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Roscommon won because they were the hungrier outfit and when the game was in the melting pot, their appetite was in stark contrast to the galway one.

Alas, I fear hunger and honest application may only get you so far, and there is a strong possibility that the Rossie will not win another game, in fact, I dare say, many will view them as a weak link in the Super 8s and those coming through the qualifier route will be hoping they are in the Rossie group.

all these lady analysts on the gaa male games is pure pc tokenism. no issue with a ladies only panel for camogie or ladies football.  the only entertainment to be had from it may be some future evening if joe brolly and pat spillane are arguing a topic and you have the token lady in the middle treated as invisible.

as for Jacobs, horrendous accent, mute button instantly.  the best of a poor bunch is the other lady from Wexford, Darcy, but she seems to have disappeared from the screens.

rte radio sport has gone downhill big time in their gaa live broadcasts....more of the bloody pc rubbish of having a female co-commentator....on the radio this evening for the meath-carlow game, the "female voice" was briege corkery who clearly had no clue about the meath players and even less about the Carlow lads....she started out with a lovely gem, describing the meath-carlow game  as a big local derby  .....at 600 euro a pop, you would expect some degree of research.

In football until 1965 there was no management, and actually no organised training sessions. Laois reached the 1963 Leinster football final and a 3 man county board representation picked the team, two of whom were the then controller in chief Lar Brady and Bill Delaney..

this division could be a game of snakes and ladders.
great result in newry, horrid today.

the only point I would add is that over the years, I have found louth to be a team which needs to lead early if they are to win.....when they beat us in the championship and more recently two years ago in the league they amassed big leads and we never were in the hunt. when louth fall behind , they a rarely make a comeback.
therefore starting our best forwards in the hope of establishing an early lead was important against this opposition.....bringing on donie and evan when the damage was done failed to rescue the situation.

it is easy to be wise after the event.....looking ahead to Sligo next sunday.....our problem against them over the years has been discipline(keeping 15 on the field), if we address this aspect in advance of next sunday we can win that game.

sign of the times....once upon a time rathdowney secondary were one of the big guns in "A" vocational schools....C grade is for the also rans.

as for no one from portlaoise being on the cumann na b panel...a shame....but perhaps Clonadmad rather than continually drilling away at hurling in Portlaoise GAA, a look closer to homemay be relevant.  If you are from Clonad, a once proud senior hurling club in this county, can you answer why the same Clonad has not produced one county panel standard senior player in the 21st century? is the raw material that bad, or is it the coaching?, because ye have all the facilties(fair play).

Judged on what I saw against Carlow before Christmas and todays offering against a makeshift Dublin team, this is going to be a bleak year for Laois Hurlers.
In the last 2 years, Healy,King and Conroy were often the players who dug us out of a hole, all 3 are unavailable in 2019 for different reasons and there are simply no special hurlers emerging from the younger ranks.
We will be beaten in all our league games and relegation looks a near certainty.
in the championship, we are behind Offaly and Westmeath.  we have just had the number on Antrim in recent years, with Anthony Daly assisting them this year, they will be better organised and positioned to give us some payback. our record against Kerry has been dreadful.
we are away to Offaly and Kerry and home to Westmeath and Antrim.
Eddie Brennan has no idea what he has stepped into. On the basis of the panel at his disposal and strength of other sides, we have the most regressive panel, and all I can see is 4 defeats in the Joe McDonagh and relegation.

the last Kilkenny manager we had, Fennelly was a disaster, poor Eddie could be at the helm of a team which is likely to loss all league and championship games in 2019 and suffer a double relegation.
I will add, it may not matter who is in charge, the current panel is poor save for a few like Rowland, cha and matt. the future is not bright.

we need critchley and cheddar to start back with underage and build a base of good young minors, that may be the long term solution.

fine win for portlaoise, stiff test next time against a young emerging ballinamere-durrow.

the likes of the scully chap should be given no oxygen at all, he would have notions about his standing(figure of mirth) as a referee!.

there are two members of the camross hurling panel due before the courts on a very serious GHB assault charge in the near future with custodial sentences likely.
can one assume mr scully will be tweeting extensively about said court proceedings and outcome?....you must be joking, it will be the usual see no evil, hear no evil.

I have mentioned earlier on this particular thread my view that Laois hurling is starting to fall off a cliff. Nothing I saw today changes that verdict.
Poor Eddie Brennan must be feeling uneasy, because with little coming through the underage ranks to boost the senior squad, his goal in 2019 may be to remain in the joe mcdonagh ranks.

I feel sorry for The Harps, defeated in two finals today. The Senior B final was no spectacle. Deegan is a promising coach within the confines of Laois, today the tactics were wrong.  I suppose the fact that so many Harps players failed to perform can render tactics as useless.  Two moderate sides, neither would survive in Kilkenny at Intermediate level if truth be told. The difference was Cahir Healy, take him out of the Portlaoise side and they may have collapsed in defence.  When Healy retires, the shelf life of this Portlaoise hurling group at Senior A grade will be limited.

The main event was a typical professional "getting the job done" effort by Camross.  Once they got their heads in front, the writing was on the wall. Alas Camross hold no chance in Leinster.

Like Merman, the moment from the 2018 final they will be etched in my memory was the assault by a Camross player right in front of the middle of the stands....not one, two but three vicious blows to a player prone on the ground.  An assault, not accident, and let us call a spade a spade, the act of a tr**p.

The referee saw it, the linesman saw it, the 4th official saw it.  To dish out a yellow card instead of an instant red card was an insult to the game of hurling.

O Brien gets an easy enough ride as he is an outsider officiating here, after this he should get no more county finals, I could say more. Yet the clowns who appoint such officials will turn a blind eye.

That the victim of the assault was a soldier who has given great service to the county to rubs salt into the wounds. I am not from Rathdowney/Errill and would consider myself neutral...naked assaults deserve punishment.
When the incident occurred R/E were leading and Camross not firing....Camross should have been reduced to 14 men and the outcome would have been different.

I stand corrected if that is the case steven....no doubt rathdowney will be silently hoping borris turn over cb.

there will be no extra draw for the semi finals.....the path is already decided, ie....winners Gp A play the winners of the tie involving 3rd Gp A and 2nd Gp B, in one semi and winners Gp B play the winners of 3rd Gp B and 2nd Gp A in the other one.

Hence the draw is Camross V Borris/C Ballacolla, and Ballinakill v Abbeyleix/Rathd Errill.

i think you have your finger on the pulse b/abbey concerning the various grades.

overall the standard is dropping at an alarming rate and that is a major worry.

at senior the 2 weekend games camross/c-ballacolla and Castletown/rathdowney-e could prove pivotal in the championship. if camross and rathdowney win and survive they may end up the finalists. no one could call a winner at senior a level at this moment.  I do think abbeyleix will beat ballyfin in the key basement game this weekend.

at senior b, the story is the pathetic state of hurling in portlaoise. clonaslee may light work of them the last day. the championship structure will still give the town a quarter final berth if they overcome trumera, but no one would fancy them to win this title on the two efforts to date. the harps are the ones to beat, though rosenallis or clonaslee could pose them problems.

in the intermediate I believe the final will feature a repeat of the round 1 match up between clonad and slieve bloom, if they are kept apart in the semi final draw, and as you say B/abbey Conroy is head and shoulders above all others in this grade and will be the difference.

at Junior A I make it tight to call between Mountmellick and Castletown.
Perhaps Kyle could lift the B title at the expense of Camross.

the lack of debate on club hurling on this board, as compared to club football is a fair reflection on the general apathy within the county for the discipline which is a shame.

at the original Arles AGM there was a vote which passed with the 2/3 majority to change the name from Arles to Arles Killeen. That was established as fact at the various courts the case passed through.

Derek O Mahoney is the ref.

i would not be in the least surprised limerick beat a deflated antrim on sunday and such a result would automatically guarantee us promotion.