2018 National Football League Division 4

Started by Junior Ex Laoistalk, October 14, 2017, 11:40:53 PM

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Unlaoised

Not sure about London to be honest I know they are strong down the spine have a good full back two good midfielders and their centre forward seems to be their main man...

They are a settled team now with 6-7 of them playing the last 5-6 years which is unusual for the exiles and can only be a benefit to them.

LAOIS ABÚ

Junior Ex Laoistalk

Quote from: Don Draper on March 09, 2018, 11:41:26 AM
Quote from: Unlaoised on March 09, 2018, 11:38:33 AM
Lillis and Glynn are gone to Cahillane's stag
f**king hell.

Is Cahillane still on the panel, he hasn't featured in any game at all this year??
Winners are not those who never fail, but those who never quit!

redsetanta

The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. VinceLombardi

Helmut

Shocking stuff here at half time. The worst I ve seen thema long while.
Tactically the Laois line don't seem to have a clue and every time London attack they cut us apart.

BallyroanAbu

Quote from: Helmut on March 11, 2018, 01:44:39 PM
Shocking stuff here at half time. The worst I ve seen thema long while.
Tactically the Laois line don't seem to have a clue and every time London attack they cut us apart.
Obviously you missed the qualifier against Antrim a couple of years ago.

Actually I would take today as a good sign managing to win inspite of ourselves.

Give and Go

A win is a win. No one has had it handy over there this year. Promotion guaranteed and thats progress

Catch and Kick

Not guaranteed yet. Must win another game?

Laoiseabu

Didn't go to the match. Anyone stood out ? Who was poor etc? Brief summary?

BrendanAntrim

Quote from: Give and Go on March 11, 2018, 05:20:13 PM
A win is a win. No one has had it handy over there this year. Promotion guaranteed and thats progress

Promotion guaranteed? With two games to come against the other top 3 sides. Hope thats what your players think too.

Laoiseabu

Ye the two crunch games still have to come BrendanAntrim

Junior Ex Laoistalk

#520
Quote from: Laoiseabu on March 11, 2018, 11:34:16 PM
Ye the two crunch games still have to come BrendanAntrim
They sure have, Antrim and Carlow will be major tests for this side. Watched Carlow Saturday night and they look very dangerous with some very good scoring forwards and serious pace around the middle and half back line.
Mark my words, we will really have to improve to get out of division 4 this year ....





Remaining Games:

18.03.2018
Antrim v Carlow, Ahoghill, 2.00
Waterford v Leitrim, Fraher Field, Dungarvan, 2.00
Wicklow v Limerick, Joule Park, Aughrim, 2.00

25.03.2018
Carlow v Laois, Netwatch Cullen Park, 1.00
Leitrim v Wicklow, Páirc Seán Mac Diarmada, Carrick-on-Shannon, 1.00
Limerick v Antrim, Gaelic Grounds, 1.00
London v Waterford, McGovern Park, Ruislip, 1.00

31.03.2018
Laois v Antrim, O'Moore Park, Portlaoise
London v Leitrim, McGovern Park, Ruislip

Reports in the media this week suggest that the clash between London and Leitrim may not go ahead as it looks set to be a dead rubber.
The battle for promotion is between Carlow, Laois and Antrim, all of who play each other in the remaining games.
Should it be a case of the top two being finalised with one round to go, then the Division 4 final will revert to its original date of March 31st.
Winners are not those who never fail, but those who never quit!

on the hop

That was a nervy day. Won and didn't play well at all against a limited London team. Game was played at 100 miles  an hour and it was a surprise to see so many players struggling to keep with it. Started like a train and had four bad wides in the first four minutes, we eventually had ten in the first half. They probably would have settled us and possibly made the game different. The finishing was very poor and we also missed at least four goals including two great saves. London played a blanket defense but positioned the two wing forwards wide on each touch line like all the teams we played so far. We played very narrow with both wing backs off their men and they exploited this by kicking diagonal balls in. They looked dangerous every time as we couldn't cope with this. We were out muscled on the first goal and horrible for the second. Six goals conceded now. We plugged away without ever getting away from them and fell over the line in the end. I said previously we don't have a defensive plan and left the two on the full back line isolated. I am amazed when both wing backs are constantly in the other half. The forwards didn't go well today. We replaced nearly all of them and would be better served with Gary at full forward, Donie is not fit or mobile enough at the moment.

Not to many good performances, attride and Begley near the end. Dillon is not a corner back and Crowley is too small for this level. Jol did huge work but he was on his own in midfield, Donie didn't last long and Danny o reilly while a willing runner is very poor in general play. Gary kicked his frees and a few from play but needs more space than the corner. Evan's best game in a while and he dragged us over the line. Can't understand the tactics with benny Carroll who spent most of the game marking space on the half back line. Paul Kingston looked to have pulled his hamstring at the end. We are going to find it tough in Carlow. Damien o Connor, Denis booth and David Conway were with the panel. Timmons was a sub and strong came on, so it's looking likely we will have much the same team as last year.

High Fielder

Most of the teams at this level are like the Ireland rugby team of old. They are spirited and full of energy and then fizzle away shortly after half time. Watching the last 10 mins of Div 4 game is like watching a game in slow motion. You can't improve technically playing the game at a break neck pace, so just invite them on, keep the scores low and hit them on the break. Going toe to toe is winning matches against bad teams, but the second we step up in terms of opposition, we will suffer. It's great to be winning matches, but I'm far from convinced we're moving ahead with any real conviction. Defensively, we really don't have the right pegs for the right holes

BallyroanAbu

Quote from: High Fielder on March 12, 2018, 10:05:53 AM
Most of the teams at this level are like the Ireland rugby team of old. They are spirited and full of energy and then fizzle away shortly after half time. Watching the last 10 mins of Div 4 game is like watching a game in slow motion. You can't improve technically playing the game at a break neck pace, so just invite them on, keep the scores low and hit them on the break. Going toe to toe is winning matches against bad teams, but the second we step up in terms of opposition, we will suffer. It's great to be winning matches, but I'm far from convinced we're moving ahead with any real conviction. Defensively, we really don't have the right pegs for the right holes

I agree with you in principle but I think that only the top couple of teams in Div 2 and all the teams in Div 1 are technically proficient.  I really believe that it will be Div 2 before our inadequacies would be highlighted up till then you can travel along way on commitment and fitness.  I do think Sugrue looks promising as a manager.  You can't do anymore than win and more so than anywhere most on this forum are aware of Laois's problems.

Helmut

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on March 12, 2018, 10:17:58 AM
Quote from: High Fielder on March 12, 2018, 10:05:53 AM
Most of the teams at this level are like the Ireland rugby team of old. They are spirited and full of energy and then fizzle away shortly after half time. Watching the last 10 mins of Div 4 game is like watching a game in slow motion. You can't improve technically playing the game at a break neck pace, so just invite them on, keep the scores low and hit them on the break. Going toe to toe is winning matches against bad teams, but the second we step up in terms of opposition, we will suffer. It's great to be winning matches, but I'm far from convinced we're moving ahead with any real conviction. Defensively, we really don't have the right pegs for the right holes

I agree with you in principle but I think that only the top couple of teams in Div 2 and all the teams in Div 1 are technically proficient.  I really believe that it will be Div 2 before our inadequacies would be highlighted up till then you can travel along way on commitment and fitness.  I do think Sugrue looks promising as a manager.  You can't do anymore than win and more so than anywhere most on this forum are aware of Laois's problems.

I'm leaning more with highfielder on this at the moment. We are going toe to toe with the weakest teams in the country and limping across the line. I dont think we have improved in anyway from last year and as others have pointed out we are creeping slowly back to the same team that got us relegated.

As for Sugree it is far to early to make a judgement on him but I would be quietly worried about his tactics so far and how we play. We seem to be employing a philospy of marking space and no the actual man which means a lot of the time we leave an awful lot of the oppossiton free and stand 10-15 yards off them. This has caused us continous problems all during the league.

Our wingbacks are rarely in our own half and usually play overly narrow leaving massive gaps along each wing. This also leaves Nerney massively exposed on his own at times and often in a one on one situation which is tough on a new inexperienced player. This has happened in nearly every league game this season and hasnt been fixed.

We rarely have runners moving beyond the man with the ball, and on the rare occassions we do we look good so its baffling more isnt made of it. Our forward line is static and narrow to meaning we get bottled up alot and dont stretch defences like we should which probably contributes to why we dont score a lot more goals at this level.

As for yesterday most of the above happened. London had a simple game plan of keeping a tight compact shape in their own half without the ball and then when they broke they usually went wide and hit long diagonal balls into the forward line which caused havoc. It was obvious from early on that when there kickouts went long they lost it so they simply put a man on each touchline and we didnt go man for man and had an easy outball.

As for who played bad well truth be told most of them were poor yesterday. Donnie started in central midfield but looked lost. Was out muscled a few times and stripped and didnt have anywhere near the engery or mobility for the role required. Came into it a bit more when he was shifted forward and scored a lovely pint but overall was poor and came off. Ross as well wasnt at the races with some really bad wides and often let his man pass him by easily. Paul K made some lovely runs and bursts at times but often stopped them and went backwards killing the attack. looks to have had a nasty hamstring injury right at the end. Daniel O Reilly looked really out of his depth and while he tried hard he was swallowed up at least four or five times and dispossed. Benny Carroll played a strange roll that didnt suit him and spent most of the game standing ten foot off his man near they half way line.

Attride and Dillon struggled badly at wingback at times and Dillion looks illsuited to the pacey blocky man he was marking who shrugged him off very easily. Nerney again was exposed in a few one on ones but in his defence he was left completely open at times.

On the good side John O loughlin had a great game and carried an ocean of ball. He took an awful lot of abuse and hits which a poor ref let slide. Including a shove to the face when he was on the ground right infront of the ref and linesman which they left unpunished. He was visible angry at a lot of his own team and was shouting at them at times in frustration.

Begley started well and looked to have the legs on his man but seemed to fade badly and went out of the game. As on the hop noted above a lot of the players struggled with the pace.

Gary Walsh played well had a few nice scores but like a lot of others took the wrong option at the end to many times when a simple point was on. Especially in the closing stages when the game was so close and he went for a goal from an extremely difficult angle when he could have fisted the ball over.

Evan O Carroll had a great game best for us for a while. He showed a lot of fight putting in some big decent hits at times and made a lot of hard running at times. Very impressed with him.

So Carlow next I think and this will probably be the first decent match we will have this year. If we play like we have so far this year I think we will lose. Carlow have a decent set of forwards and with the space we leave at the back I can see a couple of goals. Hopefully I m wrong but you might get decent odds on Carlow getting 2 goals or more on this defence.