Messages

Interesting that everyone is taking a alan doheny's word as gospel. I wouldn't be so sure no of that.

Agree, thats why i said IF, and thats why it needs to be investigated, i hope the county board have got a report/statement from O'Brien for this meeting tonight or tomorrow night, not sure exactly when it is.

Apparently theres a county board meeting tonight about the whole thing.
What i keep coming back to is, if Alan Doheny advised John O'Brien that he saw (at least one) red card offence, and O'Brien chose to ignore this, then we have a serious problem. Its worse than a situation where something was caught on camera but not caught by officials. And O'Brien needs to explain what he handed out the yellow cards for.
This has now gone nationwide on social media and as previously mentioned, could have big knock on effects for our inter county team, so this needs to be investigated and dealt with properly.
Also, considering the snapchat pics now going around, i think Camross Gaa club need to step in here and do something too. The whole club looks very very bad at the moment.

SPILLANE, have no doubt about it, that butt of the hurl to the face of Ross King WAS on purpose!! Absolute rubbish talk! The whistle should have been blown after the first pull on purcell from Delaney!

Agree 100%. No excuse for the referee not to issue at least 1 red in that instance, as usual the whole stand can see something but the ref doesnt? As usual here we are after such an important game talking about the ref. It had a huge bearing on the game, camross should have been down to at least 14, instead RE are without arguably their best player.
Having said all that RE had a few chances to level or even win the game at the end but didnt take them. I would also add Camross always use the ball well, they got their match ups right, and they manage the game very well, making changes and positional switches when needed.

In the Senior A, Portlaoise the better team overall, they had ball winners in their inside line and that made the difference, Harps couldnt get anything to stick in their full forward line, and they should have tried to create space a lot more/better, it was very bunched for most of the game and that suited Portlaoise. Also dont know why they didnt send up their free man into the forwards for the last 10 mins or so to try get them back into the game.

https://www.balls.ie/gaa/joe-mcdonagh-cup-kildare-antrim-players-391883?fb

100% agree our development squad set up needs a serious upgrade. Again, implementing the actions from the stratigic review would be a start.
And im not saying a McDonagh Cup final is the limit of our ambitions but short term it has to be the minimum we're aiming for.
Look at the farce of a situation we have for the final on Sunday, its on at the same time as the munster final. The Gaa dont give shite about it or the counties in it. Look at the carry on with Kildare footballers! Same with the Kildare hurlers, winning a Christy Ring and their prize is a relegation match with Antrim! Its a joke, its like the Gaa are doing their best to discourage the weaker teams instead of doing the complete opposite like they should be.

I think its a great time for any manager to come on board. The only way is up. This team were badly managed and under performed as a result, any manager worth their salt should be able to get the lads motivated and committed again, play some good hurling, not afraid to go out and attack and have a go, and use their heads and the ball better, and we'll be in croker next year for a McDonagh Cup final.
As for our underage structures, remember that great document that was produced after our strategic review? I would say there is many deadlines for recommended actions passed already, i would say f**k all has been done since. Whos supposed to be overseeing the implementation of that?

Heard something about Delaney bringing in Johnny Kelly as coach with him if he gets the job, that would be good, he has good experience and a good track record. Anyone hear that? These days your coaching staff is as important as the manager, as far as i know Eamonn Kelly did no coaching! I believe Davy Hogan was well liked this year he might stay on if asked? Jamie Wall would be great too if he'd do it.

Ultimately the fault lies with every "hurling supporter" in the county. People don't bother to get involved and go to their clubs AGM. The same people get elected each year with very little change within any club. This apathy feeds upward into the county board which is merely a reflection of the clubs. Talk of setting up "structures" at underage to get more kids in and get them better coached falls down on the simple fact that it is very difficult to get people to take on coaching roles in clubs. The job usually falls to a couple of dads who take it on reluctantly as their own kids are involved and they may as well do it or no one will. These lads will typically spend two years at each age group and move up to the next age group as their kids get older, just as they were getting the hang of that age group. They now have to learn the ropes at the new age groups.
The same process happens at county "development" squad level.

The GDA's - who get heavily criticised - are willing to help any club upskill their coaches, but again the apathy from the clubs is palpable. There is a series of player pathway workshops on the go at the moment, but the buy-in and attendance from some clubs (including my own) is poor. Getting enough people each year to manage all the groups from u7 to u17 is a serious challenge to most clubs each year and the rate of burnout among underage coaches is high. It's a tough role these days.

The ideal in each club and at county level would be for each age group to have three to four experienced coaches who stay at that age group getting more experienced each year, and passing the young hurlers up the conveyor belt improving them all the way. The GDAs have tried to support this, but generally people (coaches) are only interested in the age group their own child is in. You may get a few current or ex hurlers wanting to get involved at u15 or u17 level, but not generally before.

I don't know if Cheddars plan has answers on how you get more people involved in club coaching, but unless it does, it's difficult to see how the county can improve. Laois being a small county means every club has to supply several county quality players whereas the likes of Kilkenny or Tipperary clubs have to supply a lot less.


It all comes back to the clubs. Get more people involved. More current players getting involved with younger teams. Pushing the county board to be better. But who are the clubs? The self same "hurling supporters who stand on the ditch and criticise or take to the keyboards on forums like this. I am heavily involved with my club and coaching. How many posters on this forum can say the same?


On a final note, although I have great respect for Cheddar and the work he put in, I recall a general feeling that he had taken the squad at the time as far as he was able. Unfortunately, we had no one to build on the solid foundations he had laid.

Excellent post, nail on the head.

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.

Great post Tobias, i 100% agree with everything you said. Cheddar would be the ideal man for a Director of hurling, I've said this before. The current crop of senior players, unfortunately, have limited talent. Our development squads must take priority.

We all know you have the vision of a Stevie Wonder when it comes to Lapis hurling, you treacherous gurrier.

Another fantastic contribution, thanks Don! Work on the spelling though!

... When Kelly goes we have to get a Laois man to get the passion back.

I was just thinking the same.

It's a little easier to stomach any lost match when the manager and team have genuine passion. (And their will probably be fewer losses.)

Dont agree. We get a good manager, thats what we aim for. If they be from Laois thats great, if not, doesnt matter. Colm Bonnar isnt a Carlow man yet Carlow can play with heart, passion, brains, they are well coached and know what they want to do when they have the ball. Kelly is a spoofer. Dare i say the S word again, but we had a sweeper system in place again, against Carlow, and we were behind at the time!! Everyone is entitled to their opinion on the best way to play etc, but i dont believe for a second, that we are not good enough to go out and attack and have a plan of attack, and have a go against the likes of Carlow. I believe the players trust themselves to do better than sit back and invite Carlow to attack. I think moral has to be low with that carry on. Yes we have a young team, weve had retirements blah blah blah, but the talent we have is good enough for a Joe McDonagh final. Thats my opinion. They aren't being managed correctly. Stevie Wonder could see that.

Kelly Out!

You've done f**king neck after what you used say about Cheddar. Here's the new dawn you wanted. Enjoy it.

you sound so ridiculous

Kelly Out!

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!