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Have been thinking about Clare since Sunday

A relatively split Dual County

As of 2023 Census
Laois Population 91,657
Clare Population 127,938, so yes an extra 36k people, not huge on the grand scale

Has the All Ireland wins of 95 and 97, 2013 embedded such a hurling culture to drive underage success /standards, Obviously any Senior Success huge for any County's development but must be driven and organised too.

What structures are in place in relation to Hurling Boards & Competitions,

Club Clare / Laois Gaels Comparisons

Underage Structures , Academies, Competitions

Secondary Schools hurling, again huge culture of it in Clare,

There is nothing near a comparable competitive infrastructure in place or supports to drive hurling here,
Could we try to at least to imitate best practices in relation to all of the above by taking the best ideas, for hurling (& football),

Or without the initial success have we not the interest or enough of people willing to do so,

This is not a post designed to slag off anyone, just genuinely interested in the detail of how its done in Clare and what could we do to better ourselves here

the secondary schools but definitely the amount of players who play fitzgibbon at a high level has helped them

I certainly wouldn't be making predictions on the basis of Portlaoise hammering Ballylinan.

definitely, wait till after the emo match but its good to see them kicking the ball more than previous years. possibly still lacking a scoring forward

very disappointing yesterday, while Down were strong favourites it just felt that we never released the handbrake and played very conservative nearly to our detriment. After last years game and Down's higher league standing it was understandable that we were going to be defensive to establish a platform to be in the game but it only appeared near the end with a few long balls that there was game that could have been won, even if it was a smash and grab. Lacey's goal from the keepers mistake and later Barry's strike put a bit of a shine on what was an awful offensive performance in particular. I accept that McNulty's heavy defensive style in fairness got us to the final and also may have been handicapped yesterday by not having the forwards especially pacey, hard running forwards that would show for the ball to stretch Down. It would lead you to wonder how the approach or even some of the personnel were not changed when it was obvious we were playing so deep and effectively having no forwards up the field to score. Evan's point in the 15 minute was the last point from play any of the eight forward players we used yesterday scored and Heffernan's point just after the 37th minute was the last point from paly any Laois player scored. The two forward changes came in the 56th and 65th minute and to me were too late. Eight scores in 70 plus minutes was never going to win this game.     

next year will be interesting, I would imagine that the plan will be to build on the foundations of this year and stay in Division 3, avoid relegation and have a better run in Leinster depending on the draw and go for the Tailteann again. The evolving of the game plan will depend of what the panel looks like and whether we can get some of the absent players back but most importantly try find pacey forwards.

It's been encouraging to see good young players coming into the team over the last few years. Kelly, both Dempseys, Fingleton, Lacey, Heffernan, Larkin, Burke, Swayne, Fitzpatrick, Murphy and Dunne have been a breath of fresh air.

I wonder is there any chance that some of this year's exiles might return for next year's campaign. Would be great to see some of Greene, O'Sullivan, Piggott, Collins etc back.

With some of the exiles back, consolidation of our place in Div. 3 might be possible.

It's really forwards and midfielders we need especially a scoring midfielder if we are to avoid the yo-yo effect in the league especially. We are still only hitting around 12-13 scores on average and getting goals has been huge plus this year. 

hard to watch that back again, should had really won it. I thought at the game with 15 minutes to go Offaly were looking tired and we were going to push on and win it especially as we had a lot of our finishers on the field. For whatever reasons we kept making dreadful errors and sloppy mistakes which was a feature throughout the game and Offaly punished us. Even more of a surprise that it was our more experienced players that were doing it. There were a few very strange managerial and  tactical decisions, were we too cautious ? the conceding of the puckout especially when they were struggling for an out ball near the end allowing them to work it through the lines. Kiely there centre back is a noted puc fada champion, how did they think standing off him wasn't going to be a problem, could they have switched Ryan Mullaney onto Duignan or tried someone else as the free man? maybe been a bit more ruthless with the subs introduced into the forwards, some players just weren't going well. doesn't matter now but it was a glorious chance to get one finally over Offaly in Croke Park.

I attended the game as I live not that far away and knew a person involved with mayo. I have never seen this group before and in fairness they got a lovely pitch in abbotstown to play on and it was contested like a final. The final wasn't bad and again i am only going on seeing this level only but there were a lot of very good scores. Mayo probably will feel they could have won it. Certainly in the first half when they had the benefit of the wind they caused Laois a lot of problems, the two man inside forward line scored I think 2-6 from play in the game were very dangerous. The full forward got man of the match afterwards in fairness he got four great points from play. In the second half Laois really squeezed the puckouts and won a lot of turnover ball around the middle and just got over the line. No- one really jumped out but they got the win in the end which will hopefully stand to them in the future.

As this is seen as a development tournament I don't really know the eligibility grounds for teams but I did know that Mayo had players from 15 to 17 years old on board and they had come through their group beating a Westmeath, Sligo, Donegal, Kerry and Roscommon to reach the final. From the programme Laois lost to Meath, beat Armagh and a Kildare team as they had two in the competition in the group stages. They beat Kildare again in the quarter finals, again possibly another Kildare side before Meath in the semi final. The tournament which had nine groups effectively was two sets of four groups with the losers in each group going into other cups etc. 1-4 seemed to be stronger teams and 4-8 the smaller counties and then one large group for the weaker counties. Looking at the groups they worked out as follows,

Division 1 - Clare, Limerick, Galway, West Cork
Division 2 - Tipperary Blue, Antrim, East Cork, Kilkenny Black
Division 3 - Down, Cork City, Wexford, Tipperary Gold
Division 4- Dublin, Derry, North Cork, Waterford

the second batch of four counties

Division 5 - Mayo, Westmeath, Sligo, Donegal
Division 6 - Carlow, Kerry, Roscommon, Wicklow
Division 7 - Tyrone, Offaly, Kildare Lilywhites
Division 8 - Kildare, Armagh, Meath and Laois

Division 9 - Monaghan, Leitrim, Longford, Fermanagh, Louth, Cavan

The finals ended up

Tipperary Blue v Kilkenny Black
East Cork v Dublin
Mayo v Laois
Tyrone v Sligo
Louth v Monaghan
Leitrim v Fermanagh

i don't know what level this group are at or have been at through their development but it would appear that they are at probably the third level of teams at present. someone else here might have better knowledge on the matter.

The u20's weren't bad tonight , once they got on top of the Kildare puck out near the end of the first half they didn't look like they would be beaten. They also had the luxury of missing a penalty. The had a strong start to the second half with two goals but took the foot off for a while and things could have tightened up if Kildare hadn't shot as many wides I. Their purple patch.

Really poor performance and were on the back foot from the start. Offaly brought a  bit more in terms of pace and intensity that we have been used to and exposed our weaknesses. Damon Larkin's injury robbed us of our only mobile, pacey option and then the sending off allowed them the space to carry hard up the sides as we had retreated back to try limit the damage. We never really got a handle on Egan or Pearson carrying forward. Did well to get level but then gifted them two terrible goals, can't understand why we went short on the kick out as they high pressing and also when a pod of four players had started to position themselves near the stand to receive. At times we were terribly unstructured and the substitutes didn't offer much though you would have to wonder what Murphy is doing wrong looking at some of our forwards. Mcnultys dreadful  record in the Leinster Championship continues .

first time to see the hurlers in a while and they made hard work on beating a very limited Kildare team who were down several injured players. Strong wind throughout the game was with Kildare in the first half and they started very strong before Laois got their bearings. Both teams deployed a sweeper at times which benefitted Kildare more as they got off a lot of shots, had they been more accurate they could have been further ahead. Laois seemed to have issues tracking players in the middle third. Despite the wind being very strong Laois seemed to persist in hitting high balls into the corners which didn't suit the inside line.

Scoring rate for both teams decreased in the second half as both seem to be very laboured at times, possibly doing heavy training. Laois exploited a few mistakes in the second half and finished with three good goals. Kildare fell away for 20 minutes where Laois scored well to open a gap. near the end they became a bit ill disciplined and let Kildare get a few scores. Wasn't the best performance but got over the line.

What are the facilities like at Hawkfields OTH ? Never been out there .

it always has the feel of a training / centre of excellence but the fact that newbridge is closed there isn't really much more of an option for the hurlers, Clane have a stand where a few club games are played in the hurling area of the county. There is a lot of games played there during the year with the lights and the majority of the county teams use it to train. i know that the camoige play a bit more in Kilcock recently , Rathcoffey and the Leixlip 4G astro pitch, the facilities have improved in a lot of clubs. its a narrow site, just over the length of a pitch and each pitch is in a row after that the further you go in. There are four pitches and a training area / wall ball.  pitch one with the small stand is the main pitch. it feels a bit short for hurling. Pitch two is often used for juvenile / LGFA matches and then there are two more training pitches. The dressing rooms are in the main building and are basic enough. They have built a fairly big gym there recently. Parking can be a disaster if there is a decent crowd there.

first time to see the hurlers in a while and they made hard work on beating a very limited Kildare team who were down several injured players. Strong wind throughout the game was with Kildare in the first half and they started very strong before Laois got their bearings. Both teams deployed a sweeper at times which benefitted Kildare more as they got off a lot of shots, had they been more accurate they could have been further ahead. Laois seemed to have issues tracking players in the middle third. Despite the wind being very strong Laois seemed to persist in hitting high balls into the corners which didn't suit the inside line.

Scoring rate for both teams decreased in the second half as both seem to be very laboured at times, possibly doing heavy training. Laois exploited a few mistakes in the second half and finished with three good goals. Kildare fell away for 20 minutes where Laois scored well to open a gap. near the end they became a bit ill disciplined and let Kildare get a few scores. Wasn't the best performance but got over the line.

It was a very open game in Wexford, the conditions and the pitch were good and that dreaded wind that often ruins games down there wasn't present. Both teams didn't really employ any heavy defensive tactics so their were plenty of shooting chances on both sides, Laois were fair more economical. Really strong performance in the first half, team played a very high pace game, snappy passing and avoiding going into contact at all times. A few noticeable things was that team attacked mostly down the stand side where Brian Byrne and Kevin Swayne operated, Shaun Fitz had a roving role which suited him and Niall Dunne did a lot of running to show for ball, much of it appeared to be a game plan to make space.

The second half was much more even, the little spurt of scores at the end tipped the second scoring in our favour. We did go flat for a period and a few of the players took some very sloppy options especially with poor shooting. I thought we got slightly leggy and should have made a few changes to freshen things up. There are a few issues to sort out which never is a bad thing, we still have issues with teams running at us through the centre, glen malone the wexford wing back clipped over three points nearly unopposed and Evan of all people ended up stopping a goal. There is a small lingering doubt that we might be vulnerable to pace up the centre. Roche got off some good short and medium kickouts but we were well beaten in terms of fielding high ball on both their and our own kickouts once we were high pressed, probably short a fielding centre fielder. The carlow game will be a different proposition and probably will be a tougher test.

good to get the win, first of the tougher games in the division to be out of the way. It looks like its going to be a very even division in terms of quality with everybody bar Waterford feeling they have a chance. Certainly the type of football played was alien to the Dublin / Monaghan game on tele later but we are where we are. we were far better than Longford who I was surprised were a bit flat but we gave them a small bit of hope with concession of two soft goals. There is an obvious change in style with less emphasis on direct goal to the full forward line and more through the hands which suits a few of our newer players. At times it was hard to figure out the shape of the team and players were constantly finding themselves in strange positions. Going forward we will probably have to modify things a bit, I can't see Roche been given such leeway again by other teams and we will need a better scoring return from the inside forwards. In fairness, we didn't really have an inside line for a lot of the times so an out ball wasn't really an option. interesting to see where Wexford are at today with their game in London before we travel their next week.

First time to see any matches this year, I thought portlaoise have gone right back into the pack. Still playing a defensive system which will make it very hard for them to be beaten but likewise very hard for them to post a big score, the named forwards only scored 1-3 from play. Rosenalis were limited enough but still managed 0-5 from play by their forwards. David Dooley very tidy centre back for them.

Second game much better. Port still have what most other clubs don't have in a number of different scoring forwards. They did struggle on kickouts and the keeper and the full back line had their hairy moments. Stradbally had a  strong second half for a good period and though light in size in the forwards they had pace and lots of movement. Keeping forwards up at all times gave them an outlet. Deegan that came on in the second half probably should have been on earlier .

Not a whole lot in terms of new players that were involved already or previously asked.

https://twitter.com/noplanbgaa/status/1673324583292731393?s=48&t=eo8IWOjUnivmojLMPVblVw

Some of the defending was extremely poor even allowing for the defensive set up. The goal from the kickout was dreadful

On the game itself , it was a hard watch in there today.  There have been issues all year and even further back in relation to mobility and pace in the team, the defensive middle in particular. At times we seemed to go heavily defensive this year , even deploying Timmons as a sweeper. This had varying degrees of success , one in particular was the win in Sligo on a very heavy pitch. In hindsight the slower pace probably suited us at the time. For a variety of reasons we moved from rather than adapted this strategy possibly to add a bit more to the attack which struggled when isolated. There were worries going into today, a pacey looking down team were going to cause us problems, the lack of pace in some of the forward positions especially against attacking defenders, the concession of multiple chances per game and whether the consecutive games had taken its toll. Hopefully we weren't going to risk too many players that weren't fully fit, Croke park is not the place to take that chance. Even with this in mind , having conceded a record score against Dublin at home you would have hoped we had learned enough not to allow ourselves to be over ran by a down team that play a similar type of game. Keep it tight and competitive and see where it goes.

Well that illusion was shattered very quickly , from a lineball in the first minutes in the furthest corner of the pitch from our goal where we could have pinned them in , we conceded ground and let them unopposed go straight up the pitch into our middle and straight through on goals. No hits , no tackles , no blocks ,just a simple pace move. After that it was rinse and repeat , pop ball into space and multiple runners ahead of our players coming at angles. Nothing outrageous, just well executed give and go, pass and move. In fairness down had a bit of luck and displayed a high level of perfection with their passing and shooting but it was woeful on our part. Players running with their backs to the play , getting dragged out of the area in front of the goals to allow their runners to move into. Down must have been wondering are Laois that naive ? Are they really gone man to man ? The fact that they carved us open with our whole team at times inside the forty without any engagement in terms of a tackle was galling. I felt so sorry for the players at times especially in defense where there was no cover, imagine been one on one with a forward with half the pitch to cover. In the end a little spurt took the trauma off the score line. For the second time this year we conceded 40 points in a game and in both games it could easily have been more. Every weakness once again has been ruthlessly exposed, and this time its in a secondary competition against a team in a division above us. Maybe this down team will go and win the competition and establish itself as a great team but we conceded 8 goals in Croke park, it feels as bleak as that. I am sure lots will play out this week but I can't see how Sheehan can survive this.

The senior team is the flag ship team in the county , which attracts sponsorship, ambition and if going well interest. What's happening at the moment can't continue to become the norm. It will reach a point where it can't be retrieved.