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It is a bit like groundhog day but im sorry im going to have a whinge. After the unbelievably heart throbbing and unexpectedly exciting 2019, I cant help but feel extremely disappointed with the unavailability of so many players. I was sure all last years panel would be back with the addition of maybe 10 lads that also should have been there.
2019 was massive for Laois hurling, I never though I would witness such a day as we had against Dublin in the town. If you told me this time last year that we would be taking on Tipp in an all Ireland quarter final in Croke park, I would have said your off your rocker. If you told me that we would give them a serious rattle too with 14 men for half the game I would be sending you to a psychologist too. I was never as proud as I was for those three weeks. People in South Laois had a real spring in their step, a smile on their face and hope in their hearts.
You ask me why im so downbeat now? Well here it is
Cha Dwyer
Joe Campion
Picky Maher
Ciaran Collier
Leigh Bergin
Cahir Healy
Gearoid Burke
Ben Conroy
Dwayne Palmer
PJ Scully
Sean Downey
Cian Taylor
Eoin Fleming
Mark Dowling
Tricky Joe
Robbie Phelan
Stephen Phelan
There are injuries too but they can be excused. For the rest I guess its a life choice but I believe its one these lads will regret in time.
I believe 5 from the above list would start in the championship and at least 5 more would play a part. I dont want to be too critical but I was at the game in Borris last Sunday, i would say three or four of our starting team did not feel the weight of the ball once in the game, these lads are young and will improve but I would be fearful going into such a hard hitting Leinster championship. We have other lads to come in and we wont be too bad but with the list above available I think we would really take a bit of beating. Pity

I think Cheddar should certainly be heading up the hunt for a new Manager but I don't think he should be the new manager. He was there for a few years and he was with the minors before that so someone with a slightly different approach and a new voice might be a wiser option.
Id love to see him try again with his blueprint for Laois hurling and for the Co board to realize their mistake and support Cheddars long term plan. He could also form part of the backroom team for the senior hurlers surveying things in the background, he would pick up on things and think outside the box in terms of drumming up interest in hurling, promoting it, planning the financial side of things.

This probably sounds harsh or unfair but I don't think the current panel are good enough to get us to where we want to go - that being able to compete in the leinster championship proper against Kilkenny and Wexford etc. They are good enough to win the McDonagh cup alright but are we happy with that? No is the answer to that so that's why I feel a long term plan should be foremost for the County board to develop Laois hurling.

So what now? Everythings ok? Nothing changes.
Meath win merely papers over the cracks until another year of despair in 2019!

Take the win. Be grateful that results worked in our favour.
There's no one with any cop-on going to let that result paper over any cracks.

Kelly's a goner; he knows it, players know it.
The key now is to get the right people in place to find his successor.

We have the players to win the Joe McDonagh cup in the next couple of years but how much can we improve in reality. While it would have been great to win the McDonagh cup final this year, If we had we would end up playing Wexford, Clare or Cork and would have been annihilated. A long term plan is required to have more kids playing the game and improve the standards of hurling across the County. Kelly successor isn't hugely relevant in my opinion.

So what now? Everythings ok? Nothing changes.
Meath win merely papers over the cracks until another year of despair in 2019!

Its very sad.
For the on millionth time we need a long term plan for laois hurling. It doesn't matter who we put in as senior Manager...whats the best thing that can happen in the short term?
We could win the McDonagh cup but will we ever actually improve enough to be able to beat some of the bigger teams one day? Not a hope with the way we are going so the conversation right now should not be about who is going to be the next manager of the senior hurlers.
The conversation should be about a future plan for laois hurling that will have us in a position in ten years time that when we play a Wexford or Dublin that we genuinely have a chance of winning.
Our under14 team beat kilkenny last year in the tony forrestal, is there any system in place for those guys to be helped in their development. Who is monitoring these guys progress, are we providing them with incentives to continue their progression as laois hurlers or will they be allowed to fall away like so many others that have gone before them?
We had minor and under21 teams in leinster finals in the past 5-6 years, how many of them have improved as players since then? We comfortably beat Offaly at minor level 3 or 4 years in a row but Offaly have gotten more senior hurlers from their teams, why?

Its not working lads, a long term solution is required!!
First thing id do? Move mountains to get Cheddar as director of Laois hurling. There's a start.

In nearly every position the Dublin player was way bigger than his Laois counterpart.

Ive said it before, we are 10 years behind some other counties. every “top” county have a winter physical development programme for all their underage teams from u13 up. We started this with our u13 group last October/November but at a very basic level I believe. Supposed to be setting up the same for the other teams this coming winter, but loads of other teams have been doing this for years!

Interesting to hear the news of Donal Og Cusacks imminent arrival to Clare. It's a very shrewd move by Davy Fitz following a bit of a turbulent season west of the Shannon. Things were going stale down there but the arrival of Cusack as coach will really give the players renewed optimism and they will be excited by the new approach that he will bring.
I think a similar appointment in Laois would be very welcome, in the same role as a coach to work under cheddar. I think laois were a little short on ideas this year and the likes of galway found out how to play against us. I think Ger Cunningham has been good but I think a change is needed and a bit of a shake up to keep the interest of the players. I know it might be difficult to get a high profile coach, the likes of Cusack would have been ideal for us. There are people out there but I know Laois might not be the most attractive proposition.

The decision of Pat Crichley to return back to the underage structures is absolutely vital for the future of the game in our County. I think the minor set-up also needs a new approach and a new impetus. The Management appointment is a huge one as this minor team has got real potential, it hasn't happened over the past couple of years for our minors as they have had good teams but hopefully our fortunes will change next year.

In my opinion our current county team is not good enough to succeed at the highest level, our minors and under 21s have failed over the past few years with what we considered to be reasonably good sides. Our development squads 14,15,16 this year were not at the races which is a real shame and a concern, hence my reasoning for starting this thread.
I think Pat Critchley is the man to head up a complete overhaul  of our outdated underage structures and I feel it's a root and branch plan needs to be drawn up that will ultimately produce better players to play for our County at development squad and County minor level. People have a perception in laois and indeed outside of laois that we have underage structures that puts other counties to shame, that's not the case. Compared with some counties we are well behind.

Maybe we don't have the resources for this but a 'Laois hurling school of excellence' should be set up with a number of different strands to it. I would set up a player development committee to monitor each County players progress from the age of 13 to 18. Plans would be drawn up by each respective development squad management and reviewed by members of the committee and monitored regularly from year to year. Players would be put on strength and conditioning (within reason for juveniles)programmes as well as  a hurling skills programme to work on the weaknesses. Top coaches with minimum of level one coaching coarse should be deployed to look after these teams with the help of the development commitee.
I would also regionalise the setanta programme, divide it into four hurling strongholds in Laois. The reason for this is kids wouldn't have to travel to portlaoise every weekend and it would encourage more to get involved. We would then have four strong divisions rather than one. Supervised Buses should also be provided to transport our young hurlers to 'county training'.

I am well aware the we probably don't have the funds to implement the structures we would like and to be fair Cheddar has done his fair share of campaigning to the powers that be to get us the funding we need.
Basically I think we need to go back to the drawing board and try to put something in place that would give us a some chance of success in the future. I hate being too pessimistic about our chances but I am a realist and we just can't keep doing what we are doing. Any thoughts on this?

Above message posted in October 2015, I will re-post the same message every year in the hope that something might happen!!

Interesting to hear the news of Donal Og Cusacks imminent arrival to Clare. It's a very shrewd move by Davy Fitz following a bit of a turbulent season west of the Shannon. Things were going stale down there but the arrival of Cusack as coach will really give the players renewed optimism and they will be excited by the new approach that he will bring.
I think a similar appointment in Laois would be very welcome, in the same role as a coach to work under cheddar. I think laois were a little short on ideas this year and the likes of galway found out how to play against us. I think Ger Cunningham has been good but I think a change is needed and a bit of a shake up to keep the interest of the players. I know it might be difficult to get a high profile coach, the likes of Cusack would have been ideal for us. There are people out there but I know Laois might not be the most attractive proposition.

The decision of Pat Crichley to return back to the underage structures is absolutely vital for the future of the game in our County. I think the minor set-up also needs a new approach and a new impetus. The Management appointment is a huge one as this minor team has got real potential, it hasn't happened over the past couple of years for our minors as they have had good teams but hopefully our fortunes will change next year.

My post from October 2015...I will re-post the same message in the hope of something happening one day although I don't think it ever will unfortunately!!

In my opinion our current county team is not good enough to succeed at the highest level, our minors and under 21s have failed over the past few years with what we considered to be reasonably good sides. Our development squads 14,15,16 this year were not at the races which is a real shame and a concern, hence my reasoning for starting this thread.
I think Pat Critchley is the man to head up a complete overhaul  of our outdated underage structures and I feel it's a root and branch plan needs to be drawn up that will ultimately produce better players to play for our County at development squad and County minor level. People have a perception in laois and indeed outside of laois that we have underage structures that puts other counties to shame, that's not the case. Compared with some counties we are well behind.

Maybe we don't have the resources for this but a 'Laois hurling school of excellence' should be set up with a number of different strands to it. I would set up a player development committee to monitor each County players progress from the age of 13 to 18. Plans would be drawn up by each respective development squad management and reviewed by members of the committee and monitored regularly from year to year. Players would be put on strength and conditioning (within reason for juveniles)programmes as well as  a hurling skills programme to work on the weaknesses. Top coaches with minimum of level one coaching coarse should be deployed to look after these teams with the help of the development commitee.
I would also regionalise the setanta programme, divide it into four hurling strongholds in Laois. The reason for this is kids wouldn't have to travel to portlaoise every weekend and it would encourage more to get involved. We would then have four strong divisions rather than one. Supervised Buses should also be provided to transport our young hurlers to 'county training'.

I am well aware the we probably don't have the funds to implement the structures we would like and to be fair Cheddar has done his fair share of campaigning to the powers that be to get us the funding we need.
Basically I think we need to go back to the drawing board and try to put something in place that would give us a some chance of success in the future. I hate being too pessimistic about our chances but I am a realist and we just can't keep doing what we are doing. Any thoughts on this?

We really haven't recovered from the retirements over the past two years. We lost some real hard men from the team and the have been replaced with young skillful 'nice' hurlers. Enda Lyons is correct in what he says, Laois over the years might not have been great but by god you would know you were in a match with them. That real toughness/intensity is lost on this group, they don't have or don't show that raw aggression that we used to associate with Laois teams. They are probably the most talented group of hurlers we have ever had but that doesn't win the dirty ball and burst through the tackles. Granted most of these lads are young but its not a good enough excuse for me. Along with having all the skills you must have all the other qualities too to make a county hurler. A lot of our guys are small too which doesn't help.

The current management team must take some blame for this, when Cheddar was there we played at a much higher intensity (granted we had better players). The management also must take blame for the way/tactics we are playing, there seems to be no real pattern. Its looks like 15 guys are picked to play in their positions and it a 'go out and hurl' attitude, the game has evolved a lot since those days.

Since the retirements of two/three years ago we haven't blooded any new players of real quality. We have had reasonably decent minor teams over the past few years. We got to one minor leinster final and one U21 leinster final which we hadn't been doing previously and we consistently beat Offaly at minor level. However Offaly look to have got more players from their teams than we have. The question must be asked why that is happening?

Too much talk of hurling in croke park and then getting a crack at the big boys. They'd be better off concentrating on the job in hand.
Do or die next weekend in Kerry in what will be a very difficult game.

Didn't hear anything about London game. I think our panel will be strong enough to finish in the top two and get to the McDonagh cup final which would be no more than the players deserve for their efforts over the past few years. I think the panel has improved a little bit from last year. From the team that played Carlow in the championship last year we have added Podge Lawlor, James Ryan, Joe Phelan, Ciaran Comerford, Colm Stapleton, Ben Conroy(Injured), Cha Dwyer(Injured), Willie Dunphy (Injured), PJ Scully(Injured)
Picky got injured that day too. Hopefully Cahir Healy will come into the reckoning at some stage, Aaron Dunphy started that day but is out injured at present. Is Dwane Palmer back with the squad, he had been playing for Camross during April.

Laois V Carlow 2017
Enda Rowland; Dwane Palmer, Leigh Bergin, Lee Cleere; Eric Killeen, Matthew Whelan, Ciaran Collier; Ross King, Paddy Purcell; Jack Kelly, Stephen Maher, Sean Downey; Mark Kavanagh, Neil Foyle, Aaron Dunphy

http://hoganstand.com/Article/Index/284341

This is a bigger game for Offaly than it is for Laois. They really need to win this one for a number of reasons. I think they will go all out to win by picking their best team and try to control the game. We will need a massive intensity (similar to Galway game). We need to try and match them physically and set the tone for the game early on. They have huge forwards and we don't have huge backs so we might be under a bit of pressure there. We will need big games from lads all over the field. It is definitely winnable for Laois and it would give us a massive boost for the rest of the year. If we lose I don't think its the end of the world for this team. We will have another chance against Dublin to get out of a relegation match.

Good to see Cha and Sean Downey performing well for Carlow IT and Mark Kav returning for LIT. I think its just the long term injuries now Picky, Cahir and Dwane. I think PJ Scully will come into contention in the next couple of weeks.
Theres no mention of Paddy Whelan, Aaron Dunphy or Ciaran Collier so im assuming they are not involved. Hopefully we can stay relatively injury free for a while at least.

I would have to agree, its a big improvement on the last couple of years. Staying competitive with these teams considering all the players missing is the best we can hope for atm. When we have everyone back then maybe we could look to push on. Last year we shipped 6-33 to Limerick and lost by a whopping 29 points compared to 10 yesterday away from home. Sure we have lots to work on but id dwell on the positives from yesterday instead of the negatives. I think the fact that we went back training so early this year will hopefully stand to us as we seemed to be able to stay with Limerick for the duration yesterday and didn't fall away with 20 minutes to go. If we had all our players available yesterday I really believe we would have got very close to Limerick. We need another big performance next week and if Antrim can give Galway a game we can too.
As for the injuries Dwane, Picky and Cahir are out for the league at least hopefully they will make it back for some of the championship. I think Cha, Mark Kav, PJ Scully and Ryan Mullaney will be back in a few weeks but next weekend will come too soon. Lee Cleere injured his hip according to Eamonn Kelly so hopefully he wont be out for too long.
There has been no sign of Aaron Dunphy or Paddy Whelan this year, I assume they are not involved or are they injured too?

Ciaran Collier is another guy who played well last year in the half back line and I would have thought he would be involved??