Leinster Senior Football Championship 2023

[Laois Rising]

Colm Parkinson told RTÉ Sport's Eithne O'Brien that, "I think we're a better footballing team.

"Dublin are hyped up by the media. We knew coming up here that if we rattled them, that they'd be over-confident, that we'd be able to get a run on them. That's the way it's going.

"So hopefully in the second-half we'll be able to drive it home, and I can't see us losing from this point, to be honest with you."


Ahhh Wolly at half time in 2003


How right he was

Rem in 2015 I think we were 2 points up at the break I remember been at it and there was nobody from laous there .
Donie Ross Strong and Finn all kicked wonder points into the hill .

Good Laois team on the day Brody made his debut

That Laois team was backboned by a lot of lads who had been part of the successful minor and U21 teams of the 00s. They were all in their late 20s/very early 30s and in their prime as footballers. Played some great football in that first half. It was a warm day and the strenght of the substitutions that Dublin could make meant that we were never going to be able sustain those efforts for full 70 minutes.  I don't think we've had a better championship performance since.

[Spiritof86]

That was 2014 . We came even closer in 2012 . As mentioned that was a different Laois set up .
All the signs are there that Sunday won't be pretty for Laois football  . I genuinely hope I'm wrong .

Heard there are a few u20 been called into the panel . Might get a run in the TC which would make sense .

[blueandwhite1]

That was 2014 . We came even closer in 2012 . As mentioned that was a different Laois set up .
All the signs are there that Sunday won't be pretty for Laois football  . I genuinely hope I'm wrong .

Heard there are a few u20 been called into the panel . Might get a run in the TC which would make sense .

We had household names on the teams back then that would make any county team in the country. Looking forward to having that in the future again some time. Hope Sunday's team plays to the best of their ability and do themselves and the county proud.

[Junior Ex Laoistalk]

Just wondering if Joe Higgins sons ever showed any promise at football. I know they were playing underage but are they still around or are they still playing??

[Spiritof86]

Same team as normal . Colm Murphy back in the 26 . Good to see . Our only other potent forward really.

[Laois Rising]

I'm not sure why but for some reason I think the Dubs might be in for a fright

Your prediction has rung true. The fright being how truly terrible this Laois team is. I am debating heading home now. Hard to watch another 35 minutes of this.

[High Fielder]

There's something wrong with a competition that puts those two teams on the same pitch. Came away as quickly as they opened the gates. A minute more and I'd have had a claim for false improvement

[Blow-in]

A low day. No plan, no structure. And it's only going to get worse

[Tier2]

Was I expected us to win absolutely not.
But I have to ask the question why play sweepers against Division 4 teams to then change tactics completely against the likes of Dublin and have the game out of reach after 6 mins.

Second half mark timmons did a job sweeping the mind boggles with the thought process of this management team.

A genuine conversation needs to let the current manager in for the cup competition.

Damage limitation comes to mind

Decent Laois contingent in attendance

[Joeythelips]

Laois are no world beaters but you at least need people in charge of running the team. Billy makes Mick Lillis look good. The players deserve better.

[Blow-in]

Imagine 3/4 of Laois play football, and this is the shite we put out to represent our county. We can blame Billy and the County Board (a lot of the blame lies here), but as clubs, we have to stand up and change the way we produce and develop players.  Simply not good enough. To be honest, we are wasting our times at both sports. Something dramatic has to change in both codes

[Spiritof86]

A low day. No plan, no structure. And it's only going to get worse

What else did we expect today ? Anyone at a league match this year or last year will an attest to this .
If anything we got off lightly today. Dublin weren't even at full throttle .
Tactics or not our basics have been atrocious .

Roll on the TC . The lads will need the support .

[beano]

Agree with previous comments about team not being properly coached :

A few things: If I was coaching against Dublin I'd do the following

A) Break game down into ten minute slots and set target for each slot;

eg first ten mins - take no risks and try and quieten the crowd

next ten mins - be more adventurous but concede no goals

final ten minutes - keep things quiet and frustrate the Dubs;

five mins before half time - get the first score in this section and try and keep focus to half time. no silly three/ four  point bursts.


Onto today's game:

- Two of the goals in first half came from Laois mistakes which was very frustrating. Its hard enough playing Dublin without gifting them two goals.

_ How we set up in defense was naive to say the least- while I couldn't fault the work rate of players , to leave a 2 v 2 in the full back line was stupid to say the least.

After the goals the game was a non event.

Things to work on for the next day:

- restarts , its criminal that balls are going over the sideline

- Unforced errors - cut these out and we have a chance in games

- defensive unit- how we set up , needs to be looked at.  I know its a balance between defending and having people upfront if we force a turnover

- Need to get more out of Mark Barry in games . Needs to show more for ball or look for ball when sent in. Seemed to coast his way through game today.


Its not all doom and gloom:

Today wasn't going to be a day that will define our year and there are some positives to take out

1) work rate was decent , considering the opposition.

2) Dylan Kavanagh and Seamus Lacey did well in second half. Kavanagh has pace which is something that we need.

3) Paddy O'Sullivan, Kevin Swayne, Damon Larkin are drove at Dublin and took the fight to them.


Heading into the TC we should be aiming for at least two wins in the group stages.

[georgedoylesrightleg]

Just wondering if Joe Higgins sons ever showed any promise at football. I know they were playing underage but are they still around or are they still playing??

Tom Kelly son played haftime game today

[Andy06]

Lets be brutally honest, there is no surprise here. I was hoping we would keep them to 20 points so whats another 7 on top of that.
We have been conceding multiple goals to the likes of London, Carlow and Leitrim all year in division 4, but also scoring well so I fully expected us to score a few but the possibility was there for Dublin to hit us for 6 or 7 goals. They easily could have in the second half but you could see they were rather mercifully willing to take their points rather than go through that extra phase to find the free runner to find the net.

There are numerous things that are wrong within the county that would not have been fixed for yesterday, such as improved strength and conditioning and a panel of better and more skillful players. These are all seeds that would have started at primary school level up through underage, and there has been many discussion about it on other threads so will leave it for now.

The one thing that might have made a difference (and absolutely would have made in division 4 and will make in the Tailteann Cup) is an actual game plan. We seemed to go 15 on 15 versus one of the best teams in the country in the first half, surely you would do total damage limitation for the first period. Bring 1 if not two lads back to clog the path to goal, with the aim of at least keeping them away from the nets. Then in the second half you could switch to a more adventurous play, but only after making sure the house was in order.

There was also zero pattern or plan to our forwards who all seemed to play their own game. Numerous times the ball was hit in to O'Carroll who did well to claim the ball but there was literally no one around him. The plan should have been as soon as it looked like he would have claimed it, have Barry make a darting run to him in support, or past him to receive the through ball. Same with Lowry, although our first goal was as a result of one of the few times the forwards worked in tandem.

I wont lie it was nice to hear the Laois chant going up briefly once we got the two goals, there did seem to be a good number of us there! I am looking forward to the TC as its against teams at our level, get a win the first game then who knows where we'll end up in it.