Messages

I believe there are a number of reasons why we can't go back and persuade Sugrue to return and in time I think he will give his reasons why .
Don't see why Luke Dempsey should be considered while there are lads from our county equally and just as good that are interested in the role .

Who is interested?

Luke Dempsey would be a disaster, definitely would be better take a chance on an inside manager

[As an aside, that's a famous surname at number 4. Is he anything to Pat Critchley?]

Have to admit to knowing absolutely nothing about this age group. What are the chances of a decent run in Leinster, does anyone know?
As an aside, that's a famous surname at number 4. Is he anything to Pat Critchley?

He's a nephew.

They got a pretty good draw and there are some very good Footballers on that team so I'd be optimistic we can get out of group at least

BA Can I ask why the two Comerfords dont kick football with ballyroan, such wasted talent in Junior Football.

Id imagine because they are registered with a dual club which provides football for them. Not sure on what basis they would play for Ballyroan Abbey

I wouldn't be so sure BA that it doesn't affect Ballyroan Abbey.

Abbeyleix players will become members of a football only club- they will have to play football with Abbeyleix. They can then hurl with AbbeyKil. .
The only way they could kick with Ballyroan is if Ballyroan apply to play as a Gaels team. But wasn't the name change to Ballyroan Abbey specifically to avoid this?

Same applies to Spink. Ballinakill players will have to kick with Ballinakill.Spink can't enter a Gaels team (they are not senior) so how will Ballinakill players play there? Knock on effect for Crettyard too.

It's not that long ago that Ballyroan players helped Pickas survive on an annual basis. I remember Tierney & McMahon helping them win a Junior C one year around 2006/7!

Spot on there. Huge implications if this thing goes through. You simply can't kick football with Ballyroan Abbey and hurl with Abbeyleix Ballinakill as it's proposed to be set up with junior C football teams retaining Abbeyleix and Ballinakill's identities.

Think it's supposed to work as follows:
Hurlers register to New Club (hurling only club)
Footballers register to BA or Spink ( football only clubs)
Ballinakill and Abbeyleix enter junior c football teams, not using or registering any players who play football with BA or Spink🤔. Ballinakill and Abbeyleix would be football only clubs in theory next year.

Not sure of legalities of all that and seems very unwieldy
but think that's what is supposed to happen

Well at least Zach to Stradbally would be jaw dropping. I'm not sure a Kingston transfer anywhere would even register mild surprise unfortunately

A is a 5 team Leinster competition
A1 rest of Leinster excludes Dublin only 4 teams in competition, think Mountrath go on to play Dublin A champions (No Dublin school in Leinster A)

John Sugrue is capable, but why this county continually ignores it's own verges on idiotic.  Malachy McNulty  is tearing it up with Portlaoise this year, Clancy is doing a fine job with Graigue and there is Joe Higgins and Chris Conway.  Why in gods name to we continually go for someone who can never have the same passion for Laois Football no matter how hard they try.   Could you actually imagine Kerry in this position considering someone from Laois.  The Laois job is much more than a managers job at the moment it's going to a P R exercise among the clubs and sponsors.  This is not about a coach or manager this is actually about someone reigniting the fire in Laois Football.

It is most definitely about a manager. Why are the candidates you pointed out better than Sugrue?

If the only reason you can give is they were born in Laois....

I don't really care if we go outside or inside, just get whoever we think is best. Selection of outside candidates likely to be limited.

Im surprised John Sugrue is not being mentioned more, seems like the outstanding local candidate to me. The rest of the local candidates seem ,looking purely at results, to be a bit of a gamble. I think Conway would be good, but as with most of others hasnt enough of a record to make him a definite 1st choice for job. Mark Rooney, imo, has as good a record as most mentioned in this thread

If we go outside we need to get it right (easier said than done). Stay away from the Banty/Cribbin/Flanagan circuit of managers. In an ideal world I'd like James Horan but close to 0 chance of that. Someone like Colm Collins (if doesnt go back to Clare) might be an option, he has done a serious job with Clare.

The backroom team will be as important as the manager. County board needs to appoint the right man and back him fully. I see clubs meant to have nominations in by Fri. Seems very rushed, if one was of a suspicious nature one might think there is some sharp practice going on

Not sure Keyser if the fact we were drawn in prelim round means we also get into munster group, County baller may well be correct (ie that draw of Laois or Westmeath may have been taken also as draw for Munster pot as draw would be between same two teams)

Clare, Down,Tipperary,Louth
Derry,Fermanagh, Armagh, Sligo, Offaly, longford,Westmeath, Wexford
Antrim, Laois, Carlow, Leitrim, Limerick,Waterford, Wicklow, London

Thats the bottom 20 teams according to league positions. Apart from Tipperary, who has had great underage success ? Who has a significantly better group of players than us? I would think we have as good players as at least 15 of those teams if not more. So I would think being a division 2 side is where this team could be if well managed, at the very least we should be comfortable in Division 3

Creedon has been very poor so far. No, I don't expect us to win All Irelands or Leinsters. I do expect us to do well against poor teams like Sligo, Antrim and Offaly. I also expect us to put in a battle against good (but not top) teams like Kildare, we might lose but we should at least be able to compete with them for most of the game. We dont have any divine right to beat teams I mentioned, but if the team is well prepared I dont see why we shouldn't.

Are there problems with our underage structure and player development? Absolutely, and we need to do work to improve them immediately. Are the players as good as we would like? Probably not. But Creedon hasn't got anywhere near the max out of them and himself and his management team are a substantial reason we have had disasterous results this year.

For those who think the manager doesn't matter, I could'nt disagree more. I'd be shocked if Jim Gavin couldn't have at least kept us in division 3, but I guess we'll never know. There are loads of examples of managers making a difference, its not the only factor but its an important factor. Colm Collins in Clare is a good example

Some of our players need also to take a serious look at their workrate and decision making in games. There are many of our more talented andexperienced players who are poor in these areas (I'm not questioning their commitment to Laois football, but it is a damning inditement of coaching they have received and their own ability to learn)

We can play losing semifinalists or quarter finalists I think.
From the Gaa master fixtures.

All-Ireland  Championship 
24.06.2017  (Sat)   Preliminary  Round  (If  approved  at  Congress  2017) Christy Ring  Winner  2017  v  Leinster  Quarter-Final  Loser

01.07.2017  (Sat)   Round  1  (Knock  out)   This  round  shall  involve  the  eight  teams  defeated  in  the  Munster  and  Leinster  Quarter-Finals (Or  the  Preliminary  Round  Winner)  and  Semi-Finals.  Teams  shall  be  drawn  from  two  bowls which  shall  be  as  follows: Group  1 Four  Leinster  Championship  Teams. Group  2 Three  Munster  plus  one  Leinster  Championship  Team.   (The  Leinster  Championship  Team  to  be  included in the  Munster  Group  shall,  where feasible,  be  one  of  the  two  Teams  that  qualified for the  Leinster  Quarter-Finals through  the  Provincial  Qualifier  Group. If  however  both  of  these  Teams  qualify  for  the Leinster  Final,  then the  replacement  shall  be  one  of  the  Leinster  Teams  defeated by them.  An  initial  Draw  shall  be  made  to  determine  the  Team  from  the  Leinster championship  which  is  to  be  included in  Bowl  2) The  Teams  shall  play on  a  Knock-Out  basis.  A  Draw  of  four  pairings of  Group  1  v Group  2 Teams,  with  avoidance  of  Repeat  Pairings,  shall  be  made. Group  1  v  Group  2 Group  1  v  Group  2 Group  1  v  Group  2 Group  1  v  Group  2 Venues  shall  be  on  a  Home  or  Away basis  and  shall  be  determined  by  a  Draw.* The  four  Winners  shall  progress  to  Round  2.

Be tough work out if team lists are first names only 

While I think Eamon Kelly has done a reasonably good job so far, and it's true we lack players of requires standard, that doesn't mean it's unfair to question aspects of team selection or tactics. Not much point in discussing match otherwise


Why did we keep launching high balls on a physically dominated half forward line? Could we have brought Foyle a bit for puckouts?

With regard to reacting to sweeper, why didn't we use our own spare man more? Surely working the ball through the lines and playing short accurate ball to forwards, or waiting until we were far enough up the pitch to bypass sweeper and hit Foyle on edge of square would have been better options?

Team worked hard throughout, some good performances from Collier, Downey and in particular Cleere.

The use of Cha at 6 baffles me. We are losing an excellent forward to make a mediocre centre back. He would also bring some badly needed physicality to our half forward line

Going solely on the two Laois today articles:

Its poor form from Castletown NS

For a chairperson of cnmb to endorse playing first team players on a b team is incredible imo. The health and safety excuse doesn't wash either. Team should not have entered in competition if not physically  developed enough to compete with other teams.

It's unfortunate that Knockmay is school on wrong end of this. It's likely a lot of their players don't come from a strong gaa background, something like this can easily finish them with hurling. There's no point in talking about developing hurling in Portlaoise then letting stuff like this happen

No not happy but was annoyed at being called an idiot by several on here.   This is actually a serious business,  a lot of people are putting time and effort into raising money to be totally ignored and treated like idiots by the CB.  Have you ever been at a county convention how the clubs are ignored by the chosen few.  Have any people any idea how Peter Creedon got the job who choose him or what were the parameters of the appointment.  You don't matter to those that make the decisions in Laois we are all clowns in their eyes and long may the party continue.

I'm no fan of co
board, but have you evidence there was lack of due process in Creedons appointment nor are you just ranting for