Messages

Truth be told, the game was effectively over as a contest once the red was dished out so early on. Once Offaly learned to push up on the Laois kick-out with the benefit of the extra man, they forced the errors and reaped the rewards.

I wouldn't be too critical of anyone involved given we played over 50 mins a man short, but some of our forwards do have a tendency to drift in and out of games in a worrying fashion. Personally, touching on what some other commenters have alluded to, I think Rioghan in particular and Niall Dunne should be in from the start the next day along with Shaun Fitz in the half forward line. I don't think we'd necessarily lose much defensively with that combination either, but you'd have three forwards well capable of scoring who are also used to doing the grunt work. Kevin Swayne could potentially then drop back to midfield with Conor Heffernan or Damon if back fit. Just a hypothesis but something I'd like to see given a chance. We also have Sean O'Flynn not getting minutes which is odd because he's always flying in the club championships and can double as a sticky man marker as well a lad who carries ball mightily well.

In reality, there's no real harm done from losing this so I wouldn't be sounding the panic button or being snide towards any of the players involved. It was a bad day, we take our licks and move on. Offaly will go to Croke Park and ship a 20 point beating from the Dubs. To be honest, given our performance against them last year I think we're doing well avoiding any more psychological damage a beating like that could do to us.

I'll shoot from the hip a bit here, definitely not the right moment but here goes anyways.

I think one of the big reasons behind our demise in recent years is Portlaoise and how we don't take advantage of what we have.

Gaelic football is dead in the town. People are completely apathetic to gaelic football there nowadays. The fact that there is no club actually in the town itself is definitely a contributing factor. A strategic review was carried out in 2017 outlining the requirement for a second juvenile club for Portlaoise. Has this been acted on since? This is an absolute necessity IMO, especially given how the Portlaoise club have not traditionally recruited around the Knockmay/Portlaoise College area of town. Adding a club there in that area alone would increase our footballing population by around 10k I'd say, maybe more given how quickly the town has grown? It's unwise for a small county like Laois not to use fully what we have at our disposal.

Change starts from the bottom up.

As hurtful as the situation is, some of the comments I see under Laois Today Facebook posts and Laois GAA's posts on Twitter are completely counter productive. Can't believe some people would actually put their name to what they're saying. Absolute cretins.

Say what you will about todays performance and the lads involved with that team, but they were the ones that stuck their hands up in January and wanted to play for Laois. Some of them, naturally, won't be involved going forward. If this was Mark Timmons' last game for Laois then that's a real shame - absolute warrior who would've made it on any Laois team.

As for the game itself, well Down did what Limerick probably ought to have done last week and scored a ton of goals. It was clear to anyone watching last week that we were far too open and soft in the centre and we ultimately paid a heavy price for that today.

Head says Down. Heart says Laois. If we're still in it with 20 minutes to go, I'm backing our bench to come in and pull us over the line. Give em hell lads!

Beating Fermanagh and Limerick away is damn good going given that both of those sides were among the favourites for this tournament and given that both have been playing at a much higher level than ourselves this year. I would say that those two performances are better than anything we've produced since our league performance prior to the Covid restrictions in 2020.

I'm curious Green and Gold why you or anyone else would be dismissive of that?

Billy deserves a ton of credit. Got all the big calls right today. I'll hold my hands up and say I was far too reactionary personally after the London game and certainly shared some opinions I'd have been far better off keeping to myself. Fair play to everyone involved, you've done far more for this county than keyboard warriors like myself at times ever could.

Stupid question, probably, but do members of the CB read this forum? Are they aware of the low esteem they are held in? Do they care? Are they worried about the state of the games in the county? Do they have a plan / a vision? What is their motivation for being on the CB?

These are just a few of the questions I'd like someone (e.g. a local journalist) to pose to the CB on our behalf

I dont pay to listen to Laois Today podcasts, but I would happily pay to listen to a podcast where the chairman of the CB was challenged on issues such as the above.

I genuinely believe Laois Today provide a great service, which incidentally we're lucky to have comparative to other small counties, but they rest their whole structure on a friendly relationship with players and officials in this county to the detriment of anything beyond a fairly superficial analysis of events. Every player involved on the club scene is a great lad, every club official is a great official... you'd get very little sense that things are actually cracking behind the scenes listening to Laois Today.

They probably don't see it in their interest to be more critical of the state of affairs in this county because they don't want to upset anyone. And they're probably right to a certain extent. Everyone involved is just an ordinary, decent person. I genuinely believe the people involved within the squad right up to the county board level care do about Laois, I just think they're just falling short on practically every front in terms of delivering a cohesive project.

It's quite remarkable that we've had four games in this competition and we've yet to win a single one.

Best to just cut the bandage off now and give Billy the boot. He's grossly out of his depth and completely and utterly clueless. I was actually optimistic for his appointment last year and after watching our good O'Byrne Cup run in early 2022 but giving him a second year on the back of a dismal relegation and a shitshow of a championship was an incredibly lazy decision to say the least. Watching this continue into this year is just painful and sad to watch. The apathy this football has generated among supporters is a rotten contagion.

If the CB had any sense they'd be looking for someone to step in immediately and prepare the lads for the next game.  The hopeless optimist in me would want to see Sugrue return or even someone like Eddie Kinsella from Courtwood who'd have worked with a lot of the lads at U20 to come in, although I highly doubt they'd be interested and I imagine regardless what happens Sheehan will lead us into the next game.

Maybe it's for the better. I highly doubt we'd win next time out anyways.

I must have watched this back at least 10 times now. Can anyone explain what the penalty is for here?

https://twitter.com/officialgaa/status/1657408006567481346?s=46&t=Ancne6dv6V-4IoF20RwI7w

Tough playing against 16 men here

Hopefully we actually have something resembling a defensive plan for Saturday, although I wouldn't hold my breath. We need to stick as tight as possible for the first half, not go foolhardy like last time and get blown out of the water after 4 minutes.

Why Billy persists with the same modus operandi every time is a bit strange to see the least. Personally, I would like to see a few positional switches, namely Rob Piggott and Paddy O'Sullivan in particular back in the half back line, where they play at club level. Sean O'Flynn's best qualities are the stickiness of his defending. I get he offers some pace and occasional surging runs from deep, but he doesn't offer much of a shooting threat. I don't see why he couldn't be tried in at full back given we leak goals like a veteran ship taking water.

Not sure Damon Larkin's best position is midfield either. Ciaran Burke was one of the best midfielders in the county last year and can't get a look in! Just a bit of experimentation Billy, that's all I ask. Not like we've anything to lose at this point anyways.

I don't buy the "Laois don't have enough players of county standard" argument. We certainly do. Realistically, once you get to the very lower end of Division 2 you can cast a blanket over teams in terms of quality. I refuse to believe that Laois have inherently worse players than the likes of Westmeath, Limerick or Longford nor would I be surprised were Laois to go out and beat the likes of those teams in the Tailteann cup later this year. The level we operate at is as good as it'll probably ever be unless we become really ambitious over night and get our house properly in order. Until that day comes, we'll continue to oscillate between the lower divisions. That's it.

You can't lose to Leitrim and Wicklow and expect to be promoted. Division 4 is very much our level unfortunately and the sooner Billy walks the better. Also, are we the only Division 3/4 county with a 16 team senior championship? For such a poor standard of football internally in Laois we sure do have grand notions about ourselves. Our senior and underage structures are breeding mediocrity. We're not where we are by accident.

Port very lucky to get out of that one alive. So many players didn't turn up for them today and they only really got momentum together when the young lad from Portlaoise got a black card. Very, very lucky but they're coming out on the right side of a few battles this year which is a good sign. Some of the shooting from both sides was horrendous, particularly in the first half with Murphy and Cahillane missing some very scorable frees.

Thought O'Dempseys looked very good earlier, Mark Barry in particular was roasting a notorious tight man marker in Collins during the first half and looked a class above every other player on the pitch. Ultimately a lack of depth cost Courtwood in the end but they can be very proud of their year given their absentees. Felt Mulhare made a few odd decisions but nothing that changed the overall result so nothing worth complaining about really for either side.

It'll be a right final between two evenly enough matched sides based on what we've seen so far this year and given the rivalry between them. Port should have enough but I wouldn't be surprised if O'Ds did it.

Arles Kileen are nailed on to get relegated, they're a Junior team in every sense but in name.

90% of their team against Port the other evening were over the age of 34/35 and even age aside, the majority were nowhere near mobile/fit enough to be playing Senior. There are very dark times ahead for that club, Kilcruise to their credit have a crop of about 10-15 young lads between Inter/Junior B so they'll be fine long term you'd imagine.

Its hard to see anyone that will topple Port this year anyway, opposition aside the other evening the pace that they attack at is brilliant and how they transition to defend when out of possession shows huge hunger and fitness levels.

Not sure it's as nailed on that Killeen get relegated as you say. They will no doubt go down at some stage over the next few years, but the two Kingston's might just be good enough to help them beat a Rosenallis/Ballylinan/Killeshin/Park. They only need one win.

I tend to agree with the take that they might well be ok. Killeen always seem to dig a win from somewhere and there are quite a few teams of similar calibre. Correct me if I'm wrong but they'll have their suspended lads back after Round 2? You'd have to respect the commitment from their players but the whole setup is madness. If your team is essentially relying on two really good forwards propped up by 13 lads with an average age of 35 and one or two sub options then you don't have a viable club.