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To be honest, I thought we were going to get an awful appointment like Evans or a TOF like person. But to be fair, this is an imaginative and frankly exciting appointment. Hopefully the players agree. Well done to all involved in getting him in. To those who think it's a bad appointment - who were the alternatives - any outstanding canditates? Don't think so. Hopefully upwards from here, I was fearing the worst. But there's no doubt that is a positive appointment. Word is he's pally with Sugrue so hopefully John will help him get settled in, too.

What exactly has Chris Conway done on the sideline to warrant the Laois Senior Job ? Chris and Laois would be better off if he got involved at U14s and builded upwards and  try create something and gain experience instead of jumping into the top job where he is questionably qualified for if qualified at all.

so who do you want then, evans?

He doesn't owe you or any of us anything. He gave his all to Laois for 2 years. If he wasn't getting the standard required to match his ambitions in Laois, then why wouldn't he go to Kildare. I'd like to find out one way or another, but if that scenario comes to light, then best of luck to him and shame on the people within the Laois CB who let him go.

If he does go to Kildare, who are we to begrudge him in all fairness. He would be forwarding his career. If it turns out that the CB were not going to back his ideas for Laois, then why wouldn't he get out and join a county that have serious ambition? Of course it would hurt but we have to let the man do what he wants with his career. A simple statement to end all the needless speculation would be nice. If he does join Kildare, then the lack of statement thus far will make a whole lot of sense. All will be revealed with time; in the meantime, let's get someone from within Laois for 2020. I can't see anyone from outside the county putting in the required time, effort and passion to keep us driving forward. JS still the man for it if something can be worked out. If not, Chris Conway for me wouldn't be too far off.

I think you might be over thinking it a tad, High Fielder. Maybe he did just go for personal reasons. He has a family and a business. Maybe the 100% he was putting into Laois football was taking away from the more important things in his life.

I agree though, it would be good to get some kind of statement to have closure and to stop people like us idly coming up with theories that might have no basis in truth.

If Sugrue is gone for certain I'd like to see Billy Sheehan or Chris Conway in there.

It seems every ounce of optimism that was built up in Laois football over the past 18 months or so has now disappeared.

I definitely wouldn't go that far - we've made huge progress over the past 2 years. But until the managerial position is sorted, it's on pause for now. Hopefully CB aren't stupid enough to get evans or l.dempsey or one of those. Would personally love if the sugrue situation could be resolved and he comes back - stranger things have happened.

To be honest, I'd say there's some reason why Sugrue left outside of family and business committments. I don't know that for sure, but I'm very surprised he's left at this time. He was building something up and was just getting started (it seemed), having built a good foundation. He doesn't strike me as a man who just gives that up unless something very negative happened. I certainly don't know this for sure but I'd guess there's some other reason there. Maybe we won't find that out eitherway.

It's hard to look at other possible managers at this time.

Now I'm been a bit petty here but what the hell is it with promising Laois teams and haircuts? Tonight we had every player with more or less the same haircut. Might have been more in their line to concentrate on the football. We had the same nonsense back in the 90s with the successful minor teams who underachieved at senior level by any yardstick. One of my abiding memories was all their flashy hairstyles that were doing the rounds when there were going well at underage. All I'm saying I would prefer substance to style.

What a dumb comment.

If a young fit lad can't stay fresh and recover in 7 days, there's something wrong. He'd be fully recovered in 3-4 days provided he's not injured. Mentally, that's another question, especially if you're coming off a loss. For example, Westmeath in hurling were not helped at all. But I believe the 1 week turn around did us no harm, in this particular context. I will admit though, that 2 weeks is likely more ideal in general. I'm just saying that I don't think we were harmed with the one week turn around this year. We were out on our feet in the 2nd half due to going down to 14 and competing against a top, top side, not because we were still feeling the effects of the Dublin game, in my opinion.

I'd say that it will be fine tuned over the winter. The result vs the Dubs was probably unexpected when the programme was being put together.

One can hope.

Even so, the schedule was knowingly set up with seven days between the Joe McDonagh Final and the Preliminary Quarter-Finals--with the knowledge that two battle-worn JMcD teams would be taking the pitch to meet two successful Leinster panels who were well-rested, locked and loaded.

I see your point, Mossy, but I have to say, as a player, you want to be playing week in, week out, and it's my opinion that the regular games and week turnaround in fact helped Laois and our match sharpness. Most players love games every weekend as opposed to training. Also, a week is plenty of time to recover from a game the week before. We saw great momentum between the Joe Mc to the Dublin game to the Tipp game, we could easily have taken the energy out of it and over analysed had it have been 2-3 week break.

Do you reckon we could be in line for multiple (4 or 5) all-star nominees...and, dare I ask, do you think we could actually have one or two all - stars named on the 15?

Fantastic performance Lads, love the attitude of this team. Doing us all very proud. I have to admit, i generally support the footballers more than the hurlers  as I'm with a footballing club, but this bunch of lads has won a lot of support this year, and not only from people inside the county. Neutrals really seem to hope that we'll bridge the gap and become a force in Leinster, too. It's great to see. Credit to all involved.

PS Mossy - that lap of honour was filmed and is here on the laois gaa twitter page: https://twitter.com/CLGLaois?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

We'd find ourselves in the top tier now i imagine if they done a split.

That doesn't matter, we could easily be in the 2nd tier in a year or two if they brought it in. We are one of those borderline counties. It would be a sheer and utter disaster for teams like Laois, Offaly, Derry etc to play 2nd tier football. It's not the way to go at all. World cup style championship is the way to go. Fair for all and a chance for a small team like Laois or Wexford to build over a 5 year process to become one of the better teams. If a team like Laois is thrown into tier 2, what incentive do young lads in Laois have, 13 / 14 /15 year olds, of playing for the county? None. It's a disaster of an idea and will signal a slow death for football in a lot of counties, soon to be the next Kilkenny.

It's amazing what 2 years can do. 2 years ago the consensus was that Laois football was on the way down will no end in sight. No players up coming. Aging team. Division 4 and maybe stay there for most of the next 5-10 years. But now the U-20's are in the Leinster final with a decent shot against Dublin, we've been in the last 12 in senior the last couple of years, and we're back up to where we belong in senior league - Div 2. I didn't see it coming, but it's great. A lot of great work has gone on behind the scenes, respect and congrats to all who have made it happen. Long may it continue.