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Well lads give your opinions here on the game.

Laois by 10+ points. I hear Enda Rowland is back between the sticks.

Disappointing result last night. Never underestimate Offaly. I didn't anyway.
We are fast becoming the "moral victory" champions of hurling.
If you discount the Walsh Cup, we've lost our last 4 competitive games.

could see this coming caught them on the hop last year Whelehan was only a few weeks over them wasn't going to get caught the second time, beside the two pens missed offalys hurling and touch was better. its hard to see this team making the next step up we are short about 4 or 5 top class players to make that step.

Very disappointing result that could easily have been so different. Tough league ahead.

A tough loss alright, but we have four games left to play so if we are good enough we will stay up.  Waterford up next and 5/1 outsiders suits us a lot better than 1/2 favourites!  There's a lot of good young hurlers in Waterford and it will be tough, but I'll be expecting a performance from Laois.

Hadn't been to too many of last year's games but I thought that we had developed a fairly effective sweeper system last year. We could have done with it against Offaly - the FB line looked in trouble every time a ball went in. On the positive side, we scored some beautiful points from all angles.

They wanted it more which is ultimately why the won imo

Waterford tomorrow night.

Any sign of a team or will Cheddar just leave it until last minute as usual?

Any changes in the back line do you think? Cahir stay at full? Butch or Dunne? You'd probably give them all a try again although someone has to come into Tom Delaneys place.

Forwards will be moved around a bit.

Disappointing night to say the least . The first half wasn't great by either side and Keenan's frees kept us in it . Very defensive all evening and simply fell apart in the second half . Could see Cha s sending off coming all night .
Last week was a blip . This is more of a serious setback and questions will be asked . Whelan and Hyland seem to be struggling a bit with form . Hopefully Pickys injury is not too serious .

Looks like Picky could be out for a while with that shoulder according to Cheddar

Disappointing night again, was only listening to it on the radio but by all accounts we're getting lads sent off for stuff that the big guns would never be penalised for. Becomes very frustrating considering how KK's physicality is held up as the template for success.  If Tommy Walsh tips your hurl its cuteness, if a Laois man does it it's a free.

Same with the helmet tip. Galway beat us two years ago from a goal where Butch had his helmet tipped under the high ball and lost the flight for a split second. That finished us two years ago. Foyler or Willie would be penalised for that stuff.

Also pissed off with the Times this morning which had a headline stating Charlie Palmer was sent off. Surely a programme isn't that expensive?

A bad bad result and We need to cop ourselves on very quickly in advance of the Antrim match. IMO we have a few lads who need a massive kick in the ass , some of our players just seem so lazy at times.

The year is far from lost and hopefully we will pick it up but Antrim will be a test for this perceived new spirit in laois hurling.

i think Cheddar has brought this side as far as it can go, i wouldn't be to hard on them they don't have the talent to break into the top table in the hurling. but he has brought them on a ton from where they were a few years ago.

Watched the game last night on Premier Sports and thought Laois were decent up until the sending off. Last year V Clare a 14-man Laois galvanised and took the game by the scruff of the neck, whereas last night we fell asunder.

Looking back at the V Wexford game and V Dublin games in the Walsh Cup there were signs of hope that we were going into the league well prepared and with a spring in our step, but the opening two rounds have been disappointing - especially so last night where too many players were hiding and contributed very little.

We need a plan B, the lads seem to be too predictable and unable to mix it when things are going away from us. Cahir Healy is not going to be our full back and while it was worth the experiment, he is not suited to the role.

We are limited even though we have some really good hurlers. It must be very demoralising on players to be getting a beating like that. The Offaly result obviously took alot out of them mentally. I don't think we would have been beaten by as much last year even witha sending off but that's just speculation. Where to from here? We only have one home game against Wexford which we really need to win. Away to Limerick and Antrim will be very tough. Are the last placed team in the league in a play off against the top team in div 2? That might be our only saving grace if it's the case. Saved Offaly last year.

That was a long evening in Dungarvan!  We were 3 points down at half time but in truth it could have been 10.  It was a night where everything seemed to go wrong, capped off with Picky Maher breaking his collar bone which will put him out of the Fitzgibbon (best wishes to him in his recovery, nasty injury).  Cha's sending off was needless, he was warned by the referee after about 20 mins that one more foul and he was gone.  With the referee throwing out yellow's like confetti he should have been subbed.  He is a cracking player but a bit like Ryan O Dwyer for Dublin as soon as he is booked you'd nearly have to sub him unless it's in the last 10/15 mins. 

For the second time in a row the sweeper system totally backfired on us against Waterford, they were ready for it again and players like Tadgh Burke, Austin Gleeson and Kevin Moran shine in that kind of game.  I'm all for playing to our strengths but playing with only five forwards is crippling us.  I really felt for Roddy King and Joe Campion at half time, how are they to make inroads when they are outnumbered two and sometimes three to one?  I'd like to try naming Cha as a corner forward but give him freedom to roam.  He isn't tall enough to be under puck outs but he has a serious engine on him and is a demon to win dirty ball.  We are getting destroyed on the breaks and I agree with PortlaoiseKid that some players need to buck up.  Tactics had nothing to do with at least three Rowland puck outs being caught uncontested by Waterford.  That's not good enough at club level, never mind county. 

A lot of the emphasis has to be brought back to getting the bodies in where they are needed.  If the opposition commit more players to compete for the breaks they will win more breaks, simple as.  A half-forward line of Hyland/Zane/Campion should be able to hold their own under puck outs, develop a system where they are moving when the ball comes down.  Three times Austin Gleeson climbed up on a Laois mans back to make the fetch, he can't do this if the wing forward is moving to the ball.  Under Davy Fitz Clare utilised their corner forwards brilliantly under puck outs.  The likes of Colin Ryan at WF would just get a hurl to the ball and Conor McGrath would be tearing out from CF to get the break.  We don't have to reinvent the wheel, but we sure as hell need to get a whole lot cuter.

We also badly need  Matthew Whelan to rediscover his form of 2013.  I'm a big fan of his but he is not commanding the centre at all.  Butch is another that looks uncertain in himself and we need these guys to step up now, along with some of the younger guys.  If the beating from Waterford dampens some of the expectations for Laois and forces us to rethink our game plan then it won't have been a beating in vain.  A quarter final berth is probably beyond us but we have 3/4 games left to keep ourselves in this division and get things right for the championship. 

As our neighbour Thewildcat hints at some supporters were getting a bit carried away.  The reality is there is very little between Laois/Antrim/Offaly and then quite a step up to Wexford.  Cheddar deserves huge credit for stabilising the whole thing but we won't turn into world beaters over night, this is a long term thing.

Ps.  Waterford should be ashamed of themselves hosting a match in Dungarvan.  It's a fine club ground but the pitch was in s***e.

Pps.  The powers that be need to be very careful with where they are leading the refereeing of hurling.  It's heading down the road to zero physicality and I'm not saying this as a knee-jerk reaction to our recent dismissals.  Diarmuid Kirwan was giving out yellows for the most innocuous of tackles, and I'm still mystified as to why Kilkenny's JJ Farrell got a straight red.

Very good post there TheGreatGame.

We won no breaking ball against when we played the Dubs so they should have been aware of that. Hyland is one of the few that can win primary ball but if the backs intention is to break down the ball each time it makes it very difficult.
Wealso hit seven or eight wides in the first half. I know part of our game plan is to hit these long shots but they need to be going over.
Talking about Fraher Field I think Waterford have only lost there once so they're not easily beaten there.

Poor result saturday night and we looked outclassed.

As previous poster said we have got up to the level of Offaly Antrim now which is a big improvement from 3 years ago ...

We are still a good bit off the likes of Waterford Wexford etc but Chedder must be given credit for getting us this far.

Teams have realised how to play against our sweeper system and the short puck out we need to have a rethink and come up with other tactics to keep us in the game against the bigger sides.

Sad news about Picky but hope the lads can group together get the Vital win  against Antrim on the  8th of March in Ballycastle.

I think they can.

I see where Cha went for 2 yellows against LIT today.

Quote from: redsetanta on February 24, 2015, 05:44:01 PM
I see where Cha went for 2 yellows against LIT today.

He really should be learning at this stage ...yes he plays on the edge but its a skill not to get a second yellow look at Tommy Walsh over the years Cha needs to learn quickly

I think Cha could be suspended for a month now having been sent off twice in a week? How long will picky be out for?

Picky is gone for at least 6 weeks and maybe more as a collarbone takes a while to heal and settle back in

We will certainly miss Cha's presence if he is going to miss games. He's the one player who is up for the challenge and goes for the dirty ball. Needs to really be careful in future but then again his game is on the edge, as someone else said, and we don't want him changing his style.

Him and Picky will be a massive loss for antrim away  :'(

In case any of you lads are in the area on Friday, the official launch of Slieve Margy hurling club will be at Kellyville(St Josephs ground) at 6,30pm. The Laois senior team will train there on the night and Cheddar will also do some coaching with the Under 8's and 10's.
Exciting times for hurling in the south east of the county.

Just looking at the journey to Ballycastle. It's closer to Scotland than Belfast. It is a serious journey. I would hope the hurlers head up the night before because it would require a very early start Sunday morning.

I noticed that too! For a minute I thought they were proposing to play on Rathlin Island. This would be the equivalent of Cork asking opposing team to come to Schull. I think it's a bit much to be honest and I doubt it suits their own followers particularly well either.

Next stop Cambletown in scotland ha ha.....Its a good 4 hours in a Car I mean a good 4 hours....

Used to Drive up there frequently its about 220 miles....It will cost you about 50-60 in fuel aswell...

Was planning on going up saturday night but few lads pulled out looks like I'll have to make do with the Footballers in Moore Park....

Might throw the Fuel money I would have spent 50euro on a LAOIS double in the hurling and football

at 6/1  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

What's the thoughts on this game Sunday? Venue changed so a little bit less to travel. Any sign of a team from Cheddar? Always late in the day when the team is announced. I thought they had to be named for media etc? Will be a very difficult game but a must win (for both teams actually) We cannot afford the amount of wides we've had in the opening two games.

Any word on Cha? Will he be available after his two sendings off?

See its changed to Arloy....10 miles closer to home but its brought forward to 2pm....Surely the players will travel up the night before?

It is important that we step it up big time from here on alright.  Going on current form we are the banana skin for Antrim, not vice versa, and they are at home so it will be that bit tougher.  Antrim are another team where Laois playing a sweeper tends to back fire, they drop their centre-back deep and he cleans up.  They have two outstanding hurlers in McManus and Shiels and we have to keep them from having their usual impact on the game.  Again, Shiels revels when given a bit of space so I hope we go 15 v 15 with Shiels man-marked throughout.  No way will Cheddar have the lads travelling up on match day so stiffness won't be an issue.

Team selection will be very interesting with James Walsh back available, just the man to help us win the breaking ball, an area we are falling down badly in.  Foyle is another that could start, while as far as I know Cha is available but Tom Delaney is not.  Discipline will be key, and we just can't afford any more red cards.  I haven't seen a dirty stroke from a Laois player in quite a while so it's not a case of cutting out dirt, it's a case of controlling aggression.

A big performance and Laois are well capable of getting a win, but on current form you'd have to give Antrim the nod by a few points.  Hope I'm wrong!

Fantastic win today. Great to see Purcell scoring a goal and Zane Keenan reliable from frees. He is very important to the team. Onwards to Wexford now with a bit more confidence.

Interesting to see that Cahir Healy got man of the match yesterday. Indo gave him a 9. Considering he was struggling somewhat it's great to see that maybe he's settling into the full back position. Cha Dwyer showing how important he is to the team contributing with 3 points from play.

Well done to the hurlers great victory up there ....Good professional preparation going up Saturday afternoon and a deserved victory

Huge confidence boost to the lads by winning yesterday. The Wexford game will be huge, the win yesterday sets us up nicely for it. A win and we have a chance of quarter final but more importantly we avoid relegation. A relegation final is still likely though as the bottom two play off, we could wel meet Antrim again in a relegation battle a couple of weeks before we play them in the championship. Let's hope yesterday kick starts our year...it could be a very good one yet!

Big win yesterday. Was badly needed, first competitive win in yonks (excluding Walsh Cup). Be great if we can push on in the last two games.

Healy in the 'Hoganstand' team of the week. Small bit of recognition for his performance on Sunday. Hopefully he grows into that position because it will be crucial to have a solid full back come championship.

The Wexford match on Sunday is going to be a real test of Laois, Wexford will of course see it as a soft enough win but I think we can expect more from Laois than we have shown so far . The Antrim win is huge for us and Sunday will give supporters a chance to come out in force and support the team.

As for the team itself Its good to see Cha taking his opportunity and settling in nicely, I still think Healy is wasted at full back and it just a pity Darren Maher hasnt committed. Healy around the middle of the field would be immense.

Any away win against Antrim is a good win and it gives us something to play for against Wexford which is important.  The lads will have that bit more confidence with a win under their belt so I think they'll have a right crack at Wexford.  Looking forward to it.

Quote from: portlaoisekid on March 10, 2015, 01:56:13 PM
The Wexford match on Sunday is going to be a real test of Laois, Wexford will of course see it as a soft enough win but I think we can expect more from Laois than we have shown so far . The Antrim win is huge for us and Sunday will give supporters a chance to come out in force and support the team.

As for the team itself Its good to see Cha taking his opportunity and settling in nicely, I still think Healy is wasted at full back and it just a pity Darren Maher hasnt committed. Healy around the middle of the field would be immense.

PK no Point in looking at what hasn't committed I was Guilty of naming a few players in the Football page but Cheddar like TOF has to go with what he has got and I believe he has decent options in most positions hopefully that performance at full back can bring Cahir on a bit for me he hasn't really hurled that well for a few years now(a lot more comfortable at football just my opinion) but he is such an athlete and a great reader of the game he is an asset to any team.

It's a discussion board unlaoised not a cheerleaders forum so it can still be debated. I would concur with PK that Darren Maher would add strength to the team and panel however Cahir seems to be growing into the position.
I was in Nolan Park when we played the Dubs 3 or 4 years ago and Maher was great at full back that day. A very tenacious player and he would definately be an addition to the team.

The hurlers have a similar problem to the footballers in that there are alot more options in attack than defence. If we get any injuries or lads are out of sorts we would struggle. In saying that the hurlers have been generally injury free aside from Picky's break.

Wexford (HL Division 1B v Laois) - Niall Breen; Liam Ryan, Tomas Waters, Eoin Moore; Paudie Foley, Matthew O'Hanlon, Andrew Shore; David Redmond, Lee Chin; Diarmuid O'Keeffe, Daithi Waters, Ian Byrne; Liam Og McGovern, Conor McDonald, Harry Kehoe.

Very strong Wexford team named.  Harry Kehoe won't play corner forward, so you'd be guessing that Liam Dunne wants to isolate Liam Og and Conor Mac in the full forward line.  They tore Antrim to shreds last year in the championship by doing this so at least we are forewarned and I don't see us falling for it.

Certainly a game for Healy to stick with his man. Hopefully he can bring the performance from the Antrim game. Midfield will be a battle and we will need to see that hunger for possession again. This is what it's all about, Wexford at home in a important game. It would be great to see a big crowd out to support them.

offaly beat Limerick tonight 1-21 to 0-21

Great win for ye wildcat!

Best of luck to the hurlers today against Wexford. Lets hope for a good, strong performance and a decent bit of support.

pity about the goals but thats some scoring again wexford who are on the up the last few years,

Soft, slopy goals cost us. All of them were easily preventable, especially the one just after half time. The defence needs to tighten up, Healy was very good at full back. McDonald had to be moved off him. All the others were exposed at one time or another. We don't have the sweeper this year, it's helping us in attack but we need a lot of work at the other end.
Hyland had an excellent game, scored 5 or 6 I think from play. Cha scored a few nice poiints and Zane was dangerous when moved to full forward. Foyle was subbed early and I don't think he should have been, Fitzgerald didn't do much in his place. At times we played really well but there's too many simple errors in our game. It's going to be a play off against Antrim anyway. It's a nothing game against Limerick.

some great point taking by the Laois players as good as you'll see anywhere in the country.

The goals were sloppy and cost us big time..

Money well spent as it was an enjoyable game even if we were on the end of a defeat!

I was happy with the performance except for the goals obviously. I think the laois management will have learned a few important lessons from this match and in the long run I feel we will be better for this match. I would expect the Antrim match to be a tight affair and one we have to win.

The thing that impressed me most about Laois on Sunday was that they came back at Wexford after the goals, the last two aside. The goal straight after half time would have seen past Laois teams drop the heads but on Sunday the lads stayed battling and kept reeling Wexford in only to be undone with another goal. They kept close to Wexford until the 4th goal went in. Some of the Laois points were as good as you'll see. I thought Healy had a great game but the corner backs struggled. We had a number of attempts for scores blocked down when a bit of composure might have reaped some reward.
We need to threaten more in front of goal. We didn't have one attempt last Sunday and the Wexford goalkeeper had little to do. Unusally Zane had an off day from frees and wasn't firing in the first half at all. We missed MAtthew Whelan when he went off as he covered an amount of ball.
Again primary possession or lack of, from Laois was evident. Wexford caught alot more ball.

Alot to be positive about as we outscored Wexford for most of the game. It looks like Antrim have thrown in the towel when you look at their display against Waterford but it is still imperative we bring a similar performance to that game. I assume that game will be at a neutral venue? PArnell Park?

Re the Antrim game I hear it will be in Portlaoise.

We owe Antrim for last year anyway. That is a must-win game. Staying in Division1 is of paramount importance.

Quote from: redsetanta on March 19, 2015, 10:17:02 AM
Re the Antrim game I hear it will be in Portlaoise.

Well it should be the same as last year as who ever you play in the playoff the venue is the reverse of the game in the league.....

Antrim beat us in Portlaoise last year!!!

Antrim are alot poorer this year but we still shouldn't take them for granted. The system is a joke anyhow. Antrim could lose all their league games plus the relegation playoff and still stay up!

Quote from: redsetanta on March 19, 2015, 12:51:41 PM
Antrim are alot poorer this year but we still shouldn't take them for granted. The system is a joke anyhow. Antrim could lose all their league games plus the relegation playoff and still stay up!

Just like the biffo's last year.....

Quote from: Unlaoised on March 19, 2015, 02:22:27 PM

Quote from: redsetanta on March 19, 2015, 12:51:41 PM
Antrim are alot poorer this year but we still shouldn't take them for granted. The system is a joke anyhow. Antrim could lose all their league games plus the relegation playoff and still stay up!

Just like the biffo's last year.....
[/quote


offaly beat Antrim last year in the league and drew with limerick, its some kick in the arse for laois to be in a relgation play off this year after the work over the last two years,  Laois will  beat Antrim to stay up and i think Antrim will beat the winners of division 2 also to stay up, where Antrim will be dangerous will be in the round robin games in the championship thats what they will have their eye on not league play offs.

Limerick (NHL v Laois) - Aaron Murphy; Stephen Walsh, Richie McCarthy, Seanie O'Brien; Cathal King, Declan Hannon, Conor Allis; James Ryan, Paul Browne; David Reidy, David Breen, Donal O'Grady; Thomas O'Brien, Patrick Begley, Sean Tobin.

A fairly experimental Limerick team.  We're in the relegation mire no matter how Sunday goes so it might be a good match to give a few lads a rest before the Antrim game.  Certainly unless any of the lads that came off injured the last day are 100% I wouldn't be risking them.

Yeah I hope Cheddar freshens it up on sunday !

At this stage of the league I feel we should experiment with both the Limerick and Antrim games and put our efforts into beating Div II winners if it comes to it. I would much much rather beat Antrim in the LSHC than on March 29th.

An extra game against the winners of 2A is of no benefit to Laois. Beat Antrim next week and line up a couple of challenge games against quality teams.
Any posters here down in Limerick? Any reports on the game. Zane scoring his first penalty of the league. Double header next weekend with the footballers in O'Moore Park so should be a decent crowd for both.

Could not make it to Kilmallock as was in Tuam for the football.

Good to hear we were competitive against the Limerick men and led at half time.

The game against Antrim next Saturday should be an interesting outing before we play them in the championship. Would be nice to beat them again and boost morale in the camp.

5pm throw in next Saturday evening ...Laois should win but antrim beat us last year in Portlaoise and must not be taken for granted.

We are playing them again in the championship so be nice to put down a marker here and escape having to scrap with Westmeath to stay in Div 1b

Quote from: redsetanta on March 23, 2015, 02:54:58 PM
An extra game against the winners of 2A is of no benefit to Laois. Beat Antrim next week and line up a couple of challenge games against quality teams.
Any posters here down in Limerick? Any reports on the game. Zane scoring his first penalty of the league. Double header next weekend with the footballers in O'Moore Park so should be a decent crowd for both.

Cheddar doesn't look at it like that, he has a fear they could drop out of division 1B  :o

Absolutely vital we stay in Div 1B.  With Antrim and Laois it's almost like we take turns beating each other so I'm very wary of Saturday's match.  Records show that the venue doesn't really sway things between the counties either as we've beaten Antrim away and they have turned us over in Portlaoise.  It's going to be a battle and a very nervy time for the loser.

but sure who ever gets beaten sunday still have another game again westmeath or kerry. its crazy Antrim haven't won a point in two years in the league but yet stay up every year.

Agreed, it's very unfair on the winner of 2A and I don't agree with the rule. Is there a league anywhere else in the world where the bottom team in a league gets another chance?

Best of luck to the hurlers tomorrow. I hope they hurl as if it was a relegation decider and get the win. I think their confidence needs the win and will give us momentum going into the championship.

It'd be nice to get a win, for confidence and moral more than anything because neither team will lose to Westmeath anyway. It's a ridiculas system.

If ever a goal was badly needed for Laois. Fair play Keenan.

Barely had the post sent when King rattles the back of the net. Game over now. Fair play to Cha Dwyer, man of the match today. Never lets the county down and gets stuck in and wins the dirty ball.

Great result. Laois 2-18 v 1-13 Antrim. Division 1B preserved. Cha is becoming a great player for us, Keenan coming good too.

Quote from: G@@ on March 28, 2015, 06:28:14 PM
Great result. Laois 2-18 v 1-13 Antrim. Division 1B preserved. Cha is becoming a great player for us, Keenan coming good too.

I agree completely re Cha but I saw no evidence that Keenan is coming good.
I believe his goal, although very-well taken, masked a distinctly underwhelming performance.

As a whole, I'm delighted to see the team secure their position in 1B but I'm nervous before the championship. That was an abysmal Antrim team, as bad as I've seen from them in years, and we nearly let them back into a game we should have buried!
I worry that we have, at best, stood still from last season and arguably have regressed....

Great to get the win, but by God we made hard work of it!  We were much the better team in the first half but the soft goal meant Antrim were closer than they should have been at half time.  Our handling and decision making for much of the second half just wasn't good enough and we let Antrim power back into the game.  As often happens the ref gave Antrim a lot of very dubious calls after they had a man sent off.  Two super finishes from Zane and Roddy sealed the win for us, with Roddy's goal a template for what we have to work towards.  Get him one on one with his marker and he can do that in every game.  That performance will do his confidence the world of good and he could be in line for a big summer.

We have a lot of things to work on however, a few points:

Handpassing was a problem for us today.  Between lads making the wrong runs, lads not comfortable handpassing with their dominant hand, overcooking a hand pass etc.,  numerous times we went from positions where we could have worked scores to giving Antrim possession and conceding scores.

Joe Fitz was left half back.   Why?  He's a born no.5.  At 7, and particularly when receiving short puck outs at 7, he tends to veer into the traffic to get on to his favoured right side.  It makes absolutely no sense to switch him.  He thundered into the game in the last 10 mins and is a super hurler for us but he should remain at right half back.

We are too inclined to always look up the field when in possession.  I'm all for working the ball intelligently and retaining possession, but at this level a split second remaining stationary and someone is on you.  There's a time to pick out a pass and there's a time to be more direct and hit the full forward line.  We don't have the balance quite right yet.

Conceeding silly free's.  Yes the ref was poor, but we need to stop giving away the stupid, lazy free's.  A defender pulled back an Antrim player going though for a goal near the end.  That's ok, it saved a probable goal.  What's not okay is pulling back a lads arm or jersey 50/60/70 yards outs,  9/10 of these free's are converted.  It's just lazy and a total lack of discipline.  Against better teams there's no way we can afford to give them 5 or 6 really soft free's and hope to edge a win.  If a ref is letting that stuff go then work away, but it was clear after 5 mins that the ref was going to blow for everything but we never copped on.

I know it's easy to write all this from the comfort of a chair, but it wouldn't frustrate me if I didn't think we're capable of a lot more.  So many times great work is undone by a simple, unforced error. 

There were also some real positives to take from it:
In the last 5 minutes we went up a gear and produced some super hurling, the game was there to be won by whichever team wanted it more and that was us. 
It's great to have James Walsh back!  Such an intelligent hurler. 
His clubmate Cha is now a main player for us.  Wing forwards who can consistently hit 3 or 4 points a game and win their own ball are rare as hens teeth, and we now have one on both wings.  Hyland didn't score as much as usual but he dominated his wing winning free's and puckouts throughout.  I'd say Kevin Ryan dreads the sight of him at this stage! 
Cahir Healy seems to be getting more comfortable at 3.  He was very solid today as was the full back line in general. 
We were missing Matthew, Butch, Tom Delaney, Neil Foyle and Picky, that's five starters that were nailed on last year to come back into the mix.
PJ Scully looks to be realising the potential we all know he has. 

Quote from: TheGreatGame on March 29, 2015, 12:01:57 AM
Great to get the win, but by God we made hard work of it!  We were much the better team in the first half but the soft goal meant Antrim were closer than they should have been at half time.  Our handling and decision making for much of the second half just wasn't good enough and we let Antrim power back into the game.  As often happens the ref gave Antrim a lot of very dubious calls after they had a man sent off.  Two super finishes from Zane and Roddy sealed the win for us, with Roddy's goal a template for what we have to work towards.  Get him one on one with his marker and he can do that in every game.  That performance will do his confidence the world of good and he could be in line for a big summer.

We have a lot of things to work on however, a few points:

Handpassing was a problem for us today.  Between lads making the wrong runs, lads not comfortable handpassing with their dominant hand, overcooking a hand pass etc.,  numerous times we went from positions where we could have worked scores to giving Antrim possession and conceding scores.

Joe Fitz was left half back.   Why?  He's a born no.5.  At 7, and particularly when receiving short puck outs at 7, he tends to veer into the traffic to get on to his favoured right side.  It makes absolutely no sense to switch him.  He thundered into the game in the last 10 mins and is a super hurler for us but he should remain at right half back.

We are too inclined to always look up the field when in possession.  I'm all for working the ball intelligently and retaining possession, but at this level a split second remaining stationary and someone is on you.  There's a time to pick out a pass and there's a time to be more direct and hit the full forward line.  We don't have the balance quite right yet.

Conceeding silly free's.  Yes the ref was poor, but we need to stop giving away the stupid, lazy free's.  A defender pulled back an Antrim player going though for a goal near the end.  That's ok, it saved a probable goal.  What's not okay is pulling back a lads arm or jersey 50/60/70 yards outs,  9/10 of these free's are converted.  It's just lazy and a total lack of discipline.  Against better teams there's no way we can afford to give them 5 or 6 really soft free's and hope to edge a win.  If a ref is letting that stuff go then work away, but it was clear after 5 mins that the ref was going to blow for everything but we never copped on.

I know it's easy to write all this from the comfort of a chair, but it wouldn't frustrate me if I didn't think we're capable of a lot more.  So many times great work is undone by a simple, unforced error. 

There were also some real positives to take from it:
In the last 5 minutes we went up a gear and produced some super hurling, the game was there to be won by whichever team wanted it more and that was us. 
It's great to have James Walsh back!  Such an intelligent hurler. 
His clubmate Cha is now a main player for us.  Wing forwards who can consistently hit 3 or 4 points a game and win their own ball are rare as hens teeth, and we now have one on both wings.  Hyland didn't score as much as usual but he dominated his wing winning free's and puckouts throughout.  I'd say Kevin Ryan dreads the sight of him at this stage! 
Cahir Healy seems to be getting more comfortable at 3.  He was very solid today as was the full back line in general. 
We were missing Matthew, Butch, Tom Delaney, Neil Foyle and Picky, that's five starters that were nailed on last year to come back into the mix.
PJ Scully looks to be realising the potential we all know he has.

Excellent post and I could not agree more.

I thought Cha was superb and is really becoming a leader. I would worry about the height in our defence ATM, Antrim had some big lads on but some of the bigger lads they had on were poor in the extreme but it wont always be like that. We need Matthew Whelan back for championship. Yesterday was a poor enough performance but as a match it was just about winning it and moving on. I firmly believe this Laois team will improve no end as the ground gets harder and with better conditions will come better hurling.

Special word for Rowland in goals, he made a big mistake for their goal but he showed real composure on a few occasions after that when he could have folded, fair play to him.

Good point re Rowland.
There was one ball in the second half that was really 'heart-in-the-mouth' stuff but he nailed a brilliant catch and relieved pressure.
I'd have concerns with the way the goalkeeping situation has been handled; I think we need to stick with either Reilly or Rowland and back him for the rest of the year.

I must also commend Conor Dunne who came in and acquitted himself well yesterday. He's a great example of a squad player who has been marginalised at different times over the last few years but has stuck with it and must feel like he has a legitimate shot at a starting-berth for the round-robin.

Does anyone know if Tom Delaney is injured or has he just fallen out of favour?
I had heard he was starting yesterday and then for Dwayne Palmer, Joe Campion and, somewhat, inexplicably Ben Conroy all coming into defensive-minded roles, it seems he is down the pecking-order. I'd have brought him in at about 50 minutes yesterday as his strength and aggression would have given us a fresh impetus when things were slipping away.

It is promising to see genuine competition for places and hopefully more people will put their hands up over the next 3/4 weeks.
For me, the definite starters are Delaney (J.A), Healy, Fitzpatrick, Walsh, Purcell, Hyland, Cha, Keenan, King and Foyle. Add a keeper and Matthew Whelan/Picky Maher if they regain form/fitness and we have some fierce competition for the remaining places.
I think there are a round of club fixtures down for next weekend; it would be great to see our county players going back and dominating/setting the standards. If we have club players who step up to the mark then maybe Cheddar might look at freshening up the panel with a few new faces.

We finished well but I'd share the concerns of others. Antrim weren't very good so we should have won with ease. A lot of our touches and passing wont be good enough in the championship. I'd agree with whoever said that we haven't progressed from last year. Hopefully we see improvements in the coming weeks. We're safe in this division for another year though and some players are showing form. It's not all doom and gloom.

Well done Laois for retaining Division 1B status.

The aim now has to be to win the Leinster qualifying group in May and have a good bash at Offaly on June 7th.

We should be flying by then.

Antrim will be very hard beaten before they can think about offaly.

Failure to beat Antrim would constitute definite regression for this group of players!

Antrim will improve before the Round Robin because quite honestly, they couldn't be as bad as they looked Saturday. Their come-back in the second-half was completely out own doing and if we can iron out these tendencies to retreat into a defensive shell then we should be well-equipped to top the group.

To be honest, I think we are at the stage in our development where we need to actually go on and top the group and beat Offaly to judge this year a success.

I believe we are eminently capable of doing both...

I would agree totally with that Merman.

Id agree with merman, thats about the size of it.
The few things we need to improve on are 1) cut out the simple mistakes, 2) get tighter in defence, its obvious we are leaking too many goals. In the round robin I think we have to go man for man and try to win our battles...against better opposition we may be better off reverting to a sweeper. 3) Our midfield and half forward line are doing quite well which lays a platform for us but our inside line needs to be more ruthless, the three places are up for grabs and I dont think any of them are nailed on to start. 4)Stop getting lads sent off, once we go to 14 we're in big trouble(waterford game), aggressive in the tackle...yes, but it must be controlled.
Cha has been outstanding so far and if we can get one more forward to really step up in a similar fashion it would really make us a threat. Willie and Zane will do their bit with both potentially game changers or game winners. Id like to see picky getting back to full fitness as he is a guy with real potential, he hasnt really pushed on in the last year or two but he is a young lad that can be a big player for us. PJ Scully is showing well and Roddy King showed the last day he's capable of more, Neil Foyle, Tommy Fitz and Joe Campion are also in the mix. Its great to see that we have such competition for places with plenty of options. John Purcell, Dwane Palmer, Tom Delaney, Patrick Whelan have all came in and done a job for us. A win in Ballycastle would set us up for the year.
#risingtide

Summary of changes to Playing Rules (Congress 2015)   01/04/2015    
http://laoisgaa.ie/news/356483/Summary_of_changes_to_Playing_Rules_Congress_2015 (http://laoisgaa.ie/news/356483/Summary_of_changes_to_Playing_Rules_Congress_2015)

This is some picture........Thank God for faceguards.


Shane O'Donnell beats Kilkenny goalkeeper Eoin Murphy to score the opening goal for Clare while taking the full force of the Kilkenny keepers bás.

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(https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/p235x350/11081128_665585716903282_1362847188063148090_n.jpg?oh=b083dd8048b59bf9234b83428968224e&oe=559DF170&__gda__=1436234134_4be2f057bc7ceb08cfdc27122cb66019)

Cork team and panel named for Monday:

1. Patrick Collins (Ballinhassig)
2. Conor O'Sullivan (Sarsfields)
3. Damien Cahalane (St. Finbarr's)
4. Stephen McDonnell (Glen Rovers)
5. Brian O'Sullivan (Fermoy)
6. Aiden Ryan (Midleton)
7. Killian Burke (Midleton)
8. Brian Lawton (Castlemartyr)
9. Andy Walsh (Killeagh)
10. John Cronin (Lisgoold)
11. Bill Cooper (Youghal)
12. Jamie Coughlan (Newtownshandrum)
13. Darren McCarthy (Ballymartle)
14. Paudie O'Sullivan (Cloyne)
15. Stephen Moylan (Douglas)
Subs:
16. Anthony Nash (Kanturk)
17. William Kearney (Sarsfields)
18. Cormac Murphy (Mallow)
19. Darren Browne (Kanturk)
20. Darren Casey (Charleville)
21. Luke Meade (Newcestown)
22. Dayne Lee (Na Piarsaigh)
23. Rob O'Shea (Carrigaline)
24. Luke O'Farrell (Midleton)

An incredible spread of clubs represented; it shows the challenge a county like ours has to compete at this level.

Absolutely merman.  The truth is we punch well above our weight in both codes and this is forgotten a lot of the time.  It's far from a full strength Cork side but they will still have 15 good hurlers out so it should be a good work out.

So Kerry will be joining us in 1B next year after their win over Antrim yesterday. What is going on up in Antrim at all?
They're probably due a big performance now and I hope its not against us in the championship!

Delighted for the Kerry boys but there seems to be a bit of discontent up in the Glens. Their best player Liam Watson won't play with them. The team did put out a statement supporting their manager. They have serious issues between clubs up there at the moment.

Great to see Joe Fitz getting the captaincy this year. A real leader who's been soldiering with Laois for a long time through all the bad years and still stayed at it. Himself, Jimmy Walsh and Tommy Fitz are the 'elder statesmen' so to speak but still very important to Laois hurling.

Many travelling to Ballycastle sunday I think Jack Nolan and someone else are trying to get a bus going!

What time is the bus leaving at? Must be a 4/5 hour journey up there. 9am start i'd say.

I'm not sure someone had it on Facebook....I can't go myself raging I was planing on going!

I see 3 Antrim players have left the panel this week...

As for the journey ,AA route planner says from Portlaoise to Ballycastle is 343.68 km and a drive in a car of 4 hrs 14 minutes.... not thats long journey for any supporter in a car ,let alone a bus.....

Not sure any of those three would be starting. I still expect a big game out of Antrim, hopefully we can match there enthusiasm and have a little bit of extra class to finish them off. Any ideas on the starting team?? I think Mathew, Neil F are doubtful and I'd imagine picky is out of this one.
I'd go with this...
E Rowland
B Stapleton
C Healy
J Delaney
J Fitz
M Whelan(if fit)
J Walsh
P Purcell
P Whelan/J Campion
W Hyland
Z Keenan
T Fitz
PJ Scully
R King

Plenty of options with Reilly,T Delaney, D Palmer, N Foyle, Campion/Whelan, C Dunne, J Purcell, B Reddin to come in.
Have I left anyone obvious out?

Well you're giving Antrim a chance only playing 14 against them.
I assume its Cha you left out.

Yes mistake of course.

I hope it's not a premonition - that Cha gets sent off, and Laoise end up playing w/ 14!!

I hear Whelan and Foyle are definitely out.

If we were told this time last year that Matthew, Neil and Picky were out we'd have thought we were done for.  They will be big losses if they are out, for sure, but we have lads to replace them.

It's not our starting 15 which concerns me, it's the question of whether we'll be as up for it as Antrim.  We've beaten them twice on the trot now and they've received stinging criticism after relegation.  If there is anything in them they will be like demons for this one.

I hate this round robin system, it's a series of thankless "fecked if you do, fecked if you don't" banana skins.

Stephen 'Picky' Maher ahead of Sunday's Leinster SHC opener with Antrim
https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/picky-maher-pre-championship (https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/picky-maher-pre-championship)

Laois captain Joe Fitzpatrick ahead of their Leinster Senior Hurling Championship round-robin match away to Antrim
https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/joe-fitzpatrick-pre-antrim (https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/joe-fitzpatrick-pre-antrim)

It's utter ballcocks that this game is in Antrim let alone fecking Ballycastle. We were all promised that Antrim's participation in the LSHC meant they got no home games. A total joke that we have to trek a 400+ miles round trip to see our county hurlers play in our provincial championship. Utter ballcocks.

Laois Senior Hurling Manager Seamas Plunkett has announced his starting 15 for Sunday's Leinster SHC Round Robin clash with Antrim.

1.       Enda Rowland                        St Lazerian's Abbeyleix

2.       John A Delaney                     Clough Ballacolla

3.       Cahir Healy                           Portlaoise

4.       Brian Stapleton                     Borris-in-Ossory-Kilcotton

5.       Joe Fitzpatrick   ©                Rathdowney Errill

6.       Matthew Whelan                  Borris-in-Ossory-Kilcotton

7.       Conor Dunne                       The Harps

8.       Zane Keenan                        Camross

9.       Patrick Purcell                      Rathdowney Errill

10.   PJ Scully                                 Borris-in-Ossory-Kilcotton

11.   Joe Campion                           Borris-in-Ossory-Kilcotton

12.   Charles Dwyer                        Ballinakill

13.   Ross King                               Rathdowney Errill

14.   Willie Hyland                         Clough Ballacolla

15.   Tommy Fitzgerald                  Portlaoise

Interesting team put out by Cheddar. Rowland retains his place in goal and Willie Hyland in at 14 with Zane in centrefield.
Will they start as listed?

Very impressive line-up for Sunday, if they click well and get an early goal or two they could run up a massive victory there with that forward six.

Great to see Matthew Whelan start, he is key in our defence and when hurling well is top class.

I agree with G@@ that if we get goals early we will win handy enough but my worry is is it turns out to be a dog fight and will give them any belief they are in a game, we have to punish them early.  I see Laois winning by 8+ points, pulling away in the last 20 minutes .

Jesus lads steady on, this will be tougher than ye think. I'd be bitterly disappointed to lose but I'd take any kind of a win at the same time.

I see where Ryan has brought a few U21's into the panel most of which are from junior and inter clubs. Naomh Eanna from Belfast being one.
Again I know they beat us in Portlaoise last year but if we have any aspirations this year we will beat them on Sunday and be playing Offaly on June 7th.

I'm with Tobias on this one.  It's going to be played in bad weather on a club pitch with a vocal home crowd behind them.  I firmly believe we have the better hurlers, but I hope Cheddar picks a team that will be primed for a battle because that's what it will be.

Typical. Beaten by a last minute penalty. Conceding five goals - what's going on?

Quote from: Thewildcat on March 19, 2015, 03:40:11 PM

Quote from: Unlaoised on March 19, 2015, 02:22:27 PM

Quote from: redsetanta on March 19, 2015, 12:51:41 PM
Antrim are alot poorer this year but we still shouldn't take them for granted. The system is a joke anyhow. Antrim could lose all their league games plus the relegation playoff and still stay up!

Just like the biffo's last year.....
[/quote


offaly beat Antrim last year in the league and drew with limerick, its some kick in the arse for laois to be in a relgation play off this year after the work over the last two years,  Laois will  beat Antrim to stay up and i think Antrim will beat the winners of division 2 also to stay up, where Antrim will be dangerous will be in the round robin games in the championship thats what they will have their eye on not league play offs.

lads this is the post i put up in march, its a killer to lose with the last puck of the game but Antrim had the game today in their mind since the draw was made, offaly got out of jail last year there in the championship with a last minute goal its no shock that they won today up in ballycastle, i also think laois might have had their eye on a clash with offaly which could have been the reason for todays lose, not over yet Antrim could take their eye off westmeath next weekend.

Why did Cheddar take Willie Hyland off? I was delighted!!! As bad a display of refereeing as I've seen.

That is some sickener alright. Conceding goals is killing us. We put up a massive score again and still beaten. It was goals in Wexford game that undid all our good work.

So we are now relying on Westmeath beating Antrim and us winning our remaining two games.

Can anyone who was there put up a report as couldn't listen online yesterday.

Quote from: redsetanta on May 04, 2015, 11:54:32 AM
That is some sickener alright. Conceding goals is killing us. We put up a massive score again and still beaten. It was goals in Wexford game that undid all our good work.

So we are now relying on Westmeath beating Antrim and us winning our remaining two games.

Can anyone who was there put up a report as couldn't listen online yesterday.

I'm an Antrim fan and was at the game. Your full back line couldn't handle our quick forwards (thus 5 goals). You went 5/6 points up on a couple of occasions but you didn't put us away. Like I said previous, I can't understand why Cheddar took Willie off, we were delighted about that.

Yeah, my young lad (8!) was up at it, and he reckoned Willie shouldn't have been taken off, either. I wonder how much of a loss John A was at corner back? Could Dunne have slotted in there, and play Walsh out further? How did Rowland do in goals? Wasn't there meself, but again, the young lad (the old sage!) reckons Reilly might've been a better bet. Anyway, it's going to hard to make much progress this year - they'll almost certainly still be in the round-robin again next year.

Was there myself, we lost the match from over playing the ball ourselves and losing it, we had chances of scoring more points but ran ourselves into trouble, we are not physical enough to think we could run through Antrim,  there could have been some changes made at half time some of our forwards were quiet enough in the first half, then the 3 lads that were taken off had scored 9p between them,strange call, our inside back line looked in trouble especially in the second half, it was a day I taught for Tom Delaney big strong good hand worth a try and James Corrigan could have been slotted into that back line , our half back line went out of the game too,Cha ended up playing right in front of Joe Fitz, when we applied the sweeper we left Antrim players lose all over the place, our line up the middle is not strong or tough enough, Rowland made a few poor clearances ,I hope Cheddar plays these lads next week its time to try them out and ,we still have Picky, JohnA ,Neill Foyle to come on, the ref made some awful  decisions against both sides the penalty was no penalty but he was not the reason we lost the game, I still think we need some big strong lads in the central positions, I can not see Antrim being beaten but we are still there.

The Antrim supporters are just as aggrieved with the ref. Seems to be the consenus on their board that Laois probably played the better hurling for most of the game but Antrim 'wanted it more' which got them over the line in the end.

Was Willie annoyed about being taken off? Right or wrong call?

Who were the stand out players for Laois on the day and how did MAtthew Whelan play?

I didn't make it to Antrim on Sunday either lads but it's hugely dissappointing. Having said that I'm not that surprised as I haven't seen any evidence that we have moved ahead of Antrim as some posters on this forum suggested last week. Antrim were quiet unlucky in a few of their league games and the reality is there is very little between us.
The obvious thing with this laois team at the moment is our goalkeepers and back line are struggling. For years it was our forward line and how they weren't doing the business but it has to be said they are racking up the scores these days. As I said I wasn't at the match but I didn't need to be to know that we shouldn't be conceding 5 goals to Antrim. Last yr and the year before we competed really wel against good opposition in league and championship when we played defensively. it seems our back line are struggling playing 6 on 6. Waterford are not the best team in Ireland by any means but they won the league by playing to their strengths. If we get over Carlow and westmeath I think we should go back to the way we played against galway for the Wexford game. I doubt we're good enough to beat them 15 on 15. Regardless of everything else I really hope the lads stay with it and the wheels don't come off at this stage, I think they owe it to themselves to come back next Sunday and the Sunday after and give this a real go.

It boils down to work rate, all our forwards dont work hard enough off the ball,and as regards our backs we are not big or tough enough, we need a big strong full back to dominate, Dovey is missed big time and Matthew is not aggresive enough,Cheddar will have to try something new next Sunday, Rowland or Reilly should have been in goal from the start hard on them not knowing who is first choice,the Antrim game was the most important game of the year for us and if Picky was able to play with his club on Monday was he not worth 10 mins against Antrim and if Foyle starts next week was he not worth 10 mins against Antrim how much better can one get in a week.

Such a terrible result for Laois hurling last Sunday, I really felt we could go up there and make a statement and beat them playing well.  It just seems every time we think we are making strides forward we go two steps back. Our lack of height in the back line and especially in the full back line is problem.

We have some good hurlers and I think we will make second place in the group as Antrim have the group won already but IF we finish second a match versus Wexford doesnt bode well whereas a local derby versus Offaly would have been a great occasion for us.

This Laois team can offer no excuses as to preparation as they have the most professional set up any Laois hurling team has ever had and it disappointing to hear lads, albeit not on here, calling for Chedders head to roll. From what I know its his last year and I worry for the future without him in charge. Its time for the players to stand up and be counted and drive forward and show that we can hurl under pressure.

Quote from: burdizzo on May 04, 2015, 05:01:09 PM
Yeah, my young lad (8!) was up at it, and he reckoned Willie shouldn't have been taken off, either. I wonder how much of a loss John A was at corner back? Could Dunne have slotted in there, and play Walsh out further? How did Rowland do in goals? Wasn't there meself, but again, the young lad (the old sage!) reckons Reilly might've been a better bet. Anyway, it's going to hard to make much progress this year - they'll almost certainly still be in the round-robin again next year.

You werent per chance in the group showing the young lad how to blow raspberries? We enjoyed that .....when the ball dropped into the net  ;)

Quote from: frostbit on May 07, 2015, 11:19:27 AM
Maybe, instead of calling for people's heads you should get behind the team and believe that in the event of coming second in the group that you can beat Wexford.  It isn't an impossibility. 

I think it is a bit arrogant of a lot of you to have expected to go up and beat Antrim in Ballycastle.  No matter our problems at the minute, we have good hurlers who are proud to wear the Saffron jersey - just as proud as some Laois men are proud to wear theirs.

Good luck for the season.

frostbit, we have plenty of the same arrogance up here.

Quote from: frostbit on May 07, 2015, 11:19:27 AM
Maybe, instead of calling for people's heads you should get behind the team and believe that in the event of coming second in the group that you can beat Wexford.  It isn't an impossibility. 

I think it is a bit arrogant of a lot of you to have expected to go up and beat Antrim in Ballycastle.  No matter our problems at the minute, we have good hurlers who are proud to wear the Saffron jersey - just as proud as some Laois men are proud to wear theirs.

Good luck for the season.

Beating Wexford isn't an impossibility but it will be a very tough ask and not the game we wanted. It's the third year in to the new regime and to feel that decent progress was being made the goal was to win in Ballycastle and top the round robin group. We knew it wasn't going to be easy getting the win (and lets be fair reading your forum even you lads know you got the rub of the green) but to have tangible progress we needed the win particularly to give confidence to this group of players and management. As portlaoisekid said a game against Offaly was what all Laois supporters were looking for.
Anyhow there are 2 more games to go and there is no guarantee that Antrim will win both those games so it's still in the melting pot as they say.

Quote from: frostbit on May 07, 2015, 11:19:27 AM
Maybe, instead of calling for people's heads you should get behind the team and believe that in the event of coming second in the group that you can beat Wexford.  It isn't an impossibility. 

I think it is a bit arrogant of a lot of you to have expected to go up and beat Antrim in Ballycastle. No matter our problems at the minute, we have good hurlers who are proud to wear the Saffron jersey - just as proud as some Laois men are proud to wear theirs.

Good luck for the season.

Arrogance my arse,so what were we supposed to go there to expect to do? go up and have lost the game in our heads before we left... Antrim will feel the exact same about westmeath and carlow games as Laois did about playing Antrim.

Some Antrim supporters will

Quote from: theskull1 on May 07, 2015, 11:33:05 AM

Quote from: burdizzo on May 04, 2015, 05:01:09 PM
Yeah, my young lad (8!) was up at it, and he reckoned Willie shouldn't have been taken off, either. I wonder how much of a loss John A was at corner back? Could Dunne have slotted in there, and play Walsh out further? How did Rowland do in goals? Wasn't there meself, but again, the young lad (the old sage!) reckons Reilly might've been a better bet. Anyway, it's going to hard to make much progress this year - they'll almost certainly still be in the round-robin again next year.

You werent per chance in the group showing the young lad how to blow raspberries? We enjoyed that .....when the ball dropped into the net  ;)

What're you talking about? I already said I wasn't there...
I don't think it's fair to be calling for Cheddar's head, whoever's doing it. From what I understand, he's put a lot of his own money into the training set-up, when in the recent past we've been paying hand over fist for second-rate donkeys. Nevertheless, it is very disappointing. Maybe there can be a unexpected good performance against Wexford, a la Galway last year, but the team is struggling at the back big time, and there'll need to be another approach if the league result is to be reversed. To state the obvious...

It might have been a little set back last Sunday but I still think antrim could drop points to Westmeath or Carlow and we might get a craic at Offaly.

Laois can expect to beat Antrim no matter where the game is as they have been making strides forward to get on a par with the saffron's in recent years and have probably just gone past them albeit Antrim have won the last two big games but Laois's results against the bigger teams in League and championship in the last 2 years has been more impressive!

Quote from: burdizzo on May 07, 2015, 12:41:53 PM

Quote from: theskull1 on May 07, 2015, 11:33:05 AM

Quote from: burdizzo on May 04, 2015, 05:01:09 PM
Yeah, my young lad (8!) was up at it, and he reckoned Willie shouldn't have been taken off, either. I wonder how much of a loss John A was at corner back? Could Dunne have slotted in there, and play Walsh out further? How did Rowland do in goals? Wasn't there meself, but again, the young lad (the old sage!) reckons Reilly might've been a better bet. Anyway, it's going to hard to make much progress this year - they'll almost certainly still be in the round-robin again next year.

You werent per chance in the group showing the young lad how to blow raspberries? We enjoyed that .....when the ball dropped into the net  ;)

What're you talking about? I already said I wasn't there...

Sorry ...only spotted that

One of the adults in front of us with a young lad beside him let a big rip out of him when Neil McAuley took a sideline cut that subsequently got touched into the net. The Antrim support that heard him took great delight in aping his antics. Was very funny

Quote from: Unlaoised on May 07, 2015, 12:45:14 PM
It might have been a little set back last Sunday but I still think antrim could drop points to Westmeath or Carlow and we might get a craic at Offaly.

Laois can expect to beat Antrim no matter where the game is as they have been making strides forward to get on a par with the saffron's in recent years and have probably just gone past them albeit Antrim have won the last two big games but Laois's results against the bigger teams in League and championship in the last 2 years has been more impressive!

I think that's a fair comment

I can assure you, Skull, that that wasn't my lad. He was there w/ my missus, and there's no way she'd let him do that!

It was a 40-50 year old adult who did it ... its wasn't his dad though

we enjoyed him getting his just deserts  :)

I don't think any of us can tell what was really in the heads of Laois players and supporters on the way up to that match. If there was an arrogance in their heads, it would beggar belief, based on where we've come from (the memory of the 10-goal drubbing at the hands of Cork has hardly been wiped from the memory yet, has it?).

On the other hand, I'm sure every Laois person was travelling with confidence. The recent results against Antrim were generally in our favour, there seemed to be some turmoil in the Antrim camp and the bookies had us at warm favourites. This does not imply a "right to win" - just a confidence that we could win.  I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I would be surprised in Antrim didn't have the same confidence going into the game - they would have been focusing on the points that suited their arguments.

This is, of course, a setback for Laois but hopefully some lessons will have been learned for the remaining games.

That's a tough defeat to take and while it's obviously disappointing I can't say I'm overly surprised as I felt we'd get it tough up there.  All is not lost though, and I'd give Westmeath a fighting chance against Antrim while we've two games left ourselves to get out of the group.

Haven't talked to any Laois supporters yet that think of Cheddar as anything less than a legend and I hope it stays that way!  What he has put in to get the Laois hurlers a set up as good as any other is just beyond commitment.  But let's not forget that he hasn't transferred in 10 All Stars into the county or anything.  There is the possibility that the group we have maybe aren't good enough to go to that next step.  I personally think they are good enough but that remains to be seen and it's in their hands now, but certainly Cheddar won't walk away from his term with anything but huge thanks and admiration from the Laois hurling fraternity.  Yes he will make mistakes and get some calls wrong but so does every manager.

I wasn't at the Antrim game so can't comment on where things went wrong or right.  That said, John A's absence was an obvious loss as he'd be one of our first names down.  We're conceding far too many goals though, so something needs to be sorted there.

On to Carlow next then, and it's a knock-out game for both counties and I expect a response form our hurlers.

As an antrim man i'd say you're still in with a very good chance as no guarantees we will win the other two.

As an outsider i would say cheddar has done a great job for you. While our games with you tend to go either way you seem to be a lot better against stronger opposition. You really should have beat galway last year and we would never get within a mile of them!

Tell hurlingstick that

Quote from: frostbit on May 07, 2015, 01:22:41 PM

Quote from: theskull1 on May 07, 2015, 11:34:17 AM
frostbit, we have plenty of the same arrogance up here.

I agree with you. I'm not one of them.

Quote from: portlaoisekid on May 07, 2015, 12:15:43 PM
Arrogance my arse,so what were we supposed to go there to expect to do? go up and have lost the game in our heads before we left...

No not at all.  You were supposed to go up there with the respect that you were playing against a proud county with excellent hurlers just like your own and that you would have had to work harder and play with more passion than us to get the win, which is exactly the expectation I have of our lads.

Quote from: portlaoisekid on May 07, 2015, 12:15:43 PM
Antrim will feel the exact same about westmeath and carlow games as Laois did about playing Antrim.

And there's the arrogance I am referring to.  Maybe you wanted to win but you have no right to win.  There's a difference.

Quote from: redsetanta on May 07, 2015, 12:05:44 PMlets be fair reading your forum even you lads know you got the rub of the green

I didn't ever think we got lucky.  I think the referee was brutal and sided Laois throughout the game (hence the sarcastic cheers he got when we were awarded two frees).  In terms of our penalty, which was a penalty, it can maybe been seen as decisions evening themselves out.  You also got a penalty, a controversial goal and a point that never was.  I thought we were ballsier and won the game through endeavour.  That doesn't equate to us thinking we were lucky.

So your saying to expect win a game is arrogant ? Pure and utter rubbish if true, Laois were in no way arrogant going into that match, some laois supporters expected to win as Antrim supporters did too , get that chip off your shoulder and stop manufacturing arrogance on Laois part when its not there.


As for this weekend, I see Laois battling back and beating Carlow ( I know, know the absolute arrogance of such a thought ) as from what I hear Carlow has really not put a good week in since the westmeath match and I feel Laois need to win more than Carlow.

I'm finding it hard to get over last week's disappointment; it really feels like we have thrown away a realistic shot at a Leinster semi-final and getting ourselves out of the Round-Robin.

Team wise, I still think we have too many square pegs in round holes.
Cahir Healy is a wonderful defender but he's not a full-back and I think he's a huge loss in the middle third of the field where he has an incredible ability to hoover up dirty/breaking ball. Matthew Whelan has struggled on the half-line and must be worth trying at 3. I don't know what Tom Delaney has done to fall down the pecking order but he was arguably our best player this time last year.

I expect John A to come back in but this'll probably come too soon for Picky and Foyle though I'd hope they will see some game-time!

I'd go with;

Reilly

Delaney
Whelan
Palmer


Fitzpatrick
Walsh
Delaney

Purcell
Healy

Campion
Cha
Hyland

King
Keenan
Scully

I couldnt agree more with your switches of Whelan to FB, Healy to midfield and Zane into the forwards.

I don't think Whelan has the pace for full back.  I would agree that Tom Delaney should be in the team as he's always impressed me. I think his discipline is letting him down. I also agree with the Zane switch as he doesn't have the workrate for centrefield.

If Whelan holds the position and especially if we drop a extra man back in defence he would be absolutly fine....

In any case I dont see Chedder making too many changes and to be honest I see him starting the same team ....

Quote from: redsetanta on May 09, 2015, 01:58:07 AM
I don't think Whelan has the pace for full back.

You might be right but he has looked just as exposed on the half-line this year, and that was even before his injury lay-off.
I hope the players are right mentally because anything other than a convincing win just won't be enough....

Quote from: merman on March 31, 2015, 08:44:28 PM
Failure to beat Antrim would constitute definite regression for this group of players!

Antrim will improve before the Round Robin because quite honestly, they couldn't be as bad as they looked Saturday. Their come-back in the second-half was completely out own doing and if we can iron out these tendencies to retreat into a defensive shell then we should be well-equipped to top the group.

To be honest, I think we are at the stage in our development where we need to actually go on and top the group and beat Offaly to judge this year a success.

I believe we are eminently capable of doing both...

so after last weekend merman would you say its regression for this group of players, i still think Antrim could slip up to let laois back in to top the group.

Quote from: Thewildcat on May 09, 2015, 04:59:47 PM

Quote from: merman on March 31, 2015, 08:44:28 PM
Failure to beat Antrim would constitute definite regression for this group of players!

Antrim will improve before the Round Robin because quite honestly, they couldn't be as bad as they looked Saturday. Their come-back in the second-half was completely out own doing and if we can iron out these tendencies to retreat into a defensive shell then we should be well-equipped to top the group.

To be honest, I think we are at the stage in our development where we need to actually go on and top the group and beat Offaly to judge this year a success.

I believe we are eminently capable of doing both...

so after last weekend merman would you say its regression for this group of players, i still think Antrim could slip up to let laois back in to top the group.

We have regressed in my opinion.
Brian Campion has proven to be a massive loss, as many of us expected, and we have seen no evidence of anyone knocking down the door and breaking into the first 15.

why aren't some of the minors of the last 3 years not getting a chance.

Cha Dwyer, Joe Campion, PJ Scully, Ben Conroy, Dwayne Palmer and more have made the step up from those minor teams.  Cha is a main player for us now, and we'd be hoping the rest will be main players in the years to come Thewildcat.  It is a tough step up, it's important we dont rush them either.


Best of luck to Laois tomorrow.  Again, if Carlow want it more than us we'll be in trouble so we really need lads to step up tomorrow.

Looking back at the Antrim match I can't understand why Laois took off Ross King the corner forward??

Quote from: G@@ on March 22, 2015, 12:30:57 AM
At this stage of the league I feel we should experiment with both the Limerick and Antrim games and put our efforts into beating Div II winners if it comes to it. I would much much rather beat Antrim in the LSHC than on March 29th.

I said it at the time and was villified for it.

I don't think anybody had a go at you about that. Why would they?

Not necessarily on here RS!  ;D

Anyways, we've really backed ourselves into a corner now and we must, at all costs, put Carlow to the sword today and Westmeath too in a fortnight's time. Carlow will be no pushovers and we will have to be on top of our game to beat them. It will be interesting to see if Westmeath can turn over Antrim today, buoyed on by their minor win over Wexford they might take a bit of steeled pride into that and pull off a win which would greatly help our cause!

westmeath 1-13 Antrim 0-2 half time  ???

Westmeath 1-21 Antrim 0-7 told ya Antrim could slip up, some display from westmeath all the talk was Laois or Antrim to come out top in this group looks like westmeath will at least get second.  laois had 3 point to spare over carlow so they play westmeath in portlaoise in two weeks, would laois have to beat westmeath well to finish top i think they beat carlow by 3 points to. they are top today  so would any sort of win do for laois if both lose just 1 game.

If we beat Westmeath and Antrim beat Carlow there will be a 3 way tie so it will be down to points difference. Westmeath are +18, Laois +2 and Antrim -17 so if that's the scenario we will have to beat Westmeath by 9 points to top the group.
If Carlow draw or win against Antrim then it would be down to head to head with ourselves and Westmeath as far as I know.

It was a very laboured win today and we were made sweat with that last minute free.

What a pedantic, whistle happy ref!

The play was messy but he never let it flow at all. No  doubt alot of the calls he made were probebly right but it was the way he went about it.

Great to see Picky back and it's a good job he got that one under his belt because he needs to be on top of his game in two weeks. Willie had an off day and PJ never got going. The wind was a factor but it wasn't the wind that made our first touch so poor.

However we got the win and it's going to be some battle in O'Moore PArk in two weeks. A very small crowd at the game today and we are going to need plenty of support in Portlaoise as I would think Westmeath will travel after todays result.

Like the minors yesterday Laois got the win but the performance wasn't there.  We hurled for the first 10 minutes of the second half, went 11 points up and then totally switched off and invited Carlow back into the game.  It nearly ended disastrously too as that last minute free that was lobbed in could have went anywhere.  The positives were that the full back line was solid, particularly in the first half.  Matthew seems to be coming back into some kind of form.  Campion looks like he could do a job at wing back, I love the physicality he brings to it.  Make no mistake though, another performance like that and we exit this years championship.

This habit of falling asleep and not closing out games in a bit of a worry. Carlow were well beaten halfway through the first half, but were let right back into it. In fact, the third quarter was the only period where Laoise showed what they're capable of, at all, and in the first half Carlow seemed far more eager, and were getting in hooks and blocks much more than our lads. Poor Willy caught some great ball, but his radar was turned off, though he wasn't the only one guilty of bad wides in the first half. Obviously, Ben Conroy's 1-3 was vital, and he could have had another goal, too. Amazing sometimes when you come on, things just go for you! In fairness to Rowland, he made a couple of important contributions - maybe they were bread and butter stuff, but still, he did 'em. I see they dropped a man back in the second half, too, which seemed to work - until they went to sleep, that is.
I tell you, Laoise getting out of this round-robin is far from a certainty. Westmeath will be on a high, and I'd say there could be a bit of nervousness now.

Firstly, I'd like to ask where the hell Cheddar's thinking was on the side line... the PR announced how the Westmeath game was going several times and Cheddar should have instructed Laois to pile on the points. Westmeath did us a huge favour in opening a door back to the top of this table, but Cheddar then decided to play deep and try and hold a 10pt lead. Madness. Utter madness. Then to introduce Paddy Whelan to top it all off. I have savage respect for Cheddar and all the great things he is doing, but I'd have to question his match-day thinking, and what he did in Carlow has me baffled.

Secondly, the players themselves have some soul searching to do - a dismal performance overall that would see a better team tank us. Only for Ben Conroy (the only good decision by Cheddar today) and we would be out of our provincial championship this evening. It's time the players copped themselves on and realise they are in Championship hurling and there is nowhere to hide now.

We now have two weeks to prepare for a very boosted Westmeath side and take them out by 9 or 10pts to earn a crack at Offaly - judging on today's performance I think we'll struggle to beat them by a point or two if at all win.

You're forgetting something, Townman.

You're pretending to be from Laois when you post in this site.

Quote from: Thewildcat on May 10, 2015, 05:11:19 PM
Westmeath 1-21 Antrim 0-7 told ya Antrim could slip up, some display from westmeath all the talk was Laois or Antrim to come out top in this group looks like westmeath will at least get second.  laois had 3 point to spare over carlow so they play westmeath in portlaoise in two weeks, would laois have to beat westmeath well to finish top i think they beat carlow by 3 points to. they are top today  so would any sort of win do for laois if both lose just 1 game.

Things aren't good Folks, that was another poor showing against an average enough Div 2 team.
Carlow offered very little but when we should have kicked on and buried them with 15/20 minutes to go, we retreated; and poor discipline, concentration, and generally, poor technique, almost left the door open for them.

I check most counties GAA forums pretty regularly and a very good poster on the uibhfhaili site suggests that we look like a team who are leggy from over-training; perhaps looking to peak for a Leinster-quarter. I think that could be a valid point.
We finished hurling at 60 minutes today and we were caught from behind against Antrim also, though I appreciate in different circumstances. The lads should be as fit as they ever have been. I doubt any Laois hurling team has put in the hours and work that this team has over the last 18-30 months but you wouldn't tell today. I don't know if it's physical or mental but there's a sense of fatigue emanating from the camp and I believe it's feeding into the support-base also.

Something isn't right and questions must be asked about some of the decisions made on the line.
I really like Joe Campion and thought he did very well today but what must some of the subs be thinking. We have at least 4 natural defenders on our bench who were overlooked to bring a half-forward back. I still don't understand what Tom Delaney or Dwayne Palmer have done to see themselves fall so far out of favour.
Willie Hyland was taken off after hurling quite well in Ballycastle yet when he struggled today he was inexplicably moved into full forward and then had ball after ball angled away from him into corners. Jesus Christ, he was lording the ball in the air, yes the shooting was off but to put him in at full-forward and puck every ball into space where they had an extra man covering was ridiculous.
It actually seemed like the forwards were moved around for no reason at times; Ross King and Ben Conroy were both moved shortly after looking particularly dangerous in either corner.

I don't mean to be dismissive of Carlow because Lord knows we in Laois haven't nearly earned that right yet but they are a poor team. They created no real goal chance but on another day, they would have beaten us today. They drove some sorry wides in that abysmal first half and were still only a puck of the ball away at full time.
Westmeath look a step up on Carlow and they're riding the crest of a wave after such an incredible weekend. We played them last year in Mullingar and it was a poor enough match. I remember leaving quite frustrated after watching Picky toil away in our half-back line and the stick work on both sides was poor. I can't see us beating them by 9 points so I believe we're going to need a favour from Carlow. This is not beyond the realms of possibility as they have plenty to play for but my pre-championship optimism has taken a hammering and today did little to make up for last week in my book...

Quote from: merman on May 10, 2015, 11:22:51 PM
Things aren't good Folks, that was another poor showing against an average enough Div 2 team.
Carlow offered very little but when we should have kicked on and buried them with 15/20 minutes to go, we retreated; and poor discipline, concentration, and generally, poor technique, almost left the door open for them.

I check most counties GAA forums pretty regularly and a very good poster on the uibhfhaili site suggests that we look like a team who are leggy from over-training; perhaps looking to peak for a Leinster-quarter. I think that could be a valid point.
We finished hurling at 60 minutes today and we were caught from behind against Antrim also, though I appreciate in different circumstances. The lads should be as fit as they ever have been. I doubt any Laois hurling team has put in the hours and work that this team has over the last 18-30 months but you wouldn't tell today. I don't know if it's physical or mental but there's a sense of fatigue emanating from the camp and I believe it's feeding into the support-base also.

Fairly pathetic and negative post.
Giver credit to the management; they were in a whisker of 2 wins.  They got one today. second guessing decisions - only those involved know the full facts.  Arrogant about Carlow too. Carlow were probably the better side in the first half and really pushed hard in the final ten minutes.
Something isn't right and questions must be asked about some of the decisions made on the line.
I really like Joe Campion and thought he did very well today but what must some of the subs be thinking. We have at least 4 natural defenders on our bench who were overlooked to bring a half-forward back. I still don't understand what Tom Delaney or Dwayne Palmer have done to see themselves fall so far out of favour.
Willie Hyland was taken off after hurling quite well in Ballycastle yet when he struggled today he was inexplicably moved into full forward and then had ball after ball angled away from him into corners. Jesus Christ, he was lording the ball in the air, yes the shooting was off but to put him in at full-forward and puck every ball into space where they had an extra man covering was ridiculous.
It actually seemed like the forwards were moved around for no reason at times; Ross King and Ben Conroy were both moved shortly after looking particularly dangerous in either corner.

I don't mean to be dismissive of Carlow because Lord knows we in Laois haven't nearly earned that right yet but they are a poor team. They created no real goal chance but on another day, they would have beaten us today. They drove some sorry wides in that abysmal first half and were still only a puck of the ball away at full time.
Westmeath look a step up on Carlow and they're riding the crest of a wave after such an incredible weekend. We played them last year in Mullingar and it was a poor enough match. I remember leaving quite frustrated after watching Picky toil away in our half-back line and the stick work on both sides was poor. I can't see us beating them by 9 points so I believe we're going to need a favour from Carlow. This is not beyond the realms of possibility as they have plenty to play for but my pre-championship optimism has taken a hammering and today did little to make up for last week in my book...

Quote from: Plain of the Herbs on May 10, 2015, 10:14:21 PM
You're forgetting something, Townman.

You're pretending to be from Laois when you post in this site.

Quote from: Thewildcat on May 10, 2015, 05:11:19 PM
Westmeath 1-21 Antrim 0-7 told ya Antrim could slip up, some display from westmeath all the talk was Laois or Antrim to come out top in this group looks like westmeath will at least get second.  laois had 3 point to spare over carlow so they play westmeath in portlaoise in two weeks, would laois have to beat westmeath well to finish top i think they beat carlow by 3 points to. they are top today  so would any sort of win do for laois if both lose just 1 game.

if you read all my post on this site you prize p***k you will see i am not from laois, i am not like you going from site to site looking up old paper clips and facts and thinks his the Jimmy Magee of the websites :-[

Quote from: Catch and Kick on May 10, 2015, 11:59:17 PM

Fairly pathetic and negative post.

Pathetic?
What was pathetic about the post?
I'll concede it was negative but I've been following Laois hurling long enough to form an opinion and I'm sorry that's contrary to yours. I posted hundreds of posts on LaoisTalk and was regularly accused of being overly positive; people often disagreed with me and that led to some decent debate.
I'd happily debate with you over anything I posted; I won't even call you pathetic for things I disagree with.

If you think the standard of hurling produced yesterday was reflective of the ability within that squad then fair enough, you're more than entitled to that view.
I think you're wrong though. And so did a lot of Laois people leaving DCP yesterday.

Quote from: merman on May 11, 2015, 08:23:50 AM

Quote from: Catch and Kick on May 10, 2015, 11:59:17 PM

Fairly pathetic and negative post.

Pathetic?
What was pathetic about the post?
I'll concede it was negative but I've been following Laois hurling long enough to form an opinion and I'm sorry that's contrary to yours. I posted hundreds of posts on LaoisTalk and was regularly accused of being overly positive; people often disagreed with me and that led to some decent debate.

No I'm sure sorry know they can play a lot lot better. And they will. I'm looking at it from the perspective of a player and the management. They are putting massive effort in; some days teams are off colour. Happens to the best of them. And the same applies to Carlow who have been hurling who have made great strides in recent years.
They us nothing and its easy be negative about teams from the comfort of our armchairs typing these posts.
The expectations we have of amateurs are totally unfair in the GAA all over the country.
As an aside, this young footballer in Monaghan is now going to be destroyed in the media and social media. It isn't right. We are treating these players as though they are professionals and imposing standards and expectations on them that are putting huge pressures on them.
I'd happily debate with you over anything I posted; I won't even call you pathetic for things I disagree with.

If you think the standard of hurling produced yesterday was reflective of the ability within that squad then fair enough, you're more than entitled to that view.
I think you're wrong though. And so did a lot of Laois people leaving DCP yesterday.

Cheddar speaking with Jack Nolan after the game. Lets get behind the lads for the game in Portlaoise in two weeks.

https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/cheddar-plunkett-post-carlow-2

What's the story when teams are level on points? Assuming Laois beat Westmeath and Antrim beat Carlow...

Currently
Westmeath 4pts +19
Antrim 2pts -16
Laois 2pts +2

Laois' third place is the head-to-head (again assumed) but if three teams are level, do they simply disregard the Carlow results for each team?

Yes support will be vital Sunday week as Westmeath will surely have a big following as the bandwagon starts to roll . Make no mistake this is going to be incredibly tough but I just wonder how the favourites tag will suit Westmeath .. They have been generally underdogs against Laois and this will be the first time in a long the roles will have been reversed .
Laois looked tired to me on Sunday .This was seen in many ways throughout the 70 mins including the poor first touch and constant lapses of concentration . A huge amount of work has been undertaken with this group of players and I expect it to pay off in the coming weeks starting with a win over Westmeath .

Quote from: Dave like the tv channel on May 11, 2015, 04:12:12 PM
What's the story when teams are level on points? Assuming Laois beat Westmeath and Antrim beat Carlow...

Currently
Westmeath 4pts +19
Antrim 2pts -16
Laois 2pts +2

Laois' third place is the head-to-head (again assumed) but if three teams are level, do they simply disregard the Carlow results for each team?

Oooh, I wouldn't make either of those two assumptions. Carlow still have a lot to play for, it's in Dr. Cullen Park, and Antrim don't seem to travel that well. They're cutting the round robin group to three for 2016, so the last placed team automatically goes down, and the second last plays the 2015 Christy Ring winners. So, the stakes are quite high! If Laoise lose to Westmeath, they will, at best, be in another relegation playoff.

I am sure i read that Christy Ring winners come up and  bottom team in round robin go down.

Sundays match was IMO a torrid affair and the standard of hurling was poor but the Carlow match was purely about winning and we did that so lets move onto the Westmeath match and hopefully get another win there.

https://www.gaa.ie/content/documents/publications/miscellaneous/CCCC%20Proposal%202014%20to%202016.pdf

1st Plays Offaly
2nd Plays Wexford
3rd Plays Winner of Christy Ring with the Winner of that being in Leinster Championship and the Loser being in the Christy Ring next year
4th Plays in/Relegated to Christy Ring next year

What's the timeline for the christy ring drici? Seems like that could protract out someone's season quite a lot if they finish third...

Also quite harsh on christy ring winners.

Christy Ring Final is live on TG4 on Saturday 6th June.

Quote from: drici on May 12, 2015, 11:33:30 AM
https://www.gaa.ie/content/documents/publications/miscellaneous/CCCC%20Proposal%202014%20to%202016.pdf

1st Plays Offaly
2nd Plays Wexford
3rd Plays Winner of Christy Ring with the Winner of that being in Leinster Championship and the Loser being in the Christy Ring next year
4th Plays in/Relegated to Christy Ring next year

Grand. But it doesn't address the possibility of teams finishing level on points.....two teams - I presume head2head. Three teams????

Quote from: drici on May 12, 2015, 12:46:58 PM
Christy Ring Final is live on TG4 on Saturday 6th June.

Cheers. Not too far away then.

Rule 6.20 (5) (c) (ii)-(iv) states: "Where Teams finish with equal points for Qualification for the Concluding stages or for Promotion or Relegation, the tie shall be decided by the following means and in the order specified:

(i) Where two Teams only are involved – the outcome of the meeting of the two teams in the previous game in the competition

(ii) Scoring Difference (subtracting the total Scores Against from total Scores For)

(iii) Highest Total Score For

(iv) A Play-Off.

Basically it will come down to score difference.

I'm going to try to put a positive spin on this...
I actually think things are really not too bad and can be optimistic for the following reasons...
1) we are a better hurling team than Westmeath
2) we will almost enter this game as underdogs(which suits us)
3) we are at home (Westmeath have not played away yet)
4) we have a full panel to pick from
5) our back line has a better look to it compared to the Antrim game, Joe campion and J A add a bit of pace to it and Mathew is looking more like himself
5) we have picky back and he forms an athletic midfield with paddy Purcell
6) we have three potential match winners in the half forward line with cha, zane and willie. They haven't really shown it in the first two games but we know it's in them
7) hopefully it will be a nice dry day and these 'hurlers' will be given every chance to perform
8) I have faith in Cheddar to get the lads right both physically and mentally for this game

I am not worried about Westmeath, The main thing here for me is that we bring a huge intensity to our game, we really need to bring the fight to them and really knock them back on their arse, from the throw in we need to boss the game and play it on our terms...these lads have worked too hard to meekly bow out of this championship. I'm not sure if the lads have been over trained or whatever but with all the expertise in our back room team the lads should be ready for a real battle in ten days and I fully expect them to show theirs true colours and put Westmeath to the sword.

There should be a big drive on the next week to get laois people to go to the match and support our team, the clubs must get involved..

Quote from: drici on May 12, 2015, 07:03:32 PM
Rule 6.20 (5) (c) (ii)-(iv) states: "Where Teams finish with equal points for Qualification for the Concluding stages or for Promotion or Relegation, the tie shall be decided by the following means and in the order specified:

(i) Where two Teams only are involved – the outcome of the meeting of the two teams in the previous game in the competition

(ii) Scoring Difference (subtracting the total Scores Against from total Scores For)

(iii) Highest Total Score For

(iv) A Play-Off.

Great, thanks. So assuming the best....Laois win by 9 and will win the group, barring a huge win by Antrim.

If Laois win by 1 and Antrim don't win, Laois will win the head-to-head with Westmeath and win the group.

Hows Neil Foyle progressing? Should be fit for Sunday but Cheddar will hardly start him. Pj didn't really get going at all the last day and hasn't really grabbed his spot on the starting 15. Ben Conroy put down a marker and Reddin has impressed when he's been brought in.
Think we need a setup where we have a hard worker around midfield. Zane, good and all as he is, isn't that man so it might be worth bringing Jimmy Walsh back in for this game allowing Zane to do his own thing. Westmeath will be physical and we need to be winning the breaking ball. Zane could move to the half forward line.
Will Cheddar make any changes from the last day?

Can't see Foyle been back for sunday...

The lads were dissapointed that they didn't put Carlow away and a bigger win would have made things easier on sunday.

I wouldn't rule out Carlow giving Antrim a proper game and maybe even sneeking it...

We are well capable of getting a 9 point win over Westmeath and I wouldn't be worried even if things are not going well early in the game ...I think we have the forward and the subs to rack up a big score by 70 minutes!

I wonder will Foyle feature on Sunday, surely worth a second half place alone?

I hear Foyle is fit for Sunday, it's just a question of will he be picked or not! I think we may need 3 or 4 goals against Westmeath and Foyle is a great target man to have. Although I do think we are capable of beating Westmeath by 9, I'm fairly confident Carlow can do us a favour in Dr Cullen Park. It's good to have things in our own hands, the players know what they have to do, now they have to go out and deliver!

Good news BB... Foyle is a favourite of mine on the team and he has an aurora of danger about him everytime he gets the ball.

Overall, I'm quite nervous about this clash, the game against Carlow was an eye-opener as to how fragile this team becomes when things don't work out on the field coupled with an instruction to sit back and defend. The last grasp catch by Rowland in Carlow was too fine a line to be building our campaign upon.

With Ben Conroy scoring 1-3 the last day and thereby really pushing himself close to a starting berth I don't think we'll see Foyle start, but it's great to see him back in contention as he offers something different with his size and skill.  I would expect him to work his way onto the team if we can make it to the next stage though.  A lot of people I've been talking to reckon we need a more defensively minded midfield partner for Paddy Purcell and I'd be in agreement.  No slight on Picky, his natural instinct is to attack, but I'd be putting James Walsh back in the middle with Picky moving further up the field.

Above all though I'm hoping the knock out nature of the game will see a big improvement in our lads, because I believe a similar performance to the Carlow game and we could be out of the championship.

I would be worried about the tendency of Laois to adopt defensive style tactics - it sets the wrong tone in the team and was the reason we nearly blew it against Carlow. I hope we have learned. It was quite similar against Waterford in the second half in the league. Best defence in hurling is to attack and keep the scoreboard moving, and to hit hard when lads are running at you.

I have expected Laois to improve as the year as gone on and tbh we have not so far. Maybe I'm looking at this through rose tinted classes but I still believe we are playing well within ourselves, to say the least, and with Sunday predicted to be a dry and quite warm day I really feel we could click and the fact its effectively knock out should drive us on further with our performance levels. 

For the effort thats gone into Chedders reign by all those involved we have to produce something from here on in this year. We have no doubt made progress under Chedders reign but IMO at the start of this year to progress would have been staying in div 1b, topping the provincial group and beating Offaly and hugely consistent performance levels in the qualifiers. I still think that achievable albeit it could be Wexford in the championship if we qualify . Of course losing to Westmeath is possible and it would be disaster for us.

My team to play Westmeath would be

Rowland
JA Delaney
Healy
Stapleton
Joe Fitzpatrick
Whelan
Tom Delaney
Paddy Purcell
Jimmy Walsh
Keenan
Joe Campion
Hyland
King
Maher
Tommy Fitzgerald

Conroy has to be pushing for a start. Would he get in ahead of King or Tommy? King would make an impression off the bench I feel and Tommy less so. I would start Tommy personally so maybe bring Conroy in for King.

Cha should be one of the first names on the teamsheet.

Cha is a no brainer. I'd start Joe campion at wing back again, I think he did well there the last day and hopefully he will settle into the position. Tom dleaned hasn't featured much and I'd say it's his potential to be sent off is a risk the management are not willing to take. I'd go with the same midfield again, with a dry day in store these two lads can pick off scores from out the field, I'm sure they have been tutored on their defensive duties over the past couple of weeks. I'd prob bring in Ben convoy for scully to give him the chance he has earned.
Regarding the defensive tactics...don't be so quick to knock them. Ok it didn't work against Carlow and i don't think we should adopt it against teams like Carlow. However don't forget how close we got to beating galway over the past two years by dropping a man back...would we have got as close if we went 15 on 15 I really don't think so. Against Waterford in the league we actually did ok in the first half playing defensively, trailing by only 3 at half time we lost cha to a red card 5 mins into second half which gad a huge bearing on the game. If we progress past Sunday we might be best served by playing a sweeper.

Huge game on Sunday; I'm not convinced Antrim will beat Carlow (especially in Carlow) so a win might well be enough to see us top the group.
Unfortunately, I think we might need to rely on such a result as I don't believe we will beat Westmeath by 9 points. There hasn't been much between the teams over the last 5 years and they are on a definite high. Allied to that, they have a competitive club championship and have consistently produced good club teams as well as decent minor teams.
This could well go down to the wire and I would take any kind of a win to be honest...

I don't think we will see wholesale changes but for what it's worth, this is what I'd like to see...

Rowland
Healy
Whelan
Delaney
Fitzpatrick
Walsh
Delaney
Purcell
Maher
Cha
Campion
Hyland
Conroy
King
Fitzgerald

Totally forgot cha Dwyer...  ::).... I'd have him in for sure

Merman?.would you leave zane out??

Quote from: Tobias on May 22, 2015, 08:41:53 PM
Merman?.would you leave zane out??

On current form, I would!
He is without question one of the most talented hurlers in Laois but he hasn't shown that, in my opinion, this year!

Best of Luck to the team today, hopefully we will see a performance we all know they are well capable of.

Great result. Thanks Cha and Carlow too!

Absolutely, well done Cha - his goal obviously the turning point. However, in fairness, Westmeath weren't too bad. Certainly better than Carlow, and Laoise dug it out in the end. It looked dicey after Murtagh got his goal, though I thought Healy really improved after that lapse. Things may have been a little easier, only Zane was having a bit of a nightmare from the frees, and Alan Kelly - again! - would hardly give them one at all. With any luck, he won't be reffing the Offaly game. I'd imagine Maher will start that game, too. Hopefully Ross is all right, though it looks like he was badly hurt enough. He was playing pretty well.

Quote from: drici on May 12, 2015, 11:33:30 AM
https://www.gaa.ie/content/documents/publications/miscellaneous/CCCC%20Proposal%202014%20to%202016.pdf

1st Plays Offaly
2nd Plays Wexford
3rd Plays Winner of Christy Ring with the Winner of that being in Leinster Championship and the Loser being in the Christy Ring next year
4th Plays in/Relegated to Christy Ring next year

(http://i849.photobucket.com/albums/ab56/declanrice/158_zpsfgli8sue.png)

Missed this.

We are exactly where we wanted to be.

The lads showed what their capable of but only for about 15 minutes; thankfully that was enough to see us past Westmeath. We'll need closer to 70 to give us a shot against Offaly.

It was a strange game. We started poorly and it was a point-each after about 10 minutes with no hurling done in either side. The first half, in general, was a putrid affair with Westmeath tacking on a few late scores to pull 4points clear.
Westmeath looked good; their centre and full backs were hurling oceans of ball and their midfield and half-back line were well on top. They could have been further ahead in truth.

The second half continued in a similar vein with Brendan Murtagh's goal putting Westmeath well-clear and at that stage I really feared we were looking at the prospect of relegation!

Then, within minutes we were level! Westmeath missed a simple free before Picky caught a brilliant long ball and fed Cha who buried us back into the game. The crowd woke up! Suddenly our tails were up and Westmeath were in disarray; Murtagh went off injured and without playing brilliantly, we found ourselves kicking for home with nice scores from Roddy and Hyland; before the crowd erupted again with Cha nailing a beauty of a point from long range.
The game petered out somewhat with Westmeath correctly getting 2 players sent-off and then the real negative of the day, Ross King's injury. It looked nasty, I suspect a cruciate, though I hope I'm wrong!

Credit must go to Cheddar and the entire panel.
We're not playing as well as we can but its a small sign of progress to see us qualify top of a group without getting out of 3rd gear.

Offaly in two weeks. Huge game; huge opportunity!

We are exactly where we wanted to be!

Great to get out of there with a win on Sunday. Westmeath were very strong all the way down the middle and, to be honest, were better than I thought they'd be.

We obviously have some good hurlers but for most of the game I thought Westmeath's motivation levels seemed higher than ours. They just looked like they wanted it more. I know it's easy to sit in the stand making judgements like that but, given the importance of the game, I thought we'd have been right in their faces from the first whistle and it wasn't like that. Had it not been for bad shooting, they could have been out of sight at half time.

Anyway, we have the opportunity now to improve again against Offaly. I'd say the performance levels will have to increase substantially to have any chance. I think the match is in Portlaoise, right?

Match is in Portlaoise on Sunday week.

No better team than Offaly to rain on a Laois parade.

'Foot to the floor hurling' as Cheddar says, will be required for 70 mins against Offaly if we are to have a chance. Yesterdays performance just won't be enough. Big blow if King is gone. He appeared upbeat enough at the end of the game but his knee was heavily strapped. He would be a big loss as he gave the Westmeath defense a torrid time catching the ball and running directly at them. Conroy was very quiet again and seems to perform better coming off the bench.

What can you say about Cha. A real leader on the field, always encouraging those around him. His goal and long range point were the winning of the game. He was making a nuisance of himself and getting stuck in. His game is on the edge but he does seem to have cut out some of the stuff that got him in trouble. A big name for Laois now. Thought Dwaye PAlmer had a good game and got o plenty of ball. Also liked the cut of Peacock when he came in and his determination to get that block in told a lot in itself. He could be pushing for inclusion the next day particularly if King isn't available.

We got the rub of the green in the round robin this year with the way results went so lets drive on from here. They just need to get that bit of confidence and belief that I think they are lacking. Laois looked very good for a spell yesterday and they will need every bit of it against Offaly.

Really looking forward to June 7th now. The lads will know only too well that they have not hurled a good game yet this year and hopefully they will have saved the best wine for that day. A win at home to Offaly will ensure that we don't hurl the round robin next year and I think it would be best for us to get out of that "competition" as it is hindering rather than aiding our development.

I generally don't be critical of players by name, but Tommy Fitz surely cannot be guaranteed a starting position any more. Tommy has been a great servant to Laois Hurling through the few great and many dark days over these past years, but his performances of late are not of ones I would be happy with.

Roddy's injury looked nasty and my heart sank to see him stretchered off. Hopefully it won't be as bad as feared.

Finally, well done to the lads yesterday, 10-15 minutes of hurling blew a gutsy Westmeath side apart and again, thankfully Carlow done the biz in DCP. That was a decent Westmeath side who have improved no end in the last year. Particularly impressed with their No. 3, 6, 9 and 13 who all had storming games.

I don't think that will be the last time we square off against that Westmeath team, they are a young side with some excellent hurlers.  Fair dues to them they are improving big time, and Wexford wouldn't want to be thinking they'll have a handy one.

Laois mixed the good with the bad, but it was definitely an improvement on the Carlow game.  Not much went right for us in the first half but there were some vital hooks and blocks thrown in that probably kept us in the game.  The wind was always going to be a factor and our efforts for points went over that bit easier in the second half, whereas Westmeaths trailed off.

Roddy King's injury is a massive blow.  He looked to be really finding his feet at this level and is our most dangerous inside forward.  You'd imagine Neil Foyle will hardly be fit for Offaly if he wasn't togged yesterday either, so it's anyone's guess what our full forward line will be.  Picky will start the next day but that still leaves two spots up for grabs there.  Some big calls for Cheddar and co. to make.

Special mention to Cha Dwyer and Matthew Whelan who were selected in both the GAA.ie and Hoganstand team of the week.

Also, what a goal Willie Hyland would have scored has it been an inch or two lower.

Great result. I wish I was able to drag my arse out of bed early enough (5:30 am) to listen to it.

Wait, is this the original LaoisTalk Bruce???  ???

Quote from: merman on May 25, 2015, 07:08:05 PM
Wait, is this the original LaoisTalk Bruce???  ???

It is the original Bruce. Thought I'd give local sports (mostly baseball) a chance for a few years, (yawn)--nothing comes close to the hurling. I found Laoistalk closed down and was told everyone migrated over to here.

Welcome back Bruce, great to see all the Laoistalk lads coming over here. Spread the word as we are still short a few to make up a good team :)

Quote from: Junior Ex Laoistalk on May 25, 2015, 08:54:43 PM
Welcome back Bruce, great to see all the Laoistalk lads coming over here. Spread the word as we are still short a few to make up a good team :)

Thanks, Junior. I like your surname.

Is Aragorn active in this forum?

I being one of the lucky ones to be in Portlaoise to cheer on our hurlers,would like to hear your opinions on the commentary given on local radio from our very own x Laois hurler,any one I met that listened to it said he was very critical of some of the lads and the management,we all can be critical but most of us know the sacrifices these lads are making and I am sure Cheddar wont walk away with a big wad of money at the end of the year,more like he will be out of pocket, not like what went before him  so next day be a little kinder. :P

Not sure if Aragorn posts here but there is one poster who is not unlike him. I would agree that he was/is very informative and has his finger on the pulse of Laois hurling and always look forward to his posts on the county teams.

Welcome back Bruce. You're back in time for what will be our biggest game in years against Offaly on June 7th. Not as early a start for you i.e. 7am your time.

Things went for us sunday in terms of results...I was happy with the battling qualities Laois showed there looked a a time that meant we could have been going down ...We end up topping the group and getting a rattle at Offaly in O'Moore park....

I thought Whelan and Palmer were very good...Cha had a decent game and Zane stood up in the second half and was counted...

I want to compliment the lads and I hope the whole county gets out to support them on June the 7th

Jack Nolans interview with Cheddar after the game. He is really fired up for the Offaly game now as I would imagine is the whole panel not to mention us supporters.


https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/seamus-plunkett-on-reaching-leinster-shc-quarters (https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/seamus-plunkett-on-reaching-leinster-shc-quarters)

Without playing well we got through and battled against our own form to win and that has to applauded and a credit to the lads and management.

The big question is now whether we can improve enough to beat Offaly?

Cheddar resigned??

Just heard that. What's the story there???

Matthew Whelan played a club game Monday night apparently. Absolutely criminal behaviour from a supposed senior member of the panel. We have lost a supreme Laois hurling man in Cheddar if this situation cannot be rectified

In Antrim players can't play for their clubs 10 days before a championship match. Although not knowing the ins & outs of the story, I say fair play to Whelan. Clubs are being dictated by County managers. County managers don't own these players. They are club players representing their county. I wish our own players would stand up to county managers who threaten to throw them off county panels if they play for their clubs.

Perhaps if it was a league game for the club but to do what he has done for a practise game? 2 weeks before the biggest game of the year for Laois? Pure stupidity if you ask me.

i agree with  Two Hands, how do they get to play with their county by hurling with their club first. kilkenny hurl club championship games during the summer and it has done them no harm over the last 125 years.

Whether the rules are right or wrong it doesnt matter, the rules were not obeyed.

We will not fully appreciate what chedder has done in the last 3 years for this county until he is gone.

Obviously players graduate to county panels on the back of their club form but they knew what was required of them and we are not in Kilkenny or Antrim. Cheddar has his system and right or wrong that is what is in place for the entire panel. Whelan and Jim Fitzpatrick completely went against this.

I agree that clubs should have access to their players more but was 13 days before a HUGE fixture against Offaly the best time to be playing a practise match with your club? Definitely not.

Where we go from here is anyone's guess. I cant imagine this was an isolated incident as Cheddar has invested way too much in the set-up to simply walk away over one breach perhaps this has being coming? Who knows at this stage

I cant help but agree with Jimmy point that this wasnt an isolated incident.

After Chedder fought tooth and nail to get us the professional set up a senior inter county team deserves , to get everyone on board  and invest so much of himself in this project for him to walk away 10 days before IMO the defining match of his reign is inexplicable but if he is gone he is gone so we need to regain focus on the Offaly match.

Jack Nolan speaking about Cheddars departure.


https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/jack-nolan-on-cheddars-departure (https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/jack-nolan-on-cheddars-departure)

Quite shocked to hear about this and even more shocked to hear of the player involved.  Heartbreaking for Cheddar to have given so much and get a slap in the face like this.  He wouldn't strike me as the kind of man to go back on a decision either, even if I dearly hope I'm wrong on that count.  Laois have moved out in betting terms in the mean time and justifiably so, but I don't think the Laois panel will implode just yet either, they will still want to do it for Cheddar even more now I'd say.

What is it with us in Laois and the self destruct button.

Cheddar must feel very let down by this alright considering the time, money and effort he has put in over the past 3 years. Hopefully the player involved is very contrite and apologies for his actions rightly or wrongly.

It would be a terrible wasy for Cheddars time to end.

As usual we will be looked at from outside as the county that self implodes when things are looking up.

I for one hope that Cheddar is back with the panel this weekend and that the players stand by him. We are far from perfect at the moment but we're a damn sight better off since he took over.

Bad enough the senior players hurling but the county u 21 corner back and the county minors played in the practice match too the whole club should be suspended

What a disaster!

I'm not connected with anyone close to the setup but it's hard to believe that it all came down to players playing in a practice match. My own view from the Westmeath match was that a lot of the players didn't seem to have the high motivation levels that are needed to beat the likes of Offaly. I just wonder was there more stuff going on the background. Hard to believe that a man like Cheddar could not find a way to deal with the indiscipline in a way that had the least effect on the rest of the panel.

I feel very sorry for him. He's a credit to himself and his county and I have no doubt the rest of the panel would have him back in a hearbeat.

Giovanni its amazing as we all know, what we do in the heat of the moment and I will not believe that there was more going on ,we were as frustrated as Cheddar looking at them hurl this year but I know personally what some of those lads have given up,including the players involved in the practice match its such a pity ,as some of them are finished this year  as  was Cheddar I believe, so we are trying to teach our children  to shake hands and make up and this is a time for that , I  hope it will happen.

No doubt he's a passionate man (which was badly needed in the hurling set up) and maybe he just made a snap decision. Undoubtedly, he would have been pissed off by what might be called disloyalty to him and the panel, especially after everything he has done for the individual members of the set up. As you said, there may also have been some frustration building up at the performance levels, despite all the hard work that was being done. At the same time, without knowing him, he never struck me as a "snap decision" man. I can't believe that it's all about a club practice match - he's put too much into it to let something like that make up his mind. I believe there's a Facebook campaign to get him back and I hope he might reconsider.

Quote from: crow on May 28, 2015, 05:22:50 PM
I know personally what some of those lads have given up,including the players involved in the practice match its such a pity.

A very important point to make.  The main senior player involved has given the best part of a decade of service to Laois.  He made a bad decision but nobody could have predicted the consequences, imagine how the lad is feeling now.  I'd urge posters to keep this in mind, it's time for cool heads now and hopefully the situation can be rescued.

Quote from: Mossy Bruce on May 25, 2015, 10:33:43 PM

Is Aragorn active in this forum?

I am indeed Bruce, welcome aboard!

Any further news on this? Has there been any contact made between Matthew Whelan and Cheddar? or is Cheddar not for turning?

Hard to know - Cunningham not ruling it out either according to www.42.ie also, Niall Rigney reckons the two players should get down on their knees and beg him back.

The whole thing is tragic. I too hope there is some way to get him back, not just for 2015 but for another 3 years.

Was really surprised at what Jack Nolan said about Cheddar putting much of his own money into the setup - this is astonishing to me. There has never been a more dedicated Laois hurling man in my living memory and he should have been at a minimum financially neutral from his efforts. The county board didn't even pay for the training trip abroad earlier in the year.

I too believe that there probably was some frustration in how Laois have been playing this year, they have been inexplicably flat despite all the preparations seeming ideal. However, I think this was part of the learning curve for the management team. The Boris KK practice match probably added to the frustration and tipped him over the edge.

is there any truth in that 2 or 3 laois players have threw off the panel.

Matthew whelan, jim fitzpatrick and Paddy Whelan have left the panel I hear.

I just feel so sorry the the panel and management team that have worked so hard in such a dedicated fashion to improve themselves and Laois hurling to see such bullsh#t going on before the match they worked towards all year. Typical laois .

Offaly must be rolling around laughing at the thought of the way we are carrying on.

Had a dream last night that it was all a ruse to lull Offaly into a false sense of security and we went out and hurled like demons and beat them with Cheddar on the line and Whelan putting in a man of the match performance.

Quote from: redsetanta on May 31, 2015, 11:25:14 AM
Had a dream last night that it was all a ruse to lull Offaly into a false sense of security and we went out and hurled like demons and beat them with Cheddar on the line and Whelan putting in a man of the match performance.

Good man. I dreamt I was with Jennifer Lawrence.......I reckon my dream has a better chance of coming true.

Quote from: portlaoisekid on May 31, 2015, 10:55:44 AM
Matthew whelan, jim fitzpatrick and Paddy Whelan have left the panel I hear.

I just feel so sorry the the panel and management team that have worked so hard in such a dedicated fashion to improve themselves and Laois hurling to see such bullsh#t going on before the match they worked towards all year. Typical laois .

Offaly must be rolling around laughing at the thought of the way we are carrying on.

no one in offaly is rolling around laughing at all, we know well laois will give it everything next weekend no matter who's over them.  gone are the days when offaly would beat laois well and there will only be a score in it next week.

Paddy not left panel too much gossip let's get behind the lads and move on to next Sunday up laois

No sign of a return from Cheddar?

would everyone on this site please listen to Ger Cuninghams interview on facebook on Friends of Laois and then on to beating Offaly with a bit of luck

I will never forgive Borris Kilcotton for what they have done here. Never.

Quote from: Don Draper on June 01, 2015, 08:09:10 AM
I will never forgive Borris Kilcotton for what they have done here. Never.

I blame their manager, I highly doubt the B-K committee sat down last weekend and gave the green light to the manager to play the county panellists.

What a sad situation it is that Cheddar had to resign less than 2 weeks before the biggest game of the year against Offaly.

Cheddar did not deserve this after all the the time, energy, committment given and by all accounts his expense.

2012 was a catastrophe. The embarrassment of having to ask the official in O'Connor park to open the gate for us to leave early in the 2nd half v Dublin. What a walloping. Official was sniggering "I didn't think ye were that bad". Followed up by a trouncing by Limerick in the qualifiers. Crisis.

Step in Cheddar to save Laois hurling.

2013 we had the feeling back. A feeling that did not exist since the late 90s. We were competitive again. Remember the feeling we had when Tommy Fitz smashed home that goal to put us ahead against Galway. Our first Leinster semi final since 2005.

What about 2014. What about putting it up to All Ireland champions Clare in the league quater final. What about leading Galway by 6 points with 15 minutes left last June in the Leinster quater final. None of this would be possible without Cheddar.

2015. Taking guys off to Spain for a training camp. Unheard of in Laois. A professional set up.

Yeah sure form hasn't been top notch this year. Losing to Antrim and barely shaking off Carlow. But the 2nd half display against Westmeath last Sunday was much more like it. The lads clicked for the first time this year.

Cyril Farrell last Monday described the upcoming game against Offaly as 50/50. I dont think he'd say that today.

Bottom line is: we need Cheddar back. And fast. I can only hope that everything possible is being done to make this happen.

Quote from: G@@ on June 01, 2015, 12:24:04 PM

Quote from: Don Draper on June 01, 2015, 08:09:10 AM
I will never forgive Borris Kilcotton for what they have done here. Never.

I blame their manager, I highly doubt the B-K committee sat down last weekend and gave the green light to the manager to play the county panellists.

Bullshit. The tail doesn't wag the dog.

Interesting re B/K the Q I would ask is why. They may feel aggrieved that so many players were in with laois and not available to them. They perhaps feel that they need to win a senior title to vindicate the amalgamation and so Laois not performing gives fuel to the sense of waste that might be there of what they could be achieving with all their players. Perhaps that is the thing Cheddar felt too. Somehow the 2 playing club match was the distillation of all the negativity and seen by him as confirmation of a lack of faith and belief in him by a club or clubs and some players. Let's not forget the club's  were a big part of laois previous woes. (I'm not dismissing the genuine club v county tensions that exist). I think cheddar wanted everyone to put the county first or at least he wanted to move away from the sort of dynamic where this sort of stuff goes on.

Ultimately I think BK people must have known that this was a direct undermining of cheddar but did it anyway. Or maybe they underestimated it's impact. Either way it was a poor move 2 weeks before Offaly. In many ways that game was to be a seminal moment in the cheddar project it still is in the Laois project but it's hard not to feel now like events off the pitch will define more closely where we are than those on. And that's a real sickener.

Any word on Ross King's injury? no point moaning any longer re: Cheddar's departure. It's a massive pity how it all worked out but there's a game to be won Sunday. Who will be put centre back in place of Matthew? 

According to Cunningham King is out  for 6-8 weeks.

I wonder will Cunningham make any major changes to the team other than Whelan and King? 

Ross is out for 6 - 8 weeks, I think.
James Walsh was centre back when Whelan was injured before. It didn't work that well, in my opinion. Pity was, Whelan was playing much better since he came back from his injury... Dunno what the answer is, really.
Laoise have lost Whelan and Plunkett, and the already slim chance they had of beating Offaly, it seems.

Tom Delaney surely to get a look into the team. Great in the air, very physical player who would be able for Offaly's physical battle.  Probably too risky to take Cahir out of full back position this stage in the year since he's been there all season. Need to try Neil Foyle on full forward line if he's not injured or put Zane in full forward and Jimmy Walsh middle of the field.
Puckouts have to be better too much messy ball in senior/u21 championship along with the handpassing.
We need about 2 goals at least and to concede very small amount of frees. Nobody gave us chances against Galway the last 2 years Sunday no different considering the circumstances.

Even though Healy was never  my choice for full back, its too late to put Delaney in there now and I do think he has the size and boldness to play there. I would play him corner and bring out John A  to the half back line .I hope we go man for man and not drop back a player because I think we are better than Offaly. Will Conroy or Scully start I would start Scully  and  Willie is  my choice for full forward pump it into him score or penalty game over. Rowland, Stapleton,Healy,James Walsh,,Joe Fitz,Tom Delaney ,John A,Paddy Purcell,Picky,Zane,Joe Campion, Cha, Tommy Fitz, Willie, Scully. My team whats yours

I have a big favor to ask. It's been a few years since I've been following the hurling back there and I'd like to reacquaint myself with the County panel. Would someone list the players who've played the most in League and the Championship this year and note what club the players are from? Also, are Conor and Brian Dunne still playing for Laois?

Thanks!
Bruce

Would delaney or Campion be suitable for the centreback position? They will probably put James Walsh in there though. Dwayne PAlmer played well against Westmeath.
Peacock another man pushing for a place in the forwards. Ben conroy hasn't done well when starting and Scully hasn't got going at all. What about Ben Reddin, is he still on the panel?
Picky didn't do so well in centrefield against Carlow so wouldn't have him there.
Lot's of decisions to be made and in one sense it's good to have them but the absence of a settled team going into such an important game is a worry.

Don't think Peacock would last 70 minutes might be a good impact sub again. Not enough running at defenders with our forwards. Willie Hyland good option on the full forward line also. The curtain raiser will be good game Vincent's vs Tullaroan Diarmuid Connelly vs Tommy Walsh!  8)

I we hurl for 70 minutes man to man I say we'll be close. Here's hoping!

I hear Cheddar is back????

Cheddar back in charge and the lads are back on the panel. Lets drive on for Sunday.

A man that can put hurt behind him and look forward is some man, I knew Cheddar was special but it takes character and knowing him he always put county and the lads first and this is a prime example, just a pity it had to become so public but all counties have their problems, its when u rise above them that u gain admiration

Fair play to all involved, including the Country Board who often take a lot of stick from forums like this one.

This is a great outcome for Laois hurling. I hope the players now use the experience to find an extra 10% within themselves for those 70 minutes next Sunday.

Good luck to everyone but, whatever the result, we need to go home Sunday evening knowing that we've done everything possible. Certainly, we're starting in the right way. Fair play.

Whatever it was, it was. All together now. If the Offaly jersey can't ignite these fellas nothing will. Lets tear the f**king walls off O'Moore Park on Sunday.

great that Chedder and the lads are back... time to focus on playing Offaly now.....

One point. Just a one point win. We need this so f***in badly. Sick of moral victories. Sick of being patronised in the media by the big guns. If there's anything in these lads guts, they will leave it all out on the pitch on Sunday. Good luck to the lads. One point will do.

Hoping for a massive support on sunday now!

I hope we adopt an effective strategy to counter Shane Dooley. He is a great talent and key to Offaly's success.

Other than that, I hope the leaden-footedness of the 3 games in the round robin has been put to one side. We will need to be lightening fast and accurate in execution to have a chance.

Great news cheddar and team back.  Now hopefully we get it together to neat offaly

Quote from: Mossy Bruce on June 02, 2015, 01:24:06 AM
I have a big favor to ask. It's been a few years since I've been following the hurling back there and I'd like to reacquaint myself with the County panel. Would someone list the players who've played the most in League and the Championship this year and note what club the players are from? Also, are Conor and Brian Dunne still playing for Laois?

Thanks!
Bruce

Conor Dunne has started a lot of the games; he's the only one from The Harps on the panel as far as I know.
So, off the top of my head, there's also: Tommy Fitz and Cahir Healy (Portlaoise); goalies Enda Rowland and Eoin Reilly (both Abbeyleix); John A Delaney, Stephen Maher, Willie Hyland (Ballacolla); Brian Stapleton, Matthew Whelan, Neil Foyle, Joe Campion, PJ Scully (Borris Kilcotton); Zane Keenan and Dwayne Palmer (Camross); Cha Dwyer and Jimmy Walsh (Ballinakill); Joe Fitzpatrick, Patrick Purcell, Ross King (Rathdowney-Errill); Ben Conroy (Slieve Bloom); and Brendan Reddin (Castletown).
Might've forgotten one or two...

all this Cheddar is back  lets not forget he isn't playing, i think all this will he won't he be back has took the eye off the main thing that is the game, should be a very close game but maybe the laois squad had other thinks on their minds the pass week that could be the differents at the end. or it could go the other way make them a stronger side.

Quote from: burdizzo on June 03, 2015, 07:08:22 PM

Quote from: Mossy Bruce on June 02, 2015, 01:24:06 AM
I have a big favor to ask. It's been a few years since I've been following the hurling back there and I'd like to reacquaint myself with the County panel. Would someone list the players who've played the most in League and the Championship this year and note what club the players are from? Also, are Conor and Brian Dunne still playing for Laois?

Thanks!
Bruce

Conor Dunne has started a lot of the games; he's the only one from The Harps on the panel as far as I know.
So, off the top of my head, there's also: Tommy Fitz and Cahir Healy (Portlaoise); goalies Enda Rowland and Eoin Reilly (both Abbeyleix); John A Delaney, Stephen Maher, Willie Hyland (Ballacolla); Brian Stapleton, Matthew Whelan, Neil Foyle, Joe Campion, PJ Scully (Borris Kilcotton); Zane Keenan and Dwayne Palmer (Camross); Cha Dwyer and Jimmy Walsh (Ballinakill); Joe Fitzpatrick, Patrick Purcell, Ross King (Rathdowney-Errill); Ben Conroy (Slieve Bloom); and Brendan Reddin (Castletown).
Might've forgotten one or two...

Thanks, burdizzo!

A few years back, another Harps man was playing in the forward line, James Brophy. I think, back then, he was considering retiring from the County squad. Has he played any the last few years? Does he still play for The Harps?

Do you mean John Brophy? Still plays with the Harps afaik.

Quote from: laoislad on June 03, 2015, 07:58:06 PM
Do you mean John Brophy? Still plays with the Harps afaik.

It is John ("Boggy" as I remember). Thanks, LaoisLad.

AFAIK Boggy has been struggling with injury over the past two to three years Bruce.

Quote from: Thewildcat on June 03, 2015, 07:20:44 PM
all this Cheddar is back  lets not forget he isn't playing, i think all this will he won't he be back has took the eye off the main thing that is the game, should be a very close game but maybe the laois squad had other thinks on their minds the pass week that could be the differents at the end. or it could go the other way make them a stronger side.

All in all the last week and a half has been another farce for Laois Hurling. When Cheddar took over it was under a premise of a 3 year plan to improve Laois Hurling. There is no doubt that there have been improved results and professionalism has increased but you also have to account for the fact Antrim and Carlows development has taken marked steps back. We are yet to take a championship "scalp" of any quality and this weekend looks like the best chance to correct this against a below par Offaly team. Should the team lose I think Cheddar will have to consider whether his position is still tenable. His role as manager of the 21s has to go down as a mistake looking back now.

Optimism has to be high going into the game and it will be most interesting how Cheddar handles the recent indiscipline. With Matthew back in the panel its going to be a tough choice whether to start him. Personally I think he should be benched for his misjudgement.

I think Whelan should start. He has a point to prove.

I don't think having a point to prove is a good reason to start someone, there is plenty that have points to prove. You cannot create a team culture where lads can do what they want and because they are big names and show remorse you act like nothings happened. This is a time to show respect to the backup players who have bided their time all year and sacrificed playing time with their club to sit on the bench for the county while Matthew got playing time.

Goes without saying that this is a massive game for both counties.  For Laois the overall aim is to stay producing competitive underage teams with a longer term view of putting out a senior team capable of going toe to toe with the best.  Short term, this is probably last chance saloon for a number of the older guys that have given great service to Laois through some dark times.  If they don't get a win on Sunday they are likely to retire having never tasted a big championship win.  For Offaly it's one of those horrible situations where they are expected to win, won't get much praise if they do win, but will be hammered if they lose.  Plenty of pressure on both sides then.

I think Laois are capable of getting a win on Sunday, but I think the management are going to have to take some gambles and those gambles will have to pay off.  The one clear area where Offaly are well ahead of us is their scoring potential in their full forward line.  Ross King is a massive loss here, and both Ben Conroy and PJ Scully haven't done enough for me to get a start.  They are young and neither are bad options off the bench when legs tire but they are not ready to start yet.  One of Zane, Hyland or Cha will be needed inside to go with (probably) Tommy Fitz and Picky.  Foyle can't be near 100% fit and if he only has 20 minutes in him I'd prefer to spring him from the bench.

The next punt the management will have to make is who lines out at centre back.  If not Matthew then Jimmy Walsh seems the only real alternative.  For me 10 years of dedication outweighs one blip (and if they are 100% honest, how many of our hurlers haven't faltered once in their careers with Laois?) so Matthew would get the nod.  If the players can't pull together now and ignore the drama of last week for the greater good then we have no business taking to the field against Offaly.

That would leave us with something like:

1.Enda Rowland/Eoin Reilly.
2.Brian Stapleton.
3.Cahir Healy.
4.John A.
5.Joe Fitz.
6.Matthew Whelan.
7.Tom Delaney.
8.James Walsh.
9.Paddy Purcell.
10.Joe Campion.
11.Zane Keenan.
12.Cha Dwyer.
13.Tommy Fitz.
14.Willie Hyland.
15.Picky Maher.

Tom Delaney brings the same kinda physicality and drive that Campion provided at wing back but with more experience, while Campion has the fitness and work rate I think we'll need on the half forward line.  I'd start Walsh and Fitz for two reasons, firstly I think they have earned this chance and secondly, sentiment aside, I don't think they will let us down in this of all games.

Plenty of big calls to be made then and while all signs seem to be pointing to an Offaly win,  I think we have a fair chance if we finally produce a performance.

Obviously he has given great service to the county but he did the county a great diservice in the last week or so. The lads like jimmy Walsh have also given great service and deserve the start for biding their time.

Quote from: the ratman on June 04, 2015, 07:01:51 PM
Obviously he has given great service to the county but he did the county a great diservice in the last week or so. The lads like jimmy Walsh have also given great service and deserve the start for biding their time.

Cheddar and the panel have welcomed Matthew back, he starts. Simple as. Why else have him there. Best man for the job gets the job. grind the axe elsewhere.

Beyond the controversy I think laois have a great chance this weekend especially if they can limit the goals. I'd say it will be a low scoring game with both teams nervous and concentrating on defence more than attack. Can't see iy being a great spectacle but will be great if they can pull it off.

God, I'm really looking forward to this one.
Does anyone know if the terrace will be open?

Offaly know this is huge. Make no mistake. I'm not for a second going to say they are scared; but they're wary. We have chipped away at them with under-age successes but we need to deliver a telling blow at senior level. Even that U21 loss a couple of years ago was a real shot to our momentum. To my mind, we were the better team that evening from the 15th to the 60th minute but being 2/3 points the better team wasn't enough; Offaly had the nous to win a close match that was there for the taking.
I fear the same will be true on Sunday. If this game is in the melting pot with 5 to go then I worry for us. Offaly simply can't lose because that breaks the spell. The die has been cast for decades now; Offaly have had our number but change is on the horizon and don't think Offaly can't see it...but they can stop it!
A win for Offaly buys them time; it knocks us back down a level and gives them an extra year or two to redress their juvenile inadequacies. A win for Offaly will only paper over some of the cracks but that would be enough. A win for us and we knock down their front door and can hope to make a legitimate step forward.
I know our sum-ambition can't be 'to just beat Offaly' but I believe it has been a mental noose around our neck for long enough and if we don't rip it off now; I fear it will tighten in the immediate future.

To my mind, both teams enter this game with real question marks hanging over them and real pressure weighing them down. This could suffocate any notion of open, attacking hurling and this could be an extremely physical battle; in fact, I'd be surprised if it was anything but.

Joe Bergin will likely go straight in on Cahir. They will look to go long and direct and if they smell weakness after our indifferent preparation then they'll go for goals in a serious way! The likes of Dooley, Quirke and Carroll won't pass up too many opportunities and our full-back line will need to be rock solid. I'd presume we'll see John A and Butch in there; I'd detail Delaney to follow Dooley everywhere.

Unfortunately, I don't think we carry anywhere near the same goal threat. Bar individual moments of brilliance; we just don't create goal-chances and I don't think 15/16 points will be enough on Sunday. Offaly have concerns about their full-back line and if Neil Foyle was anywhere near 100% I'd lash him in from the start alongside Picky. If Foyle is out I'd go with Keenan at 14.

As for Matthew Whelan, I'm torn. He was beginning to come back to form during the Westmeath game and he's the kind of man you'd want beside you in a battle. I probably would start him but that owes as much to our lack of obvious alternatives as anything else. Either side of him, we still haven't seen Joe Fitzpatrick light up a game in the way he's so obviously capable...yet. Again, I would start Tom Delaney but I think he's completely out of favour so Joe Campion will get the nod.
Paddy Purcell will start and I don't think enough was made of the quiet efficiency that Dwayne Palmer brought the last day. He was tidy in possession and made a couple of crucial blocks in the first half that helped keep Westmeath in range. I'd start him again although I would consider using him back as our sweeper.

Cha and Hyland will undoubtedly start and we'll need big games from both. Cha is, to my mind at least, the heir apparent to Hyland as our go-to man in the forwards. Hyland gets a lot of stick but he's still our number 1 puck-out option and nearly always contributes with 3/4 points; be they from play or from drawing frees. I would expect Offaly to drop very deep on our puck-outs so we're going to need to be clever as primary possession could be at a premium. I'd expect Tommy to just about hold his place and I'd like to see him at 11 and getting on breaks.

All in all, I'm really on the fence on this one. I don't believe there is much between the teams and I suspect we may have the edge with games under our belt and a more cohesive style of play, even if that style can falter at times.
Home advantage has to count for something and I'll be apoplectic if we don't carry a bigger crowd than Offaly. Unfortunately, that is in itself somewhat unlikely...

Score prediction:
1.17-2.15

I'm just not sure to whom...

Great posting, as always, Merman.  :)

Just the abbeyleix Terrace is closed the rest is as normal...

I hope we can win it but I fear Offaly's full forward line and goals .... >:( >:( :'(

1. Enda Rowland (St Lazerian's Abbeyleix)
2. John A Delaney (Clough Ballacolla)
3. Cahir Healy (Portlaoise)
4. Brian Stapleton (Borris-in-Ossory-Kilcotton)
5. Joe Fitzpatrick (Rathdowney Errill)
6. Matthew Whelan (Borris-in-Ossory-Kilcotton)
7. Conor Dunne (The Harps)
8. Joe Campion (Borris-in-Ossory-Kilcotton)
9. Patrick Purcell (Rathdowney Errill)
10. Willie Hyland (Clough Ballacolla)
11. Zane Keenan (Camross)
12. Charles Dwyer (Ballinakill)
13. Ben Conroy (Slieve Bloom)
14. Tommy Fitzgerald (Portlaoise)
15. PJ Scully (Borris-in-Ossory-Kilcotton)

Surprised that both Conroy and PJ are starting.

Also thought Palmer would have been in the reckoning after Westmeath game. Those sending off's are crippling Delaney and I thought he would also be close to start for this game. Maybe management feel they cannot trust him to stay the course.

Will this team start? I doubt it somehow as there has to be some gamesmanship. It's early enough for the Laois team to be named.

I would expect changes.
I'd be amazed if Picky hasn't done enough to earn a start.

There will definitely be changes.

Could not see that full forward line starting in any capacity. Scully and Conroy were poor in the U21 against Carlow and Tommy has been poor all year.

You would expect Picky or Foyle to be in there and Tommy to do a large amount of cover work which he shows a great appetite for in fairness to him.

Moral victory will not suffice Sunday after the last two years near misses. A win is required. At any cost.

Tommy is a man for the big day, and has turned up consistently at this stage in the past 2 years. I too don't see that team starting, Picky will be in for sure, and one other surprise.

From http://www.uibhfhaili.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6882&sid=bf3d2cb75118e490556a57b95ad70296&start=45#p49928

QuoteWell lads,

Not one for writing on forums but I can't see the panic, I have full confidence for the match Sunday and think we'll win by 7 to 10 points, hope I'm not way off on this but I think Carroll and dooley will tear them apart as long as we provide the right ball, our full back line is weak but still think we have too much for laois, let's keep them down and get over and support the faithful on Sunday.

Print and pin it to the dressing room wall.  >:(

Quote from: G@@ on June 05, 2015, 01:19:01 PM
From http://www.uibhfhaili.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6882&sid=bf3d2cb75118e490556a57b95ad70296&start=45#p49928

QuoteWell lads,

Not one for writing on forums but I can't see the panic, I have full confidence for the match Sunday and think we'll win by 7 to 10 points, hope I'm not way off on this but I think Carroll and dooley will tear them apart as long as we provide the right ball, our full back line is weak but still think we have too much for laois, let's keep them down and get over and support the faithful on Sunday.

Print and pin it to the dressing room wall.  >:(

That's their fear. Fear is a motherfucker. The man who fears losing has already lost.

Drive on.

Quote from: Don Draper on June 05, 2015, 01:26:07 PM

Quote from: G@@ on June 05, 2015, 01:19:01 PM
From http://www.uibhfhaili.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6882&sid=bf3d2cb75118e490556a57b95ad70296&start=45#p49928

QuoteWell lads,

Not one for writing on forums but I can't see the panic, I have full confidence for the match Sunday and think we'll win by 7 to 10 points, hope I'm not way off on this but I think Carroll and dooley will tear them apart as long as we provide the right ball, our full back line is weak but still think we have too much for laois, let's keep them down and get over and support the faithful on Sunday.

Print and pin it to the dressing room wall.  >:(

That's their fear. Fear is a motherfucker. The man who fears losing has already lost.

Drive on.

The man who fears losing has already lost.
Love it  :D

Honestly if someone had a gun to my head and was to offer me a choice of the footballers or hurlers winning this weekend I would have to pick the hurlers.
Obviously though I want both to win....

Cant see Conor Dunne starting, my  team, is Rowland, Butch,Tom Delaney Healy, John A, Mathew W, Joe F, Paddy Purcell, James W, Cha,Joe Campion,Zane, and inside Tommy, Willie and Picky. Thats my dream team but I know Cheddar wont chance Tom at full back but I think he would add that bit of steel to that line,and is that not a strong enough inside forward line if our forwards work hard enough we will win Up Laois

Would love to see 3 changes the team that is named. Picky for Conroy, Foyle for PJ Scully and Tom Delaney for Conor Dunne. 3 big men in for 3 smaller men, we need size to match that of Offalys. We have all the hurling to beat them, I just worry we won't be physically able.

Quote from: Buffalobull on June 05, 2015, 03:42:52 PM
Would love to see 3 changes the team that is named. Picky for Conroy, Foyle for PJ Scully and Tom Delaney for Conor Dunne. 3 big men in for 3 smaller men, we need size to match that of Offalys. We have all the hurling to beat them, I just worry we won't be physically able.

Buffalobull is spot on and they are the changes I'd make ...Or maybe Palmer for Dunne!

If Palmer comes in I would see him deployed as the extra defender which means one of the forwards would have to go. It's a balancing act. We can't concede goals so need the cover but we also need the scores. If we were to score with the same efficiency as the Galway game last year then we should get the win.

I think Foyle is still injured. Anyway, he probably hasn't done enough hurling lately. However, Maher should certainly start.

We have to stop Shane Dooley, I'd put cahir on him and John A on carroll and hope bergin is deployed on the 40

Damn. I'm only going to be able to listen to the first half of the match. I'm heading to a training workshop for Japanese-style acupuncture in Santa Fe , New Mexico. I'll be learning how to stick needles in people during the second half of the match. Hey, I think I'll make a small little doll and tog it out like a miniature biffo then stick it full of needles. Hmmm. ;)

Just doing my part.

Haha good man Bruce, a miniture biffo. Make sure you call him Shane!

if laois think offaly are only Shane Dooley they are in for a land.

There's a nice little bit of hype building ahead of Sunday. Something that has been amiss in the county since the Mick O'Dwyer era. Hope there is a great atmosphere and crowd in for Sunday. Thinking of heading to the terrace as the weather is expected to be relatively nice. The Abbeyleix end is closed apparently, so we won't be seeing this guy in his florescent jacket doing all sorts of shapes...

(http://media.balls.ie/uploads/2013/06/laoisstewardcelebration.gif)

Quote from: Thewildcat on June 05, 2015, 11:03:39 PM
if laois think offaly are only Shane Dooley they are in for a land.

Stop Dooley, and you stop this Offaly team. It truly is that simple.

Fair play GAA. More of the same on Sunday from Tommy, he's due one. Great lay off for him though!

There is a definite sense of optimism and I think a lot of that is feeding in from the football side of things too.

To be fair, we're not world-beaters in either code but we do probably bat above ourselves and we should be proud to have two teams with realistic shots at a Leinster semi-final over the weekend.

Regardless of the results on Sunday, I hope this positivity and optimism remains as it can only be good for the county...

I cant help but feel this is a defining moment in our development, it seems like the last 3 years have led to this  game.

A win here would mean the world to Laois and I feel we are well capable of beating them. My worry is us conceding goals and our lack of goal threat. They will attack our full back line with high ball and in Currums and Bergin they have a serious aerial advantage and of course Dooley is top class.

We need to improve and I believe we will, we need to play smart and our distribution from our back line off short puck outs has to be top class or else they will punish us.

I do think we will win , we need this and I believe we can and will win.

my prediction laois 2-21 offaly 3-17 

Owens is down to ref it, so at least it wont be Alan Kelly.  That's a good start!

Quote from: Don Draper on June 06, 2015, 12:14:55 AM

Quote from: Thewildcat on June 05, 2015, 11:03:39 PM
if laois think offaly are only Shane Dooley they are in for a land.

Stop Dooley, and you stop this Offaly team. It truly is that simple.
[/quote

as i said if laois go out with that in mind they could be in for a shock, by the way that won't be the starting 15 for offaly.

Quote from: portlaoisekid on June 06, 2015, 11:50:00 AM
I cant help but feel this is a defining moment in our development, it seems like the last 3 years have led to this  game.

A win here would mean the world to Laois and I feel we are well capable of beating them. My worry is us conceding goals and our lack of goal threat. They will attack our full back line with high ball and in Currums and Bergin they have a serious aerial advantage and of course Dooley is top class.

We need to improve and I believe we will, we need to play smart and our distribution from our back line off short puck outs has to be top class or else they will punish us.

I do think we will win , we need this and I believe we can and will win.

my prediction laois 2-21 offaly 3-17
[/quote

i don't think there will be much of a goal threat from Dan Currams this is his 6th year and has only got the 1 goal in championship hurling maybe he will prove me wrong on sunday.

Quoteas i said if laois go out with that in mind they could be in for a shock, by the way that won't be the starting 15 for offaly.

That would be outstanding news if true.

What a result. Hard to pick a man of the match. All were brilliant.

Brilliant result and what an atmosphere at the game.
So happy this evening!

Well lads that was brilliant. The big names stood up to be counted today. What a display of point scoring and in particular a couple from Willie Hyland. From 1 to 15 they fought like men possessed for the ball today and deserve it so much. There were mistakes but the day belongs to everyone involved in Laois hurling. Niall Rigney was on the field after with a smile from ear to ear and it was great to see the likes of himself and Pat Critchley enjoying the moment. 43 years without a win over Offaly in the championship. But as Cheddar says they'll enjoy the night and be back training Tuesday and prepare for Galway. What a day and I don't mind saying there was nearly a tear at the end.

What a result what a result first win over offaly since 1972 I believe super hurling
:D :D

Absolutely fantastic performance, great work in the backs, and some superb shooting in the forwards. No goals, but that Laoise were the ones w/ the chances, shows how effective the defence, and the sweeper system, was. A great spell in the second quarter, when four down, to get 0-8 without reply and go in four up. And, importantly, the concentration didn't waver in the last 10 minutes. Quite a sight to see the Offaly faithful streaming out at that stage!
Delighted for them all, but most of all for the old servants; the likes of Tommy Fitz, Joe Fitz, and - yes - Matt Whelan, who all had stormers.
Now, a quandary: the seniors in Tullamore, June 20th in a semi-final, and the minors in a semi-final on June 20th in Nowlan Park... What to do?

Surely we have a chance of playing both games together in the one place

Well done to Laois.  They struck mighty scores from distance and seized the day.

Quote from: Plain of the Herbs on June 07, 2015, 11:23:52 PM
Well done to Laois.  They struck mighty scores from distance and seized the day.

Fair play POTH. There's great respect in Laois for Offaly hurling and the achievements of the 80s and 90s. Offaly will rise again and please God we're up there with them.

And I was impressed by the 'This is Laois Hurling Country' posters along the old N7 roadside as I drove home.  The phrase 'Honest Brave Humble' has a lovely ring to it.

I hope the uibhfhaili posters ignore the usual shite from 'suckitdiesel' on their regular site. I cannot commend the genuine Offaly fans enough; I waited 20 mins after ft with the kids and could still walk out with a prominent uibhfhaili.com poster who stood and listened to our own idiotic minority rubbing in ill-deserved wounds.

Ladies and gentlemen, now is not a time to ridicule a proud county like Offaly (because they WILL be back), rather, it is a time to stand and appreciate the sacrifices our lads have made over the last 4/5 years.
I'm facing into a 12-hour shift here now; I'll come back tomorrow with a more thorough response, but...thank you...thank you so much! This means the world to the hurling supporters who have waited a generation and more for today...

Well said and tomorrow u might clarify for me are our minors playing Kky the same day as our seniors in two different venue's one at 3 and the other at 5 please that can't happen

I've come back, after a long day of being at a training workshop, afraid of turning on my computer, itching to hear the results, but fearing the worst. What an incredible result--not only a win but a bit of a drubbing. I look forward to hearing commentary here and hopefully seeing some video of the match.

Well done, Laois! I can only imagine the atmosphere back there.

The atmosphere is electric Bruce. Really looking forward to the Galway game now.

Credit to all the lads involved, this is exactly what Laois hurling needed - getting out of the round robin series for next year is massive. Terrible outcome for Galway, the last thing they will want is another battle like the last couple against Laois. They will be coming off a big high after beating Dublin but lets hope they get bogged down again and we can finish them off this time.

Fair play to ye lads. I've felt sorry Laois for most for most of the last 30 years.

There have been some unlucky near misses for starters. I was too young to remember the Offaly ghost goal in 1981. I do remember ye having Kilkenny on the rack in 1998 and being agonisingly close to beating them. The year before that Offaly squeaked through by a point when PJ Peacock had a last minute goal chance that fizzed an inch wide.

The dreadful days too. When John O'Sullivan fumbled into his own net in '96 with no one near him, the 2012 rout by Dublin, the severe trimmings in the qualifiers when Munster teams and Galway have dished out hammerings with relish to get their campaigns back on track. Cork racking up 10 goals was pure ignorance IMO. Over the years, I often wondered how the stalwarts in Laois kept plugging away when it was bound to be a thankless ordeal.

Ignore the few dopes on either side of the border and you'll find there is a lot of mutual respect in Offaly for how Leix have lifted themselves.

BRUCE - Here is the full match commentary - https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/laois-0-29-offaly-0-21

Niall Rigney needed tissues at the full time whistle!  ;D - https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/niall-rigney-and-john-leahy-on-laois-win-over-offaly

The Keenan Father and Son interviews - https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/frank-and-zane-keenan-on-laois-win-over-offaly

God speaks - https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/cheddar-plunkett-post-offaly-1

Quote from: Bord na Mona man on June 08, 2015, 12:25:20 PM
Fair play to ye lads. I've felt sorry Laois for most for most of the last 30 years.

There have been some unlucky near misses for starters. I was too young to remember the Offaly ghost goal in 1981. I do remember ye having Kilkenny on the rack in 1998 and being agonisingly close to beating them. The year before that Offaly squeaked through by a point when PJ Peacock had a last minute goal chance that fizzed an inch wide.

The dreadful days too. When John O'Sullivan fumbled into his own net in '96 with no one near him, the 2012 rout by Dublin, the severe trimmings in the qualifiers when Munster teams and Galway have dished out hammerings with relish to get their campaigns back on track. Cork racking up 10 goals was pure ignorance IMO. Over the years, I often wondered how the stalwarts in Laois kept plugging away when it was bound to be a thankless ordeal.

Ignore the few dopes on either side of the border and you'll find there is a lot of mutual respect in Offaly for how Leix have lifted themselves.

Fair play BMN, there is no great joy in seeing Offaly slip back in the rankings which I think was summed up by the eerie silence yesterday when Laois got 10 points ahead. I hope Offaly can arrest the slide and stay up in top tier hurling.

Quote from: G@@ on June 08, 2015, 12:30:11 PM
BRUCE - Here is the full match commentary - https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/laois-0-29-offaly-0-21

Niall Rigney needed tissues at the full time whistle!  ;D - https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/niall-rigney-and-john-leahy-on-laois-win-over-offaly

The Keenan Father and Son interviews - https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/frank-and-zane-keenan-on-laois-win-over-offaly

God speaks - https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/cheddar-plunkett-post-offaly-1

g@@, thank you for these links! I greatly appreciate it and look forward to listening to them, tonight. I did get to listen to "God speaks" last night--great interview--an impressive man.

Well done to Laois, great to see ye get that scalp that's been coming these last few years. Would be great to see a repeat against Galway in the semi, the last two years shows ye have nothing to fear going up against them.

Quote from: Bord na Mona man on June 08, 2015, 12:25:20 PM
Cork racking up 10 goals was pure ignorance IMO.

And no better crowd, no county does the flat track bully act quite like Cork, in either code.

Congratulations to Laois on their win yesterday. I thought we'd regroup after halftime, but you were relentless. Sounded like an array of fabulous scores flew over the bar.

Good luck against Galway in the next round. They may be good, but so are you.

Unreal win, it was a great day for Laois hurling. All the lads stood up and played fantastically well after a turbulent week or two. Hopefully we can go and beat Galway now. I think we have seen enough moral victories and now it is time to really make a mark. I know it's going to be a mammoth task but you never know and i'm sure the lads will go in fully believing that they can go and beat Galway.

What a brilliant day for Laois hurling!  The nerves were showing a bit at the start and I thought/still think going with just Picky in the full forward line invited Offaly on to us a bit but wow, those last 45 minutes produced the best hurling I've seen from this group of players.  When Jack Nolan asked Ger Cunningham afterwards where did this display come from the reply was telling: "We've been trying to get that out of them for 2 years now!".  I think we all knew Laois were capable of so much more than we showed v Antrim, Carlow and Westmeath and getting into the Leinster championship proper next year is a big step forward.

Huge credit is due to the management as they won the battle of wits with Brian Whelehan hands down.  It was a big call to give Matthew the responsibility of marking Joe Bergin wherever he went and it worked a treat.  In fact they got all the individual match ups spot on, and the decision to move Keenan into the full forward line along with Picky gave Laois two big targets to hit in the full forward line.

What can we say about the players themselves?  They were heroic in the second half and looked like a team that just would not accept defeat this time.  The point taking was outstanding, but equally impressive was the general skill level.  The catching of the sliotar, high and low, was hugely impressive as was the first touch - just witness Keenan's delightful control before the handpass shown on The Sunday Game.  Others including Offaly's own John Leahy have commented on Laois' fitness levels being at the very highest level, remarking that Laois players were making the same driving runs in the 70th minute as they were in the 5th minute.

The whole team were immense in that second half but I feel a few players do deserve a special mention.  When things weren't all going to plan in that first 20 minutes Zane Keenan hit some ridiculous points from distance.  That these were mostly free's takes nothing from the feat.  He hit one free just in front of me (terrace side) which was near the sideline and maybe 90+ yards out.  Tremendous technique and bottle are required to convert those.  It is very likely that his genius kept us in contention in those ropey 20 minutes, and that sideline?  Great stuff.

Not for the first time has Willie Hyland stood up when it mattered.  I've heard there were some less then complimentary things said about him on the radio during an earlier match, well that's the answer to that really.  7 points from play when you are already a marked man is some return.  Now that we have the bould Cha (0-5 from play, none of them routine, on the other wing) teams won't be able to just focus on Willie, so he is capable of more of the same going forward.

And then there's Joe Fitz.  I was getting tired just looking at him clearing ball!  He really is a class act and probably the best all round hurler we have.  Hurling is a team game but individual moment's of brilliance drives a team on.  Joe taking down a high ball deftly with the hurl while at full pace is just one example.  I've absolutely no doubt he would be a multiple All-Star winner in a more successful county.

Every other player had their moments too.  John A's hook on an Offaly forward tearing through, Cahir Healy's last ditch dive and flick to prevent a certain goal, Eoin Reilly's monster free etc, etc.  A massive "thank you" is owed to them all, panel and management alike.  We can look forward to the Galway game now with the pressure off and you can be certain that these lads won't be content with just winning yesterday.  If I'm still absolutely buzzing, what will the players be like!

Well done to all!

Forgot to mention the Offaly supporters, both at the match and on online forums afterwards who have been very gracious in a difficult time for them.  Those around me during the game were full of praise for Laois and I'm glad I witnessed no gloating from Laois supporters.

Well done to Laois

What a win.

Special mention to Cahir Healy who I spoke with briefly outside O'Moore Park after the game. He had stopped to have his photo taken with some younglads and then threw his gear bag over his shoulder and headed home as he was getting a flight back to London last night.
No mad celebrations just a job done and lets move on.
One thing for sure he was a happy man and I would think days like yesterday make it all worthwhile.

Quote from: Dave like the tv channel on May 31, 2015, 11:42:02 AM

Quote from: redsetanta on May 31, 2015, 11:25:14 AM
Had a dream last night that it was all a ruse to lull Offaly into a false sense of security and we went out and hurled like demons and beat them with Cheddar on the line and Whelan putting in a man of the match performance.

Good man. I dreamt I was with Jennifer Lawrence.......I reckon my dream has a better chance of coming true.

How'd you get on with Jennifer over the weekend Dave??

Quote from: redsetanta on June 09, 2015, 09:28:07 AM

Quote from: Dave like the tv channel on May 31, 2015, 11:42:02 AM

Quote from: redsetanta on May 31, 2015, 11:25:14 AM
Had a dream last night that it was all a ruse to lull Offaly into a false sense of security and we went out and hurled like demons and beat them with Cheddar on the line and Whelan putting in a man of the match performance.

Good man. I dreamt I was with Jennifer Lawrence.......I reckon my dream has a better chance of coming true.

How'd you get on with Jennifer over the weekend Dave??

:P

Sweet!  ;D

The Wild Cat has gone missing too. Aparantly Offaly had far more than just Dooley. :D

Anyway, no matter what happens for the rest of the year the step we've been waiting for has happened. We've moved up the ladder. Let's not forget that we haven't beaten any team of note in the championship since the 80's. We used to beat Dublin when they were at the same level as us.
It will be difficult against Galway, all our really good performances have come at home. As I said this win was vital for the progress of the county. Let's hope we see some more excellent performances for the rest of the year.

Satisfaction. Thats what Sunday was. Pure and utter satisafaction. Satisfied that these players got to take the step their hard work deserved. Satisfied that Cheddar got his vindication. Satisfied that I saw a Laois hurling match delayed due to crowd congestion. Satisfied to hear the crowd roar and the players respond. Satisfied that I got to see the joy in the players faces after the game.

This is a step, believe that this is only a step. Cheddar believes. The players believe. I believe.

Lots have been singled out over the past 48 hours, and I echo them all, but will someone give Butch Stapleton a pat on the back when they see him, I f**king love that man. And can I also mention Conor Dunne, a man who has done a job many many times for us, but somehow for a myriad of reasons can be the one to lose out in team selections such as Sunday, yet never a word. Conor, you're a f**king man. Thank you. Thanks to all the lads.

To quote a great man, now, we drive on.

Well done to the hurlers on Sunday, delighted for all the hurling supporters.
I wouldn't have seen the hurlers very often down thought the years but I was at the game in '72 when we last beat Offaly.
I was trying to remember some of the team but all I can come up with are below not sure even wear the all playing

Carroll
Mahon
Eugene Moore
Peter and George Conroy
Bates
Frank Keenan
Ger Cuddy
George Lynham ??
Paddy Ging
Anyone got the full team.

Pat Delaney listed the team in Sunday's programme. He also listed their clubs, if you can get your hands on a copy.

John Carroll;
Tim Cuddy, Pat Mahon, Paddy Kelly;
Jack Dooley, Matt Ryan, Mick Mahon;
Phil Dillon, Eugene Moore;
Frank Keenan, Paddy Dowling, Dinny Sheeran;
Brian Delaney, Ger Cuddy, George Lanham.
Subs: George Conroy, Moling Morrissey.

Quote from: OTF on June 09, 2015, 06:35:40 PM
Well done to the hurlers on Sunday, delighted for all the hurling supporters.
I wouldn't have seen the hurlers very often down thought the years but I was at the game in '72 when we last beat Offaly.
I was trying to remember some of the team but all I can come up with are below not sure even wear the all playing

Carroll
Mahon
Eugene Moore
Peter and George Conroy
Bates
Frank Keenan
Ger Cuddy
George Lynham ??
Paddy Ging
Anyone got the full team.

Quote from: crow on June 08, 2015, 01:14:01 AM
Well said and tomorrow u might clarify for me are our minors playing Kky the same day as our seniors in two different venue's one at 3 and the other at 5 please that can't happen

Minors now play KK at 12 on sunday 21st before KK vs Wexford match

I love this quote taken fom the Uibhfhaili.com forum.

'A word on Leix. Once they get the smell of victory, some of their shooting was superb. Put Kilkenny jersies on the players and Marty Morrissey would be having a 'When Harry met Sally' day in the commentary box. The brand of hurling they're playing is 15 years ahead of Offaly's. They're the Samsung Galaxy S6 and we're the Nokia 3210.'

On another note is there any particular reason why the game against Galway isn't in O'Moore Park?

KK have home advantage against Wexford in the other semi. Is it because we have faced them at home in last couple of meetings?

Still buzzing after that performance last weekend. I used to go to a lot of hurling matches in the 80s and early 90s but gradually became disillusioned with the whole thing. We had fantastic teams in the 80s especially, with class players all around the pitch but I don't think I remember any performance (apart maybe from the beating we gave Galway in the Centenary Cup in 1984) that matched this one. There wasn't a single weak link that I could see and even the subs kept the standard up. I couldn't see us producing that kind of performance based on what I saw against Westmeath.

I've had enough of disappointment at the hands of Offaly over the years and when I saw that penalty being awarded I thought here we go again............ A penalty at that stage could have put us on course for an old fashioned Offaly fightback. Thankfully, the referee used a lot of common sense there and Laois saw out the game.

As far as I'm concerned, we're in bonus territory now. I was in Tullamore on Saturday in time to see the Galway Dublin game and Galway were just awesome. It's a huge ask for the lads to maintain (or even improve??!) the level of performance for the Galway game but win, lose or draw, the entire set up can be proud of their achievements this year.

Just one last thing on the fixtures. If the footballers lose the replay with Kildare, they will play Antrim in the qualifiers on June 20 in Portlaoise. They'd hardly make the hurlers play in Tullamore and the footballers in Portlaoise on the same day would they?

Without a shadow of a doubt they would

Well men, new to this forum. Absolutely delighted with the result. the work cheddar and the team has put in is phenomenal. delighted for them, they wont be fearing Galway at all, and Galway will think they are red hot favorites. hopefully Galway will collapse like they always do when they get a good win in the previous game.!! Anyway, i am currently living over seas. is there any link or anywhere to watch the highlights of the Laois game? i have tried youtube but nothing is up on it yet. thanks in advance.

Laois abu.!!

Quote from: redsetanta on June 09, 2015, 09:28:07 AM

Quote from: Dave like the tv channel on May 31, 2015, 11:42:02 AM

Quote from: redsetanta on May 31, 2015, 11:25:14 AM
Had a dream last night that it was all a ruse to lull Offaly into a false sense of security and we went out and hurled like demons and beat them with Cheddar on the line and Whelan putting in a man of the match performance.

Good man. I dreamt I was with Jennifer Lawrence.......I reckon my dream has a better chance of coming true.

How'd you get on with Jennifer over the weekend Dave??

Whelan didn't get MOTM, smartarse.

Anyway, I fully believed that we'd win.  :P

Anyone have access to the Sunday Times website to get this article in full? Or could they even post it up if they have a hard copy?

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/ireland/Sport/article1563072.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2015_05_30

Quote from: Ballygowen on June 10, 2015, 10:50:19 PM
Well men, new to this forum. Absolutely delighted with the result. the work cheddar and the team has put in is phenomenal. delighted for them, they wont be fearing Galway at all, and Galway will think they are red hot favorites. hopefully Galway will collapse like they always do when they get a good win in the previous game.!! Anyway, i am currently living over seas. is there any link or anywhere to watch the highlights of the Laois game? i have tried youtube but nothing is up on it yet. thanks in advance.

Laois abu.!!

Are you not able to watch it on RTE player?

Some reflections on last Sundays massive victory.

We wanted it more, showed great fighting spirit particularly in the 2nd half. Didnt give Offaly a sniff.

Was worried when Offaly went 0-10 0-6 up, it seemed ominous. Turning point had to be the 8 points in a row in the space of 11 minutes- completely changed the momentum, we didnt want half time to arrive.

Moving 6 points clear was key in 2nd half to keep Offaly at arms length. Nearest they got was back to 5, 0-23 to 0-18.

That penalty decision was critical, cant believe they didnt have a look at it on Sunday Game. Speaking of which, what a disaster it is to have a "report" on the match- this isn't soccer. There were some awesome scores last Sunday, surely it wasn't too much to ask to give Laois/Offaly 10 to 15 minutes highlights? Having said that, there was some lovely chat about how far Laois have come since 2012 and what Cheddar has done so that made up a bit for the "report".

Great crowd there on Sunday and fine atmosphere.

Fantastic team performance but Willie Hyland really stood out with 7 from play.

Seeing what it meant to the players at the end was a joy to behold. What a sight, what a moment. Could actually savour the last couple of minutes as the job was complete.

Lets hope a large crowd from Laois will be there for the Galway game. Galway were very impressive last week themselves so it will be a massive challenge.

Laois hurling is on an upward curve and was great to see so many take notice.

Laois abu.

Stick it up on the f**king wall

Cyril Farrell: Don't make September's predictions by June's form

Indeed, it could decide what the rest of the championship holds for them. If they are drawn against each other, they'll know that neither is flavour of the summer.

As for whichever gets an 'away' assignment, it will be a clear sign that they are on their own and might as well try and do a deal with the devil.

Of course, if the gods are onside, there's another scenario. Both could end up with a relatively gentle re-introduction to the championship, especially Cork, who will definitely draw Leinster opposition.

Their list of possible opponents is comprised of Westmeath, Offaly, Dublin, and, most likely, Laois and Wexford, who will probably lose to Galway and Kilkenny respectively.

From a Cork viewpoint, the worst draw from that lot would be Dublin in Parnell Park or Wexford in Wexford Park.

Dublin's scene is trickier. They could be drawn against Cork, Clare, the losers of Tipperary/Limerick or one of the five Leinster teams not in the final. Effectively, they don't have as good a chance of getting a favourable draw as Cork.

Powerful

The various draw permutations are very important because what both Cork and Dublin need most of all is a confidence-boosting win to get them back on the road.

Dublin were favourites to beat Galway last Saturday, but because it went horribly wrong, they are being written off. That doesn't stack up.

Similarly with Cork, even if they have lost twice in five weeks to Waterford.

Tipperary and Galway also lost to Waterford in the League so top counties have to start getting used to the idea of Derek McGrath's boys being a very powerful force.

I certainly wouldn't write the exit lines for Dublin or Cork yet. Dublin scored 1-18 last Saturday - which would have won the drawn games six days earlier - and got nothing from two penalties so their final tally could quite easily have been 3-18, which wins more games than it loses.

Truth is, they were caught cold against the wind in the first 10 minutes last week, but then it's not the first time that Galway blitzed opposition when the right mood took over.

Dublin need a fully fit Peter Kelly in the full-back line and Liam Rushe restored to centre-back. If that happens and they get a favourable draw in the first qualifier round, they will be back in the game. So too with Cork.

Seamus Harnedy's absence was a setback last Sunday, even if his replacement, Pa Cronin was their best forward. Presumably, both will be aboard next time out.

There were some very disappointing aspects for Cork last Sunday, not least the lack of impact made by Conor Lehane, Patrick Horgan and Aidan Walsh, but everyone knows there's a lot more to them than that.

There's more to Cork as a whole too and the same goes for Dublin.

Hurling is a bit like golf now. Any one of the top golfers are capable of taking a tournament on a given weekend and just because someone doesn't win, it doesn't mean they're slipping. Even Rory McIlroy can hit bogies!

Kilkenny have been - and still are - hurling's market leaders but there's damn all behind their closest pursuers. And, despite last weekend's results, that includes Cork and Dublin.

Remember 2010? Cork beat Tipperary by 10 points in the Munster quarter-final, yet Tipp won the All-Ireland.

2012: Kilkenny won the All-Ireland after losing the Leinster final to Galway by 10 points.

2013: Cork beat Clare by eight points in the Munster semi-final, but it was the Banner who won the All-Ireland.

The moral of those stories is that in a second-chance system, May/June results should not be over overvalued.

Best wait until a team's back is really against the wall when defeat really means the end of the line.

Oh how sweet it would be to send Cyril's beloved Galway packing on Saturday night. I hope Cheddar and Co. have read this nugget.

On the other hand, it shows how nicely it's set up to keep Cork in the frame for another while. What's the bets they draw Offaly?

I absolutely agree that it would be great to beat the mighty Galway and based on our progression over the last couple of years it's not out of the question.
However PP has Galway at 1/16 to win and is giving an 8 point spread. Cyrill Farrell is not saying anything that most commentators would disagree with. I like Farrell, real hurling man and he would call it as he sees it. Doubt the Laois lads would get too upset reading it.

Although I am going to have a little flutter on that spread.

Agree with redsetanta, Cyril seems like a decent sort and I'd say he has more time for hurling in the so called lesser counties than some of the other pundits.  I don't think that article will stoke fire within Laois, but it does highlight Galways biggest weakness coming into this match.  Try as they might to gee themselves up for this game, Galway know in the back of their minds they are not facing a Tipp or Kilkenny here.  It's incredibly hard for a team to deliver a complete performance when they feel that 70% or 80% will get the job done.  That's not a criticism of Galway either, as it very much applied to Laois in the round robin stages where we produced some very lethargic performances.  The only county this doesn't seem to apply to is Kilkenny, and to me it makes them all the more remarkable.

Galway played some wonderful hurling at times against Dublin, but I was also shocked by the ease at which they got some of their scores.  I'd expect most decent club forwards to do damage with the space and time Mannion was afforded by Schutte who didn't look like he had it together at all.  The third goal, where three Dub defenders all went for the one high ball and Mannion jogged in around the back to tap beyond the keeper was actually comical.  I'm confident that whatever Galway do score on Saturday that they will have to work a hell of a lot harder for it than they did v Dublin.

It's been pointed out that Galway have the advantage of having two games under their belt as opposed to coming in cold the last two years.  This is an advantage for them of course, but forewarned is forearmed from a Laois point of view.  Cheddar and co. will have learned a lot from those games.  If Cyril Donnelan at 11 can be tied down then Galway pretty much have all their scoring eggs in one basket - their full forward line.  While Glynn and Smith are named at wing forward both drop very deep to help out in midfield and even defence, their primary focus is feeding the full-forward line which is grand when it works, but it remains to be seen what Galways plan B is.  We've also learned that their full back line fouls whenever they are taken on and that their full back Hanbury is inexperienced at this level. 

From our own point of view it's fairly obvious that Laois need a massive performance here to even think about matching Galway.  We handed Offaly quite a few handy scores from silly mistakes that the top teams just don't make.  We did that last year too v Galway and unfortunately it cost us a historic win.  My biggest worry is that if we go too defensive we will invite Galway on to us and Anthony Cunningham is bound to have some sort of plan up his sleeve.  I can accept the other team using short puck outs to gain immediate possession as a necessary evil when we use a sweeper, but only having one player in the full forward is going too far in my view.  Offaly didn't have the quality of players to hurt us but we can be sure that Galway will.  We were a different team v Offaly with two in the full forward line and that's how I hope we go about things on Saturday.

The GG, what is the story with the venue for the hurling? KK v Wex is also a semi final however the cats have home advantage. Is that because of a home and away deal they have with each other. Are we in Tullamore to pacify Galway who wouldn't fancy a game in O'Moore PArk? I thougt the deal was that the 'developing' counties got whatever bit of assistance that was going.
Who's down to referree it Saturday? Ithought the man in the middle did a good job last day. Got a few big calls right.

Yeah Kk and Wex have a home and away agreement so that game was always going to be played in Nowlan Park.  To be honest I don't have a clue why it's in Tullamore, but while we'd all love for it to be in Portlaoise it's an opportunity for Laois to show that we can play well outside of our home ground.  Not sure who's down to ref it either, I agree that Owens did a good job the last day out.  Given that it's a provincial semi-final I'm hoping it's one of the better refs.  Galway have a few niggly players (Smith, Coen, Hanbury etc.) so it's vital we maintain discipline and keep 15 on the field.

Fergal Horgan from Tipp is down to ref it. Not a name I've heard before. Hope he isn't out to make a name for himself with silly yellows and subsequently silly reds.

So the team has been named, I'd expect the two corner forwards to miss out again and probably bring Picky and Dwayne in.

Good article in the Indo from Christy O'Connor. Alot of it taken from the Healy interview which is a must hear if you haven't done so already.


http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/hurling/out-of-the-darkness-and-into-the-light-31313853.html (http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/hurling/out-of-the-darkness-and-into-the-light-31313853.html)

An excellent read, nice to see a mention for the friends of Laois Hurlers who are really putting in a huge effort to promote everything thats going on.

Yeh, massive kudos to Friends of Laois hurling. They had the going blue and white in the nationals schools today which they all participated in and the pics look great. The Hurling country  signs they have put up haven't gone unnoticed with other counties and the general involvement through facebook etc has been great.
As they say it's our county and we are all in this together so we have to do our part no matter how big or small.

Fingers very tightly crossed that we can keep the momentum going tomorrow. For me, given the quality of the opposition, I would be happy with a competitive, intense and passionate display and a close game. We need to just keep progressing and be better every day. If that is good enough to win, then great but if not, we are still emerging little by little from the doldrums. I have no doubt in the world we have the players, however it would have been great to have Ross King and Neil Foyle fighting for places in the full forward line (Anyone know how Neil is doing?).

Very poor first half and heads dropped after the goal. A bit better in the second half but the game was long gone then. Lets see what the draw Monday throws up.

Just seen Joe Cannings goal on the 9pm news... feckin square ball.

Can't you be in the square now, once the ball is struck?
Oh, after that first goal, it was like the bad old days again. Up to that - for the first 15 mins - they'd been doing really well, Galway had a something like 8 or 9 wides, there was good intelligent running off the ball, and they were managing to keep it tight. Once the goal went in, Galway couldn't miss, and Leix couldn't get a sniff at it. Soft mentally?
Was very impressed with Paddy Purcell in midfield, and Tommy Fitz did well in the first quarter.
I must say, though, Galway are some outfit, and will be hard stopped this year.

theirs a 2 group in leinster kilkenny,Galway, Dublin, wexford, next group laois, offaly, westmeath, carlow, antrim.  offaly westmeath would have got the same beating yesterday. i have seen laois hurl since the early 80's and them teams were miles ahead of todays side, they beat a poor offaly side well don't get me wrong its not that laois are getting better its just offaly have slipped down to the bottom now, a good offaly team would never lose to laois, 1972-2015 even doe offaly have been very bad this 5 years.  the result in todays minor game will back my point, you have to be beating kilkenny in leinsters in underage if you are to do anything in senior.

Quote from: Teo Lurley on June 09, 2015, 10:59:09 AM
The Wild Cat has gone missing too. Aparantly Offaly had far more than just Dooley. :D

Anyway, no matter what happens for the rest of the year the step we've been waiting for has happened. We've moved up the ladder. Let's not forget that we haven't beaten any team of note in the championship since the 80's. We used to beat Dublin when they were at the same level as us.
It will be difficult against Galway, all our really good performances have come at home. As I said this win was vital for the progress of the county. Let's hope we see some more excellent performances for the rest of the year.

do you think beating a piss poor offaly side is progress, and then go out and get beaten by 20 points, yes they were far better than offaly on the day, lets not forget laois did lose to Antrim also so this result is no shock, Cheddar has brough this team as far as he can. 

Where were you for the last few weeks? Just come back after Laois lose.

Quote from: Thewildcat on June 21, 2015, 01:32:34 PM

Quote from: Teo Lurley on June 09, 2015, 10:59:09 AM
The Wild Cat has gone missing too. Aparantly Offaly had far more than just Dooley. :D

Anyway, no matter what happens for the rest of the year the step we've been waiting for has happened. We've moved up the ladder. Let's not forget that we haven't beaten any team of note in the championship since the 80's. We used to beat Dublin when they were at the same level as us.
It will be difficult against Galway, all our really good performances have come at home. As I said this win was vital for the progress of the county. Let's hope we see some more excellent performances for the rest of the year.

do you think beating a piss poor offaly side is progress, and then go out and get beaten by 20 points, yes they were far better than offaly on the day, lets not forget laois did lose to Antrim also so this result is no shock, Cheddar has brough this team as far as he can.

Are you still pretending to be from Laois? Idiot....

Quote from: Thewildcat on June 21, 2015, 01:27:32 PM
theirs a 2 group in leinster kilkenny,Galway, Dublin, wexford, next group laois, offaly, westmeath, carlow, antrim.  offaly westmeath would have got the same beating yesterday. i have seen laois hurl since the early 80's and them teams were miles ahead of todays side, they beat a poor offaly side well don't get me wrong its not that laois are getting better its just offaly have slipped down to the bottom now, a good offaly team would never lose to laois, 1972-2015 even doe offaly have been very bad this 5 years.  the result in todays minor game will back my point, you have to be beating kilkenny in leinsters in underage if you are to do anything in senior.

f**k off and die.

So it's Dublin at home on July 4th. Both teams go into this following a drubbing at the hands of Galway. The home advantage will be massive for us and I feel that we could win this. Interestingly, this for me is a bench-mark game because if Galway were not in Leinster this would be our semi-final. Thoughts?

Home draw is massive however the manner of defeat of both teams by Galway could be telling. Looking at form lines realistically Dublin were within a score able free of defeating Galway the first day and Galway tanked us by 20. Dublin were completely off the pace as we were in the replay.In all honesty we are not 20 points worse than Galway but on the other hand I don't think we are 2 points off them as last years result. Galway will be in the shake up for the All Ireland come September.

Dublin will have had ample time to reflect on what happened and rectify it and will see us as a perfect place to launch their season. They are probably 6 or 7Th in the Liam McCarthy pecking order and will pose a formidable challenge however we have shown before that we perform at our very best in O Moore park and as said this is a huge advantage to us.

The players reaction from Saturdays thumping will be vital. Unfortunately personnel wise we haven't many changes to make. Our first 15 minutes was encouraging but the wheels came off after the fluke of a goal. Only one or two lads came out of it with any sort of happiness with their individual performance. Deploying 2 sweepers is not unheard by us but the use of the ball by Campion and Maher was poor and you would wonder why Maher was deployed in this role.Whelan on Canning never worked and one wonders why such a physically imposing player like Whelan is so often times  seemingly bullied and never shows massive aggression towards his direct opponent. A lot of calls for us to go the traditional route of 15 on 15 but unfortunately against the real quality we do not have enough in the tank to win these 1 on 1 battles and that's where problems start.

Possibly we got swept away with the emotion of the fantastic victory against Offaly but in hindsight how poor were Offaly? As Cheddar has always said though there will be bumps in the road and we must learn from these experiences.

I think we got the match-ups wrong Saturday, I would have told Tom Delaney to stick to Canning and play "close-to-the-edge"  ;)
Cha in FF and Willie Hyland in CF also. I think Cha would have tested that Galway no.3. Hyland was clearly cut out of the game Saturday night and he should have been used to break down the ball in the CF position for runners instead.

I think the big thing against galway was the physical size of them, some of the laois lads looked like minors against them. Dublin gave Galway a decent game in first match but as we know thats the time to catch Galway cold, and this year they were up and running. I think we also stuck to the defensive side of things for too long, we were 7/8 points down and playing with two lads back in the first half, have to be able to adapt better. Hopefully the players can lift themselves once more and give the Dubs a good rattle

Laois manager Cheddar Plunkett spoke to Jack Nolan after their loss to Galway
https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/cheddar-plunkett-post-galway-1 (https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/cheddar-plunkett-post-galway-1)

i cant believe the lack of conversation about the tactics used last saturday...its been touched on in a couple of posts above but 1 mention is almost defending the tactics!
i personally was sickened by them. the lads never had a chance, they were beat before they set foot on the pitch. and i feel sorry for the players, who are giving their all to the set up. Cheddar was obviously that afraid of Galway that he thought only of defense, nothing about actually winning the game. the players heads must have been full of negativity after that "plan" was explained to them. i would love to ask him what the actual plan for winning the match was?! im not a fool, i know Galway are a stronger side than us, however, we, or any other team for that matter, will NEVER win anything with 2 sweepers and only 4 forwards! every time the backs cleared the ball it was coming back to them just as quick. if the forwards managed to win a ball they had to get past their own man plus the spare Galway men, then its have a pressured wild go at goal or try and find a team mate which is hard when you're lacking in bodies at that end of the pitch! if you are afraid of getting beat by a better side then go out and hurl them man to man, 15 on 15, and if you are beat, so be it, the best team won etc, but have a go!!
anyone who thinks that is progressive hurling needs their head examined. what is wrong with playing man to man, with good intelligent hurling, low balls to the forwards, cross field balls, moving off the ball, support play. these basics will work if tried and tested and worked on. galway knew we would use a sweeper, they would have planned accordingly. thats why we should have had a go, 15 on 15 at least for the first 10 minutes and see what happens. then if needs be bring back ONE sweeper. and whats more - it was 1-18 to 2pts at half time. i think by the time it got to 1-9 or 1-10 to 2pts it was evident the plan wasn't working but management did nothing only look on?
we shouldnt have even used a sweeper against Offaly! we payed them too much respect, we are good enough to beat that Offaly side man to man. brilliant long range efforts from Zane Cha and Willie kept us going that day.
im sure there is some folk here who will disagree but all this negative hurling is not helping and im venting here!
people are nearly afraid to speak ill of Cheddar after all he has done. he has changed the face of hurling in laois for the better, forever. he is a great man manager. but on the sideline or tactically i dont think he is doing a great job.
i just hope to god he goes 15 on 15 against Dublin and lets our forwards have a proper go, they must be itching for it, and the backs for that matter! but i doubt he will....
Rant over, for now!

When it goes as badly on the scoreboard as it did Saturday there will always be venting!! Its only natural.

However us playing sweepers in the past 3 years has been nothing new. We had 2 huge championship performances against Galway before playing the sweeper/sweepers nothing change Saturday only Galway were wiser to it and punished us accordingly as did Clare in '13 and Waterford in '14. After defeats like that the 15 on 15 brigade come out. However we went 15 on 15 in the Fox, Rigney, Fennelly and McCarthy days and received some unbelievable trimmings.

We do not have 15 players to match the Dublin's and Galway's of this world. The players are used to this system now and it has given them real stability in which to compete with the better teams.

I am not defending it just stating facts. Of course i would love to see us compete man for man but even our minors Sunday went toe to toe with Kilkenny and were blown out of the water.

Time to get real in fairness

i kind of understand the want from Cheddar to play a sweeper, i just don't like it personally, never did. i think the 15 on 15 option needs to be worked on more and developed, we will eventually need to look at it. that's how we will progress as a team.
but using 2 sweepers was only a death sentence, we never had a chance with that system. its like Cheddar decided we wern't going to win this game so lets try keep their scoring to a minimum. that's whats frustrating me the most. because that's straight up bullshit and not fair on the players. i think Cheddar actually feels like a father figure to this group of players and in doing so is going OTT to try and protect them instead of letting them hurl.
the Tipp vs Limerick match Sunday wasnt a classic but Tipp were a joy to watch. nothing too fancy, just great intelligent hurling, working well as a team, moving off the ball, support play, good delivery of ball to their forwards. this is what we should be working on and having a sweeper as a back up plan. that, IMO is being real.

Both points are valid. We used the sweeper system against Carlow and nearly got caught yet against Galway and Clare we gave them both a right game of it last year. I think we need to be adaptable and be able to switch our style of play for teams and then get to a point where we are confident to switch the system of play within a game.

Watching Kilkenny on Sunday and they are masters at switching play according to whether or not they have the ball. This is where the game of hurling has evolved to and teams need to catch up in learning the style and adapting to it within their games. Watching the Cats in the second game on Sunday one could be forgiven for saying that Kilkenny have a collective sub-conscience that they can all communicate through!  ;D

Lot of good points but Galway winning the toss and playing with the wind also contributed big time. There's no way they would have built up such a score if they were hitting into that wind. I think it would have been a much different outcome had we won the toss. It might be simplifying things but it was a huge factor.

Galway have far better hurlers than us. It's hard to come up with any system that can overcome this fact.

Where would we the best place to buy Laois gear (flags, jerseys, etc.) that would ship to The States? :)

Thanks.

Colgans of Portlaoise do all Laois gear providing you cover postage as well. Great selection in there and good for buying local. Otherwise the oneills website.

Quote from: Helix on June 25, 2015, 08:56:00 PM
Colgans of Portlaoise do all Laois gear providing you cover postage as well. Great selection in there and good for buying local. Otherwise the oneills website.

Thanks, Helix!

A link to Colgans store for official Laois gear.

http://colgansports.com/gaa-store/club-laois-gear/?p=2

This site has a great selection of Laois tops, jerseys, hoodies etc not official but you'll definately find something there. Some flags etc on second page.

http://www.thegaastore.com/en/County-Laois/psg-22.aspx

Quote from: redsetanta on June 25, 2015, 10:03:22 PM
A link to Colgans store for official Laois gear.

http://colgansports.com/gaa-store/club-laois-gear/?p=2

This site has a great selection of Laois tops, jerseys, hoodies etc not official but you'll definately find something there. Some flags etc on second page.

http://www.thegaastore.com/en/County-Laois/psg-22.aspx

Thanks, redsetanta. I appreciate it!

O Neills site currently selling some Laois gear at very reasonable rates. A lot cheaper than Colgans!

https://www.oneills.com/sale/gaa-sale.html#/sale/gaa-sale.html?p=5

Elverys have a good selection too but dont know if there is a price difference?
just an FYI i was in supervalue in the square portlaoise this morning, there is Laois iphone cases, mini jerseys for the car window, little flags etc there too.

A tough weekend for Laois supporters to put it mildly!  Laois actually got off to a great start but we needed everything to go right for us and it didn't.  Paddy Purcell could just as easily scored a goal after his surging run, and then to concede such a soft one ourselves just sapped the team of drive and energy.  The goal also gave Galway the breathing space they needed, and efforts that were going wide before the goal all went over after it.

I agree with Finbar on a lot of his points.  Playing with a sweeper is one thing and it was the correct call against such a strong wind, but when a team plays without a full forward line it's going to be a case of death by a thousand cuts.  There is a balance that needs to be reached.  For years we were naive beyond belief, going out man for man, letting our half back line be pulled out and time and again our full back line would be torn asunder.  No team, not even Kilkenny, leaves it's six backs to deal with the opposition six forwards man to man.  There are numerous examples in the recent KK v Wex game of Eoin Larkin, Walter Walsh etc., back on their own 40`or further turning over possession or getting in hooks and blocks.  If Eoin Larkin is fit enough to do that at this stage of his career (and still pose a massive attacking threat) I don't see why our more athletic guys like Picky and Joe Campion couldn't perform such a role.  I understand of course that Larkin is arguably the best wing forward of his generation, but the role he plays needs to be really examined. 

We have Dublin up next and just like Laois some of their players, particularly the full back line, will have serious confidence issues after their Galway game.  Are we going to test them and see if they crack?  Or are we going to let Mark Schutte who conceded 3 goals in ten mins against Galway pop over a few points from corner back to get his confidence back on track?  Why not at least try putting in Cha or Picky in on him and target him for the opening ten mins.  Similarly if Peter Kelly is out they don't have a full back.  Why not throw Hyland in full forward and land in high ball and see where it takes us?  However the game pans out I'll be very disappointed if we don't go out and at least have a right go at Dublin.  We're no world beaters but we're better than we showed against Galway.

Ps. Any word on Foyle?

Both laois and Dublin got hammered by a good Galway team. Recken Kilkenny v Galway will be some encou ter. Nevertheless think laois still have an opportunity against Dublin. Think sweeper will be kept but as some have said we need to be adaptable as the games progresses if we do and we let forwards be forwards we may achieve something

Quote from: Jimmy P on June 26, 2015, 09:33:08 AM
O Neills site currently selling some Laois gear at very reasonable rates. A lot cheaper than Colgans!

https://www.oneills.com/sale/gaa-sale.html#/sale/gaa-sale.html?p=5

Note that oneill overseas cannot sell the laois kit with three stripes check out site first to ensure they are not different. This happened when I tried to but somthing based in London.

Also try lifestyle sports

For what its worth, i reckon Galway get beat by 10 points in the leinster final...
Dublin were very poor against them, and we were worse. those 2 soft games will have done nothing only give false hope! Dublin will be improved a lot for our game, no doubt about that but they are not world beaters either and hopefully we can change things up a bit and give them a rattle. especially with a strong home crowd behind them.
just a side note to that, nearly all of our players have never hurled in Croke Park. i was involved with the county underage set up before women and drink took over!  ;D and thats the age we all start dreaming of hurling in Croker, that dream doesn't go away though and i thought it a bit,... struggling to find the right word here, but maybe, harsh/unfair? i think the GAA should accommodate all counties so that they get a game in Croke park, at least once every 2 years or so, for the experience of it if nothing else. just for talks sake we beat Galway in that semi, most if not all of our players would have been playing in Croke park for the first time. which would probably knock some about mentally. i just think the likes of Willie Hyland and Tommy Fitzgerald etc, with the set up for 10 years or so, they deserve a game in HQ.

Quote from: finbar o tool on June 29, 2015, 09:49:04 AM
...i think the GAA should accommodate all counties so that they get a game in Croke park, at least once every 2 years or so, for the experience of it if nothing else...

No way, Croke Park should be a reward for hard work, not some fluffy feeling about "being there".

In other news, a good workout against a Munster powerhouse last night I believe.

Quote from: finbar o tool on June 29, 2015, 09:49:04 AM
For what its worth, i reckon Galway get beat by 10 points in the leinster final...
Dublin were very poor against them, and we were worse. those 2 soft games will have done nothing only give false hope! Dublin will be improved a lot for our game, no doubt about that but they are not world beaters either and hopefully we can change things up a bit and give them a rattle. especially with a strong home crowd behind them.
just a side note to that, nearly all of our players have never hurled in Croke Park. i was involved with the county underage set up before women and drink took over!  ;D and thats the age we all start dreaming of hurling in Croker, that dream doesn't go away though and i thought it a bit,... struggling to find the right word here, but maybe, harsh/unfair? i think the GAA should accommodate all counties so that they get a game in Croke park, at least once every 2 years or so, for the experience of it if nothing else. just for talks sake we beat Galway in that semi, most if not all of our players would have been playing in Croke park for the first time. which would probably knock some about mentally. i just think the likes of Willie Hyland and Tommy Fitzgerald etc, with the set up for 10 years or so, they deserve a game in HQ.

Provincial Semi Finals should be held in Croke Park. They are in the football, and should be in the hurling also.

For a long time they were but they took them out of Croke Park because the crowd was so small. Even with a double header you would be doing well to get 30,000 there.

Although in recent years the football hasn't been attracting to much more.

Quote from: redsetanta on June 29, 2015, 02:02:50 PM
For a long time they were but they took them out of Croke Park because the crowd was so small. Even with a double header you would be doing well to get 30,000 there.

Although in recent years the football hasn't been attracting to much more.

Exactly. ITs not about the money, remember? Isnt that what we're told about the Dubs and all the other shite they stick in there. Its about opening it up to other counties and players to play in there.

The Provincial Semi Finals should be in Croker. All before that, elsewhere.

i see your point G@@, but its not for some fluffy feeling i would like all counties to get a run out in croker, its for when the hard work pays off, they wont be running out in 'the big shmoke' for the first time, they will have that experience out of the way.
not a major issue but worth mentioning all the same! 

didn't hear about a munster power house match, do tell??

How did the friendly go again tipperary?

Sorry for the invasion but I just wanted to congratulate Unlaoised on a great username! :D

Beaten by Tipp by 4 points behind closed doors in Semple on Sunday morning,both sides with close enough to the full compliment

How are we all feeling about Saturday. How is Foyle doing? He did get 15 mins or so against Galway so he must be right for this one. Good option from the bench.
Any team news from either camp yet?

This really is a huge opportunity on Saturday.
Dublin will quite rightly start as clear favourites but playing in O' Moore Park is huge for us and I'd be hopeful that we can give the Dubs plenty of it. It actually has the potential to be a brilliant occasion as the Dublin Hurling Fans are a decent bunch and though coming expecting to win, they won't bring the arrogance that their football counterparts so clearly do.

I think we have a chance in this one.
Dublin are a formidable unit but they don't have the ability to kill a game in 10 minutes the way Galway did. Too much is made of Dublin's apparent lack of 'natural hurlers' and it's something I don't buy into really but they have tended, over the last number of years, to hurl in a formulaic way and have arguably done their best hurling playing a sweeper. I think there's an All-Ireland challenge in Dublin but they're not there yet; they have players playing out of position and lack square pegs for square holes.
I also think we will be able to get our match-ups right in defence.
Danny Sutcliffe is a wonderful talent but does, in my opinion at least, his best hurling at left-half forward. He will come up against Joe Fitzpatrick who had a bit of a nightmare against Galway but then was outstanding against Offaly; a player of his talent rarely puts two bad games together.
On the other flank, Ryan O' Dwyer will likely start on Tom Delaney and that physical battle could be a joy to watch. O' Dwyer could also start in the centre if Cunningham releases Liam Rushe back to his best position at centre-back and again, I think Matthew Phelan has the wherewithall to handle O' Dwyer.

In our fullback line, we're likely to start with John A Delaney and Brian Stapleton either side of Cahir Healy. All three should match up well wherever and if Dotsy O' Callaghan starts and I'd be comfortable enough with handling Paul Ryan, David Tracey, Eamonn Dillon and Mark Schutte too. I expect we will play a sweeper and it will be important to cut off direct ball into Schutte in particular as he is a very dangerous operator; I'd personally like to see John A detailed to mark him wherever he goes.

I'd continue with Eoin Reilly in the goals.

Darragh O' Connell started in midfield for Dublin the last day and I thought he was one of their better players. He's a talented hurler and can pick off points from distance; I understand he did a lot of his hurling in Kerry a little further forward. I wouldn't be sure who will start beside him to be honest but we'll need to be tight and not let them get a foothold in the game because they will look to put points on the board quickly.

I'd expect us to start with Paddy Purcell and either Joe Campion or Dwayne Palmer at centre-field.
Personally, I'd like to see Palmer selected at 15 but deployed as the sweeper as I think he is best-suited to the role. Purcell and Campion are athletic and dynamic enough to hold tight to their men and still offer good protection to our half-back line.

For me that leaves us with 5 forwards. Hyland and Cha pick themselves at 10 and 12 (though if Peter Kelly doesn't make it I'd throw either in at 14 for a spell or two) and assuming Neil Foyle isn't fit for 70 then Idont see alternatives to Picky Maher or Zane Keenan and I'd expect they will both start in the full-forward line. Tommy Fitzgerald's place is probably under most-threat but I don't think any of the alternatives have really kicked the door down and demanded inclusion. I'm a fan of Ben Conroy but I think the likes of him or PJ Scully are best served coming from the bench. Hopefully Tommy will start at 11 and he'll have to be at his intelligent best as Dublin will seek to build a platform with primary possession crucial to the way they like to hurl.
I'd be hopeful that Foyle could give us a real boost if we're still in this game with 20/25 to go.
I have a feeling Dublin will line-up with Keaney-Rushe-Crummy at 5-6-7 and that is a formidable unit to break down. Crummy has bedded in well and Keaney and Rushe are very strong physically and aerially. This area could well be the winning and losing of the game and if we can break even here then we have a legitimate chance.
That's a huge 'if' though!

So for me, we line up;
Reilly
Stapleton-Healy-Delaney
Palmer
Fitzpatrick-Whelan-Delaney
Purcell-Campion
Cha-Fitzgerald-Hyland
Picky-Keenan

Man for man, we are closer to Dublin than we were to Galway but we're still a level or two behind. We have to be better than the sum of our parts and put Dublin off their game. We'll need O' Moore Park absolutely rocking and that could be worth an extra 3 or 4 points to us.

I think we can get at that Dublin full back line, especially if there are doubts over Peter Kelly (who they probably won't risk if he's not at 100%!).
I think we'll need goals and I've a strange feeling there is a penalty in us this week. Hyland, Cha and Keenan just seem to know where the posts are in OMP and if they can pick off 10 between them then I'd be hopeful we could post a score of in and around 2.18. For that to be enough we will have to be incredibly tight at the back and cut out frees and individual errors. I don't see massive goals in this Dublin team but they will likely hit 20+ points.

Letting my heart rule my head I just have a feeling that we could make a serious statement here on Saturday. The Offaly result can, to a degree, be disregarded (just for a few days) such was the utter turmoil within the Offaly camp but a win here would be a seismic step forward for hurling in this county. I'm going to be bold with my prediction but with the caveat that if I was posting with head ruling heart there would be a swing of goals the other way.

I'm going with:
Laois 2.18 - 0.23 Dublin

PS: €15 entry is more than fair for Saturday's match and I really hope we see a strong Laois showing!

Great post Merman, and hard to disagree with any of it. It seems you have taken on board all the lessons learned from the Galway game and tailored a plan for the Dubs. I like it!  :)

Yes, great post, all right. My main fear is that Dublin's physicality will be too much.

Dublin steam wouldn't scare me too much except for the full forward lines physicality. Dillon Keaney and schutte are big men compared to our full bk line and will take watching. I'm looking forward to the game and I really hope for another great day.

Would be massive boost to get one over on the Dubs after the disappointing outing the last day. Seemingly Zane Keenan and Ben Conroy are doubts for tomorrow after both picked up injuries in that Tipp match. Not what we need at this stage.

Has the opening lineup for tomorrow been released, yet?

It looks like Offaly is playing at the same time as Laois--so Midlands Radio will probably be covering the match in Ennis. >:(
Is there a Dublin radio station that might be covering the whole match against the Dubs?

There's a station called Anna Livia which may have it. Maybe one of the other lads would know better.

If Midlands Sport arent broadcasting it live on air, check their social media links, they'll have a dedicated stream for it.

Radio Offaly.  ;D

7 changes in the Dublin team from the defeat to Galway. Can't see any more than 1 change with ourselves. If thats how the dubs start its alot so hopefully it backfires.
It's a relief not to be travelling to Tullamore today. Have more than enough of it.

Quote from: SCFC on July 04, 2015, 09:27:01 AM
Radio Offaly.  ;D

Bullshit. It will have Jack and Niall commentating and it will be all Laois. Check for the dedicated stream. There was nothing Radio Offaly about it the day of the Laois Offaly game.

Maybe I'm still a bit shook from the Galway game but I'm finding it hard to be optimistic about this evenings game.  The size difference alone will be very difficult to overcome, their full forward line in particular will have a serious height advantage over our full back line so I hope the sweeper drops right back.  Our hope lies in being able to exploit their full back line but that will be a challenge indeed with just one or two inside players.  Some of the possible changes I'm hearing would have me a bit worried too.

This game could well be the last time we see quite a few players who have given their all for over a decade in the Laois colours.  If that's the case I hope they go out with a serious bang and heads held high.

Quote from: Don Draper on July 04, 2015, 02:09:17 AM
If Midlands Sport arent broadcasting it live on air, check their social media links, they'll have a dedicated stream for it.

Thanks, Don Draper. When you say "a dedicated stream" are you meaning a Twitter feed with score updates or is there an actual audio stream of continous commentary? If it's the latter (I hope), I'm having trouble finding it. Thanks.

Quote from: Mossy Bruce on July 04, 2015, 03:23:12 PM

Quote from: Don Draper on July 04, 2015, 02:09:17 AM
If Midlands Sport arent broadcasting it live on air, check their social media links, they'll have a dedicated stream for it.

Thanks, Don Draper. When you say "a dedicated stream" are you meaning a Twitter feed with score updates or is there an actual audio stream of continous commentary? If it's the latter (I hope), I'm having trouble finding it. Thanks.

A proper dedicated stream on their Mixlr site. Tweet them during the game, or ask on their Facebook page

http://mixlr.com/midlandssportlivegaa/

Awesome! Thanks, Don.

Let's hope a big crowd turn out. Lose and it could be the last game for some senior players as mentioned earlier, it could also be Cheddars last game. Win and the dream goes on. Hon Leix!

 the team for today

Laois: Reilly; Palmer, Healy, Stapleton; Joe Fitz. M Whelan, Delaney; Purcell, P Whelan; Dwyer. Tommy Fitz, Keenan; Picky, Hyland. JCampion.


good luck to the lads,

Mixed emotions after that game. I thought the team selection was bizarre with Paddy Whelan playing - he just has not got what it takes to be an inter-county hurler. The early two goals filled me with dread and was expecting a thumping. However, we got back in the game and had Dublin rattled in the period second quarter. The third Dublin goal was a sucker punch to get.

Against the wind for the second half (and with half time so soon after that third goal in mid) I honestly thought heads would drop. However the lads fought for everything and the substitutions made a huge impact. Dublin were rattled for long swathes of that second half and their first touch showed. At times you would have thought Dublin were playing against the wind in the second half too.

The 1-01 at the end was a lousy way for the game to finish - no way were Dublin 10pts better than us. Overall I was happy with the way the lads fought for everything tonight. Despite the result they can be proud of the way they fought tonight. We were handicapped from the start with Dublins physicality. We have learned alot from this year's campaign and overall it has been a decent year for Laois hurling.

Yes, Dublin very flattered by the scoreline. However, our fullback line had a very bad day. Palmer did OK, and I don't know why John A didn't start. Healy, in particular, had a bit of a nightmare, I have to say. Nevertheless, it was a respectable enough showing, and I was - for once - impressed by Zane's work rate in the first half, while Hyland showed well, too. The second half was poor enough, with a lot of mistakes from both sides. I don't really fancy Dublin to get to the quarter finals.
Anyway, a bit of progress this year in getting out of the round-robin. It's incremental, but at least it's happening!

the sweeper does not work people! Thats what ive learned this year. Hurling as we know it is dissappearing before our eyes! No shape to the game, id say the record for the most passes in a single game is well and truly smashed! And thats from both teams! The short passes cost us at least 5 points, we have a long puck champion in goal playing with the wind and playing short passes to dublin players! When he did go long there was only 2 in the full forward line winning f**k all ball. Were so predictable, dublin cut out the sweeper with good ball into the corners and buried 2 early goals. Then we get ourselves back into it but only with long range efforts again, no decent ball into the full foward line. Same as the offaly game except offaly were just crap for 70 minutes. We wernt gona keep that up against the wind in the second half. Then bad defending for the 3rd goal, you could see a mile off that the ball was gona come across the square to the man left all alone, matt whelan at least 5 yards away from him, too easy. Palmer was brutal, he just held his hurl in the air when trying to contest puck outs. Zane worked hard at getting the ball back in the first half in fairness but was non existent other than that. Even when we eventually went 15 on 15 about 15 minutes to go the full forward line wouldnt stay in, i think theyre afraid of the goals! Foyle stayed in but stayed in behind his man too! When he did get the chance to have a go on goal he bottled it! Im struggling to be positive because im angry, im angry because we are better than that, its mostly the system that is defeating the players. If the backs delivered good quick ball to a normal layout of forwards, the forwards would perform better. And our backs are well capable of spraying the ball around when they want to. The players are doing what is asked of them and trying their best but the system does not work and it is restricting the players. Dublin were pretty poor in the second half and were there for the taking if we had used the ball and our players better.
I will say everyone tried their best and in general worked their socks off. Those lads owe us nothing. Joe fitz, matt whelan, cha, willie, stood out for me.
Go back to traditional hurling, perfect it, use support plsy and good off the ball movement, use the ball well, thats how we will progress. Stop negative hurling!
Jaysus its great to get shit off your chest!

Quote from: TheGreatGame on July 04, 2015, 02:09:16 PM
...
This game could well be the last time we see quite a few players who have given their all for over a decade in the Laois colours.  If that's the case I hope they go out with a serious bang and heads held high.

Have any players announced this will be their last season?

Not yet Mossy, but its a long week in hurling let alone politics, I would be expecting a handful to call it a day. Next year will be a transitional year - as long as we avoid Round Robin winners we should be safe - watch the draw in late Oct/early Nov for that one.

One more thing... and I will put this nugget out there for consideration: We lost last year's AIQ by 10pts to Waterford below in Walsh Park, the same result (10pts) against a Dublin team who are arguably at the same standard as that WD team 12 months ago. Personally speaking I thought tonight's performance was alot better than in Walsh Park 12 months ago.

I hope the likes of Joe Fitz and Jimmy Walsh give it one more year. Joe had a togh afternoon today and was in the wars but he was battling right til the end. He was a great leader this year nine more so than the Offaly game. A few of the lads were poor today by their own standards and it's just a pity that we can't get everyone to play to their potential at the same time on the same day. Cha has been very consistent and really got stuck in again today. Our subs didn't really make an impression. A lot of rushed deliveries into the forwards and it was Dublin men hoovering up the loose ball.
It's terrible to say that the Dublin keeper didn't have a save to make today and we never looked like we'd get a goal. Tried hard though and it was a tough physical battle but Dublin were just that bit better and although we kept in touch they hit some terrible wides that should probably have put them out of site earlier.
We are just not up to the speed of hurling required at this level which will take time. They were alot sharper and faster in their play.
Anyhow we got ourselves out of the round robin and hopefully we can have a decent league campaign next year.

Quote from: G@@ on July 05, 2015, 02:52:04 AM
Not yet Mossy, but its a long week in hurling let alone politics, I would be expecting a handful to call it a day. Next year will be a transitional year - as long as we avoid Round Robin winners we should be safe - watch the draw in late Oct/early Nov for that one.

Would it not be fixed to make sure Laoise played the round robin winners? This year the perceived 'weakest' - Offaly and Wexford - played the round robin winners, although I know the previous year Offaly dodged that. How will it work, I wonder? Would we not be better off playing round robin winners, than coming in cold against Galway or Kilkenny?
Yes, last night's performance was A LOT better than the Waterford game last year.

Quote from: merman on July 02, 2015, 10:39:46 AM
..... as the Dublin Hurling Fans are a decent bunch and though coming expecting to win, they won't bring the arrogance that their football counterparts so clearly do.

Firstly, disappointed that I was so naive in this instance. There was a minority of downright nasty Dublin fans in OMP last night. I appreciate that they are in every count, including our own no doubt, but it left a sour taste for me to see grown men goading a young 16/17 year old girl for having the temerity to cheer on her team.
Scumbags

Anyway, hard luck to the lads last night. We would be well-served to remember that we are a very short distance down a very very long road. This Dublin team is 10 years down that road and are rocket-fuelled by a huge population and considerable funding from Croke Park. And they have a long road to travel still too...

Dublin deserved to win. Undoubtedly. They had us at arms length right throughout that second half and I felt they could have clicked up through the gears if they needed to. I think both teams played to about 70-80% of their ability and if we had delivered an absolutely perfect performance then we might have had a chance but such performances are rare and it wasn't to be.

On the match itself, we were undone by a blistering start from Dublin. There was clear direction to take on our full-back line and they went for goals very early. I felt for Brian Stapleton as nothing went for him but he owes us nothing and has had, and will continue to have, much better days for Laois. Mark Schutte is a classy forward and he's physically strong. I flagged our match-ups earlier this week but I was wrong and probably hadn't appreciated the sheer physical advantage the Dublin forwards had. Schutte, Keaney and Dillon are strong imposing forwards and are direct; they caused us huge problems in that opening half.
On the sweeper question, I still maintain that we can't do away with it yet, or for the foreseeable future. 6v6 would work for us if our backs were the measure of the Dublin/Galway/Wexford/Whoever forwards but we'd be naive to think we are. We simply need that extra protection and we will until we have put 5-8 years of competitive minor/u21 teams back-to-back. That's not a criticism of our current players who I have the utmost respect for but I just think our full-back line would be hung out to dry if we went man for man.
Now, that said, our use of the sweeper failed us yesterday. Dublin were clever, fast and had a clear direction to their play. We needed Joe Campion to be a presence on and off the ball but he was all at sea and I have a degree of sympathy for a natural forward who is being shoehorned into a position that just doesn't suit him. Paddy Purcell gave an exhibition of sweeper play for our county champions last year and might well be worth considering for the years ahead.

I don't want to go into too much individual analysis but I was flummoxed by the apparent dropping of John A Delaney. I think it was unfair that he seemed to have been dropped off the back of a poor performance against Galway; one of the very few occasions where he has been comprehensible bested in a big game. To his credit, he was outstanding on his introduction.
I though Joe Fitzpatrick was outstanding in the 2nd half btw!
I also feel we need to consider Matthew Whelan as our long-term full back. He has the physical attributes and I just think Cahir Healy would be better suited either further out the field or with specific man-marking duties. He might be needed in midfield as we were ripped apart there yesterday.

Looking at our forwards, it was a difficult evening for a few of them. Picky Maher and Tommy Fitzgerald struggled badly and I think Picky, in particular, needs a good club championship to help him realise his potential. Zane Keenan worked hard but was well contained and his frees weren't up to the usual standard. I really hope he continues with Laois next year...
Cha and Willie were excellent I thought. Hyland nailed 4/5 points and is the real leader up front. Crummy couldn't handle him and resorted to nastiness and aggression and Hyland still had his measure. Similarly, Cha got on a lot of ball and hit 3 nice scores from distance. Cha works so hard and if we can get him active in closer to goal then we have one the genuine top young forwards in Ireland. Neil Foyle is still not 100% and getting him and Roddy fit for next season will be crucial.

Finally, just on the ref; I thought he was very hard on us. I have no problem with him missing Paul Ryan's strike on Joe as it was devious and off the ball but there was 6/7 softish frees that Dublin forwards got at crucial times; the same frees weren't forthcoming up our end.

The year as a whole should be classed a success but our feet should be firmly on the ground. The Dubs will still look down their noses at us as a poor team and I think some of the media love-ins might well do us a disservice as we all know that we have a lot of hard days ahead.

I hope we can maintain the core of this squad but I have concerns that our extended panel might not recommit as a lot of players have sacrificed a lot of their young lives and gotten no real game time. It's a debate for another day but we haven't found the right balance between club and county and this could affect our panel moving forward.

Finally, a thank you to Cheddar and all his players and back-room team. I am an avid supporter one day a week or fortnight; I have incredible respect for the sacrifices these men make 4/5/6 days a week. True heroes and incredible role-models for our impressionable juveniles; that in itself is progress seeing where we were a few years ago...

the last 3 championship games - We beat a poor offaly team with long range points. Galway hammered us, dublin beat us by 10 points and they had 21 wides and a goal disallowed, again anything we got yesterday was long range efforts. and people think we are progressing and we should stick with the same system?!! Cheddar has brought this team as far as he can, A big thank you to him for all he has done but time for change.

Quote from: merman on July 05, 2015, 01:01:33 PM

Firstly, disappointed that I was so naive in this instance. There was a minority of downright nasty Dublin fans in OMP last night. I appreciate that they are in every count, including our own no doubt, but it left a sour taste for me to see grown men goading a young 16/17 year old girl for having the temerity to cheer on her team.
Scumbags

Par for the course. I call these people Everydub. They seem to think it's acceptable to bring this loutish behaviour along with them. If we wanted to live in Scumbagland, we'd move there. Keep your scumbaggery in Dublin, where it's normal behaviour.

Quote from: finbar o tool on July 05, 2015, 03:07:21 PM
the last 3 championship games - We beat a poor offaly team with long range points. Galway hammered us, dublin beat us by 10 points and they had 21 wides and a goal disallowed, again anything we got yesterday was long range efforts. and people think we are progressing and we should stick with the same system?!! Cheddar has brought this team as far as he can, A big thank you to him for all he has done but time for change.

Finish with Cheddar and Laois hurling is finished. That is the truth. To think any different is utter stupidity.

I agree. People seem to think we're better than we actually are. We're at the level we're at, because that's how good we are. Cheddar has the players' confidence. Who else would you suggest we call on, anyway?

There is nobody else.

Cheddar has brought these players from the abolute pits of despair to where we are now.
No, we're not world-beaters. We still have a long way to go; we still have some very darks darks to endure but Cheddar has forged a close-knit panel of dedicated Laois men and that is a crucial foundation fi whatever progress may lie ahead.

No, people think we are worse than we actually are!!!  We are better than what weve shown this year, the system is wrong. If cheddar doesnt change that system we wont progress. And im sure a few candidates will appear now that cheddar has steadied the ship!
I dont mind cheddar staying if he changes the system.

Quote from: finbar o tool on July 05, 2015, 10:56:22 PM
No, people think we are worse than we actually are!!!  We are better than what weve shown this year, the system is wrong. If cheddar doesnt change that system we wont progress. And im sure a few candidates will appear now that cheddar has steadied the ship!
I dont mind cheddar staying if he changes the system.

Jesus that is some horseshit. The system develops, that what systems do.

Go on, tell us who these managers are and how they'll be paid for. Tell us all that and while you're doing it tell us how much Cheddar is paid.

I never mentioned pay?!
The system doesnt work, like i said, this sweeper horseshit is restricting our players from playing to their full potential, as mentioned above, the results speak from themselves. Sick to the teeth of lads saying, ah we only got beat by 10pts. Thats progress! Bullshit. What is the system developing?! How is it progressing?! Cheddar has brought us to the same standard as other top counties with backroom team, preperation etc. but negative hurling will not progress this team. Long range points wont get us far and thats all we can do at the moment. Wake up!!

Quote from: finbar o tool on July 05, 2015, 11:54:12 PM
I never mentioned pay?!
The system doesnt work, like i said, this sweeper horseshit is restricting our players from playing to their full potential, as mentioned above, the results speak from themselves. Sick to the teeth of lads saying, ah we only got beat by 10pts. Thats progress! Bullshit. What is the system developing?! How is it progressing?! Cheddar has brought us to the same standard as other top counties with backroom team, preperation etc. but negative hurling will not progress this team. Long range points wont get us far and thats all we can do at the moment. Wake up!!

Firstly, I used horseshit, try be original, it doesn't take much and will add to your use as a poster.

I never said we were only beat by 10 points.

The game was in the melting pot with 15 minutes to go at 6 points down, it was anything but the Waterford game last year.

We have a problem in the full back line that has hampered matters all year since Dubhie retired. That will have to be rectified, the answer is in Camross if he wants to commit.

You said the job would be more attractive, to who? Name these people. And tell me how you're going to explain to them, how you've binned the man who saved Laois hurling, because any hurling man out there has huge respect for Plunkett and will be scratching his head at what you'll do to him if he fails, when you've canned the saviour of Laois hurling. I'm sure he'll love to hear you explain that.

Tinbar o Fool.  ;)

Don, sorry, i will try to be as cool and original as you in future posts!  ;D

i didnt say you said anything, do you read my posts at all?! IN GENERAL, im sick of the mentality that "oh we were only beaten by 10 points this year thats progress".

when Laois Hurling was in the depths of despair, Cheddar came in and did a fantastic job, and the players would die for him. these things i appreciate and admire. i have never said otherwise. the question was asked who would take over if Cheddar left? and i only meant that now that Cheddar has done all this work im sure there will be people willing to step in. not like before when Cheddar stepped up and did the job himself because no one else would!!
the only point i ever tried to make is the sweeper system is progressing nothing. improving the back room team, the set up, the fitness, the commitment, was always going to improve our hurling. but the sweeper system is doing nothing for us and we will never win anything with this system. all we seem to be able to do is long range efforts at points. thats not good hurling, and how  can anyone say the sweeper system works when you look at the scoring and wides against us?! thats with an extra defender!! and if cheddar wont change it then we need a change of manager.
i know most will probably disagree and thats fine. but thats my belief. im entitled to that.
a lot of people are blinded by love and hype for cheddar. and i can see why. but when it comes down to making decisions on the line or implementing this sweeper system i dont like it and dont agree with it. if he changes that then i have no problem with Cheddar. because he has all the other attributes of a great manager, but the one failing i see is a big one in my eyes.

oh, and good joke there G@@, give yourself a pat on the back for that one!  ::)

Quote from: finbar o tool on July 06, 2015, 12:26:10 PM
Don, sorry, i will try to be as cool and original as you in future posts!  ;D

i didnt say you said anything, do you read my posts at all?! IN GENERAL, im sick of the mentality that "oh we were only beaten by 10 points this year thats progress".

when Laois Hurling was in the depths of despair, Cheddar came in and did a fantastic job, and the players would die for him. these things i appreciate and admire. i have never said otherwise. the question was asked who would take over if Cheddar left? and i only meant that now that Cheddar has done all this work im sure there will be people willing to step in. not like before when Cheddar stepped up and did the job himself because no one else would!!
the only point i ever tried to make is the sweeper system is progressing nothing. improving the back room team, the set up, the fitness, the commitment, was always going to improve our hurling. but the sweeper system is doing nothing for us and we will never win anything with this system. all we seem to be able to do is long range efforts at points. thats not good hurling, and how  can anyone say the sweeper system works when you look at the scoring and wides against us?! thats with an extra defender!! and if cheddar wont change it then we need a change of manager.
i know most will probably disagree and thats fine. but thats my belief. im entitled to that.
a lot of people are blinded by love and hype for cheddar. and i can see why. but when it comes down to making decisions on the line or implementing this sweeper system i dont like it and dont agree with it. if he changes that then i have no problem with Cheddar. because he has all the other attributes of a great manager, but the one failing i see is a big one in my eyes.

oh, and good joke there G@@, give yourself a pat on the back for that one!  ::)

Who will be willing to step in?

How will we  pay them?

Oh and just to refresh your memory, its obviously a bit poor, this is what you said

QuoteCheddar has brought this team as far as he can, A big thank you to him for all he has done but time for change.

So get ta fook trying to move the goalposts now.

Let's just have a little look at a few results before Cheddar took over.

2012: Dublin 3–23 – 1–7 Laois-------Limerick 6–21 – 1–11 Laois
2011: Laois 1-13 - 10-20 Cork
2010: Carlow 1-19 - 3-12 Laois

That's all that needs to be said to prove that Finbar is talking rubbish bit I will add that the plan at the moment is to make us competitive and once we get more of the new crop of players coming through we can push on. You can't change a team that's losing by huge margins into a winning team overnight.

Quote from: Teo Lurley on July 06, 2015, 01:08:24 PM
Let's just have a little look at a few results before Cheddar took over.

2012: Dublin 3–23 – 1–7 Laois-------Limerick 6–21 – 1–11 Laois
2011: Laois 1-13 - 10-20 Cork
2010: Carlow 1-19 - 3-12 Laois

That's all that needs to be said to prove that Finbar is talking rubbish bit I will add that the plan at the moment is to make us competitive and once we get more of the new crop of players coming through we can push on. You can't change a team that's losing by huge margins into a winning team overnight.

But did you not read Finbars post, we're going to get Anthony Daly to manage us, or maybe even Cody, perhaps he could bring Michael Dempsey with him and they could double job the football and the hurling? Lets get rid of Cheddar QUICK, just in case they don't realise we want them.

God help us in this county.

Quote from: finbar o tool on July 06, 2015, 12:26:10 PM
improving the back room team, the set up, the fitness, the commitment, was always going to improve our hurling.

like i said, we have improved....
what shit are you talking Don?! the point i made was im sure there will be more people inclined to take over now, than 2011!! you're too busy trying to be funny than actually reading the post properly! oh, and how did we pay for previous managers?
also, how have i moved the goal posts, if hes not willing to change the system then yes he has brought them as far as he can!

2015:
laois 29pts - 21pts offaly. worst offaly team for about 50 years.
laois 1.14 - 3.28 galway. dont know exact figures but im guessing about 15 wides for galway
laois 19pts - dublin 4-17. 21 wides from dublin
lost to antrim and struggled to beat westmeath.
and everyone is delighted with this progress!!

the galway set up was a disgrace. we were dead and buried before we went out on the field. management threw in the towel before the game began.

can no one see that we could have competed much better in these games if we didnt use a sweeper? if we went 15 on 15, used the ball properly, good delivery, players in correct positions, moving off the ball, support play etc etc if we are beaten by a better team on the day then so be it!

we are a better team than what we have shown this year. we have good players who have all improved individually and as a team.  but we are not seeing the best of them due to the sweeper system.
thats my main point here.
plain and f**king simple.
my opinion.

Quotelike i said, we have improved....
what shit are you talking Don?! the point i made was im sure there will be more people inclined to take over now, than 2011!! you're too busy trying to be funny than actually reading the post properly! oh, and how did we pay for previous managers?
also, how have i moved the goal posts, if hes not willing to change the system then yes he has brought them as far as he can!

No, you said

QuoteCheddar has brought this team as far as he can, A big thank you to him for all he has done but time for change.

Your point could have been god f**king knows, but its not what you said. What you said was horseshit, as we've already agreed.

So who are these managers we're going to get to replace Cheddar when you fire him out of the job. Stop avoiding the question. And how are they going to be paid for.

not sure if you understand how it works Don but its the county board who decide who the next manager would be and how they are paid for, not me!! stop asking stupid questions and ill stop avoiding them!

why dont reply about my actual point? or dont!

[/quote]


we are a better team than what we have shown this year. we have good players who have all improved individually and as a team.  but we are not seeing the best of them due to the sweeper system.
thats my main point here.
plain and f**king simple.
my opinion.
[/quote]

A bit of tedious tangent ye are gone off on lads  ::)

Fantastic progress has been made yet still there would be no one out there willing to commit t as much as Plunkett has to the cause and no one else more importantly who would get anything else out of these players. A mangers tenure generally runs its course like Critchley with the minors but i don't think this is the case with Cheddar. I believe his has more in him its just up to him personally to state that. There is only so much physically one man can invest in a job and has has done more than any manager ever across the country in the modern game. To get us out of the doldrums where we were to a point we are whining about a defeat to Dublin is a testament to the progress and to the man.

In relation to your continuous bashing of a sweeper system Finbar I will again say we simply do not have the quality of hurlers to compete 15 on 15. Physical size was a huge issue pardon the pun against Dublin. Imagine we did go man for man. Would you be confident every man picked was going to win their battle and thus not allow overlaps to happen? I wouldn't be in anyway confident of that. I am the first to admit it is horribly frustrating to watch when it breaks down but we are hurling in a way that gives us some chance of being competitive against better teams.

To be completely honest we simply do not have enough quality hurlers available. The All Ireland contenders ie those left in the All Ireland series how many of those are represented by 8-9 clubs? Not many if you look through the team sheet and panels. Kilkenny for example in yesterdays Leinster final had 18 clubs represented in their match day panel and team. Ballyhale had 5 members on the panel and they are All Ireland champions yet Borris Kilcotton have 7 or 8 on a panel and have never won a county championship in Laois. I have nothing against BK personally i am using them as an example. We simply cannot compete as we do not have enough hurlers hurling at a quality level. How many lads are on the panel outside of the 8 senior teams in 2015. A couple of Portlaoise lads and a Sliabh Bloom lad.

You can only work with what you have so in that regard we aint doing too badly. I suppose some of our posters on here and our fans need to be realistic with the future direction of our team. Not to be just happy with our lot but be a little more realistic with regard to the cards we are playing with

a good post Jimmy and well put. i agree with a lot of what you are saying. i am realistic in the sense that we have small numbers to pick from and there are many other teams out there better than us.
but i still can not see the value of the sweeper system. as you say it is terribly frustrating to watch. but what does it actually add to the team? butch stapleton was a classic example of what i mean Saturday evening. he was sweeper, in front of the full back line, and added absolutely nothing to defense. dont mean to pick on butch, he was only doing as he was asked.

i still believe we would compete better if we worked and developed our 15 on 15. if things were really going to shit during a match i would have a sweeper as plan B, but not sitting in front of the full back, have him closer to the middle trying to win breaks from the puck outs etc. we just cant rely on a sweeper and nothing else.
any way, im done. ive even sickened myself talking about sweepers!!
i just feel we would get more from the players in a traditional system.

i want the best for the players just as anyone else and there will always be different opinions. there is SOME commitment required to hurl at the top level these days, hats off to them all.

(http://www.sportsfile.com/winshare/w540/Library/SF439/1021840.jpg)

If you're not going to answer my question Finbar, I'll leave it there, there's only so many times you can kick a dog.


Moving on




"This is nothing to do with me," Plunkett says, killing the obvious line of questioning stone dead. "Anything we do has to be about Laois hurling and only about that . . . It's not about people, it's about systems and structures and about the quality of work that people put in.
Cheddar is surrounded by recording devices as dozens of kids happily puck about despite the ancient tannoy voice demanding they remove themselves and their odd-looking sticks.
"I can't say this more clearly to people who have influence here," Plunkett continued, reiterating his everlasting lament. "There is an opportunity in Laois at the moment to do something absolutely brilliant. There are a lot of businesses out there trying to flog products and they don't have the natural customers that you see in this field at the minute."
Sliotars whizz over and under head. Most are killed stone dead by decent first touches. It's only 30 kilometres to the Kilkenny border.
"I've presented it to enough people at GAA headquarters but for some reason they just close their eyes to this and that is just incredibly disappointing.
"I'm not just saying that after this defeat, I've been saying it for three years. It's time for somebody here to wake up and decide how this thing is going to be done better. Because certainly what is being done in the last 30 years is not working.
"We need somebody to look at this differently and take advantage of the opportunities that are arising. And I'd be saying exactly the same thing about Westmeath and Carlow and other counties. They are giving everything they can to improve themselves. And that's not easy. We're a small county. We just don't have the revenues generating that other counties have.
"Will people continue to sit on their hands while all these people do all this work and an opportunity is here? I can't keep asking that question often enough.
"It's about a complete vision for hurling. How we're going to promote the game. What is the objective here? Is the objective for the next 40 years to have an All-Ireland championship where only three counties can win it? Because we've had that for the last 40 years.
"If that's what they want, let them stand up and be honest and say it.
"And we'll all go away and do something else. But if the vision is to support people like us in what we're doing, let them stand back and say what has worked before isn't working and let's do something different."

Cheddar Plunkett Post Dublin

https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/cheddar-plunkett-post-dublin

And after all that, you have c***ts like this come out churning out the same shite

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaa-rejects-plunkett-criticisms-on-hurling-development-1.2275554

A couple of grand a year, thats their development plan for us. I fully believe we have to help ourselves, but at this point, we have done that, and we can do no more or go no further at development level without another serious boost of finance. We have 2 development officers in the county, what hope have we when you look at the resources other counties have? We are a small county with small resources, we have little industry or major companies operating here, we even had to go outside for our main sponsors for the County. We can only generate so much money, Cheddar can only give so much of his own, its a situation that can't continue. If the GAA don't give us something soon, this entire thing is going to grind to halt, because what we're running on now, simply CANNOT continue long term.

And despite all this, you have lads calling for Cheddar to move on. It f**king infuriates me.  There's a line in this paragraph that sums up where we are on this thread I think



And what of Laois? Hurling needs them and men like Plunkett to thrive, not merely survive; some of his men may retire now but one hopes that he doesn't walk away.
As he clutched the distraught Stapleton after the final whistle, one sensed that Laois hurling - and the sport in general - needs him. But do they know how much?
"Those decisions are never made after a match like this," he said of his own future, before delivering a passionate and hopefully not valedictory call to arms about that of the game.
"What is the objective here? Is the objective for the next 40 years to have an All-Ireland championship where only three counties can win it? Because we've had that for the last 40 years.
"If that's what they want, let them stand up and be honest and say it. And we'll all go away and do something else".

I think we can see some don't realise this.

A very honest effort from our hurlers last Saturday.  There were a few times they could have thrown in the towel as the goals were real sucker punches.  I really felt for Brian Stapleton as he drew the short straw in marking Mark Schutte.  I would have tried Campion on him and leave Butch or Palmer in the free role, but these things are easy to say in hindsight.  I will say though that I thought leaving James Walsh and John A off for this game was a big mistake.  We needed our most physical team out and they both made a big difference when introduced.  Cheddar is a Laois legend of that there is no doubt, but I do think he has a leaning towards the younger players he would have been over as minor manager.  I dearly hope he stays on of course, but I do wonder how much any one man can give.  It must be exhausting on him physically and mentally.  I hope now that he is given time to make up his own decision.

On the Dub support, yeah they have their fair share of right p***ks.  The three behind me felt the need to put down Laois players at every opportunity.  That's all grand until things escalate and get physical which nobody wants to see.  I'll find it hard to shout for them in the future.

I think next year will be a real challenge.  We could be in for a significant turnover of players....but that's a topic for another day.

For now a huge thank you to all involved with the set up.

There's pricks in every county, Dublin's population means it has more of them than most. The fella behind me giving out to Joe Fitz for his balls inexplicably assaulting Danny Sutcliffe's hurl was the funniest I've heard in a long time however.

We're very very luck to have men like Cheddar involved in Laois hurling.



A message on behalf of the Laois Senior Hurling Team and Management that has been distributed to our Clubs from Cheddar


July 7th 2015
Dear Chairman / Secretary
On behalf of Laois Senior Hurling team management, and also on behalf of the players themselves, I would like to thank you for your support for the county senior hurling team in 2015 and I would be pleased if you would pass on thanks to your executive and also to all of your Club members.
I would also like to express my gratitude to your club for encouraging Laois supporters to get in behind the team, especially in the Championships games. The support for the team in the Round Robin and in the Offaly, Galway and Dublin games was special and the players really appreciated it and regularly commented on it.
A number of clubs also made their facilities available to the county team for training during the year, sometimes at short notice. Your accommodation of the team and your courtesy and enthusiasm to make alternative arrangements in your club so that the county team could train on those days/nights was very welcome.
On a separate but related matter, if any county player from your club is carrying any injury from his county commitments and needs further treatment please revert to me as I would want all players to be well treated and go back to their respective clubs in the right form to play club games. I will also be advising the players of this.
In conclusion I would again like to thank you for your assistance and support in striving to drive Laois hurling forward in 2015 and I would like to wish your club all the best in all of the Laois Championships in 2015.
Yours sincerely
Seamas Plunkett

We are very lucky to have such a dedicated, passionate and determined Laois man at the helm. I would hope he will stay on as manager but if not at least remain in some capacity as Laois hurling needs him.
He is a strong character however he would benefit from a tactical thinking assistant or selector along side him.

It is clear to everyone that the players respect him and will play for him and he has shown his class with that memo to all the clubs who are also in on his thinking. Clubs will benefit from their players being involved in the county set up.

Resources need to be found for hurling in the county and Cheddar should not have to be paying for anything. Between the GAA Top brass, The county board, Business's in Laois, Friends of Laois hurling and supporters this has to continue. Cheddar is cute enough to also see the marketing opportunity there at the moment. Hundreds of kids out on the field at half time. It was brilliant to see.

The next couple of months may be as important as what's gone before us. Onwards and upwards.

I think we're incredibly lucky to have Cheddar. Another great story here:

http://www.hoganstand.com/Laois/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=240628

As redsetanta says, it's up to the County Board now to make his life as easy as possible and to make every possible effort to support him with whatever he needs.

New tactical ideas will always be helpful but I get the impression from all the various storie that Cheddar is a pretty creative person himself. Personally, I think the idea of Laois going 15 v 15 is just not really on at this stage. The best team in the country had 12 lads behind the ball for a lot of the 2nd half against Galway last weekend and that was hailed as tactical genius. The winners' tactics are always adjudged to be the best, regardless of the quality of the players on both teams. In my opinion, Cheddar has managed to get the maximum out of the players we have (exemplified maybe most by Zane Keenan who has worked his ass off in the games I've seen him play) and you can't ask for any more than that.

If we keep Cheddar on board, and with the good players that are slowly coming through, we'll be getting better and better over the next few years.

I would take the u-21's off him, we have been extremely poor at that grade for the last two years.

I feel after the great result against offaly this year which was a step in the right direction we need to push on to get to the next level and get closer to top teams like kilkenny,cork etc. To make that step we need a manager that has the experience of winning titles at this level, anthony daly i feel could really bring laois to  the level we all want the team to get to.

jaysus clubjoe14, you better get the helmet on and get into the fetal position, you're going to get hammered for suggesting that!!  ;D

i would definitely suggest getting a new man in for the U21s anyway, too much for any manager to look after 2 teams and give both 100% commitment. 

Ha ha ha! Do you really see the county board shelling out for Daly? Do we really have enough coming through to entice someone like Daly? I think the answer to both is 'no'.

We don't have the players to compete with Kilkenny or Cork. We have pushed by Offaly and moved up the ladder but we're not even on Wexfords rung yet. Some people need a good dose of reality.

i have been to a few games this year and even in the offaly game where we hurled very well, we lacked abit of a killer instinct upfront. I feel we need to create and score more goals to get to the next level.

Quote from: Teo Lurley on July 08, 2015, 06:28:03 PM
We don't have the players to compete with Kilkenny or Cork. We have pushed by Offaly and moved up the ladder but we're not even on Wexfords rung yet. Some people need a good dose of reality.

Agreed.

Talk of changing our manager is utterly redundant; completely nonsensical.
We are not in a position to offer ANYTHING to the likes of Anthony Daly. We don't yet have the players or the finances to even consider it.

What's amazing about the work Cheddar has done is that he has dragged us a small way up a steep ladder through massive personal investment, in every sense of the word. He believes passionately in Laois hurling and that is something that no outside, paid manager can bring.

I believe in the journey we are on but we still have a lot of dark days ahead. We are going to take beatings from the best teams and we are now definite targets for the likes of Westmeath/Antrim/Carlow/Kerry who won't see themselves a million miles behind us; not to mention the fact that whenever we face Offaly next they will 100% still expect to beat us.

We are playing with the same core of players who were hammered by the likes of Cork/Limerick/Dublin/Galway 3-5 years ago. We have brought through a few excellent young hurlers and will hopefully continue to do so over the coming years; especially if (and this is only my own opinion) the Setanta programme can be re-energised to the level it was at a couple of years ago. Those players are coming into a progressive and improving set-up; that may well be the legacy for this current bunch of players; not any actual attainments in terms of major scalps.

I share TheGreatGame's concern that the squad may experience a significant turnover of players before next year...

Quote from: clubjoe14 on July 08, 2015, 06:31:53 PM
we lacked abit of a killer instinct upfront. I feel we need to create and score more goals to get to the next level.

clubjoe14 is actually right here. very hard to do that though with THAT system i mentioned previously! not starting again, just saying!  ;)

i will hold my hands up and say i was wrong to suggest we should get a new manager, but i haven't changed my thoughts on the system used this year.
everyone is very quick to say were not good enough to play 15 on 15 but how do you know?! it hasn't been tried and tested yet under cheddar, so how are you so sure?!
i will say again, i know we might not be good enough to beat some of these 'bigger' teams yet with 15 on 15, but, it will make us more competitive.
either way we are becoming a 1 trick pony using the same system over and over again.
Cheddar did say in his interview after the game V Dublin that "we need to look at it and maybe go a different way at this" and also said, "what do we want, do we want to stand still or keep pushing, keep pushing and keep finding different ways to improve ourselves".
fingers crossed we can try something else next year.

Good jesus.I find it hard to believe the lack of faith in Cheddar from some on this site and from some laois supporters in general. For what he has done for us as a county cant be quantified, we were facing into the Christy Ring and now we lose to Dublin playing poorly and we are disappointed . It has been quite the turnaround and  if, as expected, Cheddar leaves it will leave us with a huge void to fill and I really do not believe there is an appetite from Laois CB to fill it.  Cheddar drove this project forward and I dont see anyone filling the void.

We need to hang on to cheddar, get him some more assistance and try a get a little of that killer instinct, we need goals from somewhere next year, they really make a diference. A lot of good comments in last few posts

Quote from: portlaoisekid on July 08, 2015, 10:00:31 PM
Good jesus.I find it hard to believe the lack of faith in Cheddar from some on this site and from some laois supporters in general. For what he has done for us as a county cant be quantified, we were facing into the Christy Ring and now we lose to Dublin playing poorly and we are disappointed . It has been quite the turnaround and  if, as expected, Cheddar leaves it will leave us with a huge void to fill and I really do not believe there is an appetite from Laois CB to fill it.  Cheddar drove this project forward and I dont see anyone filling the void.

Agreed. I absolutely wholeheartedly give the f**k up. I simply can't believe people like finbar are 1) serious and 2) in any way knowledgable. I give up on this place. Some lads can't take a few fucks, and other lads are absolutely clueless and blind. I'll leave with this. Thanks Cheddar, from the bottom of my heart thanks. But it does appear true, a man will never a prophet in his own land. We'll f**k this up, because its what we do in Laois.

See ya pals.

I feel nobody is denying that we have improved in the last few years, but if we are to improve further we need to analyse and address the issues that currently exist in some of the teams performances. We can not be sensitive we need to be open and honest to improve and address issues from this year in order to improve, lack of goals and inconsistency in performances being the main ones i see.

We need Cheddar to stay on as Laois manager and we need Don to stay on Gaaboard. Lets get the campaigns going!

Quote from: Teo Lurley on July 09, 2015, 10:11:00 AM
We need Don to stay on Gaaboard. Lets get the campaigns going!

Is he sulking?

Quote from: Don Draper on July 09, 2015, 08:23:43 AM
I simply can't believe people like finbar are 1) serious and 2) in any way knowledgable.

Only time will tell Don, we shall see.

By the way this is how you spell "knowledgeable"  ;)

If we are to get to the next level we need someone that has managed and won titles at the level, daly, liam sheedy etc and follow up on the good work done so far

Quote from: clubjoe14 on July 09, 2015, 04:26:00 PM
If we are to get to the next level we need someone that has managed and won titles at the level, daly, liam sheedy etc and follow up on the good work done so far

You're not asking for much are you?
Someone who has won titles 'at the level'?
I presume by that you mean Division 1 National League, Provincial Title or All-Ireland?

What a load of bollox....

I understand that its currently work in progress but if we  could get someone on board that could give the team a little more edge we begin to move on the next level of reaching leinster finals.

I have to admit I'm finding it very hard to understand the clamour for a new manager to take us to "the next level".

The only manager that I would take over Cheddar would be Brian Cody. All the rest have had as much failure as success with players that are far superior to the ones that we have at present. But the quality of our players is improving and I would expect results to slowly improve with them if we have some patience. The level we are at now (ahead of Offaly, Antrim, Carlow, Westmeath) is a job well done and a testament to the work of Cheddar and the players. I wouldn't be going for big names in any way, shape or form. I don't expect Cheddar's approach to be static - he himself is talking about the need to continually try new things and different approaches.

Hi all, lurking for a while, but decided to join,.........

Great credit has to go to cheddar and his team, but if it he does call it a day, i think we should avoid the journeymen types tried before him. If we did go for an outside manager, we should try someone yong trying to make their name, Cloonan of Galway perhaps, he's involved with them the last couple of years and has a good tutor in Cunningham.

cloonan is a assistant manager  learning his trade at the moment like cheddar and has potential to become a decent manager not sure if hes the right man for us yet

look lads, (myself included) there is probably no point in discussing any new manager unless Cheddar decides to step down. and i think he wont. for him to do that at this stage would be like raring a child to the age of 3 or 4 and handing it off for someone else to look after!! this is his baby after all.

"the next level" that a few have mentioned, would be to get more competitive and more attack minded rather than sitting back and inviting other teams onto us, resulting in us shooting from distance and not much more, like we did this year.

who do we think is going to hang up the inter county boots next year? Tommy Fitz i suppose would nearly be top of the list. i reckon there wouldn't be too many more though, i reckon we'll get another good year or 2 out of the rest? not trying to run Tommy or anything by the way, hes just the obvious choice i suppose!

All this talk about a new manager is BS if you ask me. We're barely a week after our championship exit and maybe my hearing is going but I don't recall Cheddar mentioning or hinting that he would be leaving.

All this talk of next levels, we are out our level.

Look at our record this year. Even though we have improved we still only won one game in the league. We didn't set the world on fire in the round robin but we beat Offaly and we gave the Dubs a right game of it. Dublin, a team that was a score away from an All Ireland final 2 years ago.
This is a journey that the players, management and supporters are on and lads are looking to get rid of the train driver.

redsetanta we have all agreed the lads have improved, but there is plenty more room for improvement.
thats what the next level is!!

a lot of people watched that Dublin game with Laois tinted glasses, for lack of a better description.
Dublin scored 4-17 and if they had their shooting boots on it could have been way worse, they had 21 wides and a goal disallowed.
we didn't really give them "a right game". we sat back and let them take us on and run at us all day. we got back level in the first half because we had a strong wind and a few lads well able to take a score from distance. we needed a couple of goals to give Dublin a game but they were never ever going to come because of the defensive manner the team were set up!

all this talk of of "we don't have the players" blah blah blah, is the likes of Conal Keaney THAT much better than the likes of Willie Hyland?? i certainly don't think so. and Keaney made team off the week last week!! if we put Willie on the edge of the square and played good ball into him, and the corners, just like Dublin did, we would compete much better! instead of having him out on the wing forced into shooting from distance. bringing back an extra defender automatically puts our backs under pressure, the backs are clearing ball and its coming back too quick because we are down a forward and possibly against an extra defender their end! the more pressure we are under the more we will concede and the less we score. are you all telling me that's the best plan we can use due to our players?! if the lads were told/coached to deliver good ball in a 15 on 15 situation, coached on their movement off the ball etc that they wouldn't have the ability or brains to do it? that's bullshit. they are well able!!
That's how we get to "the next level", that's how we progress!

you can all tell me i know nothing, and that i am not "in any way knowledgeable" all you like, i wont be changing my mind on this!

very well summarized Finbar i agree with you that team play within in themselves and dont play direct and quick enough ball into our forwards and really test opposition  defences. This is reflected in our lack of goals we scored this year. Clapping eachother on the back for decent performances for patches in a game will not bring this team to the next level. redsetanta reckons we are at our level and that is after conceding 4-17 and 3-28 in our last 2 championship games!! we need more ambition than that if we want to be respected in the hurling world!

I don't think there's a single poster here who would say that improvement isn't possible. The question is who is best placed to deliver that kind of improvement. The answer to that question depends on how much you respect Cheddar's achievements. If you don't rate those achievements, it's natural that you would be looking for someone else. If, like me, you think he's done a better job than anyone else we've had at the helm since the early 80s (when, by the way, we had much better players), then you wouldn't be so quick to look for a change.

I agree that we should be trying to develop a strategy to score more goals. However, it should be pointed out that you don't need 6 forwards to score a goal. I've only ever seen one being needed. The issue is how to get players into position with the right kind of ball and at the right times to be effective. Again, I would certainly prefer to entrust Cheddar with figuring out that than Anthony Daly.

We played 15v15 against Offaly in the league and we were well beaten. Obviously, it was a different story in the championship when we played with a sweeper. This is not "proof" one way or another but the fact that even the very best teams funnel lots of players back suggests that we're not way of the mark here.

There certainly is a next level to be reached. This will require better players in the first place (despite what you seem to think). It may also need an improved tactical system that gives us a few more goal chances -  I think that will come.
.

Quote from: Giovanni on July 09, 2015, 06:35:57 PM
I've only ever seen one being needed.


It may also need an improved tactical system that gives us a few more goal chances -  I think that will come.
.

that first line above is ridicules!!

the last line, is spot on. this is what im getting at essentially! it needs to come and come quick.

i think we've moved on from talking about a new manager!...

the other point im getting at is, we don't need better players to improve, an improved tactical system is what we need!
OBVIOUSLY, if we had better players we would improve!! and there is plenty of talent coming through, as mentioned previously we will have to be patient, but we can compete better with the players we have with an improved system.
if we compete better, confidence grows and the players will realize the system used this year has been restrictive.

we're going in the right direction and most importantly what Cheddar has done is get the players mentality right. commitment, heart, drive, fitness etc has been the main things that have come on leaps and bounds in the last couple of years, along with a good back room team. now we drive on with the right system/tactics and a few young confident players coming through.

Could you maybe let us in on your ideas for the new tactical system that will bring us on so much?? Is it 15 v 15 or am I misunderstanding?

15 v 15 isn't really the answer, unless you've savage backs. If we even just kept back only one sweeper, just something that'd help you score more than 2 points in 35mins, you'll win little with that.

Guys we are trying to get the right balance between developing the team and tactially competing with the bigger teams like dublin. We played with extra men back against dublin and still we left butch totally exposed on schutte. This managerial naivety is what is costing us in big games. Passion, pride etc will not eliminate these mistakes.

So does this mean that we didn't have enough lads back?

As CDV says above, unless you have savage backs (which we don't) you need to protect them. You can only do that by doubling up dropping lads back, etc.

The thing I was most disappointed with was the absence of "tactical fouling". I know he's a powerful man, but I just couldn't see Schutte getting that far without being fouled against the bigger teams. All these things are easy to say from the sideline but I think this is a bit of cuteness that might take a while to cultivate.

Quote from: finbar o tool on July 09, 2015, 06:07:42 PM
if we put Willie on the edge of the square and played good ball into him, and the corners, just like Dublin did, we would compete much better! instead of having him out on the wing forced into shooting from distance. bringing back an extra defender automatically puts our backs under pressure, the backs are clearing ball and its coming back too quick because we are down a forward and possibly against an extra defender their end! the more pressure we are under the more we will concede and the less we score. are you all telling me that's the best plan we can use due to our players?! if the lads were told/coached to deliver good ball in a 15 on 15 situation, coached on their movement off the ball etc that they wouldn't have the ability or brains to do it? that's bullshit. they are well able!!

Im gona post the above again. We dont need any 'fancy' tactics to compete better lads, we need to play traditionally and use the ball well, clever movement etc, ive said over and over. playing the system/tactics we did this year is playing with fear, we used 2 sweepers against galway which meant management were petrified!! And what good did it do?! Please someone explain what good it did?! Same against dublin, 1 sweeper, but tell me, what good did it do?! As above it only adds and invites pressure, which inevitably leads to a beating and a lack of scores!!
Cheddar needs to stop instilling fear in the players with this system and encourage good intelligent man to man hurling and work hard on that!

Dont forget we lost one of our most potent forwards in King. No point hitting balls into the  corner if you dont have lads fast enough to get them.

Quote from: redsetanta on July 10, 2015, 09:34:14 PM
Dont forget we lost one of our most potent forwards in King. No point hitting balls into the  corner if you dont have lads fast enough to get them.

Ah jaysus.... I give up!

If there is a God above, thankfully Tinbar O Fool will never, ever be Laois Senior Hurling manager.

Quote from: redsetanta on July 10, 2015, 09:34:14 PM
Dont forget we lost one of our most potent forwards in King. No point hitting balls into the  corner if you dont have lads fast enough to get them.

No point in having 2 sweepers and scoring 2 points in a half, a balance must be found with a bit of an attacking threat, apart from shooting from 70 yards plus.

Quote from: G@@ on July 11, 2015, 02:11:43 AM
If there is a God above, thankfully Tinbar O Fool will never, ever be Laois Senior Hurling manager.

What you do differently G@@?! Or is that all your here for, to come up with "hilarious" nicknames?!

Quote from: Cruella De Vil on July 11, 2015, 10:03:38 AM

Quote from: redsetanta on July 10, 2015, 09:34:14 PM
Dont forget we lost one of our most potent forwards in King. No point hitting balls into the  corner if you dont have lads fast enough to get them.

No point in having 2 sweepers and scoring 2 points in a half, a balance must be found with a bit of an attacking threat, apart from shooting from 70 yards plus.

Yes!

2 sweepers and we had 2 goals conceded against Dublin before i had even taking my seat in portlaoise that's what frustrates me. We are setting up defensively and yet we are conceding huge scores in every game. The system doesn't work! Any decent coach should see this.

Well if anyone wants to know what im on about regarding a sweeper, watch the first half of that Dublin v Limerick match! After 14 minutes Limerick led 5-2, they had 7 wides at that stage and a missed goal chance. Thats 13 efforts at goal in 14 minutes, Dublin with the sweeper under fierce pressure and had 6 or 7 efforts from distance dropped short, no full forward line and the Limerick goalie cleaning up. Limerick kicked on to an 8 point lead after the goal, then, about 25 mins in Dublin went 15 on 15 and clawed their way back in to it. Would have been only 3 down if not for a missed free before HT. 
Quote from commentator Anthony Daly just before HT - "Dublin went 7 or 8 down, and u have to go after the game then, u cant sit back and rely on damage limitation. Thats what they did, Much better shape to them now"

Quote from: finbar o tool on July 11, 2015, 12:14:57 PM

Quote from: G@@ on July 11, 2015, 02:11:43 AM
If there is a God above, thankfully Tinbar O Fool will never, ever be Laois Senior Hurling manager.

What you do differently G@@?! Or is that all your here for, to come up with "hilarious" nicknames?!

Right, I'll bite.

Firstly, the Galway game was got wrong on having 1 sweeper too many, but no way would the result have been any different if we went 15v15 or much better using 1 sweeper.

Where we fell down was our man matchups. Tom Delaney should have been handed a man marking role on Joe Canning who more-or-less destroyed us on his own. There is a saying in Kilkenny that if you give Joe a manly welcome to the game the next time you'll have contact with him is to shake his hand walking off the field. Secondly in the Galway game, we should have had Willie in CF and try and crowd that part of the field and put Cha in FF. Cha has the potential to expose a rookie like the Galway full back and this should have been capitalised on.

I think Tom Delaney has a lot to offer Laois with his physicality. The recent media love-in with Laois means Tom could ride his luck a bit better against the referees who will be conscious not to hamper an emerging Laois team unfairly. I like what Tom has to offer, he's our own Jackie Tyrell so to speak.

To be fair to Cheddar, he is learning as much as the players are and it is an evolving project. Cheddar has his faults, he is only human afterall. His love of Paddy Whelan is costing us the difference between a respectable beating and a comprehensive beating.

I believe though that Cheddar will learn from this years games and come back better for it next year. To call for his head after three years of decent progress smacks of stupidity. There is NO-ONE out there that will continue the progress he has started. Why waste money on an outsider like Anthony Daly when the money could be spent internally preparing the next generation of hurlers.

Next year will be a more testing year as we transition the team - a few retirements will mean that young blood will quickly have to fill some big boots. Not an easy assignment. We seen how difficult things were at times with Dubhie gone.

Hope to God and start praying now that we get a Leinster opening round draw against either Wexford, Dublin, Galway or Kilkenny. Before you scream madness - we should avoid either of the round-robin teams for fear of going back into that group. I'd rather get Kilkenny than Offaly or probably Westmeath next May.

In the league we really need a good start and hopefully pick up a win against Kerry, IIRC they will be due to play us in Portlaoise as we last played them in Lixnaw where Keenan picked up a horrific injury.

Quote from: finbar o tool on July 11, 2015, 06:45:22 PM
Well if anyone wants to know what im on about regarding a sweeper, watch the first half of that Dublin v Limerick match! After 14 minutes Limerick led 5-2, they had 7 wides at that stage and a missed goal chance. Thats 13 efforts at goal in 14 minutes, Dublin with the sweeper under fierce pressure and had 6 or 7 efforts from distance dropped short, no full forward line and the Limerick goalie cleaning up. Limerick kicked on to an 8 point lead after the goal, then, about 25 mins in Dublin went 15 on 15 and clawed their way back in to it. Would have been only 3 down if not for a missed free before HT. 
Quote from commentator Anthony Daly just before HT - "Dublin went 7 or 8 down, and u have to go after the game then, u cant sit back and rely on damage limitation. Thats what they did, Much better shape to them now"

Dublin have the quality players to do that, and still they just about managed to get over the line against an equally physical Limerick team. Laois do not. TBH the writing was on the wall from the way Limerick slumped over Westmeath.

Stick to the nicknames G@@!
Nice long post there but it hasnt much in it. Your first sentence kind of contradicts itself, we had a sweeper too many, but 15 v15 OR 1 sweeper wouldnt have helped? Im confused!
Then you speak only of the Galway match and have 3 positional changes as your answer to it all, and is that with or without a sweeper??
I hope you have no aspirations of Laois Hurling manager yourself?!

Quote from: G@@ on July 12, 2015, 12:08:01 AM

Quote from: finbar o tool on July 11, 2015, 06:45:22 PM
Well if anyone wants to know what im on about regarding a sweeper, watch the first half of that Dublin v Limerick match! After 14 minutes Limerick led 5-2, they had 7 wides at that stage and a missed goal chance. Thats 13 efforts at goal in 14 minutes, Dublin with the sweeper under fierce pressure and had 6 or 7 efforts from distance dropped short, no full forward line and the Limerick goalie cleaning up. Limerick kicked on to an 8 point lead after the goal, then, about 25 mins in Dublin went 15 on 15 and clawed their way back in to it. Would have been only 3 down if not for a missed free before HT. 
Quote from commentator Anthony Daly just before HT - "Dublin went 7 or 8 down, and u have to go after the game then, u cant sit back and rely on damage limitation. Thats what they did, Much better shape to them now"

Dublin have the quality players to do that, and still they just about managed to get over the line against an equally physical Limerick team. Laois do not. TBH the writing was on the wall from the way Limerick slumped over Westmeath.

But you agree if they had of stuck with sweeper they would have been beaten??
We have the players to compete better at the very least.

We don't have the players to beat Galway or even Dublin. This is a fact. We don't have to guess what it would be like to go 15 v 15 against these teams, we've played them 15 v 15 in recent years. Here's the results: Dublin 3-23 Laois 1-7, Galway 5-29 Laois 0-17. Then we've also played other teams 15 v 15 in recent years like Limerick, here's the result: Limerick    6–21 Laois 1-11 and also Cork, here's that result: Cork 10-20 Laois 1-13. We've also lost to Carlow 15 v 15.

It's actually a huge compliment to the work Cheddar has down to have delusional people like Finbar expect Laois to be competing against the Galways of this world. It's a long road to get to that level. We need to get as much talent as possible off the quality minor teams we've had of late. The realists will know it'll be tough and we'll suffer some big defeats along the way but we also realise the work Cheddar has done has virtually saved hurling in this county and we owe him a lot.

I never actually said we can beat 'big' teams, im TRYING to get the point across, that we can compete better than we are!! Very hard to get through to some folk though!

Quote from: finbar o tool on July 12, 2015, 03:31:32 PM
I never actually said we can beat 'big' teams, im TRYING to get the point across, that we can compete better than we are!! Very hard to get through to some folk though!

For chr!st sake, you've made your opinion VERY clear--AD NAUSEAM! And it's clear that most posters have a differing opinion. Next topic, please.

Quote from: finbar o tool on July 12, 2015, 03:31:32 PM
I never actually said we can beat 'big' teams, im TRYING to get the point across, that we can compete better than we are!! Very hard to get through to some folk though!

Compete better than we are? Where's your back up for this statement? I'll repeat a few results for you for when we went 15 v 15. Dublin 3-23 Laois 1-7, Galway 5-29 Laois 0-17, Limerick 6–21 Laois 1-11, Cork 10-20 Laois 1-13.
Here's a few results from when we didn't go 15 v 15. Laois 1-13 - 2-17 Galway, Laois 0-23 - 1-22 Galway, Laois 0-29 - 0-21 Offaly. Now, we've had a few bad beatings also when going with the defensive system but we've improved an awful long way. All you have to back up your claim that we can compete better than we are is delusion, I and others are backing up our point with cold, hard facts.
Maybe this will get through to you this time.

Jaysus lads keep it country, its a difference of opinion!  ;)

Ok, just so were clear Teo, you think we can't compete any better than we did this year??

I explained in detail why i feel we could have competed better, ive also asked for any one to explain to me how the sweeper helped us against galway or dublin and no one can it seems.
If anyone wants to change the topic there is f**k all stopping you! Work away!

Progress has been made this year for sure.

It is a long road with plenty of twists ahead on it.

I SAW MOST OF THE LAOIS GAMES THIS YEAR,
AND I SEE NO PROGRESS AT ALL
I'M SORRY TO SAY.

Laois are making progress but patience is needed. Waterford play a similar style game to Laois but do it better. They have better players due to a number of successful schools, minor and U21 teams plus a bigger pool of senior club hurlers to pick from. We are going in the right direction and, although we must have high expectations, we cannot demand too much too soon.

In yesterday's Munster Final Tipperary fielded a first 15 with 12 clubs represented. Waterford had 11. When Laois faced Dublin two weeks ago only 7 clubs were represented. We are a small dual county trying to compete with huge hurling dominant counties. There are probably 10-15 senior clubs in Tipperary with no county representative. We have 8 senior clubs and all are represented on our panel.

Cheddar and Pat Critchley have sown the seeds of revolution. There are now clubs and juvenile hurlers in clubs where hurling didn't feature before. Places like Ballyadams, Wolfhill, Barrowhouse, Graiguecullen and Emo are producing players for Setanta programmes. We need this and we need it to continue. We are too small for hurling snobbery. Cheddar wants to create a team that young players aspire to. We should respect his and their efforts. We are close to being the best we can be right now and we are continuing to strive to improve. There is pride, honour and respect in that. The rest will follow as long as we persist.

Quote from: SpeculativeEffort on July 13, 2015, 07:45:30 PM
Laois are making progress but patience is needed. Waterford play a similar style game to Laois but do it better. They have better players due to a number of successful schools, minor and U21 teams plus a bigger pool of senior club hurlers to pick from. We are going in the right direction and, although we must have high expectations, we cannot demand too much too soon.

In yesterday's Munster Final Tipperary fielded a first 15 with 12 clubs represented. Waterford had 11. When Laois faced Dublin two weeks ago only 7 clubs were represented. We are a small dual county trying to compete with huge hurling dominant counties. There are probably 10-15 senior clubs in Tipperary with no county representative. We have 8 senior clubs and all are represented on our panel.

Cheddar and Pat Critchley have sown the seeds of revolution. There are now clubs and juvenile hurlers in clubs where hurling didn't feature before. Places like Ballyadams, Wolfhill, Barrowhouse, Graiguecullen and Emo are producing players for Setanta programmes. We need this and we need it to continue. We are too small for hurling snobbery. Cheddar wants to create a team that young players aspire to. We should respect his and their efforts. We are close to being the best we can be right now and we are continuing to strive to improve. There is pride, honour and respect in that. The rest will follow as long as we persist.

Superb post SE.
I agree with every word.

Good post SE, hard to argue with any of that.

Laois hurling has definitely improved under cheddar, no doubt, but it can be confusing and irritating to see the different way the football and hurling panels are perceived In the eyes of some laois supporters. The football team coughs up a lead against kildare, and you'll hear how they'd no leaders, no heart, no this or that, hurlers go out against galway, game over at half time, and you'll hear its a bump, twist or some other type of undulation in the road to progress. Laois football has had a poor year, TOF didn't help, and the loss to Antrim was piss poor, but the hurling loss to Antrim was also poor. Beating the biffo's was a step we hadn't taken before and is progress, but as much as we are improving, they are coming back to meet us.

Perhaps the hurlers are cut more slack because the manager isn't getting paid a heap of money by the County Board?
Also, making progress in hurling is far more difficult than it is in football, where it IS feasible for a correctly applied and fit team to beat a team two divisions higher than them. Thus, getting out of the round-robin system is tangible progress, whereas the footballers reached way below themselves is losing to a depleted Antrim.

the hurlers are cut more slack because the footballers have not been known as 'walkovers' for quite a while now, there was always the hope over the last number of years that we just might get to a Leinster final this year, there was always the hope we could, and did sometimes, get a win over a top rated county, etc

the hurling supporters have never had that mentality, its only the last 2 or 3 years that real support in numbers have turned up for matches. and to be fair, it was badly needed. no matter what our opinions are of the actual hurling, its fantastic to see numbers at the games and without a doubt, its special for our players, drives them on, and keeps them committed to the cause!

Quote from: Cruella De Vil on July 13, 2015, 11:20:52 PM
Good post SE, hard to argue with any of that.

Laois hurling has definitely improved under cheddar, no doubt, but it can be confusing and irritating to see the different way the football and hurling panels are perceived In the eyes of some laois supporters. The football team coughs up a lead against kildare, and you'll hear how they'd no leaders, no heart, no this or that, hurlers go out against galway, game over at half time, and you'll hear its a bump, twist or some other type of undulation in the road to progress. Laois football has had a poor year, TOF didn't help, and the loss to Antrim was piss poor, but the hurling loss to Antrim was also poor. Beating the biffo's was a step we hadn't taken before and is progress, but as much as we are improving, they are coming back to meet us.

Cruella it may be confusing etc. but the logic that the hurlers should be criticised because the footballers are being criticised is flawed.

The football people in the county have been frustrated for quite some time. I believe frustration has accumulated due to, in no particular order, players not wanting to play for Laois, the lack of coherent underage/coaching structures, the dominance of Portlaoise, the apathy among the other senior clubs, the senior club relegation debacle in 2014, the appointment of TOF and the overall lack of planning/direction of Laois football. The collapses v Kildare and Antrim have put the tin hat on the whole thing and the mood of Laois football is very negative as a result.

The hurling on the other hand have been competitive in 1B for the last two years after many years of yoyoing. The vast majority of players that should be playing are playing. Our underage teams are competing much better, reaching a minor and u21 Leinster Final and beating everyone in Leinster (bar Kilkenny) at some stage in the last 3/4 years. Hurling has structure through the Setanta programmes and our seniors are competing well . There is the belief that we have good people involved (Cheddar, Critchley etc) who have Laois hurling in their heart. There is a positivity about Laois hurling and we shouldn't try to quash that just because the footballers are getting criticised.

Although progress is slow the majority feel that Laois hurling has a heartbeat and a direction. Just look at the numbers pucking around and playing at underage. Hurling is growing. Football however is stuck in a rut and may not have bottomed out yet considering the standard of minor and u21 teams the last 10 years plus the standard of our senior championship.

I think there is something missing in the discussion on where Laois are right now and that is physicality. Our hurling skills and professionalism is continuing to improve, that is very evident in our underage teams, in our league and championship performances and in club games in Laois. However, why were we hammered by Kilkenny at minor this year? Physicality in the air and on the ground. Same against Waterford in 2014 in the qualifiers and in the League this year where we couldn't win a ball in the middle half of the pitch for most of the game. Same against Galway where we looked like kids compared to Galway (even lads like Hyland and Picky who are big men). Dublin played with our full back line using their physical dominance. Galway made some changes to their coaching years ago when they realized that having lovely hurlers counted for nothing against Kilkenny. Just look at the physical conditioning of Kilkenny and how they are able to dominate space using their size as well as their hurling. Some of them have conditioning comparable to a Dublin footballer (thanks to Mick Dempsey). I am definitely convinced that our hurling ability is increasing but we need to build our players up earlier. Thankfully this is much easier than trying to build skill. All the top teams now pack serious muscle. It worries me a little that many, including possibly Cheddar, seem to believe that tactics, belief and new blood are the keys to success. For me watching Laois this year and last, strength and height, especially in the backs was our biggest challenge. 

Fair point blueandwhite1.

Part of my optimism looking 5/10 years down the line is that the Setanta programme will hopefully keep churning out a higher standard of club and county player.
As it stands now, with very few exceptions, we have our best players involved with the county. We are picking from a smaller base than most other counties (only 8 senior club) and we just don't have the options.
In 10 years time, we could maybe find ourselves in a situation where we have 40/50 hurlers of the requisite standard and can then start cherry-picking players based on physical attributes as well as hurling ability.

Strength and conditioning programmes will be a help but they are 2/3/5 year projects and we have a huge gap to close. I understand S&C programmes are now initiated at our Development Squad levels and that is an important step.

Physical size IS an element of the game, but its certainly not Essential. There is a difference between being physically big, and being physical. Good coaching and having a good hurling brain is way more important. Things like awareness and spacial awareness, timing your jumps and your runs and your passing is very important and are sometimes overlooked. Little things like these separate the likes of Kilkenny and Tipp from most other teams. If i was a physically big person playing for say, Waterford or Cork etc, i still wouldnt like to see Tommy Walsh jogging over to mark me!!

Quote from: SpeculativeEffort on July 14, 2015, 01:05:41 PM

Quote from: Cruella De Vil on July 13, 2015, 11:20:52 PM
Good post SE, hard to argue with any of that.

Laois hurling has definitely improved under cheddar, no doubt, but it can be confusing and irritating to see the different way the football and hurling panels are perceived In the eyes of some laois supporters. The football team coughs up a lead against kildare, and you'll hear how they'd no leaders, no heart, no this or that, hurlers go out against galway, game over at half time, and you'll hear its a bump, twist or some other type of undulation in the road to progress. Laois football has had a poor year, TOF didn't help, and the loss to Antrim was piss poor, but the hurling loss to Antrim was also poor. Beating the biffo's was a step we hadn't taken before and is progress, but as much as we are improving, they are coming back to meet us.

Cruella it may be confusing etc. but the logic that the hurlers should be criticised because the footballers are being criticised is flawed.

Not looking for anyone to be criticised SE, just think reporting on both lacks balance.

I wouldn't be so sure about the "heaps" of money the CB are pumping into the football management. I'd be of the opinion the the lack of "heaps" is why you can only afford a journeyman when looking outside the county.

Quote from: finbar o tool on July 14, 2015, 07:36:25 PM
Physical size IS an element of the game, but its certainly not Essential. There is a difference between being physically big, and being physical. Good coaching and having a good hurling brain is way more important. Things like awareness and spacial awareness, timing your jumps and your runs and your passing is very important and are sometimes overlooked. Little things like these separate the likes of Kilkenny and Tipp from most other teams. If i was a physically big person playing for say, Waterford or Cork etc, i still wouldnt like to see Tommy Walsh jogging over to mark me!!

Fully agree with this. Hurling is a game of skill and a game of wit and that must be the starting point. We're working on that very effectively which is great to see. As Finbar says, there is an important difference between being physically big and being physical.

Having said that, Pat Critchley himself said that the minors lost out in the physical battle (I wasn't at the game) and physicality was definitely a factor in both the Galway and Dublin games. However, I wouldn't conclude from that that we need to pick the 15 biggest lads that we have. We're on the right road and, as Merman says, once we have enough good skillful players to choose from, we can also look at their physicality.

Quote from: Giovanni on July 15, 2015, 10:35:20 AM

Quote from: finbar o tool on July 14, 2015, 07:36:25 PM
Physical size IS an element of the game, but its certainly not Essential. There is a difference between being physically big, and being physical. Good coaching and having a good hurling brain is way more important. Things like awareness and spacial awareness, timing your jumps and your runs and your passing is very important and are sometimes overlooked. Little things like these separate the likes of Kilkenny and Tipp from most other teams. If i was a physically big person playing for say, Waterford or Cork etc, i still wouldnt like to see Tommy Walsh jogging over to mark me!!

Fully agree with this. Hurling is a game of skill and a game of wit and that must be the starting point. We're working on that very effectively which is great to see. As Finbar says, there is an important difference between being physically big and being physical.

Having said that, Pat Critchley himself said that the minors lost out in the physical battle (I wasn't at the game) and physicality was definitely a factor in both the Galway and Dublin games. However, I wouldn't conclude from that that we need to pick the 15 biggest lads that we have. We're on the right road and, as Merman says, once we have enough good skillful players to choose from, we can also look at their physicality.

Pat has admitted we lost out Physically but it was more height than actually body shape or fitness not much we can do to buck that trend if the height isn't there.

We pick our most skillful hurlers and thats what comes through the setanta programmmes where as the bigger lads that fade away from it tend to either play football or just Hurl with their club...We don't have the numbers like other counties so don't have the variety of chaps just yet coming thru.

I thought we matched up fairly well physically with Dublin. The full back line was caught moreso with height and pace. We probably need to get a bit cuter in the tackle.
Clare won an All Ireland with plenty of lads who are lightweight enough. Shane O'Donnell and Tony Kelly are not big, imposing men.

i didn't make it to the minor match so it might be unfair of me to say, but i heard that it was a lack of balls/guts rather than physical size was the problem......just what i heard from a couple of people.

Lack of physcial size ties in with us having a much smaller pick than the bigger counties. Galway Tipp KK can have the pick of a lot more players than we do simple as that.

Strength can be trained but height unfortunately is what you are born with. Reilly, Healy, Stapleton,  Joe ,Dwayne, Cha and Tommy to mention a few regular starters are all under 6 ft. All good hurlers but pair them with an equals in hurling terms from the bigger counties and 9/10 they will lose a physical confrontaion because the Dublin and Galways of this world simply have as good a hurlers but also dwarf us in size.

From writing this post I'd actually be interested in the average height of the panel. Just out of curiosity and compare it to the top 3 teams in the country!

I agree with all of the above, just making the point that physicality is another ingredient. That's why Kilkenny and several others put a strong emphasis on it. Tommy Walsh isn't tall but he is a tough man to push around the place. With all due respects to Butch, John A, Cahir and a few more, they have been bullied around on occasion despite their hurling ability. Even some of our bigger men struggle. Height can be counteracted with muscle to some extent. But when you have neither we are in trouble. In saying this I am conscious that the improvement journey is only a couple of years old, it takes many years to get things to where they need to be.

Didn't want to start a new topic so posting it here.

Good to see IT Carlow retaining the colleges league title by beating UCC with a good representation from Laois. A third of the starting 15 from the county. Picky, Cha, Willie Dunphy, Dwaye Palmer, Enda Rowland all playing

Willie Young of Clonaslee instead of Willie Dunphy!