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After last night's senior game and the league final last week, I'd have to change my view that Portlaoise might win the IFC.
Micky Nolan is gone up as are Rogers, Mulligan, Paddy Downey, and the two young lads Maher and Ronan Mc. Along with that, t the likes of Adrian Kelly, Scott Lawless, Conor Dunphy and John Kavanagh weren't named on the panel last night so I doubt they'll play intermediate.

Portlaoise – should win with ease

Killeshin – both teams going to be short players, think Killeshin might edge it

Portarlington – as someone said you can never be sure with Port but surely they will win this

O'Dempseys – the form team of the year so far. Josephs will put it up to them though and might be a narrow win

Graigue – playing Division 3, even though they won it, has to come against Ballyfin

Killeen – think they'll win this handily

Draw (Emo v B Abbey) – I can't separate these.

Arles Kilcruise – think they will be far too cute for Courtwood who are still a few players short of being competitive

There are lots of good young footballers in our County,
but after watching our seniors, u20, and minors this season
we are crying out for a top class coach,
when Eddie Brennan got the job over our hurlers the first thing
he did was to get a first class coach [Niall Cororan]
the improvement in that team in 8 or 9 months was hard to beleive
their skill level and first touch was much improved,
they were well drilled,
there tackling was very good,
and tracking back,
and got their match-ups good,
they worked their socks off,

So until we get top coaches over our footballers
we are going to stay at the same level and never get near the big teams.

Sugrue brought in two coaches this year with the seniors. I thought the seniors had a decent enough year. Sean Cotter was one and a fellow Kerryman of Sugrue was the other. Can't recall his name.
I think O'Loughlin could have done with a really top level coach in his backroom team.
Know nothing about Donncha and the minors regarding level of coaching.
Corcoran seems to be the real deal with the hurlers alright.

They were my words, but it was widely accepted that he did us no favours. I haven't met anyone yet who blamed him for the defeat. The responsibility for that rests with ourselves. But it did need to be said all the same

Correct. It's not impossible for the referee to be poor (which he was) and also not the cause of our defeat. Felt sorry for young Mohan who had a brilliant game and at an important stage in second half was fouled coming out with the ball, turned over and ref correctly then gave a free in to Dublin. Was a free out first all day long.
Huge gap between the two teams though. Not dissimilar to senior really. Dubs first, everyone else miles behind.

Now I'm been a bit petty here but what the hell is it with promising Laois teams and haircuts? Tonight we had every player with more or less the same haircut. Might have been more in their line to concentrate on the football. We had the same nonsense back in the 90s with the successful minor teams who underachieved at senior level by any yardstick. One of my abiding memories was all their flashy hairstyles that were doing the rounds when there were going well at underage. All I'm saying I would prefer substance to style.

Are you trying to win some kind of "dumbest post of the year" award? Near every 19 and 20 year old chap in the country has the same haircut. Including the Dublin team....

Just think that if Meath had beaten Laois, they wouldn't be as big a price as 7/2.

When is the final of this?

Team named. Unchanged.

Said I'd have a go at previewing this. Looks like a very open championship.

Usually you'd expect the team coming down from senior and the team beaten in last year's final to be there or thereabouts.

So Clonaslee and Mountmellick for the final? Mightn't be that simple. Both teams are down a number of "Gaels" players from last year as a result of Croke Park's directive.

Mountmellick had a difficult league but were operating in 1B and got a few good results. Clonaslee had a great league and are due to play Portlaoise in the Division 2 final this Sunday which will be a preview of their meeting in the first round of the championship.

Hard to know with Portlaoise but one of these years, they are going to win this title. I'm convinced of it! Could be this year if they get enough interest in the second team. I should be waiting until after Sunday's league final to make a call on them!

Timahoe play Mountmellick in the first round. In recent years, they've been close to ending their senior exile but slipped back a bit last year. Had a very up and down league campaign. Could be a kick in them. Interesting game.

Rosenallis play Annanough in round one. Annanough should be buoyed by winning the junior last year but Rosenallis have settled into intermediate well after their junior win in 2016 and won their league meeting by a big margin.

Finally, it's The Rock v St Joseph's. Hard one to call. The Rock did well in the league but it was Division 3 whereas Joes were two divisions higher but got it hard to balance senior team commitments with player numbers for this second string team and only won one game before withdrawing near the end.


Prediction;

Portlaoise, Mountmellick, Rosenallis and The Rock to win first round games.

Depending on the draw then, possibly Mountmellick to play Clonaslee and Portlaoise to play Rosenallis in the semi-finals.

A Mountmellick v Portlaoise final with Mountmellick to lose their second final in a row.

Joseph's v Annanough in relegation final with Joseph's going down.

Not at all confident of many of those predictions now that I've written them down!

There's some very good chaps to add to next year's team. O'Neill from The Rock is top class. Horgan of Annanough is one to keep an eye on too. Saunders of course would be a massive addition if available.

Any word on Paudie Maher? I hope he'll walk again some time in the future. Is there a Go FundMe page anywhere?
The bollox.

Great win last night. I'll try and do ratings (someone here used to do it before) but I know it's completely dangerous! Don't attack me. Do your own ratings! 

Byron 8 – Excellent kickouts and two top class saves. I'd imagine he will become Brody's number two sooner rather than later.

Dowling 8 – Great little bit of stuff. Sticky as hell. Another off the Portlaoise conveyor belt.

Lacey 8 – Plays quite like the da who I'm old enough to remember well. Tough, fast, sticky. Good prospect.

Mohan 7.5 – Solid, unspectacular. Rarely got turned and good passer out from the back.

Slevin 8 – Lively, very skilful. Nice point too.

O'Flynn 8.5 – Some prospect. Gives it everything and has all the skills too. Made one mistake at the very end when game was in the bag anyway.

Brophy 7 – Good display. Solid and willing to get forward

E Dunne 7.5 – Very good, hardworking display. Does all the simple things well.

Tyrell 7.5 – Remarks would be almost interchangeable with Dunne. Needs to work on the tackling. Having gotten an early yellow last night, another ref could well have given him another before half time.

Barry 7 – A mixed bag. Three fine frees but thought from play he was sloppy. The game will improve him.

Doran 7 – One really good point just after half time but the game bypassed him a lot otherwise.

Coffey 9 – Edged Kinsella for man of the match. Covered a lot of ground, two fine points, brilliant pass for the goal, never wasted a ball.

Kinsella 8.5 – Brilliant. Hardworker, tricky on the ball, always gives the right pass and can score too.

McCormack 7.5 – Big Dan! Reminds me of another former underage prospect Daryl Hayden who disappeared off the scene completely. Nice fisted point. Good awareness for the goal but there's something missing I think in terms of the way the team play.

Whelan 7.5 – Bad night on the frees but two great scores from play. Great to win with him a bit below par.

Owens 8 – Looked very lively when he came on, took a great score, but ran into tackles unnecessarily a few times.

N Dunne 7.5  - Looked good both times he came on. Definitely an option in midfield or anywhere in the forwards.

I couldn't rate the other subs. Too short a time on the field.

 

Just on the game itself on Saturday.

It was obviously a disaster. All fell asunder in the ten minutes before half time and the few minutes after the restart.

A lot of our lads struggled in their direct battles. Full back line as a whole (not just Booth) were roasted. Half back line not much better and even Begley misplaced a lot of ball after coming on. Deane for Cork is some classy player.

Lillis tried fierce hard. Great attitude. Similar with Johnno but we were just outclassed but Maguire and the other big fella (name gone on me!).

Donie was excellent throughout but O'Reilly just had one of those woeful days where nothing went right. Was surprised he wasn't taken off at half time.

Scully is a great trier and deserved his goal. Lowry and Paul Kinston never got going and young Murphy did kick a nice point but not much else.

Evan improved things a lot I thought and Barry got on some ball but his shot selection was a bit wayward.

Brody struggled a bit with the Cork press on our kickouts and we got hammered on breaking ball from that.

A very worrying day. Cork are no great shakes as will be seen later on but they made us look like a Division 4 team. I just think we're not that bad and a lot of lads had off days.

Next year's league will be vital. Need to uncover a couple of really sticky backs (corner/full). Need to add another big scoring threat from play to go with Donie.

Wow, the performance reports look grim. Did great to turn it around and won well in the end.

Meath in a week. What's the verdict?

Billy O'Loughlin may well be the only Laoisman shouting for Cork next Saturday. A defeat sees O'Flynn and Barry available for the Meath game.

Sweeney's a soccer c**t who wouldn't know an O'Neills size 5 if it him on the head.