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Jack has been a fantastic voice to listen to over the years. His love of Laois GAA shines through every commentary. He will be sorely missed and hopefully he will be back on air again. Wish him all the best for the future.

It's the ones who only press the button 6 times - the mad setting - who get me.

I've yet to see one actual practical proposal put forward by those who disagree with the way the pandemic has been handled. There have been many posts against vaccines, lockdowns etc but none of these posters have put forward an alternative. When challenged to do so, the silence for a while is deafening.
If these people genuinely believe that vaccinations and lockdowns don't work, what is their alternative?
They have been given ample opportunity to put forward their views but all seem obsessed with what is being done wrong, rather than what they believe we should be doing differently.

Premier Intermediate still not showing up.

Am I missing something, or have the Premier Intermediate Hurling fixtures disappeared from the website?

Congratulations to Abbeyleix on winning the Minor A hurling championship last night. This was probably the keenest contested championship for years and there are a lot of disappointed teams out there. Unlike most years, probably seven of the ten teams fancied their chances and it took a very good team to win it.
The focus will now turn to the county minor team who face Offaly on the 17th. There is huge competition for places on the starting team and hopefully they will go well.

There is a lot of weekend and evening work involved with the job. Apart from schools, no club wants a GDA during the day Monday to Friday. I'd imagine having a social life would be quite difficult. I have to say all the GDA's we have had have always been more than willing to help clubs when asked and have brought value to every session. Peter will be missed.

It's a pity to see the Feile has been cancelled this year. I know in the grand scheme of things it is not life or death, but it's like your last year as a minor - you can't repeat it. Speaking of which, I hope this year is not a wash out. A lot of time and effort has been put into our county minor hurlers and we probably have the most talented squad we have had for years.

St. Fergals junior team won against Carnew on Wednesday in the Colleges "C" hurling and are due to play the Dublin champions in the Leinster final. (Covid 19 permitting)

It's like Groundhog Day here in Laois sometimes. I took a quick look back at the Walsh Cup 2019 discussions and it wasn't very encouraging either. It was a poor display from Laois on Sunday, but it's only January. A lot of new faces, and the team played like lads who had only just met, which effectively they have. The best men on show were the established lads, Willie Dunphy, Ryan Mullanney et al, but it was valuable game time for the new arrivals. Westmeath looked a more established and confident team but when you look at who we have to come in to the team we would blow them away. Who could have guessed this time last year how the year would pan out? We have to put our faith in Eddie that he can get these lads where they need to be when it matters. The spirit he fostered in the squad was what changed things last year. The lads didn't suddenly get hugely more skilful, but they believed in themselves.
It was good to get back watching live hurling again even if the match itself was disappointing and there was a decent crowd. The new pitch in Borris was in very good condition and a credit to them, but how two intercounty teams togged out in those dressing rooms is a mystery. I presume this will be the next thing on their development list. Best of luck to the lads on Thursday night.

Great to see laois underage hurling panelists coming from traditional football strongholds. HOPEFULLY this can promote the game further into these areas.
On a side note has anyone heard about the minor setup these year. Has Derek McGrath been able to put his stamp on the panel or is his role simply advisory.

There is a great buzz in the minor panel and Derek McGrath is very involved. Has been at almost every training session (two to three a week ) and runs the entire session. The lads love him and he has really inspired them. There is huge potential in this panel and competition is very strong. Some of the in house training matches have been at championship pace despite the conditions and weather this time of year. There are some challenge matches coming up in the next few weeks against other county teams that will be interesting. There has been great attendance from the full panel (about forty I think). 

Extremely unfair comment to make regarding Donie Kingston. If Kingston wants to take a break from intercounty football then he deserves to do so without comments such as Batman's being thrown at him. He has played almost every year for the county since 2008. That's 11 out of 12 years of service to Laois football.

I think this article sums up why footballer with the talent of Donie Kingston might feel some disillusionment plodding along year after year with little or no chance of success. Hard to continually motivate yourself and give the time and dedication required to play at intercounty level with no meaningful end rewards.

https://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/talented-peers-polarised-by-place-of-birth-37042692.html

Great article.

Leinster GAA are running a coaching seminar for 12-17 year olds in Football and Hurling in the National Indoor Arena in Blanchardstown next Saturday. The 4-11 one last week was excellent but poorly attended. There seem to be places available still. Details at https://leinstergaa.ie/coaching/turas/turas-seminars/. I would recommend anyone involved in coaching to attend. It's in the NIA by the way, not the GAA centre.

Gutted for the lads. The quality on show from both teams was exceptional. It pains me to say it but the better team won. We failed to keep close enough tabs on Kavanagh and Doyle - not an easy task - and they got loose too many times which mainly did the damage. I think Ballyhale will have their hands full and I can't see TJ scoring 2:14 off them. The ferocity of their tackling was a big contributor today with very little room for our lads. Their ability to win the high ball was excellent. Hopefully they can now go all the way.

The run of minor finals and wins that Borris Kilcotton had, has only yielded one senior title so far. Rathdowney Errill by contrast, haven't won a minor for quite a while. We won the u21 a few years ago, and an u16 in 2016, but not much else. That u16 team lost out on a chance at minor when the age groups changed to the odd years, but of that squad of players, no one has yet hurled senior championship and only two have made any senior appearance. The senior squad has had no more than one or two added to it per year. There is a huge difference between minor and senior. Sometimes teams that have won all the way up through the grades just reflects the relative poor quality of the competition in that year. However this year's minor championship should be the most competitive in years, going by the same group of players from u15 two years ago.