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Lads it a dreadful when so called Laois Gaels come on here to run down there own

Tells alot about the issue in the county.
Get off the keyboards and into coaching In the fields

Just got the fixtures for the arawbawn attaching them later for the craic.

As you can clearly see it's Galway 1 against laois

2 posts in and you slating lads that have and are involved with their clubs and have made valuable contributions here online to try and address issues

If you are such a man in the know

Maybe you can tell us why the best hurler in the county at his age grade from Castletown has walked from this set up ?

Answer that and I'll have a few more questions for you

Has the new hurling GDA who was appointed back in March already left his position?

That's hardly the case is it ?

Will Dan Shanahan stay on with Laois now that he is part of Ken McGrath's backroom team with the Waterford U20s?

I'm sure he'll stay on, he'll want his 241 car, can't be going around in an old model

He won't be staying on

[our games]

Theres a strange defending off soccer here by some and pretending it's much better than GAA.

Barely 2 months ago a referee was hospitalised in a local soccer match after being kung fu kicked by a sub running onto the field and Gardai/FAI investigated RTE reported on it, he got 5 year ban

Dublin referees were going to go on strike last November because referees were being assaulted

FAI Cup final had large crowd trouble in recent years and other LOI matches


Quite frankly though I think much of the issues in both sports are more about the decline in behaviour in society in this country and lack of morals, manners and punishments.

No, there is an objection to whataboutery. Soccer has dramatically cleaned up it's act. Every incident you referenced saw multi year or lifetime bans. Compare and contrast. What crowd trouble at LoI games orhen than the cup final?

We should be able to discuss trouble at our games without reference to soccer, especially incorrect references to soccer.

Soccer is your game,Pal

Dont you ever stop defending it

Nothing but a fair lot of scum following teams these days. Nearly as bad as the soccer. They have to start seperating them in the hill.

Is that true though? When was the last row at a soccer game?

Trouble at a recent Cork City game in the past 2 months

And they the Club who were chanting at an opposition manager whos son had or has Leukemia

The likes of you need not try to paint Irish soccer as cleaner than thou when the opposite is the case.

There's not a game you could not pick out a grievance with calls. In the main I felt the calls evened themselves out.

Galvin should look back at some of his refereeing decisions over the years. I'd like to see how critical he is of his own strange calls

Gavin would sicken you with his constant attacks on refs which give's legitimacy to others who never blew a whistle to do much worse

And all for a few € in a newspaper column

It's better for Kilkenny to lose serial all Ireland finals. They are so earnest. Galway have lost enough. Losing All Ireland finals is horrible.

"It's better for Kilkenny to lose serial all Ireland finals"

Jesus you talk some rot

No county least of all Kilkenny will want to lose serial all ireland finals

They will relish the opportunity of stopping a Limerick 4 in a row

Limerick are the hurling equivalent of the Dublin 6 in a row. They were also untouchable .

Galway clearly not at the level of the Munster teams when they faced Limerick this year

Even Waterford who had a poor year could have beaten them if they had kept wides down and were right in it till the end

Galway by comparison were beaten with 20 minutes to go

Out on  their legs and out of ideas

They have regressed under Henry and he has a job of work on his hands in the final year of his term

His main  men are all in the autumn of their careers and the replacements don't look up to it

Limerick aren't the as the team who to Clare. Limerick peak for 2 matches and nobody can beat them.

I don't understand your first sentence so I cant comment on what your saying

This notion that Limerick have to peak for 2 games like an 1970's Kerry football team is laughable

Munster is so tight they have to be on it from game 1

Let's not forget that they had to beat Cork to stay in the championship

The reality is that Galway are dependent on lads in their 30's

don't seem to have much coming to match the lads they will be replacing

And have a manger in situ who in his final year next year has some very difficult decisions to make

Limerick are the hurling equivalent of the Dublin 6 in a row. They were also untouchable .

Galway clearly not at the level of the Munster teams when they faced Limerick this year

Even Waterford who had a poor year could have beaten them if they had kept wides down and were right in it till the end

Galway by comparison were beaten with 20 minutes to go

Out on  their legs and out of ideas

They have regressed under Henry and he has a job of work on his hands in the final year of his term

His main men are all in the autumn of their careers and the replacements don't look up to it

And no doubt once BIK was paid on the free Car

There won't be any issue

Portlaoise a very diverse town,  I just don't think it's as straightforward as going into Schools.  Knockbeg is a very different demographic.

Everywhere is diverse nowadays and we should be appealing to the diverse nowadays too which we aren't doing either in this county

Its not a question of sending in county players to promote the game once or twice a year

most if nearly all the lads in there wouldn't recognize them and its a handy way of saying we are doing something when we are doing nothing in reality

All the CBS have to do if they are bothered (and I really think they arent arsed) is to look across the campus at the girls school and see and then copy the hard daily work that the likes of Pat Critchley and John Scully amongst many others are doing

I know of one Clare Hurler who wanted to work in Portlaoise as a secondary teacher and in the months after winning the 2013 All Ireland was interviewed by the CBS

He didn't get job and it later transpired that the people interviewing didn't know that he was involved in the GAA

Hes been very successful since in both codes in another school outside of Laois

Scoil Chríost Rí go around to the local primary schools in June and do a training session with the 6th class girls to see what type of players are coming into them the following September. I think they even take a look at the 5th class kids too, to plan a year ahead. Great commitment in fairness to them, having Critchley involved obviously helps now that he's retired and can give even more time to it, but teaching staff in the school obviously buying in too. I don't think there's any real emphasis put on sport in the CBS, at least from an outsider looking in.

I've a nephew going into Leaving Cert this year in the CBS

1 example from last year

Football training was sporadic and poor before last Christmas

After Christmas someone came up with the genius idea of having the senior and junior teams train together

So you had lads who were playing club senior football playing on the one pitch v some lads a year out of u13

The older lads were terrified of killing the younger lads and the younger lads were wary of getting in the way of the older lads with the result that a lot in both age groups walked away.

And the Hurling Training was an even bigger Joke.

In any county if you want to develop top level players you need 3 legs

Clubs that are coaching lads to the required level

Then the Schools which are a step up again

And then the development squad system

Completely agree about the schools with exception of Knockbeg there seems to be little to no emphasis on schools football in Laois
We need to have the CBS in Portlaoise and Portarlington either competitive in the A or winning B competitions, Heywood should be consistently in the B too
Clonaslee and Mountmellic have probably too small a pick but again this is where a combined Laois schools team for schools outside the A  is needed to give lads an opportunity to play at the highest level

A lot of Laois GAA is currently centred around geography unfortunately

You're 100% right about the secondary schools.
However, from talking to guys I know who teach secondary, the biggest issue they have is getting cover for their classes from non- sports minded colleagues when they're trying to arrange games or training.
I know myself when I played at that level, not today or yesterday, training was either at lunchtime or after school finished for the day. And games were often on the weekends.

You'd wonder how successful schools in other counties manage

Portlaoise CBS has close on 900 boys enrolled, is one of if not the biggest Second Level boys schools in the Country and GAA is on its knees in there.

You have academic years of 150 odd lads in there and 10% might play Schools GAA

Compare and Contrast with their female partner school on the same campus using the same facilities, they feature regularly in Leinster Finals and All Irelands across a number of Sports,Scoil Chriost Ri.

Maybe the secret could be the amount of training they put in, even during the summer months and other Holidays.

As is the case in most clubs, those in power are there because nobody else wants to do the job. Those with ability have little interest and with some exceptions, those with interest have little ability.

Look at Offaly - who have a visionary like Michael Duignan willing to take apart the old guard and inspire a new group of volunteers to step up. We can all say that 'things need to change' but people need to step up and be encouraged to do so. The insiders in the CB know that too well.

Duignan was the fugurehead for change in Offaly

But he was cute enough to know if he went in on his own

The system would swallow him whole

Instead he gathered 8-10 well qualified people to go in with him

Even at that it took 2 conventions and a lot of blood spilt to get all the right people in

Similar is needed here

A well known and reputable person to gather a cabinet

Who are ya thinking of? Niall Rigney maybe?

Say he's your Duignan

Who's your next 6/7/8 people in the Cabinet ?

Who is the Laois equivalent of Carina Carroll?

As is the case in most clubs, those in power are there because nobody else wants to do the job. Those with ability have little interest and with some exceptions, those with interest have little ability.

Look at Offaly - who have a visionary like Michael Duignan willing to take apart the old guard and inspire a new group of volunteers to step up. We can all say that 'things need to change' but people need to step up and be encouraged to do so. The insiders in the CB know that too well.

Duignan was the fugurehead for change in Offaly

But he was cute enough to know if he went in on his own

The system would swallow him whole

Instead he gathered 8-10 well qualified people to go in with him

Even at that it took 2 conventions and a lot of blood spilt to get all the right people in

Similar is needed here

A well known and reputable person to gather a cabinet