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Great win for St Fergals today in the Leinster Hurling C Final - flying the flag for laois hurling. The St Declans team they faced today won the Dublin B division but got to play in the C Leinster final. Don't know why. They also had four players on the North Dublin team who defeated St Kierans in the A final. It looked ominous for Fergals after twenty minutes when they were seven points behind and were down to 14 men following a straight red card for Mick Shortt. Two pointed frees before half time by Chris Rafter brought the defecit to five at half time. With the wind behind them in the second half Fergals took them apart. Our lads had scored ten points to put them four up before St Declans got a point - their solitary score in the second half. A goal for Fergals sealed a fourteen point turn around in what was as good a display of all round teamwork as you will see anywhere. Clough-Ballacolla's Kevin Mulhall was awarded man of the match although I myself thought his fellow clubmate Diarmuid Conway deserved it more, but every one of the team hurled superbly. Final score St Fergals 1-16 St Declans 1-9.
All Ireland semi final coming up on Saturday against Seamount of Kinvara.

Fergals play St Declan's CBS of Dublin in the Leinster final on Monday in Hawksfield. There are a good few of the county minors (u17) on the team. Thep Fitz, Cillian Maher from Rathdowney Errill, Kevin Mulhall, Evan Hawkes and Mark Hennessey from Clough Ballacolla and Keelan Kelly from Borris Kilcotton. In addition, Cathal Dunne, Ben Delaney (C-B), Adam Loughman, Mick Shortt, Oisin Campion, Dylan Doyle, (R-E) have all been involved with Laois development squads and would probably have been on the minor panel this year if it had stayed at u18. Best wishes to the lads and Sean Conroy, Joe Dollard and Andrew Kavanagh who are managing them.

St Fergal's beat Bridgetown VC of Wexford today to qualify for the Leinster Senior C Final against the Dublin champions ( St Mac Dara's CC, Templeogue I think). Having led 2-6 to 0-3 early on, the teams went in 2-6 to 1-7 at half time. Fergal's came out strong in the second half to win 4-11 to 1-9. Wasn't at the match personally so I can't comment on performances.
St. Fergal's junior team are due to play Rochfortbridge in the North Leinster Junior C final soon as well.

One thing I noted was that there seems to be a good team spirit  in the squad. They all went off together as a group at half time and when subs came on there was a genuine touch with the player replaced. I thought we were a bit loose in the tackle sometimes whereas Antrim always seemed to have a tighter grip on our lads, but overall a heartening performance.

A two point win for Fergal's in what was a very tight game all the way. A very strong, physical Rochfortbridge team were well matched by our lads who probably had the edge in hurling skills. It could have gone either way so it was great to see Fergal's close it out. Play was suspended for about half an hour with ten minutes to go when one of the Rochfortbridge midfielders sustained a neck injury and had to be stretchered off. Hopefully he will be ok. Fergal's were four points up at the time and looking good to close out the game but a goal just after the restart cut the lead to one. Fergal's replied with a quick point and held out in a nail biting finish. They now face the winners of the South Leinster final. Bagenalstown and Carnew face off tomorrow in the semi, with the winners playing Wellingtonbridge.
  St Fergal's junior team will travel to Rochfortbridge next week in the Junior North Leinster final and it would be brilliant to do the double.
All credit to Mr Conroy, Mr Dollard and Andrew Kavanagh for their work with these teams.

St Fergals play Rochfordbridge in the north Leinster C final today. Match is in Rathdowney at 12.

I would imagine it will be very difficult to establish a second club in Portlaoise or anywhere for that matter. Pretty much anyone who has an interest in helping to run a club is probably already doing so. It's hard enough to get people involved in a club they have a history with, never mind taking on the huge task of establishing a new one. I for one could not see myself leaving my own club to start what would in effect be a rival club. If the Arles divide had happened in Portlaoise, it may have led to a second club that worked, but it is hardly the best way to go about it. If there were enough people from elsewhere, living in Portlaoise, with the experience and will to set up a second club it would still be a monumental task. Trying to set boundaries and catchment areas alone would wreck your head. From my experience coming up against Portlaoise in underage hurling, they are tight enough on numbers as it is. I brought twenty eight u8s to play Portlaoise a few years ago to be faced with seven of them.
 
As regards strength and conditioning for development squads, this has already started for all down to u13 which is a very welcome development. Peter Hally and Andrew Kavanagh have also run workshops for clubs to introduce this at club level.

Fergal's used to be in the Vocational Schools section but that has now been absorbed into the college's competition. Clough Ballacolla and Borris Kilcotton would be the main clubs feeding in alongside Rathdowney Errill with the odd lad from the Harps or Galmoy. We 'lose' players to Mountrath, Heywood, Johnstown and Templemore, all of which are much bigger schools.

Good win today for St. Fergal's senior hurlers who dug out a victory against Kilcormac 3:14 to 2:11 in the North Leinster C Colleges semi final. Fergal's were leading by seven points early in the second half but a Kilcormac rally put them in front by two. Fergal's regained the lead in the last ten minutes and held on for the win in what was a hard fought game.
     This means both Fergal's senior and junior teams have made it to the North Leinster finals as the junior team defeated Boyne CS last week. With only three hundred pupils, Fergal's are still punching above their weight.

Good to see Enda Lyons over the team. He was with the u14s a few years ago and I thought he was very good.

To put in perspective the task we face and the achievement of our lads, our panel of 24 on Saturday was drawn from just 10 clubs. Kilkenny in contrast picked from 18 clubs, Galway and Tipperary from 16. Each Laois club is having to provide multiple county standard players in comparison with our more successful neighbours at all grades which is a big ask. Only by improving our coaching in the clubs will we achieve anything long term. I hope the initiative to get more people involved at county level and get a strength and conditioning programme up and running (there is none at the moment) works out, but we need to get this into the clubs as well to provide the players to the county. Our u14s basically ran out of steam in the end and this is no discredit to them. We had Tipperary seriously worried with ten minutes to go. When's the last time we could say the likes of that?

Management team is Liam Dunne from C/B, Ollie Quinlan of B/K, Seamus Dooley of Rosenallis and Ciaran Muldowney.

Congratulations to Rosenallis on winning the Feile Division 2. This is a great achievement and deserves applause.

Good luck to Rosenallis who play Bunclody in the Div2 Feile Cup semi-final today. They are doing the county proud.

Our U14 hurlers face Dublin tomorrow morning at 11 in the Centre of Excellence. Should be a good test for this group of lads who have been going well. We may be short a few though.