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I would have to agree, its a big improvement on the last couple of years. Staying competitive with these teams considering all the players missing is the best we can hope for atm. When we have everyone back then maybe we could look to push on. Last year we shipped 6-33 to Limerick and lost by a whopping 29 points compared to 10 yesterday away from home. Sure we have lots to work on but id dwell on the positives from yesterday instead of the negatives. I think the fact that we went back training so early this year will hopefully stand to us as we seemed to be able to stay with Limerick for the duration yesterday and didn't fall away with 20 minutes to go. If we had all our players available yesterday I really believe we would have got very close to Limerick. We need another big performance next week and if Antrim can give Galway a game we can too.
As for the injuries Dwane, Picky and Cahir are out for the league at least hopefully they will make it back for some of the championship. I think Cha, Mark Kav, PJ Scully and Ryan Mullaney will be back in a few weeks but next weekend will come too soon. Lee Cleere injured his hip according to Eamonn Kelly so hopefully he wont be out for too long.
There has been no sign of Aaron Dunphy or Paddy Whelan this year, I assume they are not involved or are they injured too?

The main objective will be to avoid being relegated. Two group wins should give us fourth place and avoid a relegation play off. We would need to beat Antrim and Offaly.
We are well capable of beating Antrim but Offaly are rejuvenated under Kevin Martin and where we lack size in our team the have it in abundance. Offaly gave a reasonably strong Kilkenny team a real fright at the weekend compared to our pitiful performance against a weaker KK team. Having said the I think we have as good hurlers as Offaly size albeit not as physical and experienced. We have to be looking to win both those games. Aside from that I really hope we don't ship some of the huge beatings that we have been getting in the league in the past few years. We really lie down and let some above average teams destroy us. Kerry beat Cork (I know it was Corks second string) by 10 points on Sunday, Offaly ran KK to 3 points and there were a few other good performances from the weaker counties in the early competitions this year. We don't seem to be able to do that at the moment. Offalys performance was a typical Offaly one in that they gave an utterly determined performance where they got in the faces of KK and weren't one bit afraid of the challenge.
Id like to see Laois have a bit more fire, a never say die attitude and a bit more determination in there play. These lads are putting in too much work and effort to go out and be slaughtered. That's the challenge for Eamonn Kelly (and his big backroom team) this year, if it doesn't work out well then the County board need to look at the money they are investing in County Managers and these high profile backroom team assistants.
I hope the lads achieve their goals for the year and steady the ship in 2018.

There are quite a few notable absentee's atm. Matthew and Paddy Whelan, Aaron Dunphy, Tom Delaney,
Injured - Cahir Healy, PJ Scully, Dwane Palmer, Picky Maher, Ryan Mullaney, Mark Kavanagh, Neil Foyle, Ross King

There are not that many guys that are not on the panel that could come in and improve the thing, Gearoid Burke and Joe Campion would be good additions but I cant think of many others? Eoin Reilly is out of the country. Possibly Stephen Phelan and Robbie Phelan.
Im excluding the retired guys, that's assuming Zane Keenan is retired too.

Assuming all are fit for the championship id go with this;
E Rowland
C Healy
L Bergin
J Phelan/D Palmer
C Collier
M Whelan
L Cleere
P Purcell
J Ryan
R King
W Dunphy
C Dwyer
P Maher
N Foyle
PJ Scully/M Kavanagh

W Dunphy at centre forward might seem strange but I think he is strong, quick, can hurl and has a good work-rate. Looks tied up in the corner a lot of the time, id like to see him a bit more involved.
The following would give that team fair competition for places - S Downey, E Killeen, A Dunphy, B Conroy, P Whelan, C Stapleton

Westmeath gave a full Tipp team a good rattle in the championship last year. Man for man we are better than Westmeath.

You are delusional if you think Laois at the minute would get within 12/15 points of Tipperary

What did Dublin beat us by this year?

How much of a hiding did Tipp then dish out to Dublin?

My point is if Westmeath can do it we should be able to (albeit a once off). IMO we are better than Westmeath, as results show we have consistently beaten them in league and championship.
Its not even the new year and the pessimism is almost at max level.

Westmeath gave a full Tipp team a good rattle in the championship last year. Man for man we are better than Westmeath.

Anyone at the game? Anyone show well?

Why wouldn't Zane be asked back in? He would certainly add to the midfield/forward options.
I guess the question is..would he come back. Even though he is still only 29, if he doesn't go back this year he probably never will and once he hits 30 he probably never will.
He might decide to give it one more year with the potential incentive of playing the tier 2 final in croke park.
Others from Camross are Ciaran Collier Dwane Palmer from last year. Hopefully Gearoid Burke. Id also have a look at Joe Phelan and Mark Dowling.
Its a pity not to see Joe Campion, Liam Delaney, Robbie Phelan, Aaron Bergin and maybe Stephen Phelan not in there.

http://hoganstand.com/Article/Index/278254

A few new additions to the panel. If James Ryan can carry his club form to the county he can be a good addition.
No sign of Gearoid Burke, Joe Campion, Liam Delaney, Colm Stapleton, Robbie Phelan, Aaron Bergin, Joe Phelan or Zane Keenan
Hopefully there will be no further deflections to the panel..

Any update on laois training? How is it going?

I hear the hurlers are back doing a bit..
Its a bit crazy really but I guess they have to with the league starting in just over two Months. There is very little down time for lads on County panels to enjoy themselves. There is basically no time off anymore, most clubs have only just finished their seasons and they are back with the county. Lads still under21 or in college don't have any time off. Its tough going but I suppose the lads doing it love it and live for it.
I think we need to see a bit more from our management team in terms of a game plan and playing to our strengths, we were hammered in the league last year in some games that need not have been as bad if managed better imo.
Anyone know of any newcomers to the panel this year? Ive listed a 40 man panel that I would like to see battling for positions. I may have some obvious omissions that ive missed.
E Rowland, E Fleming, P Simms
C Healy(inj), D Palmer(inj), R Mullaney, L Bergin, E Killeen, M Whelan, L Cleere
G Burke, T Delaney, P Delaney, C Phelan, E Doyle, P Lawlor, C Collier, L Delaney
P Purcell, C Taylor, C Stapleton, J Campion, A Corby, J Ryan, P Whelan
C Dwyer, R King, P Maher(inj), M Kavanagh(inj), N Foyle, PJ Scully, B Conroy, W Dunphy,
R Phelan, S Phelan, A Bergin, C Comerford, A Dunphy, Z Keenan

That is encouraging. We need to expose as many young guys to elitism from this age (any younger is not  too young for elitism).
We will not compete with the better teams if our squads are evenly divided, but the hope is that we would have 20 guys able to compete at A level in Tony Forrestal 2018.
To follow up next year with another good team at 14 level would be very encouraging for the future of the game in the county.

Its hard to believe that the first round of the league is just over 3 Months away. It will come around quick enough too. It sometimes takes Laois a while to get up and running with some lads deciding to take an extended break after the Summer. We cant really afford to have lads doing that this time around because if we are not ready this league could become a very daunting challenge. We have really failed to turn up against Limerick in the league over the years. They are not actually that good but they always seem to give us a hiding. I felt last year our management were extremely naïve against Limerick in the league in Portlaoise and we took an unmerciful beating from them. We left huge space between our half and full back lines without counter-acting it Limerick put us to the sword. I have time for the management but they really should be more tactically aware at times.
As regards personnel we are already without Cahir Healy, Picky Maher, Mark Kavanagh and Dwane Palmer for the league at least so it makes an already tough league that bit tougher, Id imagine these four would be starting if fit. We really need to get a few new guys on board or at least get the few guys that have not been committing themselves involved. Having lads on the subs for the County team that are only subs for their clubs is not good enough and every effort needs to be made to improve the make up of the panel. There should be incentive there this year in that if we get into the tier two final id imagine it will be in Croke park and following that we would have a big game in a preliminary quarter final to look forward to.
I feel it is so important to keep our senior hurling team at a reasonable level for a few years and hopefully some of these promising underage guys will drive us on to another level. We can only live in hope.

Ive mentioned in previous posts but its now more than ever that a concentrated effort to improve the resources, training facilities, strength and conditioning, top end hurling sessions and a streamlined pathway for all development squads to follow up to under 17 level needs to be brought in and implemented. We obviously have something to work with here and these players need to be shown that this is worth hanging onto. It would be a shame to let them fall away at this stage.

Its been very encouraging from the development squads this year and the minors proved that they can mix it too (bar the kk game). It bodes well but I would just love to see an ambitious plan for laois hurling being drawn up and followed through.

Important day today. We need to start competing well in these competitions. The opposition will be tough at all grades but this is where you find out what we really have, all the previous results are irrelevant. Hoping the U14s can at least be competitive and the under 16s should be winning games in their group although Limericks second team wont be simple.

After dwelling on laois performances since we exited all competitions in 2017 I have come to the following conclusions;
The Senior hurlers...
I think it was a reasonably good year overall. Maintaining division 1B status is crucial, topping the table in the round robin, beating Carlow in the qualifiers are good achievements for this team. Who knows if we hadn't so many injuries how close we would have got to Dublin.
Going forward as has already been said its crucial that Cahir Healy and Matthew Whelan stay on for another couple of years. We really need to strengthen the panel next year to and hopefully the likes of Joe Campion, Colm Stapleton, PJ Scully, Gearoid Burke and Eoin Reilly rejoin the panel. There are other guys like Robbie Phelan, Joe Geaney, Padraig Delaney and Ciaran Comerford  to name a few that should be encouraged to commit to the panel.
I reckon we are the tenth best team in Ireland at the moment, with Offaly in disarray coming11th. Offaly are likely to lose some of their best players over the next year or two as Shane Dooley, Joe Bergin and captain Sean Ryan at the end of their county careers.
The problem for laois is that their is too big a gap between us and the team at number 9 which is probably Dublin. There has been a lot of talk about bridging the gap over the past few years but no action actually doing something about it.

While the are some encouraging signs coming from some underage teams there are not enough encouraging signs. The minors surprised a lot of people this year and really can be proud of their efforts, running Dublin to 3 points was fair going and this is where we need to get to with all our underage teams. We need to be at least competitive and then results will follow here and there. The under 14s have shown promise but against who? Its only in the Tony forrestal competitions that you really see where these lads are at.

So what can be done??
We can and should constantly be begging croke park for support and when they don't give it go to national media to complain about them and show them up, for example, the huge quantities of money being pumped into development in Dublin where financially they are already mega rich is a disgrace. Almost every club in Dublin have full time GDO's and have state of the art facilities. Its obvious that the GAA will do all they can to support Dublin while the weaker counties are struggling to stay a float. We might not have any success in our pleading but its worth fighting for.
Outside croke parks help its up to our Co board to put structures in place that will give us a better chance of success in the future, we will never improve enough to win anything unless a strategic plan is in place and implemented in the best possible way.
What should our Co board do??
1) Hire a full time director of hurling
Who? Cheddar Plunkett - This man has already proved to everybody how good an organizer he is, how intelligent he is and he has shown an incredible passion for the game and above all for his county. Cheddar should be given full support from the county board to carry out his agenda
What should Cheddar do?
- Put a plan together for the future of laois hurling incorporating every aspect of the game in terms of development of players, supporters clubs, fundraising, urban involvement, referees, club development etc
- Put a trusted team (committee) of people in place that he can delegate different jobs to, intelligent passionate laois hurling people like, Pat Critchley, Niall Rigney, Paul Cuddy, John O Sullivan, Enda Lyons, Andy Dunne, Brian Stapleton, Brian Campion, Tommy Fitzgerald etc (There are good people in every club)
Clubs should nominate people they feel would have something to add and those people would be interviewed by Cheddar to assess their suitability, commitment and passion for the job. The difficult part is to get these good people involved as they would be voluntary positions, however with Cheddars persuasive ways and something worthwhile id be confident a good team of men could be assembled for the job.
- Regionalize and expand the setanta and chuchullian programmes, possibly dividing up the county in 4 even zones, supervised buses should be ran to bring players to and from the camps. This would encourage more involvement. Each zone would have a GDO(ideally full time) reporting to Cheddar weekly or bi-weekly. Cheddar would assess each zone on how they are working and how they could be improved, giving assistance to the GDO's as much as possible.
- A Laois hurling school of excellence focused at elite players from the ages of 13 -17 should be formed with individual plans divised for each player to work on their weaknesses, each player should be monitored closely between the ages of 13 - 17. The management teams would be interviewed and hired by cheddar and his committee. All members of management teams should have completed level two coaching course (County level coaching certificate)
- A plan for primary and post primary schools drawn up and implemented, focused on involvement from all primary schools across Laois with weekly coaching sessions from the regional GDO. The GDO's should also be involved in post primary schools hurling and help in preparation of the teams along with the school teachers for their respective competitions.
- Cheddar, his committee and the GDO's should help all clubs across the county to implement their own hurling structures at club level and try to raise the standard to hurling at all levels in the county.

Its time to put pressure on our Co board to do something now before we are so far back that we can never "bridge the gap". It needs to be done and it needs to be done soon!!

These are just some of the ideas that I have, I haven't put that much thought into it so don't jump down my throat!!
I feel my plans are realistic even without financial support from croke park,  Offaly managed to hire a full time director of hurling(who has since resigned). We already have two hurling GDO's but we really need at least two more.
Im sure there are people out there with other good ideas and id be interested to hear them...