Leinster SHC 2016

[Keyser Söze]

Only comment I have to make......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcPDHkX1qWA

[merman]

Seriously concerned about tonight's match.
Clare will be relentless and I can't see the team we have picked holding them out.
I hope our lads keep their heads and dig deep because if we hang our heads then this could be worse than that Cork game....

Safe travel down to everyone going. I know Cheddar is hoping for a crowd to greet the players at 5.30 but that will be simply too early for me.

Best of luck to the footballers also.

[Keyser Söze]

Seriously concerned about tonight's match.
Clare will be relentless and I can't see the team we have picked holding them out.
I hope our lads keep their heads and dig deep because if we hang our heads then this could be worse than that Cork game....

Safe travel down to everyone going. I know Cheddar is hoping for a crowd to greet the players at 5.30 but that will be simply too early for me.

Best of luck to the footballers also.

I'd share your concerns. What is the team?

[Joeythelips]

Seriously concerned about tonight's match.
Clare will be relentless and I can't see the team we have picked holding them out.
I hope our lads keep their heads and dig deep because if we hang our heads then this could be worse than that Cork game....

Safe travel down to everyone going. I know Cheddar is hoping for a crowd to greet the players at 5.30 but that will be simply too early for me.

Best of luck to the footballers also.

You were right to be concerned, a wipe out 4-25 to 9 points with over 10 mins to go 
I'd share your concerns. What is the team?

[grover]

Another year, another drubbing. It's high time this charade of a competition be completely overhauled. Scrap provincial competitions and alliance league. Have 4 divisions of 8 teams playing a league system home and away-14 meaningful competitivel matches played every fortnight from February till August.I'd much rather 0  see Lapis play competitive games against Offaly or Westmeath in Division 2 than being hammered by Clare. Have semifinals and finals,Division 1 winners All Ireland Champions, bottom team relegated,Division 2 Champs promoted.,etc.
IMy heart goes out to players and managem ent on a night like this,but it will be the same for years to come. As supporters and players we deserve far more from the gaa than this joke of a competition!,

[Junior Ex Laoistalk]

Oh my God, where has all the good work gone.... feel so sorry for these lads:

Clare's 5-33 to 0-12 victory over Laois tonight was their biggest ever in senior championship hurling.

The 36-point win at Cusack Park bettered the Banner's previous biggest winning margin of 34 points over neighbours Limerick in the 1953 Munster SHC. Laois manager Seamus 'Cheddar' Plunkett will consider his future after the drubbing over the next few weeks.

[Keyser Söze]

I'd have to say that I feel really sorry for Cheddar.

Nobody has ever put as much time, thought and money into Laois hurling and sadly after 4 years you couldn't say that he is leaving a better situation than he found (as regards results).

I don't know what happens now.

[finbar o tool]

What happens now is Cheddar goes, and we try to find a really good hurling coach that the players will put their faith in. Thats the most important bit.
That scoreline is absolutely appaulling. Simple as that. Lads working all year, and then a lad loses his head and gets sent off after what? 20 minutes? Now i know we would have been hammered anyway, but that rightly fucked it for the rest of the players, condemned to a second half of torture. then 3 or 4 more yellows followed soon after. I think the players have lost faith in the current management set up. No one will question Cheddars heart or commitment etc etc. But the coaching, the system, whatever you want to call it, its not working.
Feel for the players, its definitely not all their fault.

[Keyser Söze]

What happens now is Cheddar goes, and we try to find a really good hurling coach that the players will put their faith in. Thats the most important bit.

Sounds simple......except,.....who's goina pay for all of this?!

[blueandwhite1]

This is heartbreaking for Cheddar and the players. They put so much into their county. All we can ask for they give. I hope Cheddar stays involved at underage level. Big challenge now for the county board to step up and very hard for lads to commit to another manager like they did for Cheddar.

[Heshs Umpire]

Horrible result - let's be honest, the moment we drew Clare, it was always a possibility.

Coming from a perspective outside the Laois hurling community, it's hard to know where Laois hurling goes from here. The underage results this year were poor. I'd imagine it'd be difficult to envisage Cahir Healy travelling from England for another year of that possible outcome.

[finbar o tool]

What happens now is Cheddar goes, and we try to find a really good hurling coach that the players will put their faith in. Thats the most important bit.

Sounds simple......except,.....who's goina pay for all of this?!

It doesnt sound simple. But thats what needs to happen. Remember the last time we went looking for a hurling manager?? The county board need to pull their f**king finger out. If its money were lacking then the county board should chain themselves to croke park in protest if thats what needs to be done! How many 30/40 point hammerings are we gona take before we stand up and fight for the help we need, whatever help that may be. Kerry were able to get Ciaran Carey and a very good management team. And do you think Carey was rubbing his hands together with glee heading down to Kerry? But they got him, and they've bought into it and they have came on leaps and bounds this year. County Board, players, everyone needs to do whatever it takes to stop this rot.

[redsetanta]

It's probably going stale a bit and would benefit from a shake up. The retirement of so many senior players and the unavailability of Keenan certainly didn't help this year and if we're being honest we probably peaked with the result against Offaly in championship last year. Our results have been very poor this year.
Also, to see Offaly contesting the U21 final, a group of players that Laois have been beating for the past few years is hard to take. Fair enough they lost in the end but gave a decent account of themselves.
The whole Cheddar situation is bitter sweet because he has done so much while he has been there and it will be our loss if he is lost to Laois hurling. If he goes as senior manager he has to be retained in some capacity. He has the right vision for LAois hurling and all he is interested in is Laois getting back up to being competitive with the bigger counties. There is no reason that we cannot be more equipped at senior level with the right set up and coaching. Maybe Cheddar could be involved in a role overseeing under age developement and coaching, a sort of director of hurling role as the hurling community has a lot of respect for the man and he will do his best to get funding etc from the GAA for the county. He definately has to stay involved in my opinion.

[blueandwhite1]

Couldn't agree more. Would be great if he can stay involved as a type of hurling director. That way he can both safeguard the very professional senior team set-up and influence the underage strategy. I think it is still the latter that is still letting us badly down. The retirement of Joe Fitz, Butch, John A etc. would not have been such a big problem if there was more talent pushing up from the underage structures. We still don't display the skill levels at underage or senior level necessary to compete. When we play against good teams on fast days our basics let us down too often. Pat Critchley saw that with last years minors where we couldn't compete with the wristwork or accuracy of Kilkenny and admitted that much more work was needed from primary school level to U-14/U16 level. We see the same in Tony Forrestal / Arrabawn competitions and at club level. Until we get the coaching standards right at underage, we are at best standing still and at worst going backwards and will be passed by counties like Carlow and Westmeath. I wonder if we did some sort of a quality assurance assessment of skill development at schools and club underage levels how we would compare to Kilkenny, Clare, or Waterford?

[County Man]

Yes for sure Chedder needs to stay involved at some capacity.