2023 National Football League Division 4

[High Fielder]

Keep believing it's not true if you want. If 4 of our 6 forwards were Division 2 standard,  we'd outscore any team in this Division.  None of them are consistent enough. We're not good enough. We need to stop thinking otherwise. It's silly talk

[Zooming around]

That's simply not true. At least 4 of our forward line - O Carroll, Barry, Lowry and Kingston - are very well capable of playing at a high level. Only a few years ago, Derry was languishing in Division 4. Now they're beating Dublin. We also see the difference good management has made in Louth.

Having said that, of course, huge work is needed from the ground up. Maybe someone might go talking to Karl Lacey?

His relations in Laois might talk to him.

[Laois Rising]

The 16 team senior championship is a farce but that's an argument for another thread and one that has been repeated several times on this forum-but turkeys will never vote for Christmas and clubs won't vote to reduce our championship in numbers. I still cannot for the life of me understand why clubs won't meander for years simply avoiding relegation than be competitive at intermediate level and target county and potentially Leinster and All-Ireland glory. Look what winning an intermediate title did for Laois Ladies football. Park winning intermediate title last year brought huge joy to the community there. Endless examples.

Laois being opened up defensively is a problem that has been there long before Billy arrived. Even Sugru struggled to keep us defensively sound and only for Graham Brody in a couple of games could have conceded a higher number of goals. In championship games against Meath, Monaghan and Cork we could easily have been taken for a half dozen goals. Things have regressed further since then.

Like it or not, Michael Quirke called it correctly after the championship exist to Westmeath when he said there is simple not enough players of a proper intercounty standard within the county. It doesn't matter what game plan you put in place if you don't have the players to pull it off. Laois are performing to the calibre of players available at the moment. We are not under performing.

Unfortunately, if you are going to make changes at underage level you need plenty of willing people to invest and sacrifice time, energy and expertise. Sadly, we don't have that within the county at present. Therefore, things will not change too much in the immediate, medium or dare I say long term. 

 

[High Fielder]

Nail on the head LR. All I've ever known is coaches not being good enough to coach Laois. It's bollocks, frankly. We don't have the players

[Countyminor]

I don't buy the "Laois don't have enough players of county standard" argument. We certainly do. Realistically, once you get to the very lower end of Division 2 you can cast a blanket over teams in terms of quality. I refuse to believe that Laois have inherently worse players than the likes of Westmeath, Limerick or Longford nor would I be surprised were Laois to go out and beat the likes of those teams in the Tailteann cup later this year. The level we operate at is as good as it'll probably ever be unless we become really ambitious over night and get our house properly in order. Until that day comes, we'll continue to oscillate between the lower divisions. That's it.

[High Fielder]

The evidence says otherwise. Why is it so hard to accept?

[Laois Rising]

If you want an example of how we regressed- you could argue that Lillis and Finn at their peak were unable to break into our starting 15 circa 2016/2017. Now we have never been more reliant on them and they both well into their 30s. Timmons who has been a brilliant servant to Laois but now closer to 40 than 30 and there is still no defensive player in the county to equal him. Sean O'Flynn could yet kick on to be our marquee defensive player in the next 12 months but he is yet to truly reach the potential he showed that made him stand out at U20 level a few years back. A huge loss defensively is Attrite who is a genuine intercounty standard player and would strengthen our defense if he was still there. Sugrue, Quirke and Billy all tried but couldn't solve our defensive frailties-reality is that the players at our disposal are division 3 standard max on a good day. That's not a criticism-it's the reality of the situation. 

[Giovanni]

The reality of the situation is that we have a manager who is clueless. A manager who has no plan and no rapport with the players. We have forwards who are well above Division 4 standard. I have no doubt at all that Sugrue would have had us up this year.

[Junior Ex Laoistalk]

Is there any chance that Sugrue would come back and manage us, we really need someone of that caliber

[High Fielder]

The reality of the situation is that we have a manager who is clueless. A manager who has no plan and no rapport with the players. We have forwards who are well above Division 4 standard. I have no doubt at all that Sugrue would have had us up this year.

It's always the coach's fault in Laois. To the point that literally nobody wants the job of coaching our footballers. Our name is mud

Yer man Berne in Leitrim is the standout performer in Division 4. 30 points clear of our top scorer. Some going in fairness

[Butch Cassidy]

Ideally would like to see Sugrue come in as a Director of underage football than the senior manager. We need a long term plan with a focus to get our underage structures as competitive as they can be. Clubs need to take some responsibility as well to unskill their own coaches.

[Spiritof86]

As much as I'd like to see it happen it's extremely unlikely John Sugrue would come near the county football set up again . He had his fill the last time .

We clearly don't have the cohesiveness or consistency in the forwards to be anywhere close to the top table . The stats and results are there to be seen .

I think part of this is the serious  lack of competition in recent years . We can safely say the 6 lads that started against London barring injury will be starting against Wexford Sunday week .
We simply don't have the players presently . It's glaringly obvious .
The fact Billy Sheehan isn't up to the task is nearly irrelevant at the stage .

Bringing up the Derry and Louth situations is laughable.

[Giovanni]

Why is it laughable?

[Spiritof86]

Why is it laughable?

Ok so I'll start with Derry first . The population of Co Derry is close to 250,000 . Any sort of cohesion within that county between the club and county set up will show progressive . They've appointed a director of football in the county under the guidance and instruction of Rory Gallagher . It's all paying dividends now . There has been serious development within the underage structures accumulating in the All Ireland minor win in 2021.


Regarding Louth , there are six clubs in Dundalk and five in Drogheda, towns with over 40,000 people. The largest town in Laois has just one GAA club – Portlaoise – catering for nearly 25,000 residents .
This is my opinion is massive problem and has been continually not addressed .

If you begin to amalgamate clubs then you simply dilute and reduce your player pool altogether and that's what is happening in Portlaoise. The Senior championship in Laois is laughable and the introduction of this B championship doesn't add up .
All the great Laois teams have had prominent Portlaoise representation. That's no disrespect to the lads giving there all now .

Also I really can't see Laois county board appointing anyone of Mickey Hartes calibre anytime soon .

[Spiritof86]

The issue is that Laois  isn't making GAA appealing enough to the kids of the county. And we can sit here and blame every reason under the sun like the competition of other sports but the reality is that the issues lie square at the feet of years of inadequate administration.