Laois minor hurlers 2015

[Plain of the Herbs]

Have you stopped pretending to be from Laois on this site then, Townman?

i think beating poor offaly minor teams over the last 4 years has not stood to laois as they have no sliverware to show for it any year after beating offaly, if laois are just happy to beat offaly fair enough but if they want to progress they have to win leinsters like Dublin have over the last few years.  there has been a few minors who have came on the scene for laois seniors the last two years, who are fine hurlers let me add, but there a world apart from hurling and winning minor matches again offaly and doing it at senior level in championship, ex, losing to Antrim last weekend who were beaten by kerry who sent them down to division 2 a few weeks earlier, laois need to at least win leinster this year or all the work underage will count for nothing in the coming years best of luck in the semils  also great win for westmeath over wexford today.

[Thewildcat]

Have you stopped pretending to be from Laois on this site then, Townman?

i think beating poor offaly minor teams over the last 4 years has not stood to laois as they have no sliverware to show for it any year after beating offaly, if laois are just happy to beat offaly fair enough but if they want to progress they have to win leinsters like Dublin have over the last few years.  there has been a few minors who have came on the scene for laois seniors the last two years, who are fine hurlers let me add, but there a world apart from hurling and winning minor matches again offaly and doing it at senior level in championship, ex, losing to Antrim last weekend who were beaten by kerry who sent them down to division 2 a few weeks earlier, laois need to at least win leinster this year or all the work underage will count for nothing in the coming years best of luck in the semils  also great win for westmeath over wexford today.

stevie wonder would see from this post that i am not from laois you tool

[Heshs Umpire]

Have you stopped pretending to be from Laois on this site then, Townman?

i think beating poor offaly minor teams over the last 4 years has not stood to laois as they have no sliverware to show for it any year after beating offaly, if laois are just happy to beat offaly fair enough but if they want to progress they have to win leinsters like Dublin have over the last few years.  there has been a few minors who have came on the scene for laois seniors the last two years, who are fine hurlers let me add, but there a world apart from hurling and winning minor matches again offaly and doing it at senior level in championship, ex, losing to Antrim last weekend who were beaten by kerry who sent them down to division 2 a few weeks earlier, laois need to at least win leinster this year or all the work underage will count for nothing in the coming years best of luck in the semils  also great win for westmeath over wexford today.

stevie wonder would see from this post that i am not from laois you tool

Your profile says you're from Camross, Laois.

[Giovanni]

I think I understand the general tone of the posts on here. Most people seem to be saying that we have a good team and it's important to make the best of them. And that's fair enough.

At the same time, I think the tone here is a bit disrespectful of Pat Critchley and the other mentors. These good players didn't just fall out of the sky. While nature might throw a few excellent natural hurlers our way every now and then, a county our size doesn't tend to get enough of them at the same time to genuinely challenge for silverware. The fact that they are there now is a credit to all of the people who have dedicated a lot of time and effort to developing them.

I'm not living in the county and I don't get to see these lads playing very often but I was really impressed with the team. I don't think Offaly were abysmal but we made them look average. It's true that we let them back into it a few times with a few individual mistakes but generally we were a far better than them. Although I haven't seen all that much hurling over the last few years, the ball skills and intelligence that they hurled with was better than anything I've seen for a long time. Despite what the earlier poster was saying, I think beating Offaly is always an achievement but I'm sure the team are not content with that and will want to push on from there.

I reckon it'll take a good team to beat these lads and I hope they keep up whatever it is they're doing!! 

[TheGreatGame]

That's a fair post Giovanni.  Pat, Cheddar and a good few more people have given an awful lot to get our under age structures to the point where we are regularly making Leinster semi-finals.  In fact they have probably saved Laois hurling from obscurity.  I can recall a Laois minor team about 10 years ago losing to Offaly by 27 points in the championship.  That team had a number of lads that are currently on the senior team and panel, so they had some good individual players, but the overall standard was shocking.  We've come a long way from then and that should be remembered and credit given where it's due.

However, we will never be Kilkenny or Tipp. who have the pick to put out really competitive teams every year.  Even with our underage structures in a good place there will be years where the talent just isn't there and this makes it all the more important to do well when we have a good crop.  Not only do we have a good crop this year but there doesn't appear to be any one outstanding team in Leinster.  We have a huge opportunity here and at times on Saturday you could sense a panic amongst the Laois support that we could actually lose a game where we were blatantly the stronger team. 

This is a very important month or two for Laois hurling.  On the senior thread a poster questioned the tone of one of merman's posts (always a very fair forum member) and stated the pressure the players are under.  That same pressure is there for every team trying to make a breakthrough and I very much doubt the musings of randomers on a forum have much to do with it.  The seniors not making it out of the group stages and the minors not making the semi's is nearly unthinkable but it wasn't far from happening, and in both case the management would have had to shoulder most of the blame.  I've every faith they will learn from their mistakes, but they need to or this could become annus horribilis for Laois.

[blueandwhite1]

Some great points made but we need to guard against short memory syndrome.

The quality of Laois underage hurlers is immeasurably better in recent years. Yes we should be hungry for more but the most important thing we need to do is feed 3-4 top class hurlers a year into the senior system. Counties like Waterford have been doing that for years successfully without winning a tonne of underage all-irelands. Our seniors struggle for strength and depth (take the full back line for instance - there is no top class backup to support John A, Cahir and Butch). It would be great to win silverware but for me it is all about building characters and skillful hurlers for future senior intercounty hurling and the evidence is very strong in that regard. The average quality is rising and we need to support the likes of Critchley and Cheddar as their contributions have been immense. I agree that Cheddar shouldn't try to sit back and defend when we are totally on top and that Pat needs to solve some positional weaknesses with the Minors but I for one hope that we have their services for coming years and that they keep building hurling in Laois - we owe them a lot.

Beating Offaly 4 years running is some feat - we should be very positive about it. If we beat their Seniors the same way it would definitely be seen as progress.

[G@@]

Exactly The Great Game - I had a few choice words myself, but it's not to have a go at any current manager, it's out of pure concern. We all want the best for Laois hurling and it can be so so frustrating to know that Cheddar and Zoom have had these lads flying high in the past year or two - so we know that it is in the tank... we just want to see the best possible Laois performance each match day. If we meet a better team, which we will at some stage - so be it, but at least deploy the players into the correct positions and stop employing negative tactics.

Anyways, I wonder who we get in the draw tonight...?

[burdizzo]

Kilkenny it is.

[blueandwhite1]

Well at least there will be no fear of taking the opposition for granted.....

[redsetanta]

Nowlan Park June 20th. Definately no fear of complacency. They really need to be hungrier for the ball than last year. Every 50/50 has to be fought for like it was the last and put KK on the back foot from the off. Wexford took them to extra time and were unlucky to lose. We totally outclassed Wexford in the opening half but 2 badly conceded goals done us. Its definately within these lads to beat KK if they believe they can do it.

[portlaoisekid]

This is where we want to be, challenging top teams in their home ground and in with a very justifiable claim of victory.This Laois team has to potential to be top class and beating KK is well withing our grasp.

[merman]

Nowlan Park is down for two games on June 20th so there's every possibility that the minor match will precede the Leinster Championship semi-final between Kilkenny and Wexford or the Group runners-up.

I just noted that the senior match is already arranged for 2pm (maybe Sky are showing it) so we could be looking at a noon start.

[redsetanta]

Merman that senior game is on Sunday June 21st @ 2pm. Dublin/Galway v Group/Offaly is on the 20th @ 2pm.

[Buffalobull]

So these lads are out again Sunday against the only team to have beaten Laois in Leinster at this age group in the last 2 years (I think). Seems like a very tough ask, but judging how close Wexford came to them, Laois should be well able for it. Anyone hear how they're getting on or if they've played any challenge games in the last month?

[Don Draper]

They beat Tipp away not so long ago I believe.