Leinster Senior Football Championship 2016

[SCFC]

Is Seale an option for corner back? Good player, should be capable of the step up.

[Tony]

Seale was a little off in the League but maybe rusty. He has potential. The FB line of Begley, Timmons, Attride sounds good to me - Begley's a bit of an all-rounder. He is more suited further out the field for Loais in my opinion BUT we're lacking in the FB line - I'd like to see him there this year.

[Junior Ex Laoistalk]

The team has been announced for Saturdays game. No place for Robbie Kehoe, Conor Meridith or Colm Begley but I think injuries have something to do with that.



                          Laois

                    Graham Brody

Stephen Attride, Mark Timmons, Paul Cotter

Damien O'Connor, Darren Strong, Gareth Dillon

         John O'Loughlin, Brendan Quigley

Niall Donoher, Paul Cahillane, Evan O'Carroll

Ross Munnelly, Gary Walsh, Donal Kingston

[Unlaoised]

First time in a long time we have had 4 Portlaoise men on the team for a championship match I'd say you'd have to go back to 2010 or more I'd say ...For a few years it was only Healy it could have two then with Boyle and Lillis was around ..then for two years it was only Brody ...Good to see hopefully Lillis can get back as well to add more competition.

Sun shining teams getting announced people putting bets down as yes its championship time again .....And I for one fecking Love it!!!!!!

C'mon Laois!!!!!!

[redsetanta]

There'll probably be a switch or two before the throw in.

Donie won't be in the corner, Ross ain't a corner forward either but will work hard. Cahillane at 11? Also I'd have reservations with Darren Strong at centre back, he will leave it open going forward.

Will be very interesting to see how they line up and perform. In all reality they should have a bit to spare over Wicklow if there's anything about them.

[Saint75]

That lineup should be enough to beat Wicklow but if that's the team against Dublin we'll concede a huge score......

[County Man]

The long wait is nearly over. 325 days since we played Antrim. Madness really.

Days like tomorrow are precious. Embrace it. Get out and support your county. Bring your friends.

Or else just forget about it. Start watching American football or cricket instead.

We are at home tomorrow. We should have the most support. Championship days are rare, very rare for a county like Laois.

Championship is where you are judged as Justin McNulty used to say.

The supporters and especially the players have to be 100% focused on Wicklow game and Wicklow game only.

Games against Wicklow have traditionally been close. 2014 was level at half time, eventually we pulled away. 2008 was touch and go. 2002 close enough in Dr Cullen Park but we came good. And of course 1986 in Aughrim.

Wicklow will not fear Laois. Johnny Magee will have them hungry and fit, make no mistake about it. Was at the Wicklow game against Meath last June in Navan and they gave the home crowd a fright. A large home crowd at that. I wish we had a support base that the royals have.

A big plus is that they dont seem to have Conor McGraynor involved this year. He is some talent, he was on fire against Meath. I remember seeing him first in a minor game v Laois back in 2010 and he featured in 2014 in Aughrim v Laois.

So you can forget your Nowlan Park and your Dublins.

We need to be on the ball tomorrow. Mentally tough, physically ready. Forwards need to click, backs need to be organised.

Gonna be a tough tussle. We have struggled with form this year. I'd take any sort of win tomorrow.

Best of luck to our lads tomorrow. Ye put your lives on hold for the cause, the least ye deserve is a bit of support.

Come on the blue and white.

[Junior Ex Laoistalk]

Well said County Man, c'mon everybody that can make it, get out there and let the lads know that we appreciate what they are giving up to represent our county and we are fully behind them.
We don't want Wicklow to outnumber us now, do we ? ? ? ?

[Tony]

Good post County man. I can see a good crowd for us tomorrow - great weather, lots of town loads back in the team for portlaoise supporters.... we even have a return of "attacking football"! Lads giving it a lot of effort in training. Great championship weather.

My prediction : Louth by 6, Laois by 5.

[les Antiques]

Best of luck to the lads this evening . Here's hoping the Laois GAA community get out and support there county . This is what its all about !!! Very interested to see what way we are set up once the ball is thrown in . Wicklow will be up for this and it will be tight .

[ILikeStrawberryJam]

 Very attack looking team  .. can see wiclkow getting a decent score
Hopefully Lillis will be taking advice from cunningham and putting some
Type of a credible defensive plan in place
We should have too much attacking power for them ..

Best of luck to the lads !!

[Junior Ex Laoistalk]

We started off like a team that was well up for it and for a while it looked like we would demolish them but then we realised we were Laois and let them back into it like we always do.
I'm not trying to be smart but I have been looking at this team playing for a good number of years now and I have come to the conclusion that we are actually learning nothing...

We continue to take too much out of the ball especially when we are attacking, we delay too long before we deliver the killer pass and we continue to give a pass to a man who is being tightly marked and as a result turn over possession far too often. Most of our attackers panic when they get anywhere near the scoring zone and we miss way too many scoring chances in EVERY game.
Its easy too blame management but a lot of our more established players do this game after game and never seem to learn anything from their previous mistakes.

I know Ross was away from football for a while but he was nowhere near match fitness tonight. Kingston was terrible throughout the game and only started playing near the end and luckily for us that he did as we were in danger of losing this one, mostly through our own mistakes.

Everyone else had good moments but we still don't seem to have much of a system to work with, a lot of it is hit and miss. Having said that it was great to come away with a win after a bad enough performance but we really need some serious thinking before the next one..


One man who can't be faulted was Mark Timmons, he had a stormer after a busy day for him...

http://www.hoganstand.com/Laois/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=255109[/url]

[redsetanta]

Only Dublin next!

[The Monument Road]

We won and thats the only good thing about last night. JOL was my main man along with Timmons and Attride. One very obvious problem we have is our level of fitness. Its way off of whats expected and required.
The other problem is our half back line,they kept wicklow in it with fouls and it looked like it was some form of game plan they had or management instruction to foul 40/50 yards from goal (Lucky wicklow couldnt score those frees or we were in the qualifiers).I thought Darren was lucky to avoid more then one yellow with the amount of fouls he committed

[steven seagal]

The most disappointing thing about yesterday, for me anyway, was that we seemed to learn absolutely nothing from the league. We didn't improve defensively at all. We can barely tackle and we have no shape to ourselves. Add in our lack of fitness, and God only knows what Dublin will do to us, if they have a mind to be ruthless. It'll be a bloodbath.