2023 National Football League Division 4

[Giovanni]

I don't know whether your point about poor administration in Laois is right or not but that is certainly not the reason for the change in fortunes in Louth and Derry. The population of Louth and Derry is pretty much the same now as it was when they were in the lower divisions and the club structure in those counties was roughly the same too. The only thing that really changed was the manager. Laois should never be one of the 6 worst teams in the country, even at times when the crop of players is not the very best.

[High Fielder]

Genuine question. Why not?

[Laoiseabu]

I don't know whether your point about poor administration in Laois is right or not but that is certainly not the reason for the change in fortunes in Louth and Derry. The population of Louth and Derry is pretty much the same now as it was when they were in the lower divisions and the club structure in those counties was roughly the same too. The only thing that really changed was the manager. Laois should never be one of the 6 worst teams in the country, even at times when the crop of players is not the very best.

Why should we not be in the bottom 6 teams in the country ? I mean why do we feel that we are entitled to be above the Wexfords , Leitrims , Wicklows , Sligos , Longfords etc . In fact those are all predominantly football counties ( with the exception of Wexford ) whereas we are trying to balance both hurling and football at the same time with a smallish population.  Also our main population centre in Portlaoise caters for a third of our population and has just ONE club . This notion that we are entitled to be above these so called weaker counties really dosent make sense to me . We are where we are on merit unless there is HUGE long term changes within this county . It's such a steep hill to climb that it will probably never be climbed in our lifetime

[Spiritof86]

I don't know whether your point about poor administration in Laois is right or not but that is certainly not the reason for the change in fortunes in Louth and Derry. The population of Louth and Derry is pretty much the same now as it was when they were in the lower divisions and the club structure in those counties was roughly the same too. The only thing that really changed was the manager. Laois should never be one of the 6 worst teams in the country, even at times when the crop of players is not the very best.

Why should we not be in the bottom 6 teams in the country ? I mean why do we feel that we are entitled to be above the Wexfords , Leitrims , Wicklows , Sligos , Longfords etc . In fact those are all predominantly football counties ( with the exception of Wexford ) whereas we are trying to balance both hurling and football at the same time with a smallish population.  Also our main population centre in Portlaoise caters for a third of our population and has just ONE club . This notion that we are entitled to be above these so called weaker counties really dosent make sense to me . We are where we are on merit unless there is HUGE long term changes within this county . It's such a steep hill to climb that it will probably never be climbed in our lifetime

Agree with all of above .

Just with the exception of Wexford comment 😂

5 All Ireland Championships
10 Leinster Championships

And yes they were all a long time ago but that's a county with huge football tradition. We as a county couldn't touch that .

[Spiritof86]

Genuine question. Why not?

Interested to hear an answer to this ?

[Giovanni]

Because ANYONE with a decent management team should be able to rise above the bottom 6 in the country. The bottom 6 in the country don't take football seriously. Their training regimes are not serious. Their motivation levels are on the floor. ANY team that is properly trained and reasonably motivated should rise above that (as Leitrim showed this year with a new competent manager) despite the tiniest of resources. Wicklow also got out of it with a new competent manager. Getting out of the bottom 6 is really not a difficult bar to overcome. If we're in the bottom 6, it means that our group are not being serious and if that is so, we need to change the manager.

[High Fielder]

In fairness to you Giovanni, you have more faith in our resources than I do. I genuinely believe we haven't one player that would get onto a Kildare team, never mind anything better. And I'm dead serious about that. I refuse to blame Billy Sheehan, because the demise of Laois football has been years in the making. We're just not capable of producing footballers of the calibre needed to be competitive. We literally need to start at scratch and rewrite our entire template. Billy is the least of our worries

[Giovanni]

I don't want to dismiss the idea that our structures and player development systems are in chaos. I honestly don't know enough about that and the evidence suggests that something is wrong structurally. But we're not talking about getting on the Kildare team (although I think several of them would). We're talking about doing better than Leitrim and Wicklow. This doesn't require a team of David Cliffords. It just requires good preparation, organisation and motivation. Obviously, as you move higher in the Divisions something more is needed but really in Division 4, it's not.

[High Fielder]

The players themselves need to take ownership.  If they're as good as you think they are, they should go out and show it. Are they putting their shoulders to the wheel individually? Remember a lot of them have walked away and come back again. That hardly sings dedication. And then you have these lads coming in for a fortnight and walking away. How disruptive is that? A lot of harm done before Billy or any other coach could ever have an influence. As well as everything else, there's a culture and attitude problem in Laois

[County Man]

Unlucky not to get promoted out of division 4. 10 points would be enough most years. Beat Sligo by 6, Wexford by 5, Carlow by 6, Waterford by 11 and London by 10 points. All convincing wins. So unlucky not to get at least a draw away in Leitrim. Wicklow deserved their win in Portlaoise.

Season not over. A lot of football still to be played. We have Wexford coming to Portlaoise on Easter Sunday and hopefully a chance to play Dublin in Portlaoise 2 weeks later.

Come May we have the Tailteann cup which should be very interesting with 3 group games followed by knockout stages. Lets get a run in this competition and see where it takes us.

A number of new lads have been introduced this year and they are doing well. We have some excellent forwards as well who would get on to most teams in the country. I'm looking forward to supporting them in the weeks ahead.

Our under 20s are doing well this year so I'm optimistic of them progressing through to senior in the coming years. We are through out of our group with a game to spare having beat Carlow and Longford. We also drew with Cork, drew with Roscommon and only lost to Galway by a point earlier this year. Last year, our under 20s ran Kildare to 2 points and they ended up in the All Ireland final. We contested provincial finals in 2019 and 2020.

[Giovanni]

The players themselves need to take ownership.  If they're as good as you think they are, they should go out and show it. Are they putting their shoulders to the wheel individually? Remember a lot of them have walked away and come back again. That hardly sings dedication. And then you have these lads coming in for a fortnight and walking away. How disruptive is that? A lot of harm done before Billy or any other coach could ever have an influence. As well as everything else, there's a culture and attitude problem in Laois

Can't really argue with this point but a good coach will find ways to improve the buy in and create game plans that actually work (which includes some kind of coherent defensive system). But the players also need to be serious about what they're doing - no doubt about that.

[Giovanni]

Unlucky not to get promoted out of division 4. 10 points would be enough most years. Beat Sligo by 6, Wexford by 5, Carlow by 6, Waterford by 11 and London by 10 points. All convincing wins. So unlucky not to get at least a draw away in Leitrim. Wicklow deserved their win in Portlaoise.

Season not over. A lot of football still to be played. We have Wexford coming to Portlaoise on Easter Sunday and hopefully a chance to play Dublin in Portlaoise 2 weeks later.

Come May we have the Tailteann cup which should be very interesting with 3 group games followed by knockout stages. Lets get a run in this competition and see where it takes us.

A number of new lads have been introduced this year and they are doing well. We have some excellent forwards as well who would get on to most teams in the country. I'm looking forward to supporting them in the weeks ahead.

Our under 20s are doing well this year so I'm optimistic of them progressing through to senior in the coming years. We are through out of our group with a game to spare having beat Carlow and Longford. We also drew with Cork, drew with Roscommon and only lost to Galway by a point earlier this year. Last year, our under 20s ran Kildare to 2 points and they ended up in the All Ireland final. We contested provincial finals in 2019 and 2020.

Good post.

[Spiritof86]

Admire the positivity of the last two posters . We all want Laois to do well and be competitive whatever division we are in . I hope this year turns out positive for the lads committing and the supporters who follow them around .
However after attending 5 of the 7 league matches there is very little to suggest a lengthy run in the TC .

[Wolfetones]

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.

The population of Co Derry is 250,000 alright but those with an inclination for GAA would be a lot closer to 100,000. There is no Director of Football in County Derry, there is a Head of Operations who is in no way under the guidance or instruction of Rory Gallagher. Underage football and to an extend club football in Derry has always been strong. Their underage teams are always competitive and among the favourites for Provincial titles. A general apathy to county football has at times held them back, just my opinion. Every county has its own dynamic, sad to see Laois in Division 4 all the same.

[Spiritof86]

Interesting. I was under the impression that Gallagher was one of the main reasons Derry appointed the county's first Director of Operations. Stephen Barker was chairman and then became Director of Operations and Gallagher extended his stay . Not entirely on this alone but it helped apparently.
Again I could be wrong as I heard it on the GAA Social on BBC radio Ulster .