Qualifiers.

[High Fielder]

Tony come on for the last 6 months Creedon was your man to turn things round, now because he failed no one can succeed. High Fielder we have the players to be competive in Div 2,  it's about time we remember we have some pride.  The problem these days that most players think they are bigger than the jersey, it's all  about I rather than the team. The brutal thing is some of them don't even realise they are doing this.  In the way you have stuck your neck out I will continually,  Padraig Clancy is the man to take Laois forward, I think Malachy deserves it more on form and logic.  But my personal opinion is that Clancy has the X Factor to bring a lot of diverse sections within Laois to pull together in one direction.  I am utterly convinced of this no matter how much ridicule I have to take.

Keep believing this guff and you'll be a very disappointed punter. These players cannot defend. They don't know how to tackle. Look at how much we concede - not just to good teams, but bad teams too. There isn't one back on the panel that knows how to defend properly. Not even one. Even Wicklow got amassive score out of us. I hate to sound condescending, but you do understand that when you concede so much, you have to score more to win matches? Start looking at the evidence in front of you rather than making a theoretical assumption about where you think/hope Laois football should be. Every half decent or good team is based on a solid foundation - a good set of backs. We have none. We had a tendency to leak big before Creedon came in and we're getting older, slower and less interested now. The heads drop, the missed tackles mount up and ah sure we've been here before. Feeling sorry for ourselves. It's going to take years to rectify this. Years of coaching. In many respects, I'm not even bothered about the current Senior team. Unless they prove otherwise, they're a very poor panel of players and I personally think it would take a genius or genie to get anything out of them. We need to focus on the future now.

[BallyroanAbu]

The problem with any fella that has done abit of coaching is a belief that coaching is the solution to the problem or even talent (especially at amateur level). I believe at the level we're at motivation, passion and organisation are missing.   You can always hire a coach and backroom staff but to have someone who inspires lads to turn up to training on a wet Wednesday in November is priceless.  There are literally thousands of coaches, S&C but very few leaders/managers.  Clancy is the man Laois need, you can buy in whatever expertise you need.  He simply inspires belief both on the pitch and off it.  I think Laois would find it a hell of lot easier to get money from sponsors with a Laois man at the helm.  I would also like to mention, that  Creedon when I asked for him to be sacked mid way through the League I was berated but how much money has he now cost in our support base.   Simply paying him has cost north of €100,000, I was sneered at when I tried to correlate his performance on the field and the future economic cost to our county.  You will have very little improvement in any set up without money and I simply see very little more money being found if we continue down our woe is me road.  Clancy is box office, laois are generally well disposed to him and he is not afraid to milk it.  This in the short term means some money being found for the county set up, its up to him and the county board to build on that.

I

[High Fielder]

Motivation and passion can never be a substitute for technical failings. Clancy can't make players do things that they don't know how to do. I actually am starting to feel sorry for Padraig Clancy. You're building him up too much. The man has been coaching a couple of years ffs!

[BallyroanAbu]

This is not a high profile job, it's Div 4 football I would think below club standard in some counties, not bloody Dublin his going to manage.  Next year is London, Waterford Leitrim this is his next step.   

[High Fielder]

Does he want me job?

[BallyroanAbu]

I don't know but I am sure he can be persuaded.

[blueandwhite1]

Clancy is the man Laois need, you can buy in whatever expertise you need.  He simply inspires belief both on the pitch and off it. 

Clancy is box office, laois are generally well disposed to him and he is not afraid to milk it.

God, it's a wonder Real Madrid are not knocking down the door for him!!

I had massive respect for him as a player but no exposure to him as a coach. In fact, the only person I have ever heard extolling his virtues as a manager is your good self. Anyone else on here have a view on his capabilities? Surely a few years managing an underage Laois team would show what he is made of?

Personally, I think it is important that we have a good manager but we are so limited in terms of talent that it won't matter much. Would prefer to see the likes of Clancy and McNulty involved at U14/15/16 levels.

[High Fielder]

Agreed. These lads aren't even wet behind the ears in management terms. I accept it's not a high profile job, but it's the best managerial role in Laois, so it deserves some sort of respect.

[Laoiseabu]

The manager is not the problem here guys it's the lack of county standard players. If we had good players Creedon wouldn't look like such a clown

[Joeythelips]

Lots to ponder on here, its actually a decent thread when people don't get personal. I think everyone on here wants Laois to be the best they can be regardless of who is in charge or who is on the team. We can only judge both on what we have seen, everything else is speculation.

1. Management: Judging Creedon we can see that he has been unsuccessful in getting the most out of the players as was Mick Lillis, both oversaw relegations in the league along with dismal championship performances. However the reality is we have gone through a few management teams now since Micko and only Justin McNulty was relatively successful. The word coming from the panel we heard earlier in the year that Creedon was doing great, training was of a high standard etc, this was coming from players and former players who have played under many set-ups at club and inter-county level so we were optimistic but given their performances would certainly make you question this. People saying we will find a management set up that will suddenly inspire everyone and we will be back in Div 2 are been a bit unrealistic in my opinion.

2. Players: The fact that successive management teams have failed also points to our players. We have had successive relegations and the in 2015 survived relegation by the skin of our teeth. So its fine saying those management setups were not good enough (which they were not) but it also tells us something about the talent available in the county. Here is the team that pushed Dublin close in the AI quarter final in 2012 : Eoin Culliton, Cahir Healy, Kevin Meaney, Peter O'Leary, Darren Strong, John O'Loughlin, Conor Boyle, Brendan Quigley, Colm Begley, Ross Munnelly, Gary Walsh, Damien O'Connor, Billy Sheehan, Pádraig Clancy, Colm Kelly. Now take a look here http://www.laoisgaa.ie/playerProfiles and you will see we are relying on the same few to carry the load. It shows we have very few players of real quality coming through, not just to make up the first team but to make the whole panel competitive. Teams that are really competitive have a good squad of players which means training is very competitive, any drop in standards and you would simply lose your place. With rumours of drinking and general indiscipline it would appear that this is not the case currently in our squad. No manager needs to tell players what to do if the squad is competitive then when you drop your standards you lose your place. The face that the best defender on the county is on the hurling panel does  not help either but no one can really argue with that as its a personal choice.

3. Solutions: A good gauge of the health of the game within the county is to look at the club scene which is not particularly healthy at the minute, a fairly average Stradbally side are the county champions at present and Portlaoise who have been the standard bearers for so long are on a downward curve also. In fairness there is good work been done at underage in some clubs given recent feile results and this is the key to it as I have said in a previous post. If we invest in good standard coaches to go around to clubs and help get the juveniles up to a decent standard when it comes to skills this will help make the under-age scene competitive, then we have development squads cherry pick the best from u-14 up and train them to a higher standard again. Players who make the grade will go on to make the county panels competitive while the ones who don't will filter back into the club scene which will also become more and more competitive, it does not guarantee success but ti should help to create a conveyor belt of talent coming through. It needs a lot of investment but it can be done, in some case it already has begun with some clubs as I see how a club like Rosenalis are progressing recently. We also need to train up Laois people in regards to coaching so we are not always forking out to people outside the county.

One other point which may be relative or may be stupid is when it comes to cost and quality of training, I don't know what way it works currently but it seems very expensive to run an inter-county team. Why could both hurling and football panels not combine when it comes to training, obviously they would do skills and training matches separately but the basics like fitness, strength and conditioning could be combined especially at the start of the year, almost like a big boot camp. So you would have one big panel of players who all want to be successful for the county pushing each other hard in training. You would have one fitness coach and one S&C coach which would even save money. It would have to well planned out but from my paltry experience we are all competitive in training so the harder it is the more you push yourself. Just a thought, would be nice for Laois to be innovative and lead the way at something, we tend to be very sheepish and just copy the crowd and if it does not work feel sorry for ourselves.

[redsetanta]

Jack Nolans take on the state of things

https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/laois-football-at-an-all-time-low

[town1980]

P clancy is only in the management circles 3 years so in my opinion its the people who hired him should be the ones who can tell us if he is up to that standard,,mcnulty was very young when he had taken over laois and laois took a big chance when employing him,i think he did a super job and tried to introduce a system that not everyone liked but he was true to his game plan and so were the selectors and players,,even a few players would tell us what clancy is like etc,,they games i looked at last two years with ballyroan he definately made them more competitive and seemed to have a buzz there too,,i seen the graig/portlaoise game a few weeks ago i commented how graig looked fit and organised but the only people who can in MY opinion is the lads that seem him in action every night,,im not for or against the man but i would like more info on the way he controls his teams

[The Monument Road]

Lots to ponder on here, its actually a decent thread when people don't get personal. I think everyone on here wants Laois to be the best they can be regardless of who is in charge or who is on the team. We can only judge both on what we have seen, everything else is speculation.

1. Management: Judging Creedon we can see that he has been unsuccessful in getting the most out of the players as was Mick Lillis, both oversaw relegations in the league along with dismal championship performances. However the reality is we have gone through a few management teams now since Micko and only Justin McNulty was relatively successful. The word coming from the panel we heard earlier in the year that Creedon was doing great, training was of a high standard etc, this was coming from players and former players who have played under many set-ups at club and inter-county level so we were optimistic but given their performances would certainly make you question this. People saying we will find a management set up that will suddenly inspire everyone and we will be back in Div 2 are been a bit unrealistic in my opinion.

2. Players: The fact that successive management teams have failed also points to our players. We have had successive relegations and the in 2015 survived relegation by the skin of our teeth. So its fine saying those management setups were not good enough (which they were not) but it also tells us something about the talent available in the county. Here is the team that pushed Dublin close in the AI quarter final in 2012 : Eoin Culliton, Cahir Healy, Kevin Meaney, Peter O'Leary, Darren Strong, John O'Loughlin, Conor Boyle, Brendan Quigley, Colm Begley, Ross Munnelly, Gary Walsh, Damien O'Connor, Billy Sheehan, Pádraig Clancy, Colm Kelly. Now take a look here http://www.laoisgaa.ie/playerProfiles and you will see we are relying on the same few to carry the load. It shows we have very few players of real quality coming through, not just to make up the first team but to make the whole panel competitive. Teams that are really competitive have a good squad of players which means training is very competitive, any drop in standards and you would simply lose your place. With rumours of drinking and general indiscipline it would appear that this is not the case currently in our squad. No manager needs to tell players what to do if the squad is competitive then when you drop your standards you lose your place. The face that the best defender on the county is on the hurling panel does  not help either but no one can really argue with that as its a personal choice.

3. Solutions: A good gauge of the health of the game within the county is to look at the club scene which is not particularly healthy at the minute, a fairly average Stradbally side are the county champions at present and Portlaoise who have been the standard bearers for so long are on a downward curve also. In fairness there is good work been done at underage in some clubs given recent feile results and this is the key to it as I have said in a previous post. If we invest in good standard coaches to go around to clubs and help get the juveniles up to a decent standard when it comes to skills this will help make the under-age scene competitive, then we have development squads cherry pick the best from u-14 up and train them to a higher standard again. Players who make the grade will go on to make the county panels competitive while the ones who don't will filter back into the club scene which will also become more and more competitive, it does not guarantee success but ti should help to create a conveyor belt of talent coming through. It needs a lot of investment but it can be done, in some case it already has begun with some clubs as I see how a club like Rosenalis are progressing recently. We also need to train up Laois people in regards to coaching so we are not always forking out to people outside the county.

One other point which may be relative or may be stupid is when it comes to cost and quality of training, I don't know what way it works currently but it seems very expensive to run an inter-county team. Why could both hurling and football panels not combine when it comes to training, obviously they would do skills and training matches separately but the basics like fitness, strength and conditioning could be combined especially at the start of the year, almost like a big boot camp. So you would have one big panel of players who all want to be successful for the county pushing each other hard in training. You would have one fitness coach and one S&C coach which would even save money. It would have to well planned out but from my paltry experience we are all competitive in training so the harder it is the more you push yourself. Just a thought, would be nice for Laois to be innovative and lead the way at something, we tend to be very sheepish and just copy the crowd and if it does not work feel sorry for ourselves.

Great piece Joey and you make a lot of sense. Lots being said about managers etc but you have made sense of our situation. I like your solutions. To elaborate on coaching we need to return to the way we used to do it,i.e.  get as many players in at 14-16 and coach coach coach, practice practice practice. Keep everyone interested/make it attractive etc and by the time they reach the minor (u17) we should have competitive teams rolling out almost every year.
Your idea on combined physical training is an excellent idea...

[Junior Ex Laoistalk]

Good man Joey, the most sensible post I've seen here for a long time. Any chance you could get someone from the Co. Board to read and act on this..

[Dave like the tv channel]

Good man Joey, the most sensible post I've seen here for a long time. Any chance you could get someone from the Co. Board to read and act on this..

Not sure that the ones on the county board can read.......