Leinster S.F.C. 2015

[INDIANA]

Good post TL. Laois are my second county and I always take an interest. Strange situation with the Portlaoise fellas alright. O Flatharta must be under big pressure at this stage. Surprised Laois gave him the job after his stint with Galway.

If you saw Portloaise versus Vincents you'd realise they aren't such a loss. Only Cahir Healy and Cahilane worth a look. Rest of them have had their day at county football.

Kildare have hugely outperformed Laois at underage recently.

I said Kildare would win this two weeks ago even when their own fans had no faith in them.

Terrrible to think JOL and Kingston will never even win a provincial title.

[Gmac]

I think ciaran whelan summed it up perfectly on the sunday game that the laois players either had no desire or the energy to follow their men back or regroup when the ball is turned over ,it's a simple thing hat every team has to do in today's Gaelic football sprint back to set up the defensive structure when the ball is lost in attack

[Joeythelips]

Think some of the comments here are a bit harsh. Laois are a decent intercounty side, not in the same league as the likes of kerry, dublin etc in terms of quality but they give a lot with what they have got. The fact that Ross is still there tells a lot about the quality of players coming through.

We all hear about the lack of Portlaoise players on the team but the fact is very few would make much of a difference. Wolly Parkinson even admitted this on off the ball recently. Healy would make a big improvement but he is committed to the hurlers.

Given our current squad im not sure how much more we could improve with a new manager. The players give everything so i commend their commitment. In fairness we were caught with a blitz, but we should have been much further ahead by this point. Kildare knew they got out of jail in the first half and caught us napping.

[ILikeStrawberryJam]

There is obviously respect there for the lads that are giving their all for the county but from what i have heard there is no real respect there for TOF.
Its all been driven by the players. Why have O'leary, mcmahon, meredith, meaney all dropped off the panel since the start of the year.
Also D conway, booth, walsh since last year. I dont really think there are any portlaoise players that would get in the first team or first 20 ..
All you want is the best setup possible for the players as per the hurling setup. You dont feel this is happening with the footballers.
We survived in Div 2 thanks to the brillance of Donie. We have a limited panel but why dont lads want to play that are good enough to play.
Thats the elephant in the room. Is it down to TOF? i dunno from what i heard its a big part of it ..

[Helix]

Like the hurling it might take a Laois man to solve a Laois problem. Who we get in Laois I'm not so sure. We never evolved with the times after we won many leinsters and paying the price perhaps. I feel we'll be playing catch up for a good while to get even to an AI q final spots again (hope i'm wrong of course).
Can't blame Portlaoise either with all the county titles they've won. Up to the other clubs to step up and haven't done so.

[OTF]

Like the hurling it might take a Laois man to solve a Laois problem. Who we get in Laois I'm not so sure. We never evolved with the times after we won many leinsters and paying the price perhaps. I feel we'll be playing catch up for a good while to get even to an AI q final spots again (hope i'm wrong of course).
Can't blame Portlaoise either with all the county titles they've won. Up to the other clubs to step up and haven't done so.

I often thought that Helix  a mad hure  from within like Ger Loughnane is badly needed to drag Laois kicking and screaming into the real world.

Bitterly disappointed after the weekend but worst days lie ahead I'm afraid.
Our underage system once the envy of the country has being left go to rack and ruin  a total lack of leadership at the very top is the problem IMO.

[blueandwhite1]

I think that we need someone to help these players to believe in themselves. The stark difference for me between Laois and Kildare was self belief. We went 3 points down from being a point up in a few minutes and what do we do? We stop believing and go defensive. And not aggressive defending, passive defending with no real belief that we could fight Kildare and overcome the 3 point deficit. Even at 7 points down there was still time but we were beaten mentally by then. Micko may not have been a tactical genius but he got the players to believe in themselves and bring out the best in themselves. I think that is how Jason Ryan got Kildare over the line too.

We saw that same lack of belief against Meath and of course in the first game against Kildare when we blew a 3 point lead with the wind behind us.

Of course the underage structures and development energy needs a massive overhaul but no matter how talented the pool of players you have, if they don't believe they are good enough, they won't be.

[redsetanta]

That's the difference with the hurlers at the moment. Cheddar continuously tells the players, the media amd anyone else who will listen that our hurlers are as good as any and are good enough to compete. It's not something that can be turned around overnight. But if you say something often enough you start to believe it. Check any of the best self help books and it's there. Like blueandwhite says you have to have the players but without belief they'll go nowhere.

[Spillane]

More than belief the difference between the teams. Legs and speed around the middle was in stark contrast between the teams.  Kildare were up and down the field where as Laois were only going forward. Strong and O' Loughlin may get up the field and get a score or two but also do they're men as they can't be bothered defend. I'd have the traditional view of a back and his primary job being not letting your man score and not to outscore him.

When we needed to step it up after conceding the goals/ close out the game (the last game) too many players went into hiding. Seeing O' Carroll let his man skip past him, then going down to stretch out his calf. Then sprint out the field once the ball was turned over sickened my stomach. Not too many of our players are battlers/leaders when they are called upon besides Donie and Timmons.

[Saint75]

I don't think it's all the players fault that we concede too much and don't track back enough. A game plan is something that is put in place and practiced again and again in training and matches. We lack a game plan big time and have done for as long as I'm looking at Laois. McNulty had a plan of sorts but it only worked to keep down the score against the better teams. Moral victories were how we ended each year but we couldn't beat Longford & Louth. He did bring in a professional physical training setup and that's one of the things that is keeping us going in division 2. Coaching of individuals is seriously lacking too. Very few of our players can tackle correctly. We don't know when to let the ball go and get turned over way too often in games. Donie passes as a last resort. He is playing great but if he doesn't score nobody else will. Boyle is a passenger. Maybe he would be better at 6. Donagher kicked a few lovely scores but he is so weak he can't even slow his man down defensively. Antrim will trouble us Saturday especially if they drop players behind the ball like Fermanagh did last year.

[Windbreaker]

On Helix & OTF's point, Any chance of coaxing Mick Dempsey ,,, He's been involved in a winning mentality, maybe as not an all-out manager but him with maybe one on the main leaders of the minor glory days, we need vision plus we need time to execute that vision, so I'd imagine all out power may be handed over,, Development, coaching, plus a collective thinking from all clubs & officials in the county,, it will benefit us all in the long run,,   Best of luck to the lads on Saturday, probably might just scrape it,, don't think there'll be much interest in battling the qualifiers, the writing is on the wall,,

[OTF]

It amuses me a small bit when people say we should take example from the hurlers ok fair enough.
In a 12 year period we won
6 Leinster minor
3 All Ireland minor
3 Leinster under 21
Should have won at least 1 under 21 AI
1 Leinster senior
Should have won at least 1 more.
As regards underage we were there , we had this thing sorted but needed to be pushed on to the next level. Standing still was never going to be good enough, we didn't even stand still we went backwords.
There's 20 thousand more people living in Laois  now than there was in '96 and yet the numbers presenting themselves for underage trials has halved. There's something drastically wrong and the responsibility for this lies with the people at the top of Laois football. We haven't  stopped producing young footballers all of a sudden we have traditionally got very good returns from successful underage teams and this is where we should be looking.
We probably don't have the resources to challenge for AI senior  but we have proved we can challenge for underage and this is the area we have totally neglected in recent years.

[redsetanta]

My reference to the hurlers was to the current situation where Cheddar is instilling belief into the players directly and indirectly through media interviews etc. O'Flaherta doesn't come across as passionately and maybe he is not instilling the belief in players.

What is the difference between the hurling and football at underage level at the moment? Is it the standard of coaching at club level or the standard of coaches which the county board provide.

I live outside the county so wouldn't be up to date on these issues but the setanta programme had huge numbers attending last week at U11 and U13. What sort of numbers attend the football camps etc? How many ex and current players are involved. Again you had Picky maher a and few others at the hurling camps.

Maybe there is apathy amongst clubs or parents regarding the football. It's a combination of factors. One thing for sure you do need someone to come in and drive it with enthusiasm. I don't see a Critchley or Cheddar type character for the football at the moment. I stand to be corrected though.

[Junior Ex Laoistalk]

On Helix & OTF's point, Any chance of coaxing Mick Dempsey ,,, He's been involved in a winning mentality, maybe as not an all-out manager but him with maybe one on the main leaders of the minor glory days, we need vision plus we need time to execute that vision, so I'd imagine all out power may be handed over,, Development, coaching, plus a collective thinking from all clubs & officials in the county,, it will benefit us all in the long run,,   Best of luck to the lads on Saturday, probably might just scrape it,, don't think there'll be much interest in battling the qualifiers, the writing is on the wall,,

Mick along with Sean Dempsey would be a great combination for Laois football. Both have proven records and would have the respect of most lads in the county. I see Sean is involved with Longford this year although in what capacity I'm not sure...

[OTF]

My reference to the hurlers was to the current situation where Cheddar is instilling belief into the players directly and indirectly through media interviews etc. O'Flaherta doesn't come across as passionately and maybe he is not instilling the belief in players.

What is the difference between the hurling and football at underage level at the moment? Is it the standard of coaching at club level or the standard of coaches which the county board provide.

I live outside the county so wouldn't be up to date on these issues but the setanta programme had huge numbers attending last week at U11 and U13. What sort of numbers attend the football camps etc? How many ex and current players are involved. Again you had Picky maher a and few others at the hurling camps.

Maybe there is apathy amongst clubs or parents regarding the football. It's a combination of factors. One thing for sure you do need someone to come in and drive it with enthusiasm. I don't see a Critchley or Cheddar type character for the football at the moment. I stand to be corrected though.

The point I was trying to make was we had a structure in in place which was working very well probably second to Tyrone, whereas they pushed on continues to improve and ours has disappeared almost.

Junior
Not sure if the same ideas from 10 years ago would still work, but men like Sean with nothing but the best for Laois football in mind are what's required.
Someone needs to put in place a 5-10 year plan, proper coaching, development squads etc. and drive it especially the last part.