LAOIS SENIOR FOOTBALL 2016

[beano]

Was at the game today. I would say between twenty and thirty Laois people at the game which was disappointing!

To the game itself. Very poor in our middle third, half back midfield and half forward! Not tracking runners, poor passing and some not giving the proper pass! Their goal game as a result of us kicking the ball straight to them! In our forward line we had no plan. It was depressing ! Conor meridith was probably our best player! A few of them need to improve big time if we are going to stay in this division.

A few footnotes: I herd from two people at the game that the team travelled up on the morning of the game, pure madness . Not saying this is reason that we lost but it's so amatur !

[beano]

Second thing I notice was that boscos catering was there! Was the team fed out of a van or did they get properly fed in a hotel? I taught in this day and age that hotel meals and over night stays are a given! Obviously I was wrong. These may be small things to some but im sure any serious county would not tolerate that set up. I'm not blaming management but county board might need to take a look at how it spends 600k on Laois teams each year!!

Next up Derry! It will be interested to see the reaction. Can't understand why Dillion didn't start , he did ok when came on. Gary Walsh didn't play at all, injured?

[High Fielder]

I went to the game yesterday too. I can't believe the team travelled up on the day. I left at 10 to be there for 1, which potentially means they left at 8.30 or less to get in a warm up, with some of them getting up at 6.30/7 to make the coach. I'm not saying either that we lost because of that because we were totally outplayed, but what a shocking way to run a county set up. The performace was abysmal. It was too bad to make sense of, and we would beat nobody for the rest of the year if we ever played like that again. Terrible pitch. Fermanagh fit as fleas and prepared to run themselves to a standstill. Great movement and passing from them but we were not much better than statues. We just couldn't keep up with them as time after time they ran at us. I thought we looked tired or over trained, but you just can't ask lads to get off a coach after 3 hours and play a serious game of football. This is how Carlow prepare, and that's where we'll be heading if we do the same things. A game best forgotten. Zero positives.

[Andy06]

If it is true that they only got up to the match that morning then it is completely shambolic.
The players and management team shouldn't have stood for it and demanded they be put up overnight, there is no way they could have been at 100% and they should have known this beforehand. County board taking the p*ss again.

[redsetanta]

Laois football doing what it does best....inconsistency with a capital I. After two impressive results against northern oppositiion they serve up yesterdays performance.
The bus going in the morning is an elephant in the room. Surely if it was that big of an issue the management and/or players would have had something to say about it so I wouldn't be leaving that one solely at the CB's door.

[les Antiques]

Disappointing afternoon in Ennniskilen to say the least . Long journey home after that performance .
Laois looked tired , flatfooted while Fermanagh looked very fit and seemed to have a lot of training behind them. Corrigan for his size is very useful and will continue to cause defenders problems in Ulster this year . We were very loose it must be said and some of lads need a lot more football before championship in May . Understandable as the likes of Begley , Quigley and Merdith have only just returned and can't have played much football in 2016 .
I can't see us playing this bad against Derry next week . There has to be a reaction of some sort . Talking to some Fermanagh lads afterwards and they mentioned they were a little surprised by Laois's somewhat lackadaisical approach yesterday .
Derry , Cavan and Meath left , dogfight for Division 2 status now .

[Tony]

Let's just hope that there's some serious heavy training going on at the moment. Who do you think is the leading brains behind the operation for Laois Football 2016? Is it Lillis or is there some other mastermind trainer in there?

[From the Terrace]

the way i see it is two abysmal performances & two decent ones.. we need at least 5 points maybe 6 to stay up meaning next sunday is a must win, Looking at westmeath's demise hope we survive. This level of football really showed where your at it, Division 3 & 4 is hit & miss imo. Get it hard to see us picking up anything in Breffni park, So our two home games are vital.. Mick Lillis says he has no pitch to train football on this from intercounty setup sounds hard to believe. Know weather has been poor surely an astro surface would be available for ball work..

[High Fielder]

I think we're in a bit of a vicious circle. Money coming in is limited so investment in the team is hit. Even gear seems to be in short enough supply from what I can see. People who belittle the effect that travelling up on the morning had on the team obviously didn't make the journey. It was a long, boring journey and I down know how you'd want to kick football after it. These are young fit lads who probably don't think like that, but I think it's amateurish to think you can walk off a bus and beat a team in their own backyard who haven't lost there for 2 years. Even a night game would be different because the extra few hours would help you to get up for the game. I think it was a shocking decision whoever made it, and shows us up in a very poor light.

We're not as bad as we showed Sunday. We're a Division 3 side in the making, fair enough, but there's more to us than we showed Sunday. We have to believe that the two home games are winnable. Based on the Tyrone performance, I think we can win both games. The centre half back position is a real problem. Teams are just coming down the middle in waves, almost like they know we're leaky there. We need a real physical presence to shore up that area. I'd go as gar as to put a sweeper in font of the half back line, because it seems to be our Achilles heel. The pressure on the full back line because of mistakes by the half back line is killing us.

[Unlaoised]

Very hard to take any positives from the game ...

We were just flat from the word go ...I don't think preparation was the best ..IE journey up and food etc...I was tired after travelling up and I left at 9.30am and stopped in Ballinagh for a breakfast about 11am..

Meredith probably the best although Donie did his best and Paul got two nice scores...The back looked like lads that were on the piss the night before and were blowing hard after ten minutes...

Quigley strong etc should have used their experience then and slowed the game down be it with a scuffle or something as it was obivious we were going to be bet in the first half the way they were running at us.

Haven't heard lillis interview yet but if we are travelling up the morning of games to a place nearly three hours away and have no pitch to train on then we are only going one way...

The Kerry Hurling team stayed in the maldron a few weeks back when playing us here!!

Says it all really!

[Tony]

To be honest, the after match interview by Lillis was as worrying as the match itself. Brings up valid questions of his competency as an inter-county manager IF it's true that

A: We travelled up on the morning of the game of Fermanagh and
B: That we can't even find and use a suitable pitch to play football on to train. This isn't U-12 club football.

Here's the interview.

https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/mick-lillis-post-fermanagh-in-the-nfl

[beano]

There should be no excuses in this county about training facilities; Dont we have Heywood? I know the hurlers use it but why cant the footballers do the same? if not isnt there a field in clonad that was used for county hurling training with state of art lights?

Look I realise that money is an issue in Laois however I think that the officers in charge of Laois GAA are been lazy in their fundraising efforts: Why not set up a senior football training fund like there was in Micko's time and raise money for the panel. Why not be ambitious and set a target of 100k. This money would be used for trips away like last sunday and quality meals after training/games as per micko's time.

Here's my suggestion on how this money could be raised.

Target 1,000 to pay €100 (This could be done by targeting Laois people living outside laois!)

or through business both inside and outside of laois that have Laois connections.

eg big business tesco/hotels/car dealerships etc  20 x 1,000 = 20,000

smaller business putting in €100 per business. Business's could be rewarded with complimentary tickets to home games and tickets to championship matches.

Link in with the Laois association in Dublin and hold a corporate lunch. There are lots of Laois people in business who have pride in the county that would help out!

Its only a couple of suggestions , All it needs is someone to take the bull by the hands and drive it forward. We could spend the next year feeling sorry for ourselves or we could get off our arses and do something about the lack of money available to the team.

[goal 10]

Lillis said in the interview
I don't know,  I don't know what happened
Mick your the manager,  FIX IT

[Dave like the tv channel]

Lillis said in the interview
I don't know,  I don't know what happened
Mick your the manager,  FIX IT

He didn't say, "I don't know what happened and I don't know what I'm going to do".

Things happen on the field and managers may have prepared perfectly for the match, but it all falls flat. Sh*t happens. Let's see what the reaction is.

[Giovanni]

Beano's post got no reaction here but I would have thought that targets like this should be set by the administrators of the game in the county. It certainly seems very plausible to me and just needs a bit of organisation and effort. Don't really see why we're not working on that.

I also can't for the life of me understand how it is that the county football team doesn't have a pitch to train on? Could that actually be true?