Leinster Minor Football Championship 2018

[OTF]

 I saw a few minutes of this on TG4 last night, WTF is going on ?

[Chrimtain]

It was bad enough to be at the match on Saturday, but to watch the highlights on TG4 last night was embarrassing. For a county that was the envy of many other counties as they regularly reached and won Leinster and All Ireland championships at minor and under 21 level not so along ago, it is disappointing to see the depths to which we have sunk at under age level now. Yet, it does not seem to be of concern to our County Board. Complacency seems to have set in with seemingly no accountability regarding the coaching that is being provided. For me, it is not an excuse that we are a small county which cannot compete with the big counties, particularly when you look at the improvement that is clearly taking place in Offaly and Wicklow. When are we going to wake up and do something about this problem? Very soon it will be a problem at senior level because we will not have the players to replace the guys who are reaching the end of their senior inter county careers.

[Laoiseabu]

There is being work put in at underage level particularly at development squads. But the bottom line is at the moment we just don't have the lads to compete . Did you ever hear the saying you can't turn an ass into a racehorse . Check out Michael Duignans opinion on development squads on twitter and I'd agree with him.

[Chrimtain]

There is being work put in at underage level particularly at development squads. But the bottom line is at the moment we just don’t have the lads to compete . Did you ever hear the saying you can’t turn an ass into a racehorse . Check out Michael Duignans opinion on development squads on twitter and I’d agree with him.

Does that mean that young lads are not playing the game in sufficient numbers in the county?

[Laoiseabu]

Playing numbers are not as high as before for example more clubs in the county are struggling to field underage teams especially clubs going on their own without amalgamation . But that wasn't my point ,my point is that out of the lads that ARE playing we don't seem to have the ones good enough to compete with the likes of Meath, Kildare and Dublin in Leinster . That was never the case in Laois until recent times. The introduction of development squads has obviously not improved anything only make youngsters feel from an early age that they aren't good enough when they see their piers making it and not themselves. It basically makes things too competitive for youngsters too early and kids lose interest . They should be let develop at their own pace as everyone is different and I'm telling you now we have lost a few half decent players just because some critic over an u15 development squad told a 14 year old " he wasn't good enough" . Back in beanos time and Munnellys , Chris Conway, Kevin Fitz, Tom Prendergast, Colm Browne etc there was no such thing as development squads and their talent just shone through in the end . Now we are bringing in 13 year olds and we just aren't getting quality lads to come through anymore . Underage structures is not the problem people . The quality just isn't there in abundance anymore . And anyway who hires these "bluffers" to run these squads

[GAA-SMART]

The best thing that can happen now is a review take place from Minor-U20-Senior and approve management teams asap so they can begin preperations for 2019. We can not be in a position where U20 managements are only being put in place 2-3 months after the likes of Dublin are up and running. The minor result was horrific but pressing a panic button is not the right call either.

[les Antiques]

Would give Phelan and O'Loughlin another year each . Nothing gained by changing those positions next year . A bit of continuity needed .

[Chrimtain]

No sign of an improvement in the near future. In fact it looks like things are getting worse........


http://hoganstand.com/Laois/article/index/287716?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[Laoiseabu]

They also  lost to Tipp by 30 points two weeks ago the u16s. So where is the evidence that these development squads actually make players into good players?

[SpeculativeEffort]

Surely Tipp played their Deveopment squad v us and they are clearly making it work. If lads get disheartened and give up from not making an underage development team then maybe its their attitude thats the problem not the dev squad?

[Nameless]

Development squads are definitely the way to go. If they're not working then it's because the set up isn't right. The very least these development squads should produce is highly athletic, fit and strong young players. Have we seen that?

[Laoiseabu]

The bottom line is we obviously don't have the players at minor or u16 level . Minors hammered by Meath and Kildare and the u16s hammered by Tipp and Wexford. Well if a development squad is aimed at producing strong athletic players its obviously not working for us. Meath walked through us from start to go finish and seem to have a few decent lads coming through.

[Laoiseabu]

Could someone tell me is there a difference between the way a development squad is ran in Laois compared to Meath or Kildare ?

[Nameless]

The answers are staring you in the face, that's if you've actually gone to any Laois underage games?

[Pablo Escobar]

I'd be of the opinion we should as a county be pumping more resources into the secondary schools of the county as regional "centres of excellence" and to disband with development squads altogether until minor. Schools such as Knockbeg , Portlaoise CBS, Colaiste Iosagain , mountrath  , Heywood, Mountmellick and Clonaslee , with the aim to develop footballers within these schools and to make them challengers and hopefully winners of their various grades in schools football. This is where footballers should develop rather than picking 30 you should be looking to develop around 200 each at the 3 age groups of under 14.5, 16.5 and 19 . Coaches should be assigned to these schools to work alongside the great work done by teachers such as Chris Conway, Stephen Attride in Knockbeg and Atch Whelan in Clonaslee amongst others and be exposed to S and  C and top level coaching when they are part of their school squads . This should have a positive impact on club football too within the county .I believe it's an area being neglected by the county board from my experience involved with school teams .