National Hurling Legue 1B 2018

Started by redsetanta, October 13, 2017, 04:17:52 PM

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Goku

What kinda of team are we looking at for the first round of the league taking into account injury's etcs

Unlaoised

Quote from: Goku on January 15, 2018, 09:54:29 AM
What kinda of team are we looking at for the first round of the league taking into account injury's etcs

A very inexperienced team with not much size about it from what I can see but hopefully they can prove the doubters wrong!
LAOIS ABÚ

redsetanta

Where are we with the injuries to Dwayne, Cahir and Picky? Will they see any league time at all and if not will they be available for the round robin?
The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. VinceLombardi

Tobias

The main objective will be to avoid being relegated. Two group wins should give us fourth place and avoid a relegation play off. We would need to beat Antrim and Offaly.
We are well capable of beating Antrim but Offaly are rejuvenated under Kevin Martin and where we lack size in our team the have it in abundance. Offaly gave a reasonably strong Kilkenny team a real fright at the weekend compared to our pitiful performance against a weaker KK team. Having said the I think we have as good hurlers as Offaly size albeit not as physical and experienced. We have to be looking to win both those games. Aside from that I really hope we don't ship some of the huge beatings that we have been getting in the league in the past few years. We really lie down and let some above average teams destroy us. Kerry beat Cork (I know it was Corks second string) by 10 points on Sunday, Offaly ran KK to 3 points and there were a few other good performances from the weaker counties in the early competitions this year. We don't seem to be able to do that at the moment. Offalys performance was a typical Offaly one in that they gave an utterly determined performance where they got in the faces of KK and weren't one bit afraid of the challenge.
Id like to see Laois have a bit more fire, a never say die attitude and a bit more determination in there play. These lads are putting in too much work and effort to go out and be slaughtered. That's the challenge for Eamonn Kelly (and his big backroom team) this year, if it doesn't work out well then the County board need to look at the money they are investing in County Managers and these high profile backroom team assistants.
I hope the lads achieve their goals for the year and steady the ship in 2018.

clonadmad

Playing Cuala today 1:30

Centre of Excellence

merman

That match didn't go ahead by the way.

redsetanta

Great to see Cha in flying form in the Fitzgibbon scoring 6 from play against Mary Immaulate. Any ideas how the team will line out next Sunday?
The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. VinceLombardi

Unlaoised

We will be up against it i'd say down there!
LAOIS ABÚ

blueandwhite1

In a perverse way, having Limerick and Galway first could be a blessing in disguise. While I really hope they are not humiliations, you would have to fear the worst with the number of players missing through injury. Getting these games out of the way might give time for lads to come back for the matches we are more likely to be competitive in.

I like how Roddy put it about our ambitions for the year - stay up in Div 1B and get to Croke park for the round robin final. Personally, I think we will be in the relegation decider again which we will win and will be either first or second in the round robin - fighting it out with Westmeath in Croker.




les Antiques

Please god the lads playing fitzgibbon come through unscathed . A lot going on for some lads in a short period of time these few weeks .

redsetanta

https://www.laoistoday.ie/2018/01/23/laois-hurling-manager-provides-injury-update-limerick-clash/

I assume Neil Foyle must be ok after being out for the Walsh Cup?

Anyone have a stab at a starting 15?
The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. VinceLombardi

merman

https://www.laoistoday.ie/2018/01/26/league-debuts-rathdowney-errill-duo-laois-hurling-team-named-limerick-clash/

The Laois team in full is: Enda Rowland (Abbeyleix); Lee Cleere (Clough-Ballacolla), Leigh Bergin (Shanahoe), Podge Lawlor (Ballinakill); Jack Kelly (Rathdowney-Errill), Matthew Whelan (Borris-Kilcotton), Eric Killeen (Rathdowney-Errill); Paddy Purcell (Rathdowney-Errill), James Ryan (Rathdowney-Errill); Ben Conroy (Slieve Bloom), Cha Dwyer (Ballinakill), Cian Taylor (Portlaoise); Ross King (Rathdowney-Errill), Neil Foyle (Borris-Kilcotton), Paddy McCane (Rathdowney-Errill)

The Limerick team is: Nickey Quaid; Tom Condon, Seamus Hickey, Richie English; Diarmaid Byrnes, Dan Morrissey, Paddy O'Loughlin; Cian Lynch, Paul Browne; Tom Morrissey, Darragh O'Donovan, Barry O'Connell; Aaron Gillane, Seamus Flanagan, Gearoid Hegarty

This is going to be savage physical examination for our lads. Going to be a huge ask to keep goals out; we'll need big performances from Roddy, Cha and Foyle to keep the score respectable. Limerick will score from distance so we can't filter everyone back; but if we leave our full-back line exposed then we could find ourselves in serious trouble.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple of changes either; I'd have thought Sean Downey would certainly start.

If we can come through the Limerick and Galway games with  a points deficit of 20-25 points or less then I'd be pretty satisfied.

redsetanta

Cian Lynch in midfield will need to be watched. Will Roddy drop back to the centre as he played very well there lat year. The problem against Limerick last year was how much space the Limerick lads had and the time they were afforded to take shots at the posts. The chasing and harrying will have to be much better this time round.
The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. VinceLombardi

redsetanta

Sounds like we've another bad enough injury with Lee Cleere going off.
The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. VinceLombardi

blueandwhite1

Quote from: redsetanta on January 28, 2018, 02:56:59 PM
Sounds like we've another bad enough injury with Lee Cleere going off.

And Cha injured before the start. We seem to be without way too many starters. Cha, Cahir, Palmer, Kavanagh, Mullaney, Scully, Picky.

Played ok in spells today but the standard of our hurling was sloppy. Limerick were crisp and moved the ball well. We ran into trouble too often, missed easy chances and lost the ball too often. In fairness, the lads never stopped working. Leigh Bergin hurled very well as did Matthew and Lee Cleere until injured. The rest of the backs worked hard. Paddy Purcell and James Ryan held their own in the middle but were quite loose on their men. Ross did well on the frees but in general the forwards won't score much if they are going to take so much out of the ball before taking their shots.

No shortage of room for improvement but not terribly bad either. Tough assignment next week.