Tailteann Cup 2023

[Chrimtain]

I've just listened to the Laois Today podcast (because it was free of charge  ), and I think they make a few pertinent points. They talk of the culture in Laois GAA which makes it difficult to produce good inter county teams I.e. the culture of secrecy when it comes to electing officers and running CB meetings. They talk of the culture of control e.g. club championship matches must be played in OMP so that gate receipts don't go missing. Regarding secrecy, you have to wonder why the press is banned from CB meetings. What have they go to hide? It is, as Steven Miller suggests, an unhealthy situation. Miller also notes that other counties do not appear so fixated on centralising all club games in the county grounds. However, while we (including myself) look for the CB to be shaken up, they note that there isn't a queue of willing candidates to take the top positions on the CB.

[Chrimtain]

I would, as I have said before, dearly like to listen to a podcast from Laois Today where they interview the CB chairman and ask him questions such as why he sought to be elected chairman? Does he agree that Laois GAA is in crisis? What is he doing to promote the games in the county? Does he have ambitions for Laois GAA? What are those ambitions? What is he doing to achieve those ambitions?

Basically, I would like to see our CB officials held to account and come out from behind the veil of secrecy.

[High Fielder]

People won't walk into a closed shop. Many people with good intentions have gone in and either been outvoted or shot down. That's how it operates. Honestly it's an outdated process in itself. But they seem happy to have it and happy to use it to their advantage

Open it up. Properly. Let's see what we've got

[Jd]

A proper defensive plan cuts out 5 of them goals straight away. They were long balls in to lads being marked 1 on 1 cos we pushed up on the kickouts. Not possible to defend like that in the modern age and not fair to expose players like that either. One goal came from a kickouts that almost rolled from midfield to the half forward line ffs. I'm not saying we'd have won but at least keep it tight till half time and reassess then.... we only kicked 4 points anyways so we might as well have 14 behind the ball and be as nasty and cynical as we could get away with. Would Offaly or carlow turn up with a plan like that. To say that the players are not capable of competing at this level is pure bull. Port would do better than that. It's about a plan and how they train. We were here before john sugrue took over saying the same stuff and suddenly we were div 2. I could name 5 or 6 players capable of playing Co football  who were not in there. Some declined which I'd be annoyed about and some were not asked. That's down to management not asking or making it attractive for them. This comes down to asking x why he won't come in and if x says its cos of work then we tell him that it'll be sorted out if x says its to do with finance then we get that sorted. Transport?? No problem it's sorted. Same for hurlers get the best people in and take away any excuse they might have for declining. I heard of a player being locked out of a meeting for being seconds late after travelling a long distance  for training. That auld stuff has to stop. Put the players first give them the best training the best plan and tactics and I bet a pound to a penny we'd fly div 4 and be strong in Tailteann Cup next year

[redsetanta]

Just talking about the margin of defeats, I thought the Dublin defeat was the worst in my memory but the Down game surpassed that.

When were we last beaten, if ever, by that much in a championship game?

[Spiritof86]

Just talking about the margin of defeats, I thought the Dublin defeat was the worst in my memory but the Down game surpassed that.

When were we last beaten, if ever, by that much in a championship game?

Not sure about championship but I believe this result was our biggest defeat ever .


Kerry Vs Laois in Tralee on December 3rd, 1978

Kerry 6-11; Laois 0-0.

[High Fielder]

A proper defensive plan cuts out 5 of them goals straight away. They were long balls in to lads being marked 1 on 1 cos we pushed up on the kickouts. Not possible to defend like that in the modern age and not fair to expose players like that either. One goal came from a kickouts that almost rolled from midfield to the half forward line ffs. I'm not saying we'd have won but at least keep it tight till half time and reassess then.... we only kicked 4 points anyways so we might as well have 14 behind the ball and be as nasty and cynical as we could get away with. Would Offaly or carlow turn up with a plan like that. To say that the players are not capable of competing at this level is pure bull. Port would do better than that. It's about a plan and how they train. We were here before john sugrue took over saying the same stuff and suddenly we were div 2. I could name 5 or 6 players capable of playing Co football  who were not in there. Some declined which I'd be annoyed about and some were not asked. That's down to management not asking or making it attractive for them. This comes down to asking x why he won't come in and if x says its cos of work then we tell him that it'll be sorted out if x says its to do with finance then we get that sorted. Transport?? No problem it's sorted. Same for hurlers get the best people in and take away any excuse they might have for declining. I heard of a player being locked out of a meeting for being seconds late after travelling a long distance  for training. That auld stuff has to stop. Put the players first give them the best training the best plan and tactics and I bet a pound to a penny we'd fly div 4 and be strong in Tailteann Cup next year

I disagree with almost all of this. I can accept that Sugrue might, and I stress might, have got us out of Division 4, but not any further. The only way we could have stopped Down would be to build a wall. We just don't have the pace or power.

The local Championship will be starting soon and by God will you see some floury spuds then. This County is set up to fail

[Aristo 60]

floury spuds?

[on the hop]

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

[Joeythelips]

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

I get people may say our players are not quick or lack physique or not great skills set but that goal was after 30 odd seconds into a knockout championship game against a team from Division 3 and while its a lovely move and finish etc, from a defensive point of view its an embarrassment, lets be honest. That screams a side badly prepared team to me, it looked like a Junior team playing a Senior team to be frank. The fact Laois beat Fermanagh and Limerick now looks like it was down to the players rather than anything management contributed, this shows we have some good players and getting in a decent management team could turn them around. Our lads deserve this as a minimum.

[High Fielder]

You can't have it both ways Joey. If the players manufactured the wins, then surely they should take responsibility for the losses? Or is it just the losses that Billy has responsibility for? By the way, and lest we forget, Billy is assisted by Chris Conway, whose reputation for tactics and matchplay has been well received in the past. Surely he's not just standing idly by and allowing Billy to go full kamikaze?

The clips provided by OTH are fairly damning. There were enough Laois players in place to stop the onslaught. They just couldn't, sadly.

What happens next by the way? Do we sit around twiddling our thumbs while the CB decide Billy's fate? Do we wait another 2 or 3 months to get someone in? Groundhog Day over and over and another kick for touch. What a mess

[Joeythelips]

You can't have it both ways Joey. If the players manufactured the wins, then surely they should take responsibility for the losses? Or is it just the losses that Billy has responsibility for? By the way, and lest we forget, Billy is assisted by Chris Conway, whose reputation for tactics and matchplay has been well received in the past. Surely he's not just standing idly by and allowing Billy to go full kamikaze?

The clips provided by OTH are fairly damning. There were enough Laois players in place to stop the onslaught. They just couldn't, sadly.

What happens next by the way? Do we sit around twiddling our thumbs while the CB decide Billy's fate? Do we wait another 2 or 3 months to get someone in? Groundhog Day over and over and another kick for touch. What a mess

Im saying the evidence in front of us now indicates the wins were as a result of the players in spite of management input and not as a result of it. They were still badly prepared.

My take is if you but a top manager in charge of that Laois team they would have given Down a proper game. But put our management team in charge of a top team and they will finish the season empty handed as they are not up to the task of preparing a team adequately for modern day football in my opinion.

You also can't have it both ways, saying Laois players are not fit and lack pace etc, then why set a team up for that to be exposed or do current management not see this? Surely that screams poor management? It does to me.

[High Fielder]

It doesn't for me, because I start from a fundamentally different viewpoint as you and JD. The real crime for me is the lack of preparation at underage. The way we treat our best footballers and hurlers who we hope one day will represent us at Senior level. It seemed obvious to me that Down were more athletic in every sense of the word. The sort of athleticism that is nurtured over many years

[Laoiseabu]

It doesn't for me, because I start from a fundamentally different viewpoint as you and JD. The real crime for me is the lack of preparation at underage. The way we treat our best footballers and hurlers who we hope one day will represent us at Senior level. It seemed obvious to me that Down were more athletic in every sense of the word. The sort of athleticism that is nurtured over many years

100% agree HF

[clonadmad]

It doesn't for me, because I start from a fundamentally different viewpoint as you and JD. The real crime for me is the lack of preparation at underage. The way we treat our best footballers and hurlers who we hope one day will represent us at Senior level. It seemed obvious to me that Down were more athletic in every sense of the word. The sort of athleticism that is nurtured over many years

And we will be having the same conversation in 10 years time as we are having now if underage in this county isn't addressed

Whether you are Billy Sheehan or Jack O'Connor or Mickey Harte

You are prisoner to what's coming off the underage assembly line

The underage set up is at best mediocre and at worst downright shambolic across the various development teams in both codes

The Schools and in particular the second level  schools in Portlaoise are nothing short of a disgrace