2015 Laois Senior Hurling

[clubjoe14]

Guys we are trying to get the right balance between developing the team and tactially competing with the bigger teams like dublin. We played with extra men back against dublin and still we left butch totally exposed on schutte. This managerial naivety is what is costing us in big games. Passion, pride etc will not eliminate these mistakes.

[Giovanni]

So does this mean that we didn't have enough lads back?

As CDV says above, unless you have savage backs (which we don't) you need to protect them. You can only do that by doubling up dropping lads back, etc.

The thing I was most disappointed with was the absence of "tactical fouling". I know he's a powerful man, but I just couldn't see Schutte getting that far without being fouled against the bigger teams. All these things are easy to say from the sideline but I think this is a bit of cuteness that might take a while to cultivate.

[finbar o tool]

if we put Willie on the edge of the square and played good ball into him, and the corners, just like Dublin did, we would compete much better! instead of having him out on the wing forced into shooting from distance. bringing back an extra defender automatically puts our backs under pressure, the backs are clearing ball and its coming back too quick because we are down a forward and possibly against an extra defender their end! the more pressure we are under the more we will concede and the less we score. are you all telling me that's the best plan we can use due to our players?! if the lads were told/coached to deliver good ball in a 15 on 15 situation, coached on their movement off the ball etc that they wouldn't have the ability or brains to do it? that's bullshit. they are well able!!

Im gona post the above again. We dont need any 'fancy' tactics to compete better lads, we need to play traditionally and use the ball well, clever movement etc, ive said over and over. playing the system/tactics we did this year is playing with fear, we used 2 sweepers against galway which meant management were petrified!! And what good did it do?! Please someone explain what good it did?! Same against dublin, 1 sweeper, but tell me, what good did it do?! As above it only adds and invites pressure, which inevitably leads to a beating and a lack of scores!!
Cheddar needs to stop instilling fear in the players with this system and encourage good intelligent man to man hurling and work hard on that!

[redsetanta]

Dont forget we lost one of our most potent forwards in King. No point hitting balls into the  corner if you dont have lads fast enough to get them.

[finbar o tool]

Dont forget we lost one of our most potent forwards in King. No point hitting balls into the  corner if you dont have lads fast enough to get them.

Ah jaysus.... I give up!

[G@@]

If there is a God above, thankfully Tinbar O Fool will never, ever be Laois Senior Hurling manager.

[Cruella De Vil]

Dont forget we lost one of our most potent forwards in King. No point hitting balls into the  corner if you dont have lads fast enough to get them.

No point in having 2 sweepers and scoring 2 points in a half, a balance must be found with a bit of an attacking threat, apart from shooting from 70 yards plus.

[finbar o tool]

If there is a God above, thankfully Tinbar O Fool will never, ever be Laois Senior Hurling manager.

What you do differently G@@?! Or is that all your here for, to come up with "hilarious" nicknames?!

Dont forget we lost one of our most potent forwards in King. No point hitting balls into the  corner if you dont have lads fast enough to get them.

No point in having 2 sweepers and scoring 2 points in a half, a balance must be found with a bit of an attacking threat, apart from shooting from 70 yards plus.

Yes!

[clubjoe14]

2 sweepers and we had 2 goals conceded against Dublin before i had even taking my seat in portlaoise that's what frustrates me. We are setting up defensively and yet we are conceding huge scores in every game. The system doesn't work! Any decent coach should see this.

[finbar o tool]

Well if anyone wants to know what im on about regarding a sweeper, watch the first half of that Dublin v Limerick match! After 14 minutes Limerick led 5-2, they had 7 wides at that stage and a missed goal chance. Thats 13 efforts at goal in 14 minutes, Dublin with the sweeper under fierce pressure and had 6 or 7 efforts from distance dropped short, no full forward line and the Limerick goalie cleaning up. Limerick kicked on to an 8 point lead after the goal, then, about 25 mins in Dublin went 15 on 15 and clawed their way back in to it. Would have been only 3 down if not for a missed free before HT. 
Quote from commentator Anthony Daly just before HT - "Dublin went 7 or 8 down, and u have to go after the game then, u cant sit back and rely on damage limitation. Thats what they did, Much better shape to them now"

[G@@]

If there is a God above, thankfully Tinbar O Fool will never, ever be Laois Senior Hurling manager.

What you do differently G@@?! Or is that all your here for, to come up with "hilarious" nicknames?!

Right, I'll bite.

Firstly, the Galway game was got wrong on having 1 sweeper too many, but no way would the result have been any different if we went 15v15 or much better using 1 sweeper.

Where we fell down was our man matchups. Tom Delaney should have been handed a man marking role on Joe Canning who more-or-less destroyed us on his own. There is a saying in Kilkenny that if you give Joe a manly welcome to the game the next time you'll have contact with him is to shake his hand walking off the field. Secondly in the Galway game, we should have had Willie in CF and try and crowd that part of the field and put Cha in FF. Cha has the potential to expose a rookie like the Galway full back and this should have been capitalised on.

I think Tom Delaney has a lot to offer Laois with his physicality. The recent media love-in with Laois means Tom could ride his luck a bit better against the referees who will be conscious not to hamper an emerging Laois team unfairly. I like what Tom has to offer, he's our own Jackie Tyrell so to speak.

To be fair to Cheddar, he is learning as much as the players are and it is an evolving project. Cheddar has his faults, he is only human afterall. His love of Paddy Whelan is costing us the difference between a respectable beating and a comprehensive beating.

I believe though that Cheddar will learn from this years games and come back better for it next year. To call for his head after three years of decent progress smacks of stupidity. There is NO-ONE out there that will continue the progress he has started. Why waste money on an outsider like Anthony Daly when the money could be spent internally preparing the next generation of hurlers.

Next year will be a more testing year as we transition the team - a few retirements will mean that young blood will quickly have to fill some big boots. Not an easy assignment. We seen how difficult things were at times with Dubhie gone.

Hope to God and start praying now that we get a Leinster opening round draw against either Wexford, Dublin, Galway or Kilkenny. Before you scream madness - we should avoid either of the round-robin teams for fear of going back into that group. I'd rather get Kilkenny than Offaly or probably Westmeath next May.

In the league we really need a good start and hopefully pick up a win against Kerry, IIRC they will be due to play us in Portlaoise as we last played them in Lixnaw where Keenan picked up a horrific injury.

[G@@]

Well if anyone wants to know what im on about regarding a sweeper, watch the first half of that Dublin v Limerick match! After 14 minutes Limerick led 5-2, they had 7 wides at that stage and a missed goal chance. Thats 13 efforts at goal in 14 minutes, Dublin with the sweeper under fierce pressure and had 6 or 7 efforts from distance dropped short, no full forward line and the Limerick goalie cleaning up. Limerick kicked on to an 8 point lead after the goal, then, about 25 mins in Dublin went 15 on 15 and clawed their way back in to it. Would have been only 3 down if not for a missed free before HT. 
Quote from commentator Anthony Daly just before HT - "Dublin went 7 or 8 down, and u have to go after the game then, u cant sit back and rely on damage limitation. Thats what they did, Much better shape to them now"

Dublin have the quality players to do that, and still they just about managed to get over the line against an equally physical Limerick team. Laois do not. TBH the writing was on the wall from the way Limerick slumped over Westmeath.

[finbar o tool]

Stick to the nicknames G@@!
Nice long post there but it hasnt much in it. Your first sentence kind of contradicts itself, we had a sweeper too many, but 15 v15 OR 1 sweeper wouldnt have helped? Im confused!
Then you speak only of the Galway match and have 3 positional changes as your answer to it all, and is that with or without a sweeper??
I hope you have no aspirations of Laois Hurling manager yourself?!

Well if anyone wants to know what im on about regarding a sweeper, watch the first half of that Dublin v Limerick match! After 14 minutes Limerick led 5-2, they had 7 wides at that stage and a missed goal chance. Thats 13 efforts at goal in 14 minutes, Dublin with the sweeper under fierce pressure and had 6 or 7 efforts from distance dropped short, no full forward line and the Limerick goalie cleaning up. Limerick kicked on to an 8 point lead after the goal, then, about 25 mins in Dublin went 15 on 15 and clawed their way back in to it. Would have been only 3 down if not for a missed free before HT. 
Quote from commentator Anthony Daly just before HT - "Dublin went 7 or 8 down, and u have to go after the game then, u cant sit back and rely on damage limitation. Thats what they did, Much better shape to them now"

Dublin have the quality players to do that, and still they just about managed to get over the line against an equally physical Limerick team. Laois do not. TBH the writing was on the wall from the way Limerick slumped over Westmeath.

But you agree if they had of stuck with sweeper they would have been beaten??
We have the players to compete better at the very least.

[Teo Lurley]

We don't have the players to beat Galway or even Dublin. This is a fact. We don't have to guess what it would be like to go 15 v 15 against these teams, we've played them 15 v 15 in recent years. Here's the results: Dublin 3-23 Laois 1-7, Galway 5-29 Laois 0-17. Then we've also played other teams 15 v 15 in recent years like Limerick, here's the result: Limerick    6–21 Laois 1-11 and also Cork, here's that result: Cork 10-20 Laois 1-13. We've also lost to Carlow 15 v 15.

It's actually a huge compliment to the work Cheddar has down to have delusional people like Finbar expect Laois to be competing against the Galways of this world. It's a long road to get to that level. We need to get as much talent as possible off the quality minor teams we've had of late. The realists will know it'll be tough and we'll suffer some big defeats along the way but we also realise the work Cheddar has done has virtually saved hurling in this county and we owe him a lot.

[finbar o tool]

I never actually said we can beat 'big' teams, im TRYING to get the point across, that we can compete better than we are!! Very hard to get through to some folk though!