2015 Laois Senior Hurling

Started by redsetanta, February 13, 2015, 12:55:38 PM

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redsetanta

Well lads give your opinions here on the game.
The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. VinceLombardi

G@@

Laois by 10+ points. I hear Enda Rowland is back between the sticks.
"I can't get over you - 'till you come out from under him" - Pat Shortt - Class!

Heshs Umpire

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.
Well I could keep it above
But then it wouldn't be sky anymore

Thewildcat

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.

portlaoisekid

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

TheGreatGame

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.

Giovanni

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

redsetanta

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.
The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. VinceLombardi

Gills on the Corner

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 .

Tiger Woods

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?

portlaoisekid

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.

Thewildcat

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.

G@@

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.
"I can't get over you - 'till you come out from under him" - Pat Shortt - Class!

redsetanta

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.
The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. VinceLombardi

TheGreatGame

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.