Over the last few years our minor team , while not setting the world alight, have performed on par with a county with our playing population. Meath, Dublin, Kildare have far bigger numbers to select from in Leinster. Unlike in the 90s and 00s, every county has a pretty good underage set up. Therefore, it has made the success Laois had in the 90s and early to mid 00s pretty impossible to replicate as the bigger counties are more than likely to hoover up the titles between them.
While we took a hammering in the end against Offaly that can happen with young lads of 16/17 playing football. Their heads went down after a bad start to game. The Offaly players had their tails up and with the result not in doubt proceeded to put up a good score against a defeated Laois team. I wouldn't read too much into one game. After the Louth game some of the same players were receiving huge praise on this very forum for their footballing ability.
The one thing that Laois county board were slow to do in the last ten years was to invest in juvenile football, upping the skills of the players and upping participation numbers. The number and quality of some of our Gaelic development coaches left a lot to be desired in that time. We have finally started to try rectify that situation. There is a long road to travel with it yet. Also, Laois will not regain the success of old until proper investment is made into re-invigorating GAA in Portlaoise and getting kids interested and involved in playing.
