno mcormack,,portlaoise
jody dillon,,strad, just for the last goal

begley?

a massive bo bo on my behalf,,if you let me sub jody and put begly in the middle and donie inside,,i totally forgot about him and he is prob the player of the year apologisies

Quote from: town1980 on October 23, 2016, 03:26:03 PM
Emo players bid to go play with mmelick turned down flat on a vote of 27-6,,, heaths outcome will be the same,,, any managerial news for clubs looking for new people????

Big crowd for a committee meeting. No doubt the right decision in the long run.

Question is Alan or Jamie Farrell than plays at centre back for BLinan because I thought Ballylinan's no 6 was their outstanding player.  Find it hard to see how Gary Walsh is on any team of the year.   Begley was outstanding for Stradbally pity he does not play like that for Laois.   

I suppose the story of the year was the collapse of the Heath and Emo.  I am slightly worried for Laois County Football as very little new talent emerged this year. 

Roll on 2017

What was the Leinster's team? I'd find a place for Criostoir Maher of Cretty.

I was very impressed by Cormac Murphy this year. He really stood out for Crettyard while Evan O'Carroll was missing!

Well done Stradbally on a famous win ...On another day it would have been 10 in a row for a great Portlaoise team.

What a goal to win it...

Hope Bruno recovers well and best of luck to the Little town against the Longford champions on sunday week



I posted this last week but for some reason it didn't show up anyway....

Regarding the game having watched it back on DVD there was no point that looked wide even tho one was close in the first half.

Eddie did well but his linesman on the near side in first half could have helped him more with some of the off the ball stuff.


Regarding team of the year...

Pauric McMahon of Ballyroan and James Finn of Ballyfin were unlucky not to be in it ...Murphy from Crettyard and as for Donie Kingston not been there ha ha that was biggest joke I ever seen in a paper!

Comerford from stradbally and Bracken from Port also stood out for me in the games I saw.

If Creedon wants some help I'm here as I think I missed only 4 games in the whole senior championship !




I hope a few few from outside the county can go and support the Stradbally men in the Leinster club championship now!

any managerial appointments???????????

Joe Higgins,,, Gary Kavanagh ,, donie norton,, Pauric clancy ,, they are the available managers at the minute who wer all involved n last years championship,,, clancy being linked with athy how true I don't no,,, Kavanagh with laois minors,, latter I don't no

What relation is Gary to Gerry?

Quote from: High Fielder on October 27, 2016, 10:23:30 PM
What relation is Gary to Gerry?

Son

Must be somebody stirring the pot so. You couldn't get rid of a man who gets you into a Leinster Final in his first season and replace him with the Chairman's son. I know this is Laois but.....

Heard there might be some truth to the Heath/Timahoe rumours. Supposedly The Heath are losing a number of players who are going abroad, all starters from this year

Quote from: El Jefe on October 28, 2016, 09:04:33 AM
Heard there might be some truth to the Heath/Timahoe rumours. Supposedly The Heath are losing a number of players who are going abroad, all starters from this year

If Jackie's not dead, he'll have to die soon for that to ever happen

Quote from: High Fielder on October 27, 2016, 10:55:41 PM
Must be somebody stirring the pot so. You couldn't get rid of a man who gets you into a Leinster Final in his first season and replace him with the Chairman's son. I know this is Laois but.....

Gary will be a selector on the senior.

why wouldnt garry be considered??????unfair to diss him just because his gerrys son he took blinan to a quarter final and has as much experience than rooney in my mind,,wer crying out for young managers to get intothe mix and then have silly comments then thrown about,,if garry gets i best of luck to him,,,on the heath timahoe thing it would be a sham for both clubs,,the heaththinking there going to win a final this year to timahoe just wining intermediate,,cant see either club going for it

Mark Rooney did a good job in one year. He has a good habit of getting lads to play for him, and it's a pity in my opinion that he was only there for a year. Before he got that job, he had impressed with his work in his own club, which let's face it, isn't the easiest club to manage. This isn't about achievements or otherwise, it's about getting in the best man for the job. If that's Gary Kavanagh fine and well, but I'd rather have seen Rooney do it for longer after such a promising start.

Quote from: town1980 on October 28, 2016, 09:42:34 AM
why wouldnt garry be considered??????unfair to diss him just because his gerrys son he took blinan to a quarter final and has as much experience than rooney in my mind,,wer crying out for young managers to get intothe mix and then have silly comments then thrown about,,if garry gets i best of luck to him,,,on the heath timahoe thing it would be a sham for both clubs,,the heaththinking there going to win a final this year to timahoe just wining intermediate,,cant see either club going for it

Smacks of nepotism. Gerry would be better off not being in the chair when/if Gary gets the job.

Relax fellas, Gary is taking a selectors role with the Senior set up. Put down the pitckforks.

Quote from: El Jefe on October 28, 2016, 09:04:33 AM
Heard there might be some truth to the Heath/Timahoe rumours. Supposedly The Heath are losing a number of players who are going abroad, all starters from this year

Wont be passed by Heath committee would be absolute madness otherwise. Absolutely no chance. Missing potentially 5 to abroad and possibly retirements. Would be a case of a quick fix timahoe to go with Heath.

Ballyroan abbey/Abu rumour mill has it John sugru is takeing yee next year any truth in that???

Hard luck to Stradbally today, lost 1-17 to 2-9 but were down to 14 men early in the game, Barney sent off...

Fair play to Stradbally but a game Portlaoise would not have lost.

Quote from: redsetanta on October 31, 2016, 10:31:26 AM
Fair play to Stradbally but a game Portlaoise would not have lost.

Seeing as Portlaoise weren't good enough to get there, we'll never know. It also proves once again, that we have an overinflated view of our Club Championships and teams when we go outside Laois. Outside Portlaoise, we're not at much really. Ballyroan won a Leinster Intermediate, but they had been Laois Championships just prior to that, so that probably says enough in itself. Timahoe should have picked up one or two Intermediates by right but did they even make a final?

Could be worse, could be Gusserane.

In a bad mood today Don ?

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on October 31, 2016, 11:46:18 AM
In a bad mood today Don ?

Period pains.

it just shows portlaoise always look outside laois.and give leinster a good rattle..Most teams in laoise just want to beat portlaoise and they can settle for that..Portlaoise never do that...thats one thing u can say about this portlaoise team...

Quote from: welcomehome on October 31, 2016, 12:00:45 PM
it just shows portlaoise always look outside laois.and give leinster a good rattle..Most teams in laoise just want to beat portlaoise and they can settle for that..Portlaoise never do that...thats one thing u can say about this portlaoise team...

In fairness to Stradbally, 90% of clubs who win "surprise" or "one-off" county titles perform poorly in the Club Championship.
Even Portlaoise! Portlaoise reached All Ireland final in 04/05 but had been knocked out by Garrycastle in the first round in 02 and had also failed to make inroads in their previous campaign in '99.

Teams that play in the club championships year after year tend to be the ones to make inroads. Think of Portlaoise and Castletown (of old) in Laois. They played year after year and grew hardened to it.

Quote from: redsetanta on October 31, 2016, 10:31:26 AM
Fair play to Stradbally but a game Portlaoise would not have lost.

they only won 1 leinster out of 9 championship runs. in fairness Stradbally big day was the county final win.

Of course it was but my point still stands. The currrent Portlaoise team would have won yesterday.

Very hard to beat any team when you've 14 for almost entire second half too not to forget.

Portlaoise would have won and it's a false dawn. Nothing changes. The County doesn't suddenly become better off because Portlaoise were beaten. If anything, I think it is worse off, because Portlaoise at their best set a standard. Portlaoise lost their hunger and are probably not as good as they were either. Stradbally are not a good side. Portlaoise had them all at sea during the second half and didn't/wouldn't kill them off. We have to get away from looking at ourselves through rose tinted spectacles and/or expecting the next managerial appointment to work wonders. Our better players are getting on and there is very little coming through, particularly in the backs. I don't think we've bottomed out yet as a county, so anything Peter Creedon achieves, whilst welcome, would only be gloss. We need to plough all our resources now into development.

Quote from: redsetanta on October 31, 2016, 02:14:01 PM
Of course it was but my point still stands. The currrent Portlaoise team would have won yesterday.

Portlaoise were extremely fortunate to beat Longford Slashers 3 years ago by all accounts. Portlaoise were  a stronger team 3 years ago.
A surprising defeat in a knockout game was coming to Portlaoise- it could well have happened here had they got over Stradbally.

Senior county final winners deserve respect.

There was a lot of goodwill expressed towards Stradbally. The vast majority of the crowd present on the day wanted them to win. I happen to think they are a very ordinary team, particularly in the backs. No disrespect. Just an opinion. They did well, but it was as poor a Laois Championship as I can remember

any managerial appoinments does anyone no or hear of?

Padraig Clancy to Graiguecullen I hear....

yes i heard that as stated in a previous post,,good coup for the graigue men

I would not of given senior footballer of year to colm begley, he may haven been the best player in senior championship. County board could Show a bit of loyalty and pick a stradbally  footballer who has kicked football in laois all his life ala maher, kelly & buggie. Just an opinion.

Quote from: From the Terrace on November 11, 2016, 10:42:01 AM
I would not of given senior footballer of year to colm begley, he may haven been the best player in senior championship. County board could Show a bit of loyalty and pick a stradbally  footballer who has kicked football in laois all his life ala maher, kelly & buggie. Just an opinion.

Stradbally had no issues with Begley going, they understood the reasoning. They welcomed him back with open arms. They're well used to dealing with transfers. It wasn't a problem for them, not sure why it should be for anyone else.

Quote from: From the Terrace on November 11, 2016, 10:42:01 AM
I would not of given senior footballer of year to colm begley, he may haven been the best player in senior championship. County board could Show a bit of loyalty and pick a stradbally  footballer who has kicked football in laois all his life ala maher, kelly & buggie. Just an opinion.

Nonsense, the award is for the best player simple as that, wgat he did or didnt do in the past is irrevelent, thats just pure political bullshit your after saying

Predictable responses, Everything about laois football is political btw, not sure what way laois football panels are being selected now, but i know for a fact back at the start of the slump 2008 in laois minor footballers it was who you were got your game with laois. Was at both minor games we lost that year to longford & at home to louth, there was a young lad with a belly on him playing half back it was laughable, cause we had donie kingston everything was going to be alright.

I think it's funny that you think it has only been since 2008 politics has played a part in the selection of county teams. I attended a minor trial back in the early 2000s where we played the Leinster U-17 team. It was supposed to be for lads trying to make the Laois panel, but as we found out when we got there, a Portlaoise player already on the minor panel had failed to make the Leinster U-17 team, so he was drafted in to play the match and we were encouraged to give the ball to him at every opportunity, so he could show the Leinster selectors how good he was. There has been bullsh*t around county team selections for years, and it didn't just happen when the arse started to fall out of the thing around 2008. It is unavoidable, and I'm sure variations of the same oul shite happens everywhere.

I never said it started in 2008, it began more noticeable to me then, we had better footballers not making laois panels because their father wasn't important enough, doubt that happens to same extent in any other county.

If you're good with greyhounds you'll get on well in Laois GAA.