Laois Senior Football 2017

Started by Tony, October 14, 2016, 11:01:43 AM

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Tony

The championship draw has been made for 2017 so probably a good idea to set up a new thread for discussion - from now until the O'Byrne Cup. A very decent draw and one I'm looking forward to. Certainly not easy, however, I think we should be targeting promotion from Division 3 and Leinster Final. That doesn't mean we'll get it but you can be sure it will be a target for Peter Creedon and his background team.

The 2017 Leinster Football Championship draw is as follows:

1st Round:
Louth v Wicklow
Laois v Longford
Carlow v Wexford

Quarter-Finals:
A: Louth or Wicklow v Meath
B: Laois or Longford v Kildare
C: Carlow or Wexford v Dublin
D: Offaly v Westmeath

Semi-Finals:
Winner Q/Final A v Winner Q/Final B
Winner Q/Final C v Winner Q/Final D

El Jefe

Every team on the opposite side of the draw to Dublin will be targeting the Leinster Final but considering how bad Laois have done in the last few years can you really see them beating Kildare & Meath to get there? Have to target it of course but going to be very tough. Getting out of Division 3 has to be the main priority

Tony

It all depends. Kildare and Meath have seriously under-performed the last few years as well. Of course it'll be tough. Hopefully the likes of Healy will come back. Quigley, O Loughlin, Timmons etc are 30 or thereabouts - they deserve a good setup after the shambles of last year. Creedon sounds like a great appointment but will he deliver?

The Monument Road

Quote from: Tony on October 14, 2016, 12:58:02 PM
It all depends. Kildare and Meath have seriously under-performed the last few years as well. Of course it'll be tough. Hopefully the likes of Healy will come back. Quigley, O Loughlin, Timmons etc are 30 or thereabouts - they deserve a good setup after the shambles of last year. Creedon sounds like a great appointment but will he deliver?
A few of our lads will be 32+ plus come next summer, Begley,Timmons,Quigley so it may be their last hurrah at reaching a Leinster final so hopefully they will give it a good go.JOL, Kingston, Meredith, Boyle, Cahalane,Walsh will be 28 or there about and the rest are farther back age wise. The squad have a lot of experience and physical strength so im hopefull of a good year. The league will tell us a lot. I cant see Healey ever making a comback as he lives in the UK. Gylynn likewise. Cotter had to retire from the game. Ross and Meaney are probably retired so we need to unearth a few during the league ....i have a snekey feeling we will reach a leinster if the new set up is as profesional as they are being made out to be. Lots of money being spent i hear

Tony

Begley, Timmons Quigley will be in the 30 - 31 bracket in my recollection, not 32+.

But yeah lot of money spent, and we're doing it right - or at least trying. The fact that Creedon will be the manager of the 21's also is huge. He will also have an interest in the minor set up. This is what we wanted : focus on a good senior set up but also for the underage setup to be improved by someone who knows what they're doing. We're putting a lot of faith in him but by all accounts himself, Toomey & McGeehin are serious operators.

I hear the whole set up is being financially backed by a few select businessmen in Laois.

SCFC

Strong, Donoher also 31 next year.

Tony

There are 4-6 very good prospects coming in, though. I'm not so worried that the core of the team is late 20's / 30's. If there are young lads coming up through minor and u21, they supplement the older talent. We don't necessarily need to be winning minors and u-21s for 4/5 of the team to be good senior prospects. Hopefully we can continue to bulid after the decent minor football year we had this year. 

OTF

Quote from: Tony on October 14, 2016, 12:58:02 PM
It all depends. Kildare and Meath have seriously under-performed the last few years as well. Of course it'll be tough. Hopefully the likes of Healy will come back. Quigley, O Loughlin, Timmons etc are 30 or thereabouts - they deserve a good setup after the shambles of last year. Creedon sounds like a great appointment but will he deliver?

Kildare and Meath !!! Do we not have to play Longford first.

Tony

Yep obviously we do. As i say, it'll be tough but we should not fear anyone on our side of the draw. We should be targeting the leinster final and that's not unrealistic if our prep goes very well from now till may.

Thewildcat

don't write off longford, laois have been knock out of the championship by Clare and Antrim the past two years,

Joeythelips

I don't think anyone is taking anything for granted, the fact is Laois are on a side of the draw that Dublin are not, Dublin have won Leinster 10 times in the last 11 years so are clearly dominating the province, the team who makes it through this section will have a few wins, some momentum and confidence under their belt before they face them.

But it wont be just Laois who will be thinking that, Longford, Kildare, Meath, Louth and Wicklow will all think the same way and fancy their chances. With the exception of Wicklow their is not too much between those sides talent wise.

Meath under new management will probably be favourites to advance and themselves and Kildare will have a slight edge as they are competing in Div 2 but Laois will surely see this as a huge opportunity to show how good they are after a disastrous campaign this year. They are more than good enough to get promotion from Div 3 which would build confidence going into the championship. If all available players put the shoulder to the wheel un the new management set-up 2017 could be a good year for Laois.

Clubber Lang

The spine of the Laois team for next year will pretty much have 10 years intercounty experience-Timmons, Begley, O'Loughin, Quigley and Kingston with plenty of lads around them that have been there for a good number of years now as well. If ever they are going to deliver it is now. Hopefully the new management team can get the best of out these lads and that they show the necessary drive and determination to end their inter-county careers on a high and achieve some success. These lads are all still highly rated outside of the county despite Laois badly underachieving in championship football for the last decade with some abject defeats to the likes of Tipperary, Clare, Antrim etc... 

SCFC

Quote from: The Monument Road on October 14, 2016, 01:33:07 PM
.JOL, Kingston, Meredith, Boyle, Cahalane,Walsh will be 28 or there about and the rest are farther back age wise.
Meredith won't be around. He left the country the other day for a year.

Don Draper

#13
Quote from: SCFC on October 28, 2016, 07:44:53 AM
Quote from: The Monument Road on October 14, 2016, 01:33:07 PM
.JOL, Kingston, Meredith, Boyle, Cahalane,Walsh will be 28 or there about and the rest are farther back age wise.
Meredith won't be around. He left the country the other day for a year.
A kick in the hole to O'D's tilt at Leinster.

Tony

Pity about that - he was one of our top performers in 2016 in my opinion. We can't afford many high level drop outs this year. Hopefully we'll have some strong new faces on board to offset the loss of Merideth.