Messages

Hopefully Murphy's injury won't keep him out too long. He's not had a run of games with Laois due to the recurring nature of his injury. A forward line composing of players of the calibre of O'Carroll, Murphy, Barry, Kingston and Lowry should be be capable of kicking enough scores to challenge any county in the Tailteann Cup. I also think Niall Corbet, if given a run of games, has the potential to claim a starting position. The more natural scoring threats we can put out on the field the better we will be.

I'd also like to see Burke of Crettyard given the opportunity from the start against Waterford. This game provides Laois with an opportunity to make 2/3 changes and give younger players a chance to impress and gain experience. We need to find some solutions to our problems in the middle third of the field.

Luckily Laois are not facing Leitrim this weekend. Playing a poor Waterford team this weekend should give Laois a chance to regroup and hopefully revive their promotion challenge. With Donie Kingston not available, Laois are heavily reliant on Evan O'Carroll and with him being suspended for the Waterford game there was no focal point to our attack.

Wheels came off the wagon last night big time. Last night's performance shows up the severe lack in depth in the Laois panel. The majority of lads in with laois are decent,committed club footballers but are not really at the level of a decent intercounty side. With Evan suspended this was a game we needed Murphy to take on the mantel of the main ball winner in close to goal. Unfortunately an early injury deprived us of that option and we really struggled to put together any semblance of a plan B to counteract Wicklow once they claimed dominance in the middle third.

Once Wicklow figured out the limitations of this Laois team there was only going to be only one winner. Long kick outs to an area of the pitch where they physically and athletically dominated Laois. I'm afraid it probably won't be the last time this year we see a similar outcome to a game. 

In some ways I am happy with what I saw on Saturday. Laois have serious ambitions of winning the Joe McDonagh and progressing to have a crack off of top tier team in the preliminary quarter final. With both Antrim and Westmeath in the championship proper we would definitely be the highest ranked team in the Joe McDonagh. Therefore, I am happy to see Laois were competitive for 55 minutes against Waterford. It was an improvement on the week before. Also have watched Tipp blow Kilkenny away with another fast start in Nowlan Park at the weekend it would suggest that Tipp are much further down the line with where they are at in comparison to a lot of other counties at the moment. It's all about timing and if Laois continue to progress and the fitness and physicality develop week on week, we should be in good stead come start of the championship. No point, peaking for a league that we are never going to win and then go stale come championship time. From listening to couple of players involved they seem happy with set up and how things are progressing. If they players are happy then I think we as supporters should be happy. After last couple of years we need some positivity.

In relation to Mullaney I think we should stick with him at centre forward. He was probaly the stand out club player in Laois last year. He will cause problems for any of the Joe mcDonagh defences. I would like to see our players 5-9 set more in stone. While flexibility is great, I do think we now need to give them a run of games in a set position. By doing that, identify to each player specifically what their roles are and what is expected of them and let them work on that over a number of games. Changing positions week on week doesn't help with embedding in what the management might want of them exactly.

There should be a big promotional push by Laois GAA to get supporters into O'Moore Park for a local derby with Kilkenny in two weeks time. It is our last home league fixture. Teams and players feed off of energy and having that support come out in two weeks time and hopefully the players put in a performance could help the team continue on an upward trajectory.

I don't have any insight into why this didn't happen.... But I can't imagine the GAA wouldn't have been reasonable in this matter.
Nothing to be gained from being otherwise.

The LGFA nationally have a reputation for being difficult & unreasonable. I have no idea if that extends to this situation, but I wouldn't be jumping to dump the blame at the feet of Laois GAA.

A very disappointing comment made here by Keyser Soze. From stating "I don't have any insight" but still well able to label an organisation making great strides as "difficult and unreasonable".     

An agreement could have been made regarding the gate split if that was the issue. It's a really poor decision, especially after the success of the women's team last year. If the county board rejected the request from the Laois LGFA they should have the decency to give a reason to the public for turning down this request. Paying Lip service to promoting women's football is no good to anyone. Show initiative is what is needed. 

Having at least one double header game in O'Moore Park, where the Laois LGFA could do a big promotional push on the game, bringing in juveniles from the different clubs should be supported. Laois LGFA need to build on the momentum and excitement gained from last year's All-ireland success. After last weekend's result it is evident to see we are a long way of the pace at senior level. We may not get to experience the success of 2022 again for the foreseeable future so it is important to strike now while the iron is out so to speak and keep promoting the women's game within the county. We were once a powerhouse of women's football. It is important that Laois LGFA are supported in trying to climb the ladder again to the top table of women's football.   

I'm not sure why Sligo had expectations of beating Laois today. Even the bookies had them as favourites today. They have been really really poor the last number of years. I think they got caught up in the hype of winning an U20 title in Connaught and riding the wave of a lucky draw in the Tailteann Cup last year. If memory serves me correctly they fluked a win over New York and beat Leitrim on penalties before giving a spirited performance losing to Cavan in a semi-final. Laois should be beating a team of the stature of Sligo by at least 5/6 points which they ultimately did. It was a case of job done today. Winter conditions (and I mean no offence by this) suit a pairing like Lilis and Finn. It is when you hit the firmer pitches of the summer and the pace of games really intensifies that will be the test of them. However, it is a good start. I'd like to see players like Burke of Crettyard get game time in the league. the reality is Finn and Lillis in their 30s and its asking a lot of them to keep going for a full 70 minutes in the big games later in the year. Having players with youth, speed and athleticism to come on with 10/15 minutes to go in the heat of battle in a Tailteann Cup knock out game could prove crucial to our chances this year. With Wexford not overly impressive in their game this weekend I expect Laois to go two wins from two next week.

Perhaps establish a proper coaching committee or even better two coaching committees, one for hurling and one for football. Commit a serious portion of our surplus money from the last couple of years to these committees and with the right people there you will see results. People are more inclined to get involved when they know others-and especially good people- will be involved too. It is too much to ask one person to spearhead a role like this, especially with our county spread across hurling and football. I wouldn't blame anyone for passing over this position on the county board in its current guise. All you will get is grief, apathy and eventual disillusionment. Why would you put yourself through that.

I'll see you there.

https://am.ticketmaster.com/gaa/23MP2901

Seeing Bray Emmets lame the Leinster Intermediate title today highlights what an opportunity Abbeyleix failed to capitalise on this year. Chance of Al-Ireland success in Croker was there for them this year and they really left it behind. Fair play to Bray Emmets on their success. Great to see clubs/counties outside of the traditional hurling elite winning titles at provincial level.

You only have to look at the Laois intermediate championship to see that he was on a par if not ahead of other forwards on the county panel these last few years. If Ross was 22 and playing and scoring the way he did in this year's intermediate championship there would huge call out for him to be in with the panel for the coming year. This argument that Ross should have stepped away from Laois panel years ago is ridiculous. You pick the best players possible that are available to you and he definitely fell into that category. It was up to the younger players to step up to mark and dislodge Ross from the panel. In fairness, Mark Barry to take one example took his opportunity and was rewarded with a starting place for the county. Ross was not stopping anyone who was genuinely good enough from playing for Laois. I would suggest getting to train alongside the likes of Munnelly and seeing his dedication and professionalism could only be a good thing for the development of younger players. I'd have no problem seeing him return to the panel in 2023 if he still has the time and hunger for it. If he decides to call it a day it he has served Laois football exceptionally and will deserve all the platitudes that will no doubt come his way.

Kilmacud had their homework done on Portarlington. Got their match ups right and the lighter Port forwards was physically dominated by their markers. It's a fair point made-Port players physically fit and strong enough for Laois club football but its a different ball game playing Kilmacud who would pretty much match up to any county team in terms of their physicality and conditioning. People were optimistic that Port were timing their run this season but getting the rub of the green against Ballyroan-Abbey, Portlaoise and a Castletown team who were minus Ben Brosnan on the day was probably an indication of where they were at really. Still though winning three county titles in a row is no easy feat and that Kilmacud team I reckon will win the All-Ireland title this year. No shame losing out to a side of their calibre.   

It also re emphasises the need to revamp our intermediate championship. Sending our 17th rank team to compete isn't doing us any favours in the Leinster intermediate championship.

Had the Harps been relegated it would have been a set back to them but sometimes going down a level, especially with a young team can be beneficial. Gaining adult hurling championship experience and winning games would create a positively that can be carried into the following year. A team like the Harps could win a county premier intermediate title and give Leinster and possibly even an All-Ireland title a right rattle. I said this 12 months ago about Abbeyleix and it appears that there is a good buzz around the team this year with their young players really progressing they hopefully they will challenge for Leinster this year.  Would expect them to challenge one or two teams in senior championship next year.

A lot of the Harps underage success of the last 5-10 years you could argue has been built on quantity of good players as opposed to maybe been driven by 2/3 exceptional players on any of those successful teams.  Therefore a lot of those lads stepping up to senior are not necessarily going to improve or add greatly to their senior team. What you need from your underage teams are one or two 'exceptional' players coming through every year that will go straight in and improve the senior team that is currently there. A lot of what the Harps have brought through are of a similar standard to what is maybe already there-hence they don't appear necessarily to be making any improvement despite their great efforts. 


I admire what the Harps are doing-they get great numbers and keep their players interested and involved. It will hopefully pay off for them if they continue on the path that they are.

Agreed . Was at a league match late summer over there. Lot of really good work been done at Park/Timahoe from underage upwards .

PRT are making slow but steady progress
Beaten in Junior A Final
Beaten in Junior c Final

At underage
Beaten in u13 A1 final
In u15 A1 final
In minor B final

They need to push on to intermediate in the next year or 2 but they have a steady stream of young lads coming in

The Harps are a head scratcher

Why the best juvenile club of the last 5-10 years can't translate it's success at juvenile into being at least a permanent fixture at senior

Congratulations to C/B they have shown the way,they are now enjoying the fruits of 20 years of hard labour