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Jury is very much out on this management set up. I don't see much evidence of any particular game plan so far, hopefully it will come together soon. Very worrying last weekend looking at 40-50 yards of space in front of our full back line while our wing backs chased the Dublin lads around the field and went 30 minutes or more without touching the ball.  Badly need someone like Niall Corcoran and Tommy Fitzgerald involved.

Some strange selection decisions too, both on starting team and subs. Some lads have hardly been given a chance, Colm Stapleton , James Duggan, Fionan Mahony Jordan Walsh Ciaran Byrne spring to mind. Stephen Bergin only got a look in for the first time last week in a dead rubber, was our best forward and then taken off ! Maybe they are not showing enough in training, but when you see the team and subs you wonder.

The constant referring to our lads lack of conditioning is starting to smack of excuses, there may be some truth to it but once is enough to say it to the media. With a small pick it is going to be harder to have a panel who both have the athletic and hurling qualities. The loss of physical lads like Sean Downey, Cha and Lee Cleere hasn't helped. I assume since Willie has placed such a big emphasis on this he has put in place a system to rectify the situation, and all players now have individually tailored  S&C programs with set targets and a system of accountability ?   

I can see a few retirements at the end of this year and I am not sure Div 1 is the place for what would be a young team looking to rebuild.

What laois players are missing this year that would be a loss to the team.
Cha Dwyer
Sean Downey
Ben Conroy
Lee Cleere
Diarmuid Conway
Joe Campion
Picky Maher?
Any hope of getting David Dooley playing with u20s this year (bob and none)

Don't think the following are in training, maybe not all first team choices but would  be a loss to the panel:

Ronan Broderick
John Lennon
Conor Phelan
Eoin Gaughan
Mark Dowling
Ciarán Collier

Yes, Camross best team on the day, even though penalty at the end was a bit questionable we can't really have any complaints. I wouldn't say Camross bullied Abbeyleix though, but teams concentrated on hurling and Camross players were better at the basic skills. Only 3 or 4 of Abbeyleix lads performed really. In their defence, with football on Wednesday it was a second game in 4 days on a heavy pitch for most of our lads and been between leinster intermediate and u20 football also going on they haven't really had a chance to get together. Also, the 3 group games together really stood to Camross, our lads just had the one match with Harps.

Anyway, Camross look a good bet for the final, they were probably disappointed how the minor went, so a good shot at redemption for them. Tom Cuddy is going to be some hurler. 

As to the future, Mossy is excellent and definitely one for Laois going forward. From last year's Laois U20 team, I think Fionán Mahony might make it too, along with James Duggan and Ian Shanahan. Philip Tynan, Cillian Dunne, Noah Quinlan and the lads still underage next year might be better off staying with u20s for another year.

Cathal Murphy and mossy keyes should be good to go Saturday. Burke was never part of plans when he opted for laois senior footballers. But unfortunately injured he ankle recently and out for another few weeks. Fionan mahoney will be big loss.
2 big games Saturday. Hopefully we can come out the right side of both

It would be a big boost if Mossy and Cathal Murphy are available. Three of the lads in the forwards struggled on Saturday against Antrim. 

David??

Sorry, yes David.

Bit of hope for the u20s. Look to be missing a few key players though that they will need. Fionan Mahony, Mossy Keyes, Ciaran Burke and Cathal Murphy are important players all of which started in last years championship. They are physical players too, we look a bit lightweight without them and we will need that against the bigger challenges to come. Keyes was an unused sub so hopefully he is working his way back in. None of the other 3 were on the 26. Anyone know of their progress?

Fionán Mahony broke his foot in training the week before the Antrim match so he is out. Mossy Keyes dislocated his shoulder a few weeks ago but is on the way back, don't know if he will be available for Kildare match, hopefully if they get over that he will be available for quarter final. Pretty sure Ciaran Burke opted out a while ago to concentrate on football. Cathal Murphy not sure but I think he had a hamstring problem, he has been out a few weeks now,  and as he wasn't in the match day squad for Antrim it's probably unlikely he is available for this Saturday.

Kildare in Newbridge will be a tough match, they beat Wexford there last year if I remember correctly.

It's a pity the above injuries have undermined this team a bit. You are 100% correct above on the physicality especially as all 4 lads would operate in the middle third.

Diarmuid Dooley would also have been a great boost to this team.

In fairness to Jack Kelly I thought there was a pretty dirty belt aimed at him as he soloed through. He blocked off the belt with his hurl and then retaliated. Still no excuse and he let the team down, but I'm sure he knows that himself.

Personally I would like to see Ryan Mullaney restored to centre back with Jack Kelly and Podge as the half backs. Also Ross is best at 14 I think. 

The u20 A hurling championship has just concluded and B Championship is still ongoing. These matches would be better than any trials and would surely have been attended by the management. Great win for my own club Abbeyleix in the A by the way.

There are not too many uncovered jewels out there in Laois that have not been in the system at some stage, you might have late developers but if so they will have featured for their clubs in senior intermediate or junior.

Anyway, I heard the management were contacting up to 30 players in addition to those that were involved last year and are still eligible. Whether it's via trials or training or a combination of both I'm not sure, but between the two groups you are going to have 50 or 60 lads under consideration which is a pretty wide net for Laois hurling.

Clough Ballacolla to win the senior for me, I think they can get the better of the Borris Kilcotton full back line if they get a reasonable the supply going in. Clough Ballacolla by 4.

Ballinakill have a lot of new players this year. A good few of them were county minor and u20 and should be ok, but you never know how it will go sometimes for young lads, so that might be an issue for them. On balance I would say they still have plenty of experienced men like Brian O'Meara and Podge who along with their county men should steer them home, Ballinakil by 5 or 6 points maybe.

I also heard Trumera were with RPG for the u20. Trumera have 5 or 6 good players at that age so will give RPG a big boost. Surprising to see Ballinakill Ballypickas in the B, probably around 7 of their u20s have hurled with Ballinakill Premier Intermediates this year and a couple of lads won the Junior with Ballypickas too, so they have a good base there and are probably better than a couple of teams in the A championship.

The A should be very competitive. Harps, Abbeyleix, Rathdowney Errill,  Borris Kilcotton and Clough Ballacolla will all hope to be there or thereabouts. Castletown and Camross both have some excellent individual players but are probably not as strong all round as the others at this particular age group.

Although Ciaran Burke is a big loss if out injured, I would say Harps are favourites, they will be very committed and strong all round from 1-15.  Abbeyleix will be be decent, but seem to have seen a couple of talented players drop away since Juvenile and as alluded to above, football might be an issue for them as nearly all are dual players.

Rathdowney Errill have a bye to semi final and will definitely be in the mix with the likes of Dylan Carroll, Thep Fitzpatrick and Padraig Rafter. Clough Ballacolla possibly would have won 2020 minor but for injuries to key players and they have the likes of Mark Hennessy, Cillian Dunne and Podge Brennan so again they will be competitive.  Borris Kilcotton will be strong too with Philip Tynan, Niall Coss and Noah Quinlan impressing in the Senior.

Hopefully we will get half decent weather and see a few good competitive matches.

Yes it was a harsh lesson. They were very competitive with Wexford for 40 mins but there was a 20 minute spell where everything went wrong. There wasn't a lot of leadership shown on the team at that stage I have to say and not too much on the line either. I've been very impressed with the management team overall but I'm afraid this wasn't one of their better days.

As was said there were some good performances. The entire full back line did very well despite the concession of the 4 goals. Tadhg Cuddy did his best to show some leadership, David Dooley was good and James Duggan was again very good.

The final score didn't do them justice but players and management need to learn from these experiences.

Management actually far from impressive.  Some very questionable selection decisions that were always going to be punished once we moved out of tier2 .

In the end, Abbeyleix pride won out and I know a lot of club members didn't want to be party to taking hurling out of the town.
They are a club which should have no problems standing alone as a senior side. Their juvenile progress has stalled a little but they have still been one of the 2/3 strongest juvenile clubs over the last 5/6 years.

Important to acknowledge too, the role Ballyroan played in helping Abbeyleix turn it down.

Gaels gone got grades under senior, roll on the area teams. Great news.

Don't think football had anything to do with it. Abbeyleix had the giblets to back themselves against bigger amalgamations. As they say pride cometh before the fall, I hope it won't be for abbeyleix. They could be off designing names and jerseys but chose the road less travelled by with regard to most laois senior clubs. Tough year ahead for them. Fighting league and championship relagation is the price you pay for pride in the parish.
Good luck and God speed because you will need both

By god you almost had me weeping with pride for the beauty of the association there.

Until I remembered they tossed away football in the club without a second thought not so long ago.

If by "tossed away" you mean agree to a structure where those lads who want to play football go and play football in a football club in the Parish , and lads who want to hurl play hurling in the hurling club in the parish then you are 100% correct

In the end, Abbeyleix pride won out and I know a lot of club members didn't want to be party to taking hurling out of the town.
They are a club which should have no problems standing alone as a senior side. Their juvenile progress has stalled a little but they have still been one of the 2/3 strongest juvenile clubs over the last 5/6 years.

Important to acknowledge too, the role Ballyroan played in helping Abbeyleix turn it down.

Gaels gone got grades under senior, roll on the area teams. Great news.

Don't think football had anything to do with it. Abbeyleix had the giblets to back themselves against bigger amalgamations. As they say pride cometh before the fall, I hope it won't be for abbeyleix. They could be off designing names and jerseys but chose the road less travelled by with regard to most laois senior clubs. Tough year ahead for them. Fighting league and championship relagation is the price you pay for pride in the parish.
Good luck and God speed because you will need both

Yes, Abbeyleix will be favourites for relegation in 2019 . We have some good young hurlers coming up but not so much for 2019,  maybe in 2020 a few will come through, but you never know with young lads. Talented juveniles often not interested when they get to adult and hurling is no longer once a week and starts interfering with other activities ! The club is small though and like Ballinakill will struggle to field a second team next year.  Talk of a juvenile link up between the two clubs now.

If ref gave the yellow card for one of those two wild pulls Clonadmad referred to, and didn't see the Ross getting done just before, maybe then it could be looked at by CB ? Pretty sure the second player pulling wild also head butted John Purcell at start of first half.

On the minor, Clough/Ballacolla Mountrath Tumera is very much a random throwing together. Fairly sure these Mountrath and Trumera lads hurled with Camross up along the grades until last year when they switched over to Clough Ballacolla.  I reckon they the had 15 payers who are on County U17, U16 and U15 squads. Hard for a club team to compete with that strength all over the field. Both C/B and Mountrath had their own u15 teams this year, so it will be interesting to see what happens going forward. Only 3 independent clubs in this years minor A championship is a bit worrying.

Group A
Abbeyleix
Borris KK
Balyfin Gaels
Ballinakill

Group B
Clough Ballacolla
Rathdowney-Errill
Camross
Castletown-Slieve Bloom


Bit of a lobsided draw?? The mountain men have their work cut out to get a few scalps to make the quarter finals. Anyone have any thoughts on the draw/new format.

I would be in favour of groups and round robin system,but I think it would have been better if it was top two in each group into semi finals and bottom two into relegation semi finals. That would give a real edge to all group matches.