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The low key build up is not surprising after the u21 defeat to be honest, that was a real sucker punch for Laois hurling.  It's up to the seniors then to rescue something from the year, but they'll have it all to do to get the win in Tullamore.  I think we have the forwards to trouble Offaly but playing with a sweeper is going to really hold back the likes of King and Foyle who thrive on one-on-one situations.  We hit 29 points last year, but we can't expect Cha and Willie to be hitting 5/6 points each day out and Offaly will have them closely followed on Sunday. 

Mullaney, Leigh Bergin, Rowland and Colm Stapleton are all in line to make their debuts and a lot will depend on how they take to senior championship.  It's the guys in the next age bracket, the likes of Roddy, Picky and Foyle that need to really step up for this one.  Hyland has being doing it for long enough now and Cha shows that leadership has no link with age, so I'd be expecting big games from these guys.  Make no mistake Laois badly need a win here, but so do Offaly. 

Wasn't at the game but a couple of points;

1) There is no way Carlow could have been that strong considering the state their Senior panel has been in the last few weeks.
2) I don't believe the management team were adequate. Have neither the experience or management skills to operate at this level.
3) People should stop going crazy with the "nothing is working" line every time we suffer a set back.
4) The appointment of minor & U21 managers needs to be looked at seriously. It's turning into a joke. Last man to withdraw gets it almost.
5) Somebody suggested that Joe Campion wasn't playing because an U21 club game wasn't changed last Sept/Oct. He is more than entitled not to put himself forward to play for Laois, but if that is the actual reason he isn't playing, it's farcical.

Agree with a lot of that.  But reading over the last few pages Carlow are probably not getting the credit they deserve.  I don't believe any county left in the Leinster u21 will have a better hurler than James Doyle bar maybe Conor Mac of Wexford.  He was outstanding Wednesday night, and Carlow had plenty of other good hurlers too.  I firmly believe we did have the better team and our underage structures, whatever flaws they may have, produced a group of hurlers that were plenty good enough to win.  That's why it's so frustrating.  When our seniors were a total shambles a few years back and got hammered by Dublin we went out three days later and beat their u21's.  W'meaths win over Kk also shows there are no soft games in this grade, and a team must perform to get a win.

The management team put in a lot of work here, but a player was left on for ~ 45 mins when he should have been gone after probably 15.  Anyone can have a bad day, but this cost us big time.

Redsetanta mentioned playing as a team, underage structures aren't responsible for a player not off loading a pass to a player through on goal.  That's just selfish play, and it cost us big time again.

Mountains should have been moved to get Joe Campion on board.  People don't want to hear excuses but we would have won that game if we had Joe, simple as.  After the effort he has put in over the last 5 and more years with Laois I can understand his point of view, but there was no winner in this scenario except for Carlow.

As I said in my last post, the positive I took from the game is the likes of Ryan Mullaney, Mark Kav and John Lennon are coming on in leaps and bounds, but that is scant consolation when a Leinster final opportunity is gone up in smoke.

[I saw at least two occasions where a short Carlow puck out was gathered inside the 21' which should result in a throw in]

As I've suspected for a while all this 'brilliant underage work' we've been supposedly doing is all bullshit,
With no proper structures and programmes in place with each and every manager doing their own thing.
A deadest to Offaly in the senior Sunday week and it's a fairly bleak year and outlook for Laois hurling

I don't know that it's all bullshit, but we just started doing what every other hurling county bar a few were doing anyway, so it was never going to be a case of joining the elite...that just aint gonna happen with our hurling population.  I've made my peace with that, but it doesn't excuse f**king away opportunities like today and this years minors.  The obvious point is the absence of Joe Campion.  Three years ago he was our most important player with the minors.  Likewise Robbie Phelan for this years minors...everyone is entitled to do their own thing, but you are not going anywhere if you're missing your very best hurlers. 

I do agree 100% with you on the manager part Ogie,  there was a serious issue this evening that I'm not willing to delve into on a public forum but it certainly didn't help our cause.  There was some really questionable calls with last years minors too.  What is the answer though?  Suitable candidates are thin on the ground.

The reaction here makes it sound like we hurled really badly, which we didn't by the way.  There were some good displays and I did see a noticeable difference with the guys that are in with the seniors.  The likes of John Lennon has come on in leaps and bounds for example.
 
But some simple things really caught us.  One or two selfish decisions cost us goals, while to a man Carlow hurled for the team.  When we scored the goal that was disallowed I couldn't say from where I was sitting whether it was a square ball or not, but our forwards didn't say a word to the umpire.  The Carlow lads hounded the umpire as any other defence would no matter how legitimate or otherwise the goal was, but our lads just ran back to their positions!  (And given that the Carlow goalie batted out the ball before the Laois forward goaled, it's hard to imagine how it was a square ball).  I saw at least two occasions where a short Carlow puck out was gathered inside the 21' which should result in a throw in but this was never pointed out to the ref or linesman.  Small things, but they all add up.

It really is turning into a horrible, horrible year for Laois hurling.

It's not a foul to take possession inside the 21. You just have to be 20m away when the ball is pucked out.

You have to be outside the 21 when a puck out is taken, that's what refs always tell me anyway!

As I've suspected for a while all this 'brilliant underage work' we've been supposedly doing is all bullshit,
With no proper structures and programmes in place with each and every manager doing their own thing.
A deadest to Offaly in the senior Sunday week and it's a fairly bleak year and outlook for Laois hurling

I don't know that it's all bullshit, but we just started doing what every other hurling county bar a few were doing anyway, so it was never going to be a case of joining the elite...that just aint gonna happen with our hurling population.  I've made my peace with that, but it doesn't excuse f**king away opportunities like today and this years minors.  The obvious point is the absence of Joe Campion.  Three years ago he was our most important player with the minors.  Likewise Robbie Phelan for this years minors...everyone is entitled to do their own thing, but you are not going anywhere if you're missing your very best hurlers. 

I do agree 100% with you on the manager part Ogie,  there was a serious issue this evening that I'm not willing to delve into on a public forum but it certainly didn't help our cause.  There was some really questionable calls with last years minors too.  What is the answer though?  Suitable candidates are thin on the ground.

The reaction here makes it sound like we hurled really badly, which we didn't by the way.  There were some good displays and I did see a noticeable difference with the guys that are in with the seniors.  The likes of John Lennon has come on in leaps and bounds for example.
 
But some simple things really caught us.  One or two selfish decisions cost us goals, while to a man Carlow hurled for the team.  When we scored the goal that was disallowed I couldn't say from where I was sitting whether it was a square ball or not, but our forwards didn't say a word to the umpire.  The Carlow lads hounded the umpire as any other defence would no matter how legitimate or otherwise the goal was, but our lads just ran back to their positions!  (And given that the Carlow goalie batted out the ball before the Laois forward goaled, it's hard to imagine how it was a square ball).  I saw at least two occasions where a short Carlow puck out was gathered inside the 21' which should result in a throw in but this was never pointed out to the ref or linesman.  Small things, but they all add up.

It really is turning into a horrible, horrible year for Laois hurling.

lets give Carlow a bit of credit here, they have also beaten laois last year so laois can't say they were taking by surprise tonight. great win for westmeath also leaves it wide open with Dublin and wexford to play yet.

Absolutely.  Just like last year they gave it absolutely everything and in James Doyle have a hurler that any county would be proud of.  I had a feeling Westmeath would be quietly confident so I wasn't that shocked to hear they won.

Can't remember a match where I was more sick at the final whistle.  There really is no county like our own to f**k up a golden opportunity.  Too pissed off to try analyse it now.

Not a bad team at all considering there's a few strong players to come back on to it.  I really hope we are primed for a battle this evening.  The forwards will have to work extremely hard and win a lot of the breaks as the size is not there to win possession first time.  They are all good hurlers though, and we have an excellent keeper in Rowland and will have a very solid free taker in Kav/Fennelly.

I think he will be okay to play burdizzo.  The size of our forwards would be my main worry, particularly what is likely to be our half forward line.  On the other hand the likes of Mullaney, Leigh Bergin and McEvoy should make up a really strong half back line.

Very little build up for the game v Carlow on Wednesday, which is no bad thing!  Quite a bit of work has been put in with these lads, albeit it has been very difficult to get the group together due to the number of players involved with the seniors.  It's the dream draw for ourselves, Carlow, Offaly and Kildare with the three big guns on the other side of the draw (where W'meath will be quietly confident too).  The loss last year to Carlow should guard against complacency. 

Colm Stapleton and Ciaran Collier will be big losses, but Laois should have enough to win this one.

Offaly are in a similar position to us this time last year.  As the "top dog" in the qualifier group you are there to be shot down.  We had to overcome a very tricky assignment against Westmeath and now Offaly have a tough test against Kerry.  I expect them to come through that (Boyle will be a big loss for Kerry), but I wouldn't be shocked at all if Kerry won it.

For Laois, it's all about sorting the defence out.  For all the players we've lost our forwards should be every bit as strong as last year when we were missing Ross King and Neil Foyle.  I actually think Laois are in a grand position coming into this, as after the league the expectations are low and not a whole lot is expected.  If some of the younger guys can come of age I'd be quite confident we can win the quarter final.

Excellent post merman.  I couldn't make the game on Saturday, but I was quite shocked to be honest at the end score line.  I know Limerick are a better team than us, but missing Lynch, Hannon, Dowling etc I expected us to be competitive.  To concede that amount of scores indicates that something is amiss...every team has bad days, but 6-29 (3 points shy of the Cork massacre and that was a team with a laughable set up) is not an acceptable score to concede.  That Limerick team is no better than the Clare team we played the week previously either.  Serious questions have to be asked, and I think merman could be on the ball with the idea of releasing lads back to the clubs for a few weeks after the Wexford game.

From Hoganstand:

Enda Rowland; Joe Phelan, Darren Maher, Cahir Healy; Leigh Bergin, Neil Foyle, Ryan Mullaney; Matthew Whelan, Ciaran Collier; Charles Dwyer, William Hyland, Patrick Purcell; Stephen Maher, Zane Keenan, Ross King.

Still one or two switches I'd make, but I applaud Cheddar for trying things out and bedding in some of the younger lads and I do think the team is getting stronger as the year goes on.  Limerick away is always a tough game but they may have one eye on their winner takes all clash with Clare the following Sunday.

Today was a bad, bad day alright, no question about that.  I think the penny has dropped that without Hyland, Keenan, Joe Fitz etc we are a Division 2 team.  It's one thing talking about implementing game plans, but Kerry had better hurlers than us today and fair play to them.  We have a lot of hurlers that have some of the attributes required to hurl at this level, but very few, if any, that have them all.  And jeez, we are so small physically....watching the other two hurling games on TG4 when I got home was a bit frightening really.   I felt for Cha today, a really top class hurler that showed the will to win.  Healy as well fought to the last and scored a cracking goal to stop it being a total rout.

The rest of the league is daunting to say the least.  I hate being defeatist but we won't beat Offaly without our four best forwards and then we have the strongest three teams in the division to follow.
The priority now has to be getting Roddy, Zane, Hyland, Delaney etc right and fit for championship.  I do feel getting a few basics right, such as our puck out stategy (we hit an opposing player with them as often as we hit our own guys) will help matters

Considering the u21 draw, serious thought should be put into prioritising this squad with a view to getting them into a Leinster final.  We finished the game today with about 8 u21's on the field today.

I'm not going to go into criticising individuals and I don't agree with posters picking guys out as I know the players will be hurting and some of them probably read these forums.  I felt a lot of the lads tried hard today, but to me it really seems like certain lads only put in the effort when it suits.

Taken from hoganstand.com:

Laois (HL v Kerry) – Enda Rowland; Oisin Carroll, Darren Maher, Cahir Healy; Leigh Bergin, Neil Foyle, Ryan Mullaney; Matthew Whelan, Brendan Reddin; Ciaran Collier, Stephen Maher, Patrick Purcell; Dwane Palmer, Charlie Dwyer, PJ Scully.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how the new guys get on.  It would be nice to see Hyland and Keenan togged out in case they are needed.  It's a big day for the u21's and others that are getting their chance such as Oisin Carroll, really hoping it goes well for these guys in particular.

In some games a performance is as important as a result, but this Sunday is not one of those games!  I'm apprehensive and curious in equal measure.  Kerry have some really fine hurlers with Shane Nolan probably the pick of them and some very useful hurlers from Tipp. and Clare.  They will view this game as the one to really target for a win and with Limerick legend Carey driving them on they certainly won't lack for determination.

It will be really interesting to see how Laois line out.  I'm open to the idea of Foyle at centre back, but I can't help but feel that if he is fit enough to play at 6 then he would also be by far our most dangerous full forward.  It's looking like we'll have a physically powerful half back line but there will be a lot of pressure on midfield and the half forward line to help out as there is not much pace there.

Hyland and Keenan are big losses in the forwards, that much is obvious.  Cha and Picky should be flying it however, and with Dunphy, Scully, Reddin etc. trying to nail down a place on the team we should be okay.  The lack of physical heft in the forwards would be another worry, particularly with the weather so bad of late.

It's early in the year yet, but I don't think it's stretching it to say that Sunday is a must-win; I find it very hard to see how the panel will lift themselves after an opening day loss.  Best of luck to the lads and lets try and get a vocal home support behind them on Sunday.