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That would be massive news but wouldn't make sense with Mountmellick beside Portlaoise. I highly doubt that.

Good to have Gary Walsh on board. I do agree he was harshly substituted but he was in the wrong - a manager can take you off after 5 minutes if he wants - you've got to go with his decision even if nobody likes being substituted. If there was, in gary's own words "threatening behaviour" then you can see why he could have been dropped for good reason. I doubt it was for something as small as a few swear words on the sideline.

Anyway, hope everything has cleared up as we'll need Gary in the qualifiers and he seems well up for it. Losing Evan O'Carroll and Costello is disappointing but we were always going to lose 1 or 2 with the system as it stands. Could have been worse had there been a mass exodus of 5-7 players. No idea if Cunningham is effectively taking over now - anyone have any inside info from the camp?

Have to agree with you on that one Huey, we don't own them at all and maybe the prospect of playing in the states with money coming in is too much of an opportunity to reject. I just wish they could do both - play for Laois till season's end and then have something to look forward to after. Joe Brolly talks a lot of nonsense but he's onto something when he says that we don't treat our players properly - they are the most important part of the GAA.

Not sure why players show up all year for training only to go to the states after losing a non - embarrassing, decent performance match to the all-ireland champions. Why show up at all if you're going to do that? Anyway, must get on with it now.

Why is it always the smaller counties like laois, carlow etc that have to put up with a scheduling headache like that? Do you think kerry, Dublin or cork would be scheduled at the same time as Ireland in the euros? Of course not. Even if they put it back to 4.15or 4.30 that'd be fine. If it's an Rte issue, just put a re run of murder she wrote or barney the dinosaur at 3.30.  Surely they have a bit of cop on. Unless Ireland are losing 10-0, nobody is going to watch laois armagh and the laois supporters who also follow Ireland in soccer will have to compromise unnecessarily. Annoyed but not surprised.

Absolutely shambolic if that's not changed (and it wouldn't surprise me if it wasn't). Have they any concept of reality or common sense up there at all.

Time for a new thread so, as we enter the All-Ireland qualifiers series after the loss to Dublin in the Leinster Championship.

We face Armagh in Portlaoise on the 18/19 June - a massive game for both teams.

So it's Armagh next for Laois in O' Moore Park on the 18th or 19th. Interesting draw and perhaps a good one for us. Why? Because what's the point in playing a Carlow, London or Leitrim. Armagh will be a very big test and we'll have to be up for it to beat them. I think it's a good draw for us in the sense that it's less than two weeks away and will keep the interest in the squad. Armagh are at a similar level to us in my opinion - McGeeney is under pressure there so he will be obsessing about how to beat us. HOPEFULLY we will do a similar level of homework on them. We will miss JOL but Meaney should slot in there.

The draw in full is :

LAOIS vs ARMAGH

CARLOW vs WICKLOW

DERRY vs LOUTH/MEATH

LEITRIM vs WATERFORD

DOWN vs LONGFORD

ANTRIM vs LIMERICK

OFFALY / WESTMEATH vs LONDON

WEXFORD vs FERMAN / DONEGAL.

I'm really proud of the performance. Which other team in the whole country would go a man down in the first half and still put that performance in the 2nd up to the dubs? I'm sick of people saying the dubs took their foot off the pedal. If the dubs had their foot off the pedal in the 2nd half, then WE had it off the pedal in the first. We have the talent to do well, I wish we'd believe that. Let's get behind these lads in the qualifiers, the draw is on tomorrow. If we'd have the belief and awareness to play like we did in the 2nd half for the full 70 - tell me why we can't go far with this bunch of players.

Yep Joey, we really do have the makings of a good team there, yesterday proved that. We need more belief though and a good set up - Cunningham does seem to be making progress but likely too late for this year.

A good set up would have had us ready to hit the ground running yesterday, not to be warming up for the first 10 minutes of the game, as we were doing, regretably. You do that against Dublin, you're finished. The rest of the game showed that, potentially, we're not too far off the pace.

We need a man who believes in this team and has the necessary brains to follow through so that we can reach our potential as a team. Right now we're just at 45-50% of our potential with this set up, and that's a shame.

But look, extremely proud of the lads and what we did yesterday. With talent and heart like that, a team can go far, and I just think we're not reaching the heights that we can. Hoping Cunningham or similar can take the reigns properly in October or November and can give talent like Begley, Kingston, O Loughlin, Strong, Cahilane, Timmons (lads in their prime) the set up and opportunity they deserve.

I wonder if there's anyone within the whole country who believes laois will win. There's Always a chance, there's always a chance. It would be the biggest upset in the gaa this millennium, but i really hope the players believe that if they give everything and play to their ability, they do have a chance. You've got to believe that as a player. 50minutes in, if we're there or thereabouts, who knows. There's always that possibility.

Interesting.

http://www.hoganstand.com/Football/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=255812

That's exactly it. How nice it would be to have a motivator with a good attitude and a very astute tactical brain. What we have appears to be an average, re-active brain : "The pick of the four teams there today wouldn't beat Dublin" and "I don't think it's possible to beat Dublin, we didn't even have a pitch to train in for months  "

But look, if Lillis proves me wrong and we get a great performance for rest of season, I'd be absolutely delighted and singing his praises - I'd just be incredibly surprised as there are lots of red flags regarding prep and performance to date.

I just think going forward, we definitely need an intelligent brain and motivator. His name doesn't have to be Jim McGuiness. But it stands to reason that if you put an average lad in there, you'll get average results. Put an excellent, motivated brain in there and...

Yes those people are rare but it's exactly what we should be looking for to get the best out of our squad that does have good potential. Justin McNulty's system was not perfect but it had us in an all-ireland 1/4 final and had us very competitive with a lesser squad than we have now. Can we improve on Justin McNulty? Why not try.

Exactly. Look, at the end of the day, we all want what's best for the team. Sometimes it's just frustrating when you know they deserve so much better and can do so much better. But I understand that talk gets a bit much after a while and it's all being said already. So best of luck to all involved for the big Dublin match. I've never seen a better football team in my lifetime - they're like a team of all-stars. But that's exactly what lads with ambition want to play against. It will be a great challenge and a great occasion. We'll all be behind the team, win lose or draw, the negative talk just stems from wanting the best for your county team, that's all. Laois abu and will be there with bells on.

Yeah, I get a great buzz from knowing that the team is already doomed as they haven't done the necessary preparation due to an obviously inept and incompetent management team. Brilliant buzz altogether.