Championship Draw 2018

Started by Wherediditallgowrong, October 19, 2017, 11:21:54 PM

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High Fielder

You've hit the nail Butch. Good defending is a skill. Even at club level, it has been shocking to see how badly lads tackle and defend. It doesn't bode well

Giovanni

This is all true but we didn't have so many sticky defenders when McNulty was in charge either.

You can do a lot if the defensive system is effective and the attitude of the players is right.

redsetanta

Laois hurlers have 3 away games in the tier 2 championship to Kerry, Antrim and Meath with Carlow and Westmeath at home.

It will be a tough enough schedule.
The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. VinceLombardi

High Fielder

Quote from: Giovanni on October 25, 2017, 04:04:36 PM
This is all true but we didn't have so many sticky defenders when McNulty was in charge either.

You can do a lot if the defensive system is effective and the attitude of the players is right.

I still believe that the players have to be defensively sound to start with. A good system will help of course, but numbers can't mask poor defending from individuals

Tony

Quote from: High Fielder on October 25, 2017, 11:17:49 AM
With the exception of Healy, not one of those lads is sticky enough. Good players but not good backs.
Timmons is not a good back? I rate Begley too especially with the modern game. Keogh and booth are decent too. I don't understand how people can call them bad backs, but each to their own. Timmons is a given though surely. When fit, one of the top ten full backs in the country, in my opinion.

Butch Cassidy

From looking at the Kildare game (I know bad example) the issue was the work rate out the field. Lads were not tracking runners and putting Kildare under pressure. As a result this left Laois exposed and created numerous 2 v1 situations that made the backs look bad.

Dublins team have athletes all over the pitch with power, pace but work hard. This is the main area we need to work on. Love to see the GPS output from all the teams to compare them

BallyroanAbu

This year was a low point in Laois GAA, mentally we are already beaten before we got on the pitch.  The teams were a reflection of this and even just a change in direction can have a massive impact on our on field performances.   I really think that we lost a thousand small battles this year which culminated in the on field farce we were subjected to.

Andy06

Quote from: Butch Cassidy on October 25, 2017, 12:15:33 PM
Can anyone tell me if lads are trained to tackle and defendefend? Does it happen at club level?

Bringing 13 men behind a ball for the sake of it isn't defending and it's lazy. Lads in the development squads need to be shown how to tackle, defend and track runners. It's our biggest problem.

Just picking up on the above point from Butch.
Of the three areas mentioned (tackle, defend and track runners), the only item where skill is needed is tackling in my opinion. Defending is more of a tactic whose success relies heavily (but not solely) on the skill of tackling.

Of the three, the one I feel needs the least work is tracking runners. To me good fitness and attitude is all a player needs for this, not hours on the training ground or countless drills at a young age.
If you look at all the points we conceded this year (and actually going back a number of years) how many of these were scored by lads who had all the time in the world to steady themselves, then take the shot without a single Laois player within yards of them simply as a result of sprinting (in some cases jogging) down the pitch unopposed.

Getting lads to track back should be the easiest of the above points to do. If we have them at a decent fitness level and the player wants to burst a gut to get back, it should be enough to see off most teams.

Laoiseabu

If your six defenders were good enough and working as a unit covering one another you shouldn't need to play extra men back. But instead numbers are back and no one knows who is picking up who which is too confusing for players.

Giovanni

Quote from: Butch Cassidy on October 25, 2017, 10:06:03 PM
From looking at the Kildare game (I know bad example) the issue was the work rate out the field. Lads were not tracking runners and putting Kildare under pressure. As a result this left Laois exposed and created numerous 2 v1 situations that made the backs look bad.

Dublins team have athletes all over the pitch with power, pace but work hard. This is the main area we need to work on. Love to see the GPS output from all the teams to compare them

Would agree very much with this.

Good defence is about putting as much pressure as possible on opposition shooters. Some teams do that very well. Laois did it fairly well under McNulty (although there were some shortcomings in that system too).

The top 3 teams will, of course, have the excellent tackling skills (which creates larger number of turnovers) as well as the general pressure on the opposition. Having said that, I don't see that many classic top defenders in the Kerry team for example.

I'd be happy enough if we could just improve the level of pressure that we apply on the opposition shooters. That in itself should make a big difference.

Tony

First and foremost, before any plans or any tactics, we have to get properly fit. The best plan in the world will not work if your players are busting a lung after 5 minutes.

Hopefully Sugrue, with his background, will know this. The players will have to sacrifice a lot and be in the best fitness of their lives if we're going to be competitive with the likes of Kildare, Meath etc. This will probably take 2-3 years as the past few set ups have not been up to standard fitness wise.

The last time the Laois players were competitively fit, lasting the pace with Dublin was under Justin McNulty.

O moore parklife

Lads anyone know who the 6th lad on the management team is bald lad with a beard from munster been there all week in o moore park. Might be the new caretaker who knows😂

Junior Ex Laoistalk

#42
Don't forget we're only Div4 by the width of a post, if that last effort by Darren Strong in the last league game against Offaly had gone over we would still be in Div3.
Sugru has a lot to build on and if lads commit we will have a great chance of winning this division and setting ourselves up for a good championship run.

I would have to agree on the fitness argument, don't think I've ever seen a Laois senior team as unfit as last years team...
Winners are not those who never fail, but those who never quit!

SCFC

Trial game during the week. Anyone hear anything about it?

Butch Cassidy

I might be way off but i don't think the lads were unfit. They were training since November. The issue was the lack of pace in the team which makes it crazy that Dillon wasn't starting. Apart from Farrell and Damien O'Connor where was the pace? We need to inject some youth and pace into the team.