Tailteann Cup 2023

[Joeythelips]

Who said anything about celebrating? No one, particularly Laois people, gave us any chance tonight. Fitness cost us in the end, but I still think it was a creditable performance.

It certainly wasn't error free, but the Laois team and management deserve some credit.

Although we threw away a big lead, I saw a Laois team play with great spirit tonight.

I hope they can build on it.

I don't think we should patronise the players, they are the ones putting in the commitment to represent their county so anyone who does that deserves credit without a doubt. But they know that result was not good enough given the position they were in. Fair enough it was an improvement on what we have seen this year but we could not get it over the line and the fact that you and others have mentioned fitness as being one of the main differences between the teams in the last 10 minutes or so tells its own story in terms how well prepared the team is.

[County Man]

Going into Saturday evenings game, few would have given Laois a chance of getting a result, myself included. Offaly had a decent division 3 campaign and followed up in Leinster by beating Longford away, division 2 Meath at home and took 3rd place in division 2 Louth to extra time.

Having said that, we should have won. We owned the first half and should have been more than 6 up at the break. Fine scores kicked by a number of our lads but unfortunately a number of wides as well. Defence was excellent, well organised and 4 or 5 important turnovers in that first half.

We stemmed the tide then after Offaly kicked 2 early scores in the second half. At 1-9 to 0-7 up, we had a super opportunity to wrap things up with a second goal as we had a 3 v 2 overlap, but that chance was spurned.

Roche, who again was excellent in goals, made a great save to stop Offaly and his kickouts were excellent. We had a winning look when Corbet put over our last point to make it 1-11 to 0-8.

The sheer effort and committment caught up with us at the end. We ran out of gas and Offaly picked off late scores to level. Mark Barry was unlucky right at the end to snatch it for us, just narrowly wide.

Paddy O'Sullivan was excellent with 2 great points, Padraig Kirwan was excellent, Damon Larkin was brilliant in the middle and 2 fine scores. Defence overall was tigerish as a unit. Great to see Colm Murphy back in from the start. A good spread of scores in the forwards. Finn worked his socks off. There were more options to come in from the bench.

Plenty to build on. The players deserve more support. About 2000 at the game, Offaly outnumbered us about 3 to 1. We have London next in a neutral venue on June 3 and see where it takes us. A win gets us out of the group. Depending on score difference, we may do enough to nick 2nd place which would give us a home preliminary quater final.

[Chrimtain]

Going into Saturday evenings game, few would have given Laois a chance of getting a result, myself included. Offaly had a decent division 3 campaign and followed up in Leinster by beating Longford away, division 2 Meath at home and took 3rd place in division 2 Louth to extra time.

Having said that, we should have won. We owned the first half and should have been more than 6 up at the break. Fine scores kicked by a number of our lads but unfortunately a number of wides as well. Defence was excellent, well organised and 4 or 5 important turnovers in that first half.

We stemmed the tide then after Offaly kicked 2 early scores in the second half. At 1-9 to 0-7 up, we had a super opportunity to wrap things up with a second goal as we had a 3 v 2 overlap, but that chance was spurned.

Roche, who again was excellent in goals, made a great save to stop Offaly and his kickouts were excellent. We had a winning look when Corbet put over our last point to make it 1-11 to 0-8.

The sheer effort and committment caught up with us at the end. We ran out of gas and Offaly picked off late scores to level. Mark Barry was unlucky right at the end to snatch it for us, just narrowly wide.

Paddy O'Sullivan was excellent with 2 great points, Padraig Kirwan was excellent, Damon Larkin was brilliant in the middle and 2 fine scores. Defence overall was tigerish as a unit. Great to see Colm Murphy back in from the start. A good spread of scores in the forwards. Finn worked his socks off. There were more options to come in from the bench.

Plenty to build on. The players deserve more support. About 2000 at the game, Offaly outnumbered us about 3 to 1. We have London next in a neutral venue on June 3 and see where it takes us. A win gets us out of the group. Depending on score difference, we may do enough to nick 2nd place which would give us a home preliminary quater final.

You do realize, County Man, your excellent analysis of the match will be way too positive (and patronizing of the players) for some on here.

[Jd]

There are times when I think that some lads on here would almost prefer Laois to lose. If someone had offered me a draw on Saturday morning then I'd have taken their hand off but now that they have achieved a very creditable result there are people who still haven't a positive thing to say. Maybe they lost the lead due to the incredible amount of hard work they put in for the first 65 mins cos they definitely outran and outworked Offaly during that period. Every team gets a run at some stage and offaly got theirs very late. Now no one is suggesting that all is brilliant but at least give the whole setup some credit for a decent result.

[Spiritof86]

Laois v London Saturday week in Parnell Park at 3pm .

[georgedoylesrightleg]

said laois wud win. Laois shuda won. offsly no great shakes.

[Heshs Umpire]

Laois v London Saturday week in Parnell Park at 3pm .

Hate Parnell Park. Would've preferred a bigger pitch. Points difference could be a factor.

[Laois Rising]

Agree, its an awful tight pitch. You can see why Dublin hurlers wanted to move their games out of there this year. An 18 point swing will be hard to achieve where space is at a premium. I do not expect Cavan to put up a huge winning margin on Offaly as any sort of win will do them so we will probably need to beat London by a minimum of 15 points. A very tall ask. 

[Joeythelips]

I would never want any Laois team to lose any match no matter how much I feel the ship is being run poorly. Im gutted as a supporter and for all involved. I am just pointing out issues I see and am giving my opinion on here. I get we have to focus on the games and take the positives from it but I feel in Laois we have a bit of an inferiority complex at times and accept mediocrity easily.

Its only a couple of years ago I was watching Laois teams under Eddie Brennan and John Sugrue gaining promotions and getting the best out of the resources they had and the drop off since has been dramatic. We seem to just amble along and accept our lot, one of the reasons counties who win things actually win things is they never accept this and challenge it.

I hope the performance against Offaly can spark some resurgence and the season can finish positively.

[Unlaoised]

I hope his changes don't be as bad as the last day it totally changed the game

[Andy06]

Can anyone see us making second in the group? I reckon it would be our only chance to progress further. A trip to Down or Meath will definately be too much for us I think.

[County Man]

Realistically we have to say that to get second is a very tall order. Offaly at plus 9, Laois stand at -9.

If we take this year's league games into account, Laois went over to London and won by 10 points and Cavan went to Offaly and won by 7. Even with a repeat scenario, we would fall short.

Bottom line is that we need to give London the respect they deserve and try get the win that would get us out of the group. Then we can look at where we end up.

The preliminary quater final draw takes place on Saturday evening.

[Junior Ex Laoistalk]

Laois team v London

                        Killian Roche

  Sean Greene, Trevor Collins, Robbie Pigott
Padraig Kirwan, Mark Timmons , P O'Sullivan

                Kieran Lillis, Damon Larkin

   Cathal Doyle, Paul Kingston, James Finn
     Eoin Lowry, Evan O'Carroll, Mark Barry

Subs:
Scott Osborne, Alex Mohan, Seamus Lacey, Sean O'Flynn, Kevin Swayne, Ciaran Burke, Damien O'Connor, Dylan Kavanagh, Niall Corbet, Brian Daly, Colm Murphy

[clarshack]

Meath 1-11 Down 1-9 result. 17 wides I think they said for Down.

[Joeythelips]

Drew with London, be people on here saying we don't have the players to compete with London etc etc.