National Hurling Legue 1B 2018

[redsetanta]

Sunday, January 28 – Limerick (away)

Saturday, February 3 – Galway (home)

Saturday, February 17 – Antrim (home)

Sunday, February 25 – Offaly (away)

Sunday, March 4 – Dublin (home)

[Keyser Söze]

2 ways of looking at this.
A real tough start with games against what are basically Division 1A teams.
On the other hand games 3 & 4 are very winnable and could set us up to have a right good rattle off Dublin at home.

We need to beat Antrim the week before heading to Tullamore to have any chance over there. I see a lot of our younger players "wintering well". It is their own business to a degree, and I believe Laois were back fitness testing over the last week or two, but it is a little bit concerning!

[G@@]

Not a bad draw considering - three home games is to be welcomed and getting the AI champions here is a huge boost. It would be a wonderful start to put in a good performance against Limerick to begin the campaign, then shove it up to Galway at home keeping it tight again. That would have us in flying morale to take our first points off Antrim and hopefully follow it up with a win over old rivals Offaly. The Dublin game will be a tricky one considering the announcement of the new management team there, however it would be a good yardstick before planning for the "not-the-Leinster-Championship" group.

[Tobias]

Its hard to believe that the first round of the league is just over 3 Months away. It will come around quick enough too. It sometimes takes Laois a while to get up and running with some lads deciding to take an extended break after the Summer. We cant really afford to have lads doing that this time around because if we are not ready this league could become a very daunting challenge. We have really failed to turn up against Limerick in the league over the years. They are not actually that good but they always seem to give us a hiding. I felt last year our management were extremely naïve against Limerick in the league in Portlaoise and we took an unmerciful beating from them. We left huge space between our half and full back lines without counter-acting it Limerick put us to the sword. I have time for the management but they really should be more tactically aware at times.
As regards personnel we are already without Cahir Healy, Picky Maher, Mark Kavanagh and Dwane Palmer for the league at least so it makes an already tough league that bit tougher, Id imagine these four would be starting if fit. We really need to get a few new guys on board or at least get the few guys that have not been committing themselves involved. Having lads on the subs for the County team that are only subs for their clubs is not good enough and every effort needs to be made to improve the make up of the panel. There should be incentive there this year in that if we get into the tier two final id imagine it will be in Croke park and following that we would have a big game in a preliminary quarter final to look forward to.
I feel it is so important to keep our senior hurling team at a reasonable level for a few years and hopefully some of these promising underage guys will drive us on to another level. We can only live in hope.

[SpeculativeEffort]

Anyone else feel the league schedule is a complete disgrace? Does it start even earlier next year? All group games plus Walsh Cup over by March 4th. Then we not even in the Leinster cship in 2018. Approx 8 competitive games from Jan to March. Why? Hurling is a supposed to be a summer game.
Also what is the structure of our new group of 'sub-standard' teams? Play everyone once? Is there a final? Does anyone even know?

[redsetanta]

Championship starts in May.

[Tobias]

Any update on laois training? How is it going?

[burdizzo]

I hear Ben Conroy has gone in w/ the county footballers for next year, rather than the hurlers. Is that right?

[Keyser Söze]

I hear Ben Conroy has gone in w/ the county footballers for next year, rather than the hurlers. Is that right?

Surely not? Ridiculous decision by him if true.

[O moore parklife]

I hear Ben Conroy has gone in w/ the county footballers for next year, rather than the hurlers. Is that right?

Surely not? Ridiculous decision by him if true.

Looks like it, was at the trials

[clonadmad]

Playing Tipperary in a challenge in Puckane,10/12 2pm

[redsetanta]

First game in the Walsh cup is on December 30th!

[Unlaoised]

I hear Ben Conroy has gone in w/ the county footballers for next year, rather than the hurlers. Is that right?

Hearing this...Infairness he looked very decent for Ballyfin two years ago!

[redsetanta]

A loss for the hurlers and they are competing at a higher level and will probably have more supporters than the footballers this year. He was an automatic choice when fit so a bit of an odd one.

[burdizzo]

The old dual player conundrum again - he wanted to do both, but Kelly demanded commitment, and so he walked. I think it's a shame, and a big loss for the hurlers. Mind you, I don't think either team will have that much support.