2015 Laois Senior Hurling

[redsetanta]

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.

[portlaoisekid]

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.

[theskull1]

Some Antrim supporters will

[burdizzo]

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...

[Unlaoised]

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!

[theskull1]

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

[theskull1]

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

[burdizzo]

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!

[theskull1]

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

we enjoyed him getting his just deserts 

[Giovanni]

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.

[TheGreatGame]

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.

[imtommygunn]

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!

[theskull1]

Tell hurlingstick that

[portlaoisekid]

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

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

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.

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.

lets 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.

[merman]

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