LAOIS SENIOR FOOTBALL 2016

[OTF]

The way he has them set up is laughable. It's what an u-12 coach would set them up like. "Go out an fight for every ball and and try your best." That's 100% what he's saying - why else is our defence so shambolic? That DOES NOT cut it in 2016.

We've scored almost as much as Tyrone have, but our defence is so, so easy to crack. GET A PROPER BACKS TACTICAL COACH IN THERE, before 2016 is another waste of time for all. We'll have to keep Lillis for this year but will the man admit he needs some help in the tactical department.

Absolutely go out there and get someone, there's no reason in the wide earthly world why the 6 backs that started yesterday can't defend properly .....if hard as it to believe coached in the basics.

It's not the 6 backs OTF it's the runners coming from out the field that are not tracked.. you could have the best 6 backs in the country but they can only mark one man. 2.4 of Derry's total came from their half back line. If you do the stats you would be surprised how few scores come from the oppositions 6 forwards.

I'm well aware of that, was responding to those who keep referring to natural defenders or the return of Healy solving our problems.
On another point getting 15 men behind the ball as we often did in McNulty's time didn't mean we defended well, simply because most of our lads just don't know how to stop runners coming at them and don't know how to tackle,  we've being discussing this since Liam Kearns time and absolutely nothing has changed. 

[blueandwhite1]

All I'm saying is : We have a good squad. We have potential this year, believe it or not. All we need is a man with a good brain at the helm. We don't need world class facilities. It's frustrating seeing these kinds of pityful displays when we can do so much better. A decent manager would have us challenging for promotion, I'm convinced of that. Wolly was right, Lillis is a waste of time. I'm saying that out of frustration at his managerial ability, not a personal attack - I'm sure he's a nice guy. I'd kill for a good manager with this squad.

Totally agree Tony. We don't have a problem with individual talent or strength and conditioning. We have some fine athletes. Many people are making comments on our club structure and coaching and they are valid in terms of providing future talent to the senior team. What we have right now is just fine. Largely we are still based around Leinster and All-Ireland winning minor and Leinster winning U-21 players. When we played Tyrone it stood out that we had as much size and skill but were playing as individuals whereas every aspect of their game was thought through and practiced to death. Kickouts, breaking ball, defending against a slow build up, defending against high balls, defending against diagonal balls, defending against quick ball into full forward lines, turning the ball over in the tackle, zone defence, breakdown strategies, counter attack strategies etc. etc. Everyone knew their role in every situation which means that the team are operating way above the sum of their parts. Our lack of planning and scenario drilling makes great players (Evan O'Carroll, Donie Kingston, Colm Begley, John O' Loughlin etc. etc.) look like poor players - they are not. They are trying to make it up as they go along. This is the tragedy. We need a manager who can get this moving as it takes a couple of years to make it happen, or at the very least Lillis needs to employ someone who gets this. When unqualified pundits like me and others can see how glaringly amateurish this set up is, surely the county board and other influential voices in Laois can see it. Is there anyone in the county that has a demonstrated understanding of how to set up a modern inter-county football team? Surely we can afford to employ an ex Tyrone footballer - someone like Peter Canavan for example for a couple of years? The cost of not doing so would seem to be much higher than the cost of doing it.

[ILikeStrawberryJam]

Great post blue and white.
If we beat meath it will be down to brillant individual displays from JOL, Donie, Evan, Ross.
With our attacking talent there is always a small chance we will beat our equivalents but
we'll have to rack up a huge score to do it ..
Youd be hugely worried about the amount of defections if/when we go down to division 3 next year ..
Lillis interviews are terrible, TOF werent much better .. hard to know what the answer is ..
The rumblings from an early stage were that the setup was a big step back and alas performances are proving this right ..
We could so easily go the way of offaly initially and then end up like Carlow if something credible isnt
done to stop the rot. I live in Dublin so i dont really know whats goes on down in Laois gaa circles other
than what i see in O Moore park .. but what i see makes you depressed about the future ..

[Tony]

Here's a question - if we so mysteriously "don't have a pitch to play football on" from winter to summer 2016 - where have the suitable pitches gone from when McNulty, TOF, Kearns and Micko were in charge of us? Have they suddenly disappeared or something? Was Laois the only water logged county in winter / spring 2016? No.

From the start, Lillis was saying this would be an extremely hard League to stay in. That's not the attitude we want. We want a manager who BELIEVES in our players and our potential, and provides a good platform for them to go out and perform.

So far, Lillis comes across as someone who thinks we're a poor side and will do will to save face, rather than achieve anything of note, making excuses for our poor performances and not even knowing where to improve.

There are 3 people in this world - those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder "what happened?" Unfortunately, Lillis appears to be, at this stage, in the latter catagory. Again, I've nothing personal against the man. However, he needs to waken up now OR step aside and let someone competent have a go.

[mrdeeds]

Lads sorry to intrude on your page but what is the story with your keeper. Mad for runs out the field. At one stage he was at half way lookinh for a one two and annoyed when didn't get it back.

You have the makings of a decent team there. Talented forwards and some big physical players.

[maccer]

Blueandwhite1 you have to remember Tyrone players are probably rehearsing and implementing all those skills/strategies you list since they started representing their county at U14 level so it's a natural progression for Mickey Harte to aimply tweek things. We don't have that planned progression. Various managers at underage just seem to do their own thing. So your not comparing like with like. The whole set up has to be looked at. We can't just isolate the senior side and expect miracles if the foundation us not there.
Remember when Babs managed our hurlers he made quite an insulting comment that he was wasting time coaching skills to our senior team that U14s had in Tipp. Thankfully our hurling side seem to have gone a long way to rectifying that but I'm afraid it may be pertinent to our football side now. They're all good committed lads but maybe the whole system has failed them

[Keyser Söze]

Remember when Babs managed our hurlers he made quite an insulting comment that he was wasting time coaching skills to our senior team that U14s had in Tipp.

Sorry to intrude, but Babs & "coaching" shouldn't appear in the same sentence...... Babs & "insulting comment" on the other hand.....

[Joeythelips]

Its not rocket science that our defensive play is what is letting us down, and I agree the managers interviews are frustrating when you hear terms  like 'Its not good enough' and 'I don't understand it' on a few occasions. The team are clearly fit and strong to compete for the division 2 title from what we have seen. You don't need to be a statistician, just a simple look at the table tells us where our problem lies. We have scored 93 points in our games to date which is more than the average of the division or in fact any division in this years football league, so we can win possession and convert it into scores with the best of them. However we have conceded 118 points which is the most conceded by a team in all 4 divisions. The management team have to be able to see this and look at someway of sorting it out, even if it means bringing in a defensive coach. In fairness we have had some injury problems with defenders and the fact is one of the best defenders in the county is focussing on hurling so its not a simple fix, but we can certainly compete with the majority of teams in the country if we sort our defensive issues out.

[BallyroanAbu]

We are only getting these high scoring averages due to a game plan that is heavily weighted on attack.  If we concentrated on defending I am sure some players that are doing well going forward would be dropped.  A loose hand thrown in the way of an attacker is not defending.  This would not be so perilous if the U21 & U18 were not also poor defensively.  I think we can do better as a county I really don't think lack of resources is our problem.  We may not be up with Dublin but we are not in the ha-penny place either.  I just think we need a bit of drive from somewhere ala Donegal with Jim but more importantly maybe something like Declan O Louglin and Micko.  I am not saying for a second Micko was the greatest coach but he harnessed all the resources of the county towards winning and for a few years after this attitude remained. 

[Unlaoised]

I can't see us staying up but I live in hope...

Our team needs a defensive plan.
Two guys who are so committed to the cause and I'm not picking them out to run them down far from it as they are two stalwarts of the team for so long and have given plenty.

JOL and Darren Strong are great going forward but what they offer off the ball is shocking .

Not picking out the two lads by any means and I don't think its their fault because the structure is not in place.

These guys are two very fit and strong players that should be able to do both parts of the game but are an Example(just an example could have picked any players)of why we are conceding so much they seem to switch off when Laois loose the ball like nearly every Laois player this comes from coaching and tactics.


Not having a pitch must not have helped but we have the best squad we have had in ages so its time we got a performance out of the team I hope it starts Sunday!..

[OTF]

I wouldn't much notice of what Mick said 5 minutes after a game he just lost, I like he's honest. Theres just one point from the interview with Jack which I though strange  they lamented the fact that the ball was kicked into the keeper,s hands a few times  and no mention of the fact that we conceded 1-17 ffs..... then again the questioning was led by Jack.

Ok this is bad but it might be  the turning point, the fact that so many here are calling for a defensive plan encourages me ..... times have changed.

[Giovanni]

I would agree with OTF that there isn't much sense in criticising the manager for comments made a few minutes after a match. I don't think there is any good answer as to why lads might be dropping balls into the goalie's hands from 30 hards out (opposition pressure, not relaxed, not confident, bad players........ does anyone know)?

I wasn't able to get to the match so I don't really like commenting but the Leinster Express said that a lowlight of the game was the fact that Laois didn't even seem to have a pre-match routine ready. Last year, under O Flahartha, I saw Laois teams coming out for championship matches in the same way that you might find the congregation leaving a particularly long and boring Saturday evening mass. There is simply no excuse for bad preparations but, at the same time, good preparations can only produce results if the players have a basic desire to succeed in each game and not just the sexy ones. To my mind, there are too many of the players just not giving it everything they have. If they did, the table would look a lot different for us and we wouldn't have all these up and down performances. Of course the manager can't say this in an interview..

We have plenty of very good players, plenty of strong men and good athletes but I don't think we have plenty of strong characters.

[Tony]

You don't know what you're talking about Giovanni. Players not giving enough / not enough character? Say that to their face after a long week of training where they can't go out, have to go to bed early, can't be seen anywhere near a pub and run around a pitch a few times a week (while not playing football apparently) all to play for Laois for free.

What's missing in the team is NOT character. It's tactics and planning by the MANAGEMENT. Kicking balls into the keepers hands did not lose us the game. Conceding the highest amount in ALL FOUR divisions has got us here. Keep up.

The lads deserve a proper setup, simple as that.

[Giovanni]

Tony you have a pretty obnoxious way of expressing an opinion.

Unless all of our managers since 2003 have been idiots, I think it's time to start looking elsewhere for a solution. We didn't get hammered by Fermanagh because we didn't have a defensive system. We didn't get beaten by Longford in the Championship by Longford under McNulty because we didn't have a defensive system. We didn't get beaten by Antrim under O Flahatha because we didn't have a defensive system. We got beaten because the players weren't up for it.

The gravest mistake being made by people here is to mistake character for turning up to training and not drinking. That's not character. Character is to treat every opponent with the same respect (or contempt) whether he comes from Fermanagh or Dublin. Character is to make sure you're tuned in for the fight, even when it doesn't seem that important. Character is being up for it when the people around you don't seem to have a warm up routine ready. Character is putting body and soul into every tackle. Evan O Carroll clearly has character and there are a few more with him. But generally, I'm afraid the character of the team is weak.

[blueandwhite1]

I'm with Tony on this one. Laois individually showed loads of character against Derry, Tyrone and Cavan but came out on the wrong end of the results because of a non existent game plan. Every player bust a gut against Tyrone but the decision making was terrible. We couldn't break down their blanket defence because there was no plan - people didn't understand their roles and just resorted to kicking aimless balls outside the scoring zone. Same against Derry and Cavan defensively. Look at that team no.1 to 23 and tell me who is not giving everything? I don't see it.