2015 Laois Senior Football

[Hospital Pass]

Anyone got a shovel to scrape me back off the floor. This was a sad day for Laois football. I think this tops the defeat to louth a couple of years ago. All credit to antrim but we just got beaten by a poor division 4 side at Home, a side which was beaten 1-13 to 8 points  by fermanagh. and they were short 2 of their best forwards from that game today!
5-33 we have conceded in our last 2 games, for the love of god thats a cricket score. we played a sweeper again a blind man could see this didnt work. begley was taken completely out of the game as a result. we let them kick most of their kick outs short. a criminal act
The writing was on the wall in this game for the last half an hour of play. I don't know which was more depressing the fact that the manager did nothing to address the situation or the fact that when i looked at the bench we are miles away in terms of strength in depth

[OTF]

If only it was as simple as a poor manager.
The problems with Laois football go much deeper I'm afraid.

[Teo Lurley]

Big change needed and not just a new manager. The last manager was making progress and players still didn't want to play for him. What do we need to do to get players to play for their county? It takes huge commitment but it should be an honour to play for Laois, not a chore.
Do we need a big name manager like Micko to come along? Everyone showed up to training in 2003. Do we need an inside man to do the job? Someone like Cheddar to drag things up with them. Do we need to beg the players to play? Do we need to pay them? Do we need to forget about the senior team for 5/10 years and work on the underage system? Do we need to completely change the club structures? Or is there nothing we can do? The players don't want to play and that's that?
That might be Ross' last game and it would be a sad way to end. He was actually gaining some confidence through the match and shouldn't have been on the penalty. Donie was superb again, some of the points he was scoring was unbelievable. All the players that have trained all year deserve great credit, really disappointed for them. There has to be serious change though, not slating anyone but the state of the bench we had. A black day for Laois, hopefully it brings some brightness down the line.

[Don Draper]

The worst I can remember in over 30 years following Laois. Sadly I dont believe we are at rock bottom yet. That is yet to come. f**king Antrim, and a horseshit Antrim team at that.

[OTF]

Agree with you there DD the worst is still to come.

[on the hop]

Still sick after the result, two years in a row knocked out by lower division teams. Age profile of the team not great either. Under age has been very poor to average at best. I think the worst is to come.

[Teo Lurley]

From the independent:

'Laois are likely to be on the lookout for a new manager, as Tomas O Flatharta made a quick exit from O'Moore Park, without appearing for the post-match interviews. Some reports suggested that the Kerryman had left the ground even before some of his players had even made it out of the dressing-room.'

So who do we want as new manager? Probably the more important question is who wants to manage Laois?

[laoislad]

Can't see to many people lining up to take the job.
Why would anyone want it.

[Joeythelips]

There are worse county sides out there than Laois lads, I think Laois are definitely better than they have shown under O Flatharta although the last two defeats may have long term affect on the players.
At the minute we are a mid table division 2 team and have some high quality players in the shape of  JOL, Kingston and Quigley (and was very impressed with O'Carroll) but unfortunately we have a small pool of players with very little talent coming though which is what is needed to keep the thing fresh. From what i seen this year there is potential in the team and next managerial appointment is vital and get all the players in the county pulling in one direction. That is all that really happened when Micko came on board (although much better pool of players back then), the year before we were hammered by Meath and then we win Leinster, now im under know illusion we will be winning a Leinster but we could certainly compete against the majority of teams and maybe get ourselves up to Div 1 with a serious appointment, but as posters have said it is not the most attractive of posts and cant think of too many top candidates off the top of my head.

[goal 10]

It's not a manager we want,   It's a top class coach we need.

[Junior Ex Laoistalk]

Kingston still top of the charts



The Laois footballers exited the championship on Saturday, suffering a shock defeat to Antrim in Portlaoise. Kingston continued his excellent individual form in that game, hitting 0-7 to extend his lead at the top of the Golden Boot standings, but he is likely to be overhauled in the coming weeks, given that he will not have the chance to add to his tally this summer

[Unlaoised]

A real low for Laois football ...TOF was never the right man for the job ..Hopefully the next appointment can be the right one because there is defo a lot of talent there and in my opinion we still have the players to be a top ten side!

[Andy06]

It's pretty shocking that TOF made a quick exit after the game, you would think he would at least stay to wrap up the duties as it were, even if he was planning to pack it in this year.

Is anyone in the county board held responsible for this appointment? Two qualifier defeats at home to teams who were in division 4 that year (correct me if I am wrong as regards Tipp) is very poor. I remember someone in the county board coming out after McNulty was let go, saying that the next appointment will take us the next step or something to that regard. That ended up being clear horsesh*t!!

[Catch and Kick]

It's pretty shocking that TOF made a quick exit after the game, you would think he would at least stay to wrap up the duties as it were, even if he was planning to pack it in this year.

Is anyone in the county board held responsible for this appointment? Two qualifier defeats at home to teams who were in division 4 that year (correct me if I am wrong as regards Tipp) is very poor. I remember someone in the county board coming out after McNulty was let go, saying that the next appointment will take us the next step or something to that regard. That ended up being clear horsesh*t!!

This type of criticism has to stop of players, managers and county boards. It achieves only one thing - to undermine the efforts of those involved.
Laois were in a winning position in this game and should have won. Not the county boards fault. Not the managers fault. And maybe not the players fault. Antrim came with a great late surge and got past the post.
Laois have been magnificent over a long period - punching above their weight given the population and number of clubs.
Laois will play in Div 2 next year. Kildare and 15 other counties will play in divisions below them.

They were magnificent against Kildare and probably should be preparing for the Leinster semi final this week. But that's sport.


You have to face reality; Laois have a number of top class footballers supported by average / good players. 

[SCFC]

O'Flaharta gone this evening.
Who's next up for the job?