Laois Senior Hurlers 2023

[clonadmad]

I know, it's crazy. No one wants to get relegated, but the alternative isn't much better. If they can't do the divisions of 8 due to time constraints, why not have Div. 1A and 1B according to merit. As it used to be. That way you'd have ourselves, Antrim, Westmeath, Dublin, Wexford, and probably Clare (?) in 1B. Would be more competitive, all round.

We had that a few years ago with the likes of Limerick Clare and Galway in division 2 one year with 2 going up

It was an ultra competitive league In Division 1 and 2 was a battle amongst 3/4 teams to make the top 2 promotion places


The "weaker" counties including ourselves kicked up and wanted more game time against the bigger counties

Which is the League we have now

[SpeculativeEffort]

I know, it's crazy. No one wants to get relegated, but the alternative isn't much better. If they can't do the divisions of 8 due to time constraints, why not have Div. 1A and 1B according to merit. As it used to be. That way you'd have ourselves, Antrim, Westmeath, Dublin, Wexford, and probably Clare (?) in 1B. Would be more competitive, all round.

We had that a few years ago with the likes of Limerick Clare and Galway in division 2 one year with 2 going up

It was an ultra competitive league In Division 1 and 2 was a battle amongst 3/4 teams to make the top 2 promotion places


The "weaker" counties including ourselves kicked up and wanted more game time against the bigger counties

Which is the League we have now

Sorry but this statement is completely incorrect. The weaker counties did NOT get the league revamped. Even if they wanted to they wouldn't have the clout to do so.

Stronger counties (Cork among them) protested after 1 or 2 counties(Galway and Limerick) won the All Ireland from Div 1b. They claimed playing in 1B was an advantage as it allowed teams to develop their panel without any threat of relegation but playing in 1A teams had to go flat out to avoid relegation.

It was a complete sham of an argument because if 1B was such an advantage why not play your fringe players and get relegated to the more advantageous division?!

A very quick search and this article discusses this very thing.
https://www.the42.ie/hurling-league-format-5703579-Mar2022/

The GAA bought it and we are left with this farce of a league. Westmeath are in a worse position than we are. The GAA have ZERO care about spreading hurling.

ZERO

We must pull ourselves up.

[clonadmad]

I know, it's crazy. No one wants to get relegated, but the alternative isn't much better. If they can't do the divisions of 8 due to time constraints, why not have Div. 1A and 1B according to merit. As it used to be. That way you'd have ourselves, Antrim, Westmeath, Dublin, Wexford, and probably Clare (?) in 1B. Would be more competitive, all round.

We had that a few years ago with the likes of Limerick Clare and Galway in division 2 one year with 2 going up

It was an ultra competitive league In Division 1 and 2 was a battle amongst 3/4 teams to make the top 2 promotion places


The "weaker" counties including ourselves kicked up and wanted more game time against the bigger counties

Which is the League we have now

Sorry but this statement is completely incorrect. The weaker counties did NOT get the league revamped. Even if they wanted to they wouldn't have the clout to do so.

Stronger counties (Cork among them) protested after 1 or 2 counties(Galway and Limerick) won the All Ireland from Div 1b. They claimed playing in 1B was an advantage as it allowed teams to develop their panel without any threat of relegation but playing in 1A teams had to go flat out to avoid relegation.

It was a complete sham of an argument because if 1B was such an advantage why not play your fringe players and get relegated to the more advantageous division?!

A very quick search and this article discusses this very thing.
https://www.the42.ie/hurling-league-format-5703579-Mar2022/

The GAA bought it and we are left with this farce of a league. Westmeath are in a worse position than we are. The GAA have ZERO care about spreading hurling.

ZERO

We must pull ourselves up.

Incorrect

The league was redrawn by the CCCC

All the counties concerned made submissions including the so called weaker counties who wanted the format changed too

[Blow-in]

A trend among Willie Maher interviews always draws back to 'lack of S and C over the years'.

So what has been happening in S and C among the senior hurling panel in this time? Since his appointment he says S and C among the group is at a ground level and will take years upon years to reach the standard of the big counties.

I find this statement very worrying.

[Unlaoised]

A trend among Willie Maher interviews always draws back to 'lack of S and C over the years'.

So what has been happening in S and C among the senior hurling panel in this time? Since his appointment he says S and C among the group is at a ground level and will take years upon years to reach the standard of the big counties.

I find this statement very worrying.

I think it's a mask to hide behind in saying we are miles and miles behind the bigger teams .

I think we will get roasted in Belfast too

[Keyser Söze]

One thing that bugs me big time.

I heard W Maher interviewed.

"Waterford are 6 or 7 years further down the road when it comes to S&C"....

How can this actually be?

Laois set ups for the past 5 or 6 years haven't been low budget.

Exact point I was making a few weeks back.
It doesn't stack up.

Granted, as someone pointed out, players coming & going affects this badly.

Should Laois GAA employ 1/1.5/2 full time S&C experts and take this out of the hands of management teams?
Would bring consistency, player familiarity & would remove a barrier/excuse going forward.

[Jd]

 There are full-time s&c people in there. The underage setups all come through the system now and it is starting to show. The Minor footballers whom I see regularly are very well conditioned and compare very favourably against any teams they play. I heard a member of management say that 28 of the 33 have come through this system so I'm sure it's the way across the board. There's a bit of upheaval in there at the moment but I'm sure it'll be sorted by the new head of that dept

[G@@]

I think we will get roasted in Belfast too

Last two games away. Antrim on 12th March and Dublin on 19th March.
Antrim have been reasonably competitive this league campaign:
Antrim 0-15 V 1-18 Kilkenny compared to Laois 1-18 V 0-34 Kilkenny
Antrim 2-19 V 0-28 Dublin (Laois have yet to play Dublin, but could we keep it to three points?) Laois 0-18 V 2-32 Tipperary
Antrim 0-17 V 1-22 Waterford compared to Laois 2-19 V 2-31 Waterford

(Home teams bolded)

Antrim have scored 2 Goals and 51pts, conceded 2 Goals and 68pts
Laois have scored 3 Goals and 55pts, conceded 4 Goals and 97pts

While we are slightly better on scoring fronts, we're shipping thirty plus points and often when the opposition floats over points so easily, a goal or two comes with that.

We have to win more in the air and keep tighter to the opposition. Antrim are fairly physical and Belfast is an unforgiving ground for visitors.

[Laois man]

Can't be standing 6 foot off players like we did again kkenny.

[burdizzo]

Funny, one of the things I thought about the first Walsh Cup game against Wexford was that the tackling had improved. Where did that go?!

[Laois man]

Hopefully we can get a win in Antrim Sunday won't be easy up there.

[clonadmad]

Hopefully we can get a win in Antrim Sunday won't be easy up there.

it will be some result if we do, based on their games v Kilkenny and Waterford

[Spiritof86]

It's on GAAGO for those who can't make it to Belfast .

[clonadmad]

It's on GAAGO for those who can't make it to Belfast .

BBC iplayer also

[Spiritof86]

It's on GAAGO for those who can't make it to Belfast .

BBC iplayer also

Maybe I'm incorrect but I thought BBC iplayer was only available in Northern Ireland and mainland U.K. as we don't pay the licence fee .