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Div 1 St Joseph's v Ballyroan Abbey - Joseph's - BA lucky to be in the final. Think they could be well beaten.

Div 2 Clonaslee St Manmans v Arles Killeen - Arles Killeen - this could be a tasty game! Killeen's forwards to edge it for them

Div 3 Mountmellick v Killeshin - Killeshin - they could easily be a Division 1 team

Div 4 Ballylinan v Ballyroan Abbey - Ballylinan - senior team last year against a junior team - should be only one winner

Div 5 Portarlington v O'Dempseys - O'Ds - probable be a close one - hard to pick a winner

Div 6 St Joseph's v O'Dempseys - St Joseph's - two third teams - Joe's won league/c'ship double last year

Div 7 Graiguecullen v Courtwood - Graigue - always good to stack a third team!

I'm led to believe there's a serious issue on the football side of the development squads around the number of parents who are coaches for the teams their own son is on.
Can't comment on the hurling equivalents but really no parent at inter county level should be coaching a team involving his own child.

Sounds interesting. What are the issues that are arising? It is a fairly common thing throughout GAA history is it not? Unless the county board actively pursue people to put in to these positions then this is what happens, however, once the people in question are doing the job fairly I don't see any issue.

I believe the last line of your post is the issue.
Not in all cases I might add but I'm told there are chaps on the development squads who shouldn't be anywhere near them and wouldn't be except for a bit of pull.

I'm led to believe there's a serious issue on the football side of the development squads around the number of parents who are coaches for the teams their own son is on.
Can't comment on the hurling equivalents but really no parent at inter county level should be coaching a team involving his own child.

The COE is a great set up. Third pitch probably needs to be upgraded but the other two pitches are very good, pretty much playable all year round.
The surface in OMP is actually much poorer than either.

The Heath, Ballylinan, Courtwood, Crettyard-you already have the makings of a decent intermediate championship instead of the current nonsense we have. Senior and Intermediate championships should have 12 teams in each. The intermediate is a joke with usual three of the eight teams in it second teams.   

There's only one second team in the intermediate football, Portlaoise

Read what I said more carefully, I said usual as opposed to this year specifically. Last year 2 of the eight teams were second teams, the year before that we had three second teams and the year before that was 2 as well. I might have embellished my point but the argument is valid. The intermediate championship has been propped up by second teams to make up the eight when a more evenly distributed 12 senior and 12 intermediate would make perfect sense. Some of the intermediate games (I've attended a fair few in recent years) have been ridiculously one sided as well with some very weak teams making up the numbers. An intermediate championship should still be of a good standard with at least half a dozen teams battling it out and in with a realistic shot of winning it. If we went 12 and 12 that would be the reality. I'd enjoy going to see intermediate quarter finals involving e.g. The Heath v Crettyard, Ballylinan v Courtwood, Rosenallis v Arles Kileen, Emo v Mountmellick.

 

Fair enough, point taken. Hate second teams in intermediate myself. Think all second and third teams should play separate championships to first teams.
Probably would say we don't really have 12 senior teams. Something between 6 and 8 are decent enough senior teams, then there's a load of middling teams who could have no complaints if they were put into a proper senior B or intermediate championship.
Most of our current intermediate clubs would be junior in Kildare, Offaly etc.

Last few chairman were perceived to be football men, no? PJ Kelly and Peter O'Neill certainly dual clubs but strong lean towards football. Gerry Kavanagh from a football only club.

Would be good to see a chairperson from a strong hurling background. Don't know Collier well enough to know if he's the man.

Eddie Brennan was 6 years ago. There's not much point in harking back to those days, great and all as they were. Another thing is we were a lot stronger in 2019. Purcell was at his peak and Roddy, Mark Kavanagh, Willie Dunphy and Picky were all top class forwards.
Jack Kelly was excellent that year too and despite how excellent Cathal Dunne has been, the biggest loss of all is Rowland.
Yes, you can blame management, county board etc but at the end of the day, the quality of hurling in the Carlow and Kildare games has simply not been good enough. Maybe that's 100% the fault of management but I doubt it. 

The Heath, Ballylinan, Courtwood, Crettyard-you already have the makings of a decent intermediate championship instead of the current nonsense we have. Senior and Intermediate championships should have 12 teams in each. The intermediate is a joke with usual three of the eight teams in it second teams.   

There's only one second team in the intermediate football, Portlaoise

Of course this should be done.
But it's hard to sell it to most of the senior clubs and probably some of the intermediate clubs too.
The hurling clubs probably won't vote or have no opinion on it so it'll always struggle to get through.
If you're a club like The Heath, Ballylinan, Courtwood, Crettyard you're probably going to vote against it as you'll be increasing the chances of not being senior.
They'd be better off trying to win a senior B or intermediate titles.

I think on top of the clubs you've named there you can add killeshin, Killeen, rosenallis, Clonaslee, Emo to that list. I think there's only really 4 or 5 clubs you could say could guarantee themselves a top 12 spot based on consistency of staying out of relegation semi finals in the last 10 years.

Oh, absolutely, I only picked a few for an example. Stradbally and Ballyfin are another two who would be in the shake up for the drop.

The ideal scenario, in my mind, would be around 7 senior clubs and 3 regional teams made of intermediate and junior clubs.

If you had for arguments sake, Portlaoise, Josephs, Port, Graigue, Bally/Abbey, O'Dempseys and maybe Stradbally senior, you'd have 3 decent area teams.

One would be Clonaslee, Rosenallis, Kilcavan, Ballyfin, Mountmellick and The Rock. Another would be The Heath, Emo, Courtwood, Annanough, Timahoe, Park and finally a team from the two Arles clubs, Ballyinan, Killeshin, Crettyard, Spink, Barrowhouse.

Something along those lines anyway.

Of course this should be done.
But it's hard to sell it to most of the senior clubs and probably some of the intermediate clubs too.
The hurling clubs probably won't vote or have no opinion on it so it'll always struggle to get through.
If you're a club like The Heath, Ballylinan, Courtwood, Crettyard you're probably going to vote against it as you'll be increasing the chances of not being senior.
They'd be better off trying to win a senior B or intermediate titles.

This has to be the worst thread I've ever seen on this board.
Is there some way to delete it?
This thing of thinking we are somehow too good for the lower tiers is exactly what's killing us.

In overall terms (senior, 20s, minor)  in Leinster football, we are a million miles behind Dublin, Kildare and Meath. We are a long way back from Westmeath, Louth and Offaly.
We're down scrapping with the other 4 counties. Wicklow, Carlow, Wexford and Longford.
It's depressing stuff.
The county needs a "director of football" badly. Someone who knows what needs to be done at all levels to get the structures right.
Who the team managers are (McNulty, Kelly, Larkin) is largely irrelevant. We need to start producing a better standard of player through our club system.

Best year for underage hurling for quite a while. Great to see. Hopefully a Leinster final appearance in either u17 or u20! And if the seniors could win the Joe Mc too, that'd be a decent year.

lot can happen n 3 yrs. many louth lads from that nite playin last nite? cosstelo of emo massive loss this year too.

That's kinda the point. Three years ago we beat them handy. They went and did something about it obviously. I think they only had about 5 of the team from 3 years ago.
We, on the other hand, are going backwards at underage.
Costello is a fine player but he's only one chap!

From 1996 to around 2010 was a fantastic period for Laois football.
Micko in 2003 was the catalyst for our best day in 57 years.
Will we ever experience those kind of days again?
A belated RIP to the great man.