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Allianz FL Division 3 Fixtures

Round 1
Saturday 4 February - Laois v Louth
Sunday 5 February - Longford v Offaly, Sligo v Armagh, Tipperary v Antrim

Round 2
Saturday 11 February - Armagh v Laois
Sunday 12 February - Louth v Longford, Offaly v Antrim, Tipperary v Sligo

Round 3
Saturday 25 February - Laois v Tipperary
Sunday 26 February - Antrim v Sligo, Longford v Armagh, Offaly v Louth

Round 4
Sunday 5 March - Armagh v Offaly, Louth v Antrim, Sligo v Laois, Tipperary v Longford

Round 5
Sunday 19 March - Longford v Sligo, Louth v Armagh, Offaly v Tipperary, Antrim v Laois

Round 6
Saturday 25 March - Armagh v Antrim, Laois v Longford
Sunday 26 March - Sligo v Offaly, Tipperary v Louth

Round 7
Sunday 2 April - Armagh v Tipperary, Louth v Sligo, Offaly v Laois, Antrim v Longford

Honestly think we'll struggle to get promotion in this.
Not even a manager in place on 14th September. Crazy.

so long as we don't get relegated........

Quote from: Dave like the tv channel on September 15, 2016, 10:47:24 AM
so long as we don't get relegated........

True. Win in the first game badly needed - games 2 and 3 are difficult.

have laois only 3 home matches in the league...

It's going to be three or four. One year Cork fecked up over something and Laois got that game at home. We ended up with five home matches that year.

Any manager with ambition and know how should be looking to get promoted here. Tipperary are the only side that are better than us. A manager like Lillis would come in expecting to be relegated and then doing enough work to get relegated. Let's NOT get that kind of manager, whatever we do.

Quote from: Tony on September 19, 2016, 12:11:30 PM
Any manager with ambition and know how should be looking to get promoted here. Tipperary are the only side that are better than us. A manager like Lillis would come in expecting to be relegated and then doing enough work to get relegated. Let's NOT get that kind of manager, whatever we do.

Its not a manager issue laois have its a attitude issue particularly with supporters, division 2/3 is the standard that we have been at for most of our history, yet there are some who think we should be challenging dublin for all irelands, the fact is that we have basically 2 players who couldstart for mayo/kerry/dublin, one of whom is playing hurling.

The reality is that the players coming through arent as good as the ones retiring

Totally agree with you Ballyroan abbey

Quote from: Ballyroan Abbey on September 19, 2016, 01:49:35 PM

Quote from: Tony on September 19, 2016, 12:11:30 PM
Any manager with ambition and know how should be looking to get promoted here. Tipperary are the only side that are better than us. A manager like Lillis would come in expecting to be relegated and then doing enough work to get relegated. Let's NOT get that kind of manager, whatever we do.

Its not a manager issue laois have its a attitude issue particularly with supporters, division 2/3 is the standard that we have been at for most of our history, yet there are some who think we should be challenging dublin for all irelands,

Ah would ya ever pipe down, nobody's saying we should be anywhere near Dublin  ::)  ::). I don't care about our history : this current crop of players can do a whole lot better. Of course not Dublin standard but we can be the 2nd team in leinster / 4th round / A.I. 1/4 final level. I don't see any point in your "oh we're always division 2/3 - better get comfortable" attitude - why not set the ambition a bit higher in fairness. Back to Division 2 and a Leinster final (if Dublin are not on our side of draw) should be a REALISTIC target for 2017 for whoever gets the job. If he doesn't have that target - what's the point - might as well get the local parish priest in charge.

2nd best team in leinster, Really? I would say forth maybe 5th,
Meath, Kildare and Westmeath are better than us and they arent exactly pulling up trees, since our last leinster final in 07 we were beaten in leinster by wexford handy enough in a semi final in 08, hammered by kildare in 09,hammered by meath in 10, beat by longford in 12, hammered at home by louth in 13 hammered by kildare last year in a replay.
Thats results over 5 managers, it cant always be the the manager.

And the one time we were getting to last 8/12 the man was hated by the supporters because of the way we played, despite the facts we were getting the results you wanted.

Basically laois supporter are probably the worst in country in termz of actually going to support the teams and inflated expectation.

We are still waiting for the 03/04/05 minor teams to come good and have the same expectations we had in 03, and its not going to happen, those lads are between 28 and 31 now.

Would i like to see us where gou want us ti be? Of course, but like i said before the players arent there, havnt been for a while now, as long as they are doing their best and try and make the most of their ability that'll be enough for me. But unfortuntely for some people they'll allways demand more, no matter how well things are going

Well said Ballyroan, hard to admit but unfortunately true at this moment and obviously that's the way potential managers are looking at us, they're not exactly falling over themselves trying to get the job...

I clearly didn't say we're the 2nd best team in Leinster, I said that should be our aim: promotion ; leinster final.

Quote from: Ballyroan Abbey on September 19, 2016, 01:49:35 PM

Quote from: Tony on September 19, 2016, 12:11:30 PM
Any manager with ambition and know how should be looking to get promoted here. Tipperary are the only side that are better than us. A manager like Lillis would come in expecting to be relegated and then doing enough work to get relegated. Let's NOT get that kind of manager, whatever we do.

Its not a manager issue laois have its a attitude issue particularly with supporters, division 2/3 is the standard that we have been at for most of our history, yet there are some who think we should be challenging dublin for all irelands, the fact is that we have basically 2 players who couldstart for mayo/kerry/dublin, one of whom is playing hurling.

The reality is that the players coming through arent as good as the ones retiring

Agree. We been spoiled because were a Division1 side for a lot of the 90s and 00s. As a county, we were punching above our weight during that period. Based on population alone, we are in tier3 and allowing for 1/3 of the county who don't kick ball.........?

We're not like Galway, Cork, Dublin etc who have massive population bases. We must learn to know our level. Div3 is a tad too low for me, but we should be competing in Div1.

Quote from: Dave like the tv channel on September 20, 2016, 08:37:30 AM
We're not like Galway, Cork, Dublin etc who have massive population bases. We must learn to know our level. Div3 is a tad too low for me, but we should be competing in Div1.

Completely contradictory statement there.  :P :P . I wonder have people even eaten their breakfast before posting, seem half asleep.

Surely people can agree that we should be aiming for promotion in division 3 with the likes of Louth, offaly, antrim and armagh (a team we beat 3 times last year).

I don't get what the opposition to that is - we have the potential to be promoted, clearly, and we should be aiming to better ourselves and get back to div 2.

As for the Leinster - if we're on the right side of the draw without Dublin, we should aim to beat what's there and try to get to the final. Even if it's Westmeath, kildare or meath - we should aim to beat them. We have the potential to do that. That's my point.

Between '94  and '07 we won 13 Leinster and All Ireland at u21 and Minor grade.
Between '07 and '16 we have won  none  zero.
What has happened has our talent production system  suddenly  dried up completely  ???
Does anyone know why this has happened ??
Is anyone at CB level trying to figure out what has happened .... are they even interested  ??

The feeling out there seems to be that what we're producing now are not good enough and that we will have to wait until the next golden generation comes hopefully in the next 20 years.  This to me is complete and utter Bollix, I've being watching Laois football for 50 years and each and every year we produce players with enough pace and skill to compete as we did between '94 and '07. Ok some years will be better than others but everyone has that problem.
The difference as I said yesterday on another post, the pace and intensity we play at, the teams I've watched recently and their managers look like they are going through the motions "a sure it'll be aal right  when we get out of first gear"

We need to get back to where we were, set a target to win minor and u21 Al by 2026 we have being there before we know THIS can be done and when we have that done stay at it keep wining minor and u21.
This has to be the priority  now.

When we did have a great crop of players we underachieved big time. The gaps between successful minor teams should have given us longevity as we had new players coming through in 2003/2004 and then again in 2007 to compliment the 3 teams from 96/97/98.

As someone already mentioned it could be 20 or 30 years before we see anything close to that again, if ever.

With smaller counties like us it's cyclical so we are not going to churn out enough top class players every year to compete with the better counties.

Quote from: OTF on September 20, 2016, 10:05:55 AM
Between '94  and '07 we won 13 Leinster and All Ireland at u21 and Minor grade.
Between '07 and '16 we have won  none  zero.
What has happened has our talent production system  suddenly  dried up completely  ???
Does anyone know why this has happened ??

The Celtic Tiger economy. Too many Tiger cubs who couldn't care less about GAA.

As for the Leinster - if we're on the right side of the draw without Dublin, we should aim to beat what's there and try to get to the final. Even if it's Westmeath, kildare or meath - we should aim to beat them. We have the potential to do that. That's my point.


[/quote]

But we dont have the potential, thats the point, and we havent hit the bottom yet, we in laois have a tendency to grossly over estimate the ability of our players, and in the next 4 years its only going to get worse, quigley, timmons, strong, munnelly, cahilane, meaney are all around the 30 + mark.
You said we should be winning an all ireland minor by 2026, we have 2 football GDOs in Laois, most clubs in dublin have more than that, certainly the big ones. I reckon it could take until 2026 for things to improve, it took offaly 10 years to start getting back on track, and that was a county with a much better pedegrie than ours. So ig you think im been overly bleak about Laois football and where we are heading, just look at the recent history of our neighbours above us

I never said we should be winning minors by 2026, that was someone else. Did anyone see our minor team this year or was that just me? There is talent coming through. Once 4-6 players make it through to be good enough for senior in the coming years : that is talent coming through. Good talent, too. Regarding our current senior crop - I personally think that we can do well - Very good keeper in Brody. Timmons, Begley, Strong, Attride - very good backs, we've a solid midfield in JOL and Quigley and most teams would love to have kingston, O Carroll, Walsh, Cahiline as forwards.

Anyway, it's all opinion at the end of day, I just think we have talent to do better and I don't think it's wild to say we can get promoted / do ok in Leinster with a good managerial setup.

Quote from: Dave like the tv channel on September 20, 2016, 11:53:53 AM

Quote from: OTF on September 20, 2016, 10:05:55 AM
Between '94  and '07 we won 13 Leinster and All Ireland at u21 and Minor grade.
Between '07 and '16 we have won  none  zero.
What has happened has our talent production system  suddenly  dried up completely  ???
Does anyone know why this has happened ??

The Celtic Tiger economy. Too many Tiger cubs who couldn't care less about GAA.

Yes I agree with you re the Tiger cubs but every other county has the same problem.
I don't buy into this "good crop" we've always produced good players at this level, ok Dublin, Meath and Kildare because of sheer weight of numbers are going to produce  more and better  players.
Go back to the 60's  two  minor and two  u21, the70's none but produced some of the best players  ever to play for Laois, the 80's two u21 and we know 90's and the 00's
My point is, in any  10 year span  we  have produced top underage teams, what happens to them after that is a different matter.
As others are pointing out there is talent ... of course there's talent there always was and always will be but right now this talent is not being developed /coached anywhere near properly.
We need to go back and talk to those who were in charge 20yrs ago for some sort of guidance as to where we should go from here.

Laois didn't win an u21 AI in that time frame....we have never won at u21 bar a few leinster. ..we did win 3 minor AI during the good years

Quote from: The Monument Road on September 21, 2016, 12:10:40 PM
Laois didn't win an u21 AI in that time frame....we have never won at u21 bar a few leinster. ..we did win 3 minor AI during the good years

Really we all know that... 

Quote from: OTF on September 20, 2016, 10:05:55 AM
Between '94  and '07 we won 13 Leinster and All Ireland at u21 and Minor grade.

first line of yor post OTF  ???

Quote from: OTF on September 21, 2016, 12:51:16 PM

Quote from: The Monument Road on September 21, 2016, 12:10:40 PM
Laois didn't win an u21 AI in that time frame....we have never won at u21 bar a few leinster. ..we did win 3 minor AI during the good years

Really we all know that...

if you did know, why did you write that they won u21  ???

Having followed Laois for the past 30 odd years I have come to the conclusion that it is the "culture" at adult level that is preventing us from achieving at the highest level. We always go on about underage (recently the lack off!) as been the be all and end off, however if the culture and set up at senior level isn't right it doesn't matter if we win ten all- Ireland's or none! Id rather be winning as this is a good habit but we shouldn't despair if we aren't. I'd like to see standards raised from 18-24 rather than look at a minor year in isolation.  If we are honest only for Micko the "Golden Generation" of Laois footballers would have been lost. Looking at it at a more deeper level (Why Micko was a success and others not) and ask yourself why was this ? I have come to the conclusion that he brought a "Professional Culture" to the plate  1) Fitness levels increased 2) Best Players played 3) He developed and improved players 4) Gave players belief and 5) he united the county.

People seem to think that it was easy for Micko to do this on the back of three All-Ireland minor appearances however I believe that he would have done the same thing with the Laois teams of 1991-1997 that didn't have any minor success and I would argue that the 1990s team was actually more skillful and physically stronger team than the one that won Leinster.

McNulty tried to impose a "Culture" and was relatively successful.

So that the point I am making is that its not all doom and gloom.We are producing players of a decent standard however our Culture post minor is weak, what I mean with culture is that there is an ambition among players and teams to improve their skill and fitness levels post minor. I get the impression that some seem to think what once they get past minor all they have to do is keep somewhat fit and hey presto they can play football. The adult structures in laois and the attitude towards the league doesnt help. Take Sean Moore in Ballyfin, his club pulls out of league and only plays championship matches, prob only gets 3/4 matches this year. How is he supposed to develop as a footballer physically and mentally?

What annoys me is the arguments that are consistently put forward such as 1) Population 2) Money and 3) Lack of full time coaches 4) small county we should know our place in the GAA world  as barriers to success. Yes the first three would help the cause however rather than feeling sorry for ourselves we should be a little more proactive which wouldn't cost any money such as

1) More Juvenille and Adult games throughout the year. Make the league as important as championship 12/14 games min for every club.

2) Designated Nights for different age groups eg u8 + U12 Hurling/football monday nights (Ever second week)
                                                                              u10-U14  Hurling/football Thursday nights
County Development Night (Wednesdays)

3) Up skill all club coaches and make clubs implement a development plan  more training courses get in guest coaches.

4) Do what Kildare have done and enter a team in Leinster junior championship as a developmental under 23 team.

None of the above need full time coaches or money but organisation.  Its not exactly rocket science but we in Laois seem to think it is.

Quote from: beano on September 21, 2016, 10:25:02 PM
Having followed Laois for the past 30 odd years I have come to the conclusion that it is the "culture" at adult level that is preventing us from achieving at the highest level. We always go on about underage (recently the lack off!) as been the be all and end off, however if the culture and set up at senior level isn't right it doesn't matter if we win ten all- Ireland's or none! Id rather be winning as this is a good habit but we shouldn't despair if we aren't. I'd like to see standards raised from 18-24 rather than look at a minor year in isolation.  If we are honest only for Micko the "Golden Generation" of Laois footballers would have been lost. Looking at it at a more deeper level (Why Micko was a success and others not) and ask yourself why was this ? I have come to the conclusion that he brought a "Professional Culture" to the plate  1) Fitness levels increased 2) Best Players played 3) He developed and improved players 4) Gave players belief and 5) he united the county.

People seem to think that it was easy for Micko to do this on the back of three All-Ireland minor appearances however I believe that he would have done the same thing with the Laois teams of 1991-1997 that didn't have any minor success and I would argue that the 1990s team was actually more skillful and physically stronger team than the one that won Leinster.

McNulty tried to impose a "Culture" and was relatively successful.

So that the point I am making is that its not all doom and gloom.We are producing players of a decent standard however our Culture post minor is weak, what I mean with culture is that there is an ambition among players and teams to improve their skill and fitness levels post minor. I get the impression that some seem to think what once they get past minor all they have to do is keep somewhat fit and hey presto they can play football. The adult structures in laois and the attitude towards the league doesnt help. Take Sean Moore in Ballyfin, his club pulls out of league and only plays championship matches, prob only gets 3/4 matches this year. How is he supposed to develop as a footballer physically and mentally?

What annoys me is the arguments that are consistently put forward such as 1) Population 2) Money and 3) Lack of full time coaches 4) small county we should know our place in the GAA world  as barriers to success. Yes the first three would help the cause however rather than feeling sorry for ourselves we should be a little more proactive which wouldn't cost any money such as

1) More Juvenille and Adult games throughout the year. Make the league as important as championship 12/14 games min for every club.

2) Designated Nights for different age groups eg u8 + U12 Hurling/football monday nights (Ever second week)
                                                                              u10-U14  Hurling/football Thursday nights
County Development Night (Wednesdays)

3) Up skill all club coaches and make clubs implement a development plan  more training courses get in guest coaches.

4) Do what Kildare have done and enter a team in Leinster junior championship as a developmental under 23 team.

None of the above need full time coaches or money but organisation.  Its not exactly rocket science but we in Laois seem to think it is.

I like your points 1 and 4. We need a junior team. And there simply aren't enough club games.

With regards to the league, the system at the moment is a disaster especially in the lower leagues where there are endless walkovers, id rather they went with the same format as the hurling and have divisions of 8 and forget home and away and this a and b shite.
We played a league semi after finishing 2nd in 1b and were hammered by the heath in the semi, same thing happened in the other semi, same thing happened in the division 2 and 3 finals, there was i believe 58 teams entered in the league, have 6 divisions of 8 and the bottom division have 2 groups of 5 based on location because teams do find it hard to get teams for junior c league.
Id much rather have 7 very competitive league matches than very lacklusture efforts or endless walkovers

Quote from: Ballyroan Abbey on September 23, 2016, 09:58:47 PM
With regards to the league, the system at the moment is a disaster especially in the lower leagues where there are endless walkovers, id rather they went with the same format as the hurling and have divisions of 8 and forget home and away and this a and b shite.
We played a league semi after finishing 2nd in 1b and were hammered by the heath in the semi, same thing happened in the other semi, same thing happened in the division 2 and 3 finals, there was i believe 58 teams entered in the league, have 6 divisions of 8 and the bottom division have 2 groups of 5 based on location because teams do find it hard to get teams for junior c league.
Id much rather have 7 very competitive league matches than very lacklusture efforts or endless walkovers

+1

eir Sport announces expanded Allianz Leagues coverage
http://www.hoganstand.com/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=265422 (http://www.hoganstand.com/ArticleForm.aspx?ID=265422)

Some great coverage by eir Sport..

04/02/17: Mayo v Monaghan (F)
04/02/17: Down v Fermanagh (F)
04/02/17: Laois v Louth (F)

11/02/17: Dublin v Tipperary (H)
11/02/17: Cork v Clare (H)
11/02/17: Dublin v Tyrone (F)
11/02/17: Kerry v Mayo (F)

18/02/17: Cork v Dublin (H)
18/02/17: Laois v Offaly (H)

25/02/17: Mayo v Roscommon (F)
25/02/17: Laois v Tipperary (F)
25/02/17: Down v Meath (F)

04/03/17: Dublin v Waterford (H)
04/03/17: Cavan v Donegal (F)
04/03/17: Dublin v Mayo (F)
04/03/17: Tyrone v Monaghan (F)

11/03/17: Tipperary v Kilkenny (H)
11/03/17: Laois v Limerick (H)

18/03/17: Kerry v Dublin (F)
18/03/17: Donegal v Tyrone (F)
18/03/17: Down v Kildare (F)

25/03/17: Dublin v Roscommon (F)
25/03/17: Laois v Longford (F)


Some on TG4 too....

Saturday 4 February
AIB All-Ireland Senior Club Hurling Championship Semi-Final
St Thomas' (Galway)  v  Ballyea (Clare), Live from Semple Stadium, Thurles (5pm)

Sunday 5 February
Allianz Football League – Round 1
Live:  Cavan v Dublin, Kingspan Breffni Park, Cavan
Deferred:  Donegal v Kerry, O'Donnell Park, Letterkenny

Saturday 11 February
AIB All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship Semi-Finals
Slaughtneil (Derry) v St Vincents (Dublin), Páirc Esler, Newry (2pm)
Corofin (Galway) v Dr. Crokes (Kerry), Gaelic Grounds, Limerick (4pm)

Sunday 12 February
Live: Kilkenny v Waterford, Nowlan Park, Kilkenny (Allianz Hurling League – Round 1)
Deferred: Roscommon v Donegal, Dr.Hyde Park, Roscommon (Allianz Football League – Round 2)

Saturday 18 February
Independent.ie Sigerson Cup Final  -  Live from the Connacht GAA Centre, Mayo

Sunday 19 February
Allianz Hurling League – Round 2
Live:  Waterford v Tipperary, Walsh Park, Waterford
Deferred: Clare v Kilkenny, Cusack Park, Ennis

Saturday 25 February
Independent.ie Fitzgibbon Cup Final, Live from Pearse Stadium, Galway (1:00pm, hosted by NUIG)
AIB All-Ireland Senior Club Hurling Championship Semi-Final  -  Cuala (Dublin) v Slaughtneil (Derry), Athletic Grounds, Armagh (3pm)

Sunday 26 February
Allianz Football League – Round 3  (Live match and deferred match)

Sunday 5th March
Allianz Football League – Round 4 and Allianz Hurling League – Round 3  (Live match and deferred match)

Friday 10 March
Gradaim an Uachtaráin (GAA President Awards), Live from Croke Park at 7:30pm

Sunday 12 March
Allianz Hurling League (Round 4)  -  Live match and deferred match
Live coverage of the O'Connor Cup Final from Elverys McHale Park, Castlebar

Friday 17 March
AIB All-Ireland Senior Club Hurling and Football Championship Finals, Live from Croke Park

Sunday 19 March
Allianz Football League (Round 5)  -  Live match and deferred match

Sunday 26 March
Allianz Football League (Round 6) and Allianz Hurling League (Round 5) - Live match and deferred match

Sunday 2 April
Allianz Football League (Round 7)  and  Allianz Hurling League Quarter Finals  (Live match and deferred match)

Saturday 8 April
Allianz Football League Finals – Division 3 & 4 Finals

Sunday 9 April
Allianz Football League Finals – Division 1 & 2 Finals

Saturday 15 April
All-Ireland U21 Football Championship Semi Finals

Sunday 16 April
Allianz Hurling League – Semi Finals

Sunday 23 April
Littlewoods Ireland Camogie League Final
Allianz Hurling League Final

Saturday 29 April
All-Ireland U21 Football Final

Sunday 30 April
Lidl Ladies Football Division 3 and 4 League Finals

Sunday 7 May
Lidl Ladies Football Division 1 and 2 League Finals

Quote from: beano on September 21, 2016, 10:25:02 PM


4) Do what Kildare have done and enter a team in Leinster junior championship as a developmental under 23 team.

None of the above need full time coaches or money but organisation.  Its not exactly rocket science but we in Laois seem to think it is.

Kildare's recent junior team has only been a token effort since players from senior clubs are no longer allowed to take part (coupled with no money to fund it). Usually 2 or 3 fringe panellists with a collection of whatever club players answer a call to turn up. The year before last a minor player from my club played for Kildare juniors but didn't make the county minor panel.
In McGeeney's years it was useful though and unearthed a couple of players.

Laois getting good coverage from Eir. Will pubs that have  sky be able to show these games?

Laois well beaten by Clare to nite I hear any reports????

Where did they play Clare? Did they play a match during the week too?

Score? Team lineup ?

A must win game against Louth this Saturday. Dont care how its done.

Armagh away will be very tricky as will Tipperary at home in round 3.

I hear Johnno is out for at least 6 weeks. A very big loss.

Looks like Donie is out for Saturday. The Laois midfield pairing should be interesting .

Quote from: les Antiques on February 01, 2017, 10:01:35 AM
Looks like Donie is out for Saturday. The Laois midfield pairing should be interesting .

Peter O Leary played midfield once for Laois. Scored 1-1. You don't need to be a skyscraper to survive there, we've just gotten used to having them.

Peter O'Leary was an experienced campaigner when he played midfield for us in the O'Byrne Cup as did Billy Sheehan and a few more .  Your right in saying you don't need to be a skyscraper to survive there but there seems to a distinct lack of options around the middle compared to previous Laois panels .

Quote from: les Antiques on February 01, 2017, 10:21:47 AM
Peter O'Leary was an experienced campaigner when he played midfield for us in the O'Byrne Cup as did Billy Sheehan and a few more .  Your right in saying you don't need to be a skyscraper to survive there but there seems to a distinct lack of options around the middle compared to previous Laois panels .

Darren Strong would do a job midfield. As would and has Colm Begley. Stephen Attride would put in a shift too. Sean Ram could put in 35 minutes there. Lillis would operate there, as would Alan Farrell. Small bit of shuffling of the pack. We're well used to that at this stage. We've been spoiled at midfield for a bit now.

Aside from who could play at midfield losing both O'Loughlin and Donie for this game is a worry. Donie in particular has been flying. Who is going to put up the type of score that Donie has been hitting.

Robbing Peter to Paul scenario regarding Strong and Attride ,but yes shuffling the pack is what we will have too do . Begley been the best option perhaps . Gary Walsh maybe who has played there recently .
Hopefully Paul Kingston can step up to the mark in Donies absence .

Donie's a loss, but perhaps without him there as the focus, a few others will get a bit more possession. Walsh is a good scoregetter, and thrives on a bit of responsibility, Ruairi has been going well lately, Paul might fire a bit out of Donie's shadow, and of course, there's always Moore.

Would agree with Don on this. I think a little more mobility in this area might not be a bad thing at all. I remember that game in Carlow where Peter O Leary scored 1-1 or 1-2 from midfield and was surprised that the experiment wasn't extended a bit. Begley has always been a very sound midfielder in my opinion.

Yeah Begley has always looked comfortable at centre field .

Quote from: Don Draper on February 01, 2017, 10:47:52 AM
Donie's a loss, but perhaps without him there as the focus, a few others will get a bit more possession. Walsh is a good scoregetter, and thrives on a bit of responsibility, Ruairi has been going well lately, Paul might fire a bit out of Donie's shadow, and of course, there's always Moore.

Moore is injured I heard?

Begley is the only option in my opinion.There is Strong Walsh and maybe James finn who could do a job but Begley would be my choice!

Donie and Johno are big big losses...Take Timmons and Quigley and its nearly the spine of the team missing

Time for others to step up to the mark...

Massive game thats nearly a must win.

Isn't Finn still out injured ?

Yeah must win Saturday , Division 3 can get very messy . Offaly ,Longford ,Tipp and Armagh will all fancy beating Laois .

Quote from: les Antiques on February 01, 2017, 02:23:11 PM
Isn't Finn still out injured ?

Yeah must win Saturday , Division 3 can get very messy . Offaly ,Longford ,Tipp and Armagh will all fancy beating Laois .

I'm not sure I know the squad is carrying a nice few knocks he hasn't featured since the DIT game when he came off injured.

Ramsbottom has a knock as well I hear.

Evan O Carroll injured too ? Ive never seen it so bad
Probably  easier to name who isnt injured ..

It seems the whole of the Timahoe contingent are injured, Brendan, Sean Ram, Damien o Connor, Kevin lennon and Ruarie O Connor. Plus the fact that the management dropped 5or 6 from the panel last week it looks like it will be an u21 team that will line out

Something along the lines of ?? G Brody D Strong, D Booth,P .McMahon S Attride, K Lillis,C Begley,K Meaney, A Farrell, C Murphy,P Kingston, G Dillion,D.Conway G.Walsh N Donoher

Not sure who else there is if John O'Loughlin,James Finn,Sean Ramsbottom ,Brendan Quigley,Mark Timmons,Damien'O Connor,Sean Moore,Ruari O'Connor,Donie Kingston,Conor Meredith Ciaran Lennon, Ambrose Doran,and Evan O'Carroll are all injured or not available ?

I know there is Eoin George (m.Mellick) Brian Daly(B.House) Ross Munnelly James Kelly(Joes) Lutrell(Courtwood),Eoin Buggie(Strad),Shane Nerney(O'Dempseys) Mj Tierney Eoin Keogh( M.Mellick-keeper) Jamie Farrell(Ballylinan) are there as well and might be in contention ..I've left out a few I can't think of...Not sure who was cut from the panel last week.

I don't think Tom shield Robbie Kehoe Martin Scully Pauric Mcevoy ,Mark O'Halloran Eoin Lowry or Matthew Campion are involved this year.

Sorry If I left anyone out just hard to think of everyone involved!

Eoin Lowry is back in anyhow after playing O'Byrne with UCD.

Quote from: Unlaoised on February 02, 2017, 11:25:30 AM
Something along the lines of ?? G Brody D Strong, D Booth,P .McMahon S Attride, K Lillis,C Begley,K Meaney, A Farrell, C Murphy,P Kingston, G Dillion,D.Conway G.Walsh N Donoher

Not sure who else there is if John O'Loughlin,James Finn,Sean Ramsbottom ,Brendan Quigley,Mark Timmons,Damien'O Connor,Sean Moore,Ruari O'Connor,Donie Kingston,Conor Meredith Ciaran Lennon, Ambrose Doran,and Evan O'Carroll are all injured or not available ?

I know there is Eoin George (m.Mellick) Brian Daly(B.House) Ross Munnelly James Kelly(Joes) Lutrell(Courtwood),Eoin Buggie(Strad),Shane Nerney(O'Dempseys) Mj Tierney Eoin Keogh( M.Mellick-keeper) Jamie Farrell(Ballylinan) are there as well and might be in contention ..I've left out a few I can't think of...Not sure who was cut from the panel last week.

I don't think Tom shield Robbie Kehoe Martin Scully Pauric Mcevoy ,Mark O'Halloran Eoin Lowry or Matthew Campion are involved this year.

Sorry If I left anyone out just hard to think of everyone involved!

Jamie Farrell was given his walking papers as was Eoin Coss and a few more.
My team would be
G Brody ,James Kelly D Booth,P .McMahon S Attride, K Lillis,D Strong C Begley,K Meaney,  C Murphy Eoin lowery, G Dillion,D.Conway G.Walsh N Donoher

Very Similar to be fair ..... :P

Scully definetly not in there, didnt even start for us last year

MJ Tierney back?

Quote from: Unlaoised on February 02, 2017, 12:12:08 PM
Very Similar to be fair ..... :P

copy, paste with a few changes ;D

Quote from: Butch Cassidy on February 02, 2017, 01:01:36 PM
MJ Tierney back?

Lad from Ballyroan told me last week he was! I don't know for sure haven't seen as much training lately as I used to

If that was the team for the whole league we would be in division 4 by this time next year just sayin I know the main men have to come back

Quote from: Laoiseabu on February 02, 2017, 03:53:11 PM
If that was the team for the whole league we would be in division 4 by this time next year just sayin I know the main men have to come back

We might have to make do with team for a few weeks I'm afraid

I don't think Tom shield Robbie Kehoe Martin Scully Pauric Mcevoy ,Mark O'Halloran Eoin Lowry or Matthew Campion are involved this year.m
No sure if Shane or Nigel Murphy are involved this year.
I would expect Paul Kingston to start if fit.

Is Ambrose Doran available or how many games do you miss after a red card sending off ??

The draw has been unkind to us considering the injuries we have.

We will need lads back as soon as possible because after Louth it's the division favourites Armagh and Tipp in quick succession. If these games go against us we can forget about any chance of going up.

I know it's hard to judge but based on what we saw in the O Byrne Cup, I wouldn't be too pessimistic!

Its hard to see us going up with an injury toll like that.
Hopefully we can blood some young lads and get some back after the tipp match
But by then the chance of promotion might be gone.
I was gonna back them at 11/4 to go up but youd have to fancy tipp and armagh now.
Regardless ill be there on saturday to shout them on

I taught I was seeing things when I saw that team that was announced this evening . I predict a Louth win sorry .

Interesting selection. Strong centrefield with Meaney. Donie at full forward, Lowry Starting.

Meant to say fair play to Courtwood, 2 starters from an intermediate club. Doesn't happen too often.

Quote from: redsetanta on February 02, 2017, 09:39:27 PM
Meant to say fair play to Courtwood, 2 starters from an intermediate club. Doesn't happen too often.

We've had two starters before! As have Timahoe in recent years. Actually I'd say it's possible three timahoe intermediates started for Laois in recent years. Culliton, Clancy and Quigley.
Delighted for Danny Luttrell. A reward for hard work.

Remind me who they were Hesh. I assume it was when George Doyle was togging out.  Fair enough Timahoe have had the reps on the team but they were yoyoing berween senior and inter.

George Doyle and John o connell

Quote from: Heshs Umpire on February 02, 2017, 10:08:23 PM

Quote from: redsetanta on February 02, 2017, 09:39:27 PM
Meant to say fair play to Courtwood, 2 starters from an intermediate club. Doesn't happen too often.

We've had two starters before! As have Timahoe in recent years. Actually I'd say it's possible three timahoe intermediates started for Laois in recent years. Culliton, Clancy and Quigley.
Delighted for Danny Luttrell. A reward for hard work.

Those 3 and O'Connor started v Monaghan in 2012. Well done to Courtwood.

Quote from: redsetanta on February 02, 2017, 10:13:13 PM
Remind me who they were Hesh. I assume it was when George Doyle was togging out.  Fair enough Timahoe have had the reps on the team but they were yoyoing berween senior and inter.

John O'Connell and George Doyle started the 1990(?) Leinster final.
George then would have played numerous times with Fergal Byron who I think would still have been playing when Niall Donoher broke onto the team.

(http://sportlomo-userupload.s3.amazonaws.com/uploaded/galleries/7069_uploaded/1a84adfc662fd83c6df88a0f20a2edd9f14acd16.jpg)


I'm happy enough with that team given the position we find ourselves in regarding injuries etc.
Slight lack of experience maybe but most of these lads will be bustin' a gut to prove themselves on the inter county scene.
Surprising that Gary Walsh is not starting, hope he hasn't fallen out with them again....

Quote from: Junior Ex Laoistalk on February 03, 2017, 01:01:15 AM
(http://sportlomo-userupload.s3.amazonaws.com/uploaded/galleries/7069_uploaded/1a84adfc662fd83c6df88a0f20a2edd9f14acd16.jpg)


I'm happy enough with that team given the position we find ourselves in regarding injuries etc.
Slight lack of experience maybe but most of these lads will be bustin' a gut to prove themselves on the inter county scene.
Surprising that Gary Walsh is not starting, hope he hasn't fallen out with them again....

Would anyone here have come up with that team, are there 5 debutants  ?  looks a very interesting team to say the least.

The very best of luck tomorrow night.

Best of luck to this Laois team ....all these guys have worked hard for it

They just might surprise us

Is Murphy from Crettyard still injured

I would be quietly confident of Laois getting a good result tomorrow, there is a few lads down to play that I think definetly deserve their chance, which I dont think they would have been given if the likes of John had been available.

Surprised that McMahon Lillis and Walsh are not starting ...but I suppose Lillis and McMahon were in late to the table.

Its a very young team and I hope they won't be too light the likes of Luttrell Doran and Kelly have been thrown off the ball all too easy in the games I've seen so far this year.

I wish them the best of luck there is plenty of pace in the team which we haven't have for a while especially in the backs so a running game looks on the cards.

I'll be there to roar them on I hope a good support gets out to cheer these lads on they deserve our support!

In the circumstances its the best we have. ..good to see young lads getting a chance although Doran is in the late 20s age group...

Great to see youth getting a chance and as I said before they will bust a gut to impress management and supporters.
I think this is our game to lose and I'm really looking forward to getting back to watching football again..
Best of luck lads..

Can anyone tell me if the match is being televised? Its not clear from online information for streaming. Thanks.

its on eir sport 1

Thank you.

one of the poorest first 25minutes seen from laois in many a day.

this is division 3 and we are making louth look good.

4 passengers in the front 5, and the two midfielders only contribution was to get booked.

on this evidence with 4 away games to come, we will be relegated.

maybe division 3 will be an exercise in proving what players are up to intercounty or otherwise, doran, luttrell and lowry are in the otherwise category.

Quote from: oneflewoverthecuckoonest on February 04, 2017, 07:44:53 PM
one of the poorest first 25minutes seen from laois in many a day.

this is division 3 and we are making louth look good.

4 passengers in the front 5, and the two midfielders only contribution was to get booked.

on this evidence with 4 away games to come, we will be relegated.

maybe division 3 will be an exercise in proving what players are up to intercounty or otherwise, doran, luttrell and lowry are in the otherwise category.

Didnt take long.

Quote from: oneflewoverthecuckoonest on February 04, 2017, 07:44:53 PM
maybe division 3 will be an exercise in proving what players are up to intercounty or otherwise, doran, luttrell and lowry are in the otherwise category.

Good man - write off the chaps after half a game.
Some of the more experienced players have actually been dreadful tonight.

No plan whatsoever I predicted this result during the week,, where is improvement from mick lilis??????

Just back from omoores park,one of the worst performance in a long time from laois...they had no shape.They were all over the place,where is all this improvement that meant to be from mick lillis..A lot of players i am afraid to say are not up to this standard,god help us when we meet armagh..One thing i want to say if i was kieran lillis i would feel agrieved that he didnt start,,he is a lot better than some of them on that team..i am afraid division 4 is beckoning ,after what i saw to night....

Worst I've ever seen, even allowing for all the injuries. I wouldn't know where to start to be honest. And if I did start, I don't know where I'd finish. There are bad days and then there's something like that. I can't imagine 15 lads who haven't trained succumbing that easily.

Quote from: welcomehome on February 04, 2017, 09:14:13 PM
Just back from omoores park,one of the worst performance in a long time from laois...they had no shape.They were all over the place,where is all this improvement that meant to be from mick lillis..A lot of players i am afraid to say are not up to this standard,god help us when we meet armagh..One thing i want to say if i was kieran lillis i would feel agrieved that he didnt start,,he is a lot better than some of them on that team..i am afraid division 4 is beckoning ,after what i saw to night....

Agree 100%. The most inept performance. No system or plan. It was atrocious. And no disrespect to Louth but they are an average team at best.they were comprehensively outperformed by a third string Dublin side in O'Byrne cup final.
Laois are in big trouble already. Armagh and Tipperary in rounds two and three. Could easily be starring down the barrel...!!

So if that's our investment and the county board is paying these men to train our team should they not be hauled in Monday morning and asked how r why we performed like that???? Any one in the stand could do that job as far as I cud see

Will things ever change,  NO NO NO

They won every one of their kick outs. We didn't know whether to push up or stand off. Did neither and lost every kick out. They knew how to press our kick outs correctly forcing brody to go long and we lost most of those. That gave them a huge platform. Mgmt faults to get something so fundamental so fooking wrong.
They defended on mass and broke at speed. We had no defensive plan.
Louth are a well drilled average team and annihilated us on our home patch.
There's no point going into specific performances the problem was all over. A tactical mess. Want to give creedon time but Worring times.

Just thawed out now baltic up there.

God lads that was terrible ..

Fitness levels poor .

Tactics non existent

Heart lacking

Speed of thought zero

I hate criticising county players when they give up so much but today they deserve it along with the manager .

I hope like after Galway we can respond with a positive result.

Ratings for what its worth

BRODY 7 One the better performers one superb save and decent in setting up attacks

FARRELL 5 Not a corner back poor under the high ball and very loose all night

BOOTH 5 Improved slighly in the second half but bad day for the number 3, gave his man too much room

KELLY 6 Probably best of  a bad bunch in the full back line was on a tricky player and done okay I thought

ATTRIDE 7 Laois's best player ,good energy and tried his best all night bar one slip which nearly cost a goal

BUGGIE 5 Like so many we have tried at number 6 was nowhere near solid enough did try hard to be fair

BEGLEY 6 Was okay in the first half but got frustrated and made poor decisions for someone so experienced

MEANEY 7 Thought he was decent and was starting to play well when subbed strange call by Creedon despite on yellow

STRONG 5 Unfamiliar postion for Darren and it showed,gave away far too many frees.Marks for not giving up

LUTTRELL 5 knocked off his first 3 balls failed to hold more.scored a point that should have been a goal#Raw

DORAN 5 Little came off for the Graigue man hard to see what his role was.Did show good energy on the field

DONOHER 5 Not one of his better nights.Picked out few nice passes but weak under the high ball and breaks

LOWRY 6 I thought he looked sharp showed quick hands to create 2 great goal chances.Poor shot selection at times

KINGSTON 6 Tried his best but got little or no service should have had a goal and missed one bad free.

CONWAY 7 Deserved the clap he got when subbed, worked his socks off and showed and won dirty ball.

SUBS
WALSH 6 Was going well until he pulled his hamstring hope he didnt do further damage staying on

O'Reilly 5 Ran with the ball well but down a blind alley too many times did try he best and 1 of the few to track runners

MCMAHON 5 Bringing him into a dodgy full back line with overlaps coming in waves wasn't a great call still great to have him back

MUNNELLY 5 Won a few frees and showed well for the ball might be still an option even at this stage

P.KINGSTON 4 Harsh mark for Paul but honestly don't remember his touching the ball.Still like him as a player

LILLIS 6 Probably best of the subs.Looked bit off the pace but won 3 kickouts and was strong on the ball .


CREEDON 4

Sorry peter but we lacked  a game plan ,We looked so unfit compared to Louth and some of the changes made no sense the same with team selection why Walsh and Lillis didnt start when we were missing so any experienced men i'll never know.

I know we are missing a spine to the team with injuries but Laois need to show much much more against what is an average Louth side.

Its early doors so I won't loose faith in him or my beloved Laois we have a great record in Armagh and I will travel in hope.

Well done to the Laois support up there tonight who stayed till the end it wasn't easy and as i said ealer bitterly  cold .



PS I DONT MEAN TO DISRESPECT ANY PLAYERS WITH MARKS .IM ONLY CALLING IT AS I SEE IT ,I GO TO NEARLY EVERY GAME AND LAOIS AND OUR PLAYERS WILL ALWAYS GET MY SUPPORT

They are in serious bother unlaoised, a lot of the young players are way off the pace and the senior players are not going to get better. The problems at underage for the past few years have finally come to roost. We are in free all.

Tonight to many round pegs in square holes even allowing for the injuries. So slow in everything we did, just going lateral. No pace in the team. No doubt Louth targetted us and we're just far sharper. Very disappointed with the senior players.

Its the first round of the league lads with what was basically half a B team with all the injuries, in the space of one week opinion has went from promotion and all ireland quarter final to relegation to Division 4, once again laois supporters show themselves up to be one of the most fickle and demanding crowds in the land

I wasn't there and didn't see it, but don't panic.
Can't write Creedon or the players off after one game.

Quote from: Ballyroan Abbey on February 04, 2017, 11:47:28 PM
Its the first round of the league lads with what was basically half a B team with all the injuries, in the space of one week opinion has went from promotion and all ireland quarter final to relegation to Division 4, once again laois supporters show themselves up to be one of the most fickle and demanding crowds in the land

I am not fickle or demanding, I would like the team to be competitive, fit and have a game plan. i don't think that's much to ask for. This was worst than Clare in Ennis last year.2-16 at home to Louth, who got well beaten by dublins third string last week to me is not acceptable. They could and should have scored more.

Quote from: Ballyroan Abbey on February 04, 2017, 11:47:28 PM
Its the first round of the league lads with what was basically half a B team with all the injuries, in the space of one week opinion has went from promotion and all ireland quarter final to relegation to Division 4, once again laois supporters show themselves up to be one of the most fickle and demanding crowds in the land

Agreed. There's also a few pro Mick Lillis axes bring ground here tonight. The problems we have aren't of Creedons making. He deserves more hop than this, regardless of how pathetic our half a team played tonight.

Sorry I am neither Mick Lillis or Peter Creedon, however the buck most definitely stops with Creedon.   All is not lost however getting off to a good start would have helped, personally I have always been an advocate for our own mangers good or bad.   We got beaten 12 points by Louth in division 3 I think we are pretty low as it goes.

never mind the result,Laois are progressing.They did not exceed the substitute quota last night.

Quote from: T Fearon on February 05, 2017, 08:18:56 AM
never mind the result,Laois are progressing.They did not exceed the substitute quota last night.

True. We can still only count to three. As in, how many times did we beat Armagh last year?

Last night was very bad and although we were missing the spine of the team a few things were just not good enough

1) Tackling - How many times did Louth take a short kick out, handpass it down to the Laois 40m line without a Laois player tackling? Even with so many key men missing , Laois should be making it hard for teams. Creedon should have went full course press on the kick outs. Conceeding 2-16 at home is shocking. Do Laois have a defence coach?

2) Fitness - Again I know it's early days but Louth should not have a superior fitness level than Laois. You can bet Armagh will be another level up which is a big worry

3) Attack - no pace in our attacks let Louth double up on Donie and resulted in Laois having to take lot shots from out the field. Must have had 15 wides. We need to get Donie on the ball in good positions which I think happened twice. Creedon needs to sort out an attacking plan quickly.

No point slating lads after one game but having the right structures in place so we're competitive is what we want especially missing so many key men

We have every right to criticise that's a paying job is it not?? We all invest money into this set up whether it's going to the games or sponsorship etc so balleyroan abbey we can be as fickle as we like,,,, as stated I heard all this tripe about this great set up compared to Lilis and what a load of shite it actually was,,ceedon and selectors were clue less to Louth game plan there fitness levels were an absolute joke the players intensity was non existent add in no game plan it's a joke really ,,,that team was no where near motivated to compete so on last nights audition mr creedon failed

Terrible performance, but let's give them the league before we make too many assumptions shall we not. The short term memories on this sometimes are goldfish standard. That was a very very inexperienced team last night, lots of square pegs too etc. It was horrendous but calm down and Give it a chance. If we're still like this at end of league, bring on the criticism then. It's simply premature to write off the whole set up and a lot of the newer players based on one poor game in winter conditions.

Last night shows how important quigley,Timmons,o Loughlin, o Carroll,Meredith etc are and the gulf in class between are first 15 and new guys.Also would love if the manager asked Brody to stay in his goals, it totally slows down the play and is an accident waiting to happen

Fitness, tackling, defensive structure and intensity - things that supporters are saying we were missing, all take time to be worked on. And if it wasnt these things it be something else to complain about. When we had mcnulty in charge what did the players have? Answer - intensity, defensive structure, tackling and fitness. What were results like? Answer 2011 league final, 2012 all ireland quarter final lost by 2 to all ireland champions, 2013 forth round qualifiers lost to all ireland champions - what did the supporters do? Answer complained that the team werent attacking enough and basically ran the man out of his job, as was done with kearns, as was done with micko, so while ye may complain about being fickle or demanding its a good discription of laois followers. Unfortunetly this county has critics and know it alls not supporters

Oh give up. You are actually being more of a know all by implying you know better or more than the rest of us.It was a rotten performance by any known metric or opinion. Feeble and embarrassing. It will get better because it couldn't get any worse

I must have been at the wrong game last night,going by all the post.they were way off the pace,some of them look overweight.When i go to see laois playing i would like to see a bit of passion.and a bit of structure,that wasnt there last night....

Quote from: High Fielder on February 05, 2017, 01:05:19 PM
Oh give up. You are actually being more of a know all by implying you know better or more than the rest of us.It was a rotten performance by any known metric or opinion. Feeble and embarrassing. It will get better because it couldn't get any worse

How? Where do i imply that im a know it all? All i want is a bit of perspective, the easiest thing in the world is to criticise, it was round 1 of the league with 5 debutants and half a team missing through injury and theres people already getting their shovels out to bury creedon

Very early days n your right we shouldn't cast judgement until the league is over but its amazing how much we've dropped off the pace from 10 years ago or so. Mick o dwyer's b team would have beatin louth. Our problem has been our failure at underage in the last ten years. We told sean dempsey n co his services weren't required anymore n look where we are now. The younger players coming into the senior setups have never been tested at a high level as we don't reach minor n u21 finals anymore albeit last years minor team that we very fortunate the way the draw fell. We need to get our big towns n catchment areas performing again  n the county board should be targeting this. In my own town rugby is a big draw on our players ,we need to make gaa more attractive for these players who are not from the big gaa families. Our population has increased by 20 thousand in the county from ten years ago n yet this is not reflected on the gaa front

Quote from: Ballyroan Abbey on February 05, 2017, 01:59:11 PM

Quote from: High Fielder on February 05, 2017, 01:05:19 PM
Oh give up. You are actually being more of a know all by implying you know better or more than the rest of us.It was a rotten performance by any known metric or opinion. Feeble and embarrassing. It will get better because it couldn't get any worse

How? Where do i imply that im a know it all? All i want is a bit of perspective, the easiest thing in the world is to criticise, it was round 1 of the league with 5 debutants and half a team missing through injury and theres people already getting their shovels out to bury creedon

Nobody is wanting rid of Creedon. People are legitimately asking questions. This set up is costing money and the performance was abysmal. Not just bad but abysmal.

Creedon has made things far harder for himself, this was very much a must win a home game against weaker opposition before what looks like tougher tests.  Our players do not have great resolve they are coming off 4 poor seasons and to be honest they really did not need this.  I would be surprised if things get better, I hope I am wrong but for the optimists  on here Peter Creedon has failed the first test in a pretty spectacular way. He may salvage something if he can get a result against Armagh or Tipperary.  If not don't worry about championship as we wont be in it very long.   

Very early days n your right we shouldn't cast judgement until the league is over but its amazing how much we've dropped off the pace from 10 years ago or so. Mick o dwyer's b team would have beatin louth. Our problem has been our failure at underage in the last ten years. We told sean dempsey n co his services weren't required anymore n look where we are now. The younger players coming into the senior setups have never been tested at a high level as we don't reach minor n u21 finals anymore albeit last years minor team that we very fortunate the way the draw fell. We need to get our big towns n catchment areas performing again  n the county board should be targeting this. In my own town rugby is a big draw on our players ,we need to make gaa more attractive for these players who are not from the big gaa families. Our population has increased by 20 thousand in the county from ten years ago n yet this is not reflected on the gaa front

Its a fair point that it was the first match and all that. And one can accept getting beat but
the tactics were non existant from where i was sitting. Thats what concerned me.
Louth are louth. This is division 3. And we were annihilated on our home patch.
They dominated the kick outs. Defended in numbers. And broke at speed.
We had no tactical plan. Horse it into donie who was double marked.
If your playing against a blanket defense you need a tactical plan. We had none.
Creedon deserves time but that was shambolic. I dont mean to be a drama queen but youd
Have to be very concerned about where laois football is going..

In many respects, this is not even about Peter Creedon. Truth be told, Laois football is declining year on year, and one man alone can't arrest that. Out of 36 players used in the County Final, I think only 3 got game time yesterday, and not too many more are available to the panel. Lads come and go through the revolving door and in all honesty, I've seen lads wearing the shirt in the last 5 years that would be no better than an average club player - at best. It might just get worse before it gets better and as Offaly are showing, when you're down, it's very hard get back up. My expectations are extremely low anyway, so I didn't go over last night expecting to beat Louth. I did want to see something though. A bit of hitting, some sort of plan and maybe even an individual putting his hand up. Not one of those basic requirements happened. It was just stupid stuff that we were watching; not even worthy of a training session. There is no excusing that let it be the first league game or the last. I actually have sympathy for Creedon here. He might have been sold a pup.

That's a good point about last years final. Only Begley, Brody, Lillis and Buggie played last night. Not enough. Comerford, Cahillane, Jody Dillon all playing soccer. Healy hurling. Who else should be in there? Seale? Maybe Shiel?

A lot of activity on here. Is it only me or is it at its liveliest when we get a heavy defeat?

In terms of the match, we know it was a bad day at the office, no doubt about that. First of all, give a bit of credit and respect to Louth. They are a well drilled, organised team who were very clinical on the night. I was quite impressed with them.

Laois hit a few bad wides early on which would have settled us. Louth grew in confidence then and began to exploit us. First goal was very soft really.

Game over as a contest after 50 minutes once 2nd goal went in.

We really are decimated with injuries at the moment which has to be taken into account. This team have never played together before with new guys like James Kelly, Eoin Buggie, Luttrell, Eoin Lowry and Ambrose Doran featuring. We need to learn about these guys and they deserve a chance. This is the time for that.

The league can be used to blood these new players and to see who can step up. Guys will be returning from injuries in March so we will get stronger as a group. Its unlikely we can get promoted this year but if we stay up and learn about new players and develop our style for championship, that will suffice.

Lets judge Creedon and the team once 2017 season is over. I honestly feel the year will get better as it goes on.

For Armagh and Tipperary, we need to tighten up in defence and be competitive. We'll get more positive results from the Sligo game on. I believe we will be flying for the championship and will have a great cut at it.

Laois Abu

Hard to know what to make of that. I actually thought we started quite well and if it hadn't been for some wild and stupid shooting, we could have settled into the game. In that first 10 minutes, I was happy to see some nice accurate foot passes going quickly into the forwards (Strong was good here) and nice movement from several of the forwards, esp. David Conway.

After that, though, I'm afraid it was a bit of a shambles. As someone else said, I can't get my head around the tackling at all. Everyone seems much more keen to follow runners than to put the man with the ball under pressure. If you don't put the man with the ball under pressure, you're going to concede a lot of scores - it's pretty simple really. Same with the kickouts - can't understand how we let it continue for the whole game. It's one thing to concede a kick out 21 yards out on the touchline but it's another thing to have the keeper kick the ball 50 m directly down the middle of the field to an unmarked opponent (although in fairness the Louth kickouts were excellent).  I know that the overall quality of player has reduced with the injuries but you don't need to be a team of Diarmuid Connollys to be organised and react to what's happening around you. That's very worrying.

On the positives I think Alan Farrell is going to be a super player but I hope they're not going to do another Peter O Leary on him and try to turn him into a corner back. Denis Booth wasn't bad. Meaney did the best he could (and I'm not sure why he was taken off) and David Conway and Gary Walsh (who should clearly have started and might have made a big difference in that first 10 minutes) played well. Was also good to see McMahon back. Was very disappointed with Donie. We keep talking about him being double marked but that is, I'm afraid, the inevitable consequence of refusing to run. If he wants more space, he's going to have to work a lot harder.

Hopefully there'll be a bit of a reaction against Armagh.

Jack Nolan made some interesting points on Midlands Radio 3. He says that our county players are generally a reflection of the club game in Laois - lacking physicality, intensity and no consequence for a bad season with so many senior teams off the mark.

We need a strong underage structure once again and a dog eat dog championship like in the hurling. Until then, we are going nowhere only backwards.

Even if we do improve, when we see survival in Div 3 as a success, it shows you how far we have fallen. We are now a top 20 county at best.

The good news for me is that many in Tipp credit Creedon with building the structures in the county and taking on the vested interests. I wish him luck in Laois. The recent resistance to reforming the senior championship illustrates the challenges he faces.

I have no faith in the Senior clubs of Laois to realise the harm they're doing. Three quarters of them are probably happy to be called Senior clubs, when they are actually anything but. Here we go again approaching March playing Kelly Cup (some clubs don't even bother) and then the small step up to league. We play proper football for a couple of months, whilst most other counties manage to slot in some Championship in the first part of the year I'm not convinced that we actually understand and embrace how serious it has all become. We like to think we do, but it's getting away from us.

Quote from: blueandwhite1 on February 06, 2017, 10:41:40 PM
Jack Nolan made some interesting points on Midlands Radio 3. He says that our county players are generally a reflection of the club game in Laois - lacking physicality, intensity and no consequence for a bad season with so many senior teams off the mark.

We need a strong underage structure once again and a dog eat dog championship like in the hurling. Until then, we are going nowhere only backwards.

Even if we do improve, when we see survival in Div 3 as a success, it shows you how far we have fallen. We are now a top 20 county at best.

The good news for me is that many in Tipp credit Creedon with building the structures in the county and taking on the vested interests. I wish him luck in Laois. The recent resistance to reforming the senior championship illustrates the challenges he faces.

Mightn't always agree with Jack but he has a point here. The lack of intensity and real preparation is evident in the Laois SFC and it's logical that this can have a knock on effect at county level. Until we dispense with the attitude that clubs are too big to be relegated we are doomed. In defence of Laois, the football landscape has changed dramatically in the last 2 decades. Laois are in a group of 16/20 counties below the top level where there is scarcely a kick in the ball between them.

Amazing what one bad result can do.

I take all your points lads but one bad result changes the mindset of everything.

If we had a full team and beat Louth by say the same scoreline they beat us then its all talk of maybe been a step up from this division and getting promotion back to where we belong.

Colm Kelly was on Wooly's show last night and gave a very honest and frank interview he said he thought Laois were unlucky that there 7 wides in first half cost them and he won't be getting carried away with Louth's win as he said a fall is only around the corner in management .Everything we hit went over the bar he said you don't get nights like that too often that against Dublin they played just as well if not better but couldn't hit a barn door.


I know we have a slipped a level or two since the glory days in early 2000's and McNulty brought back a steel and a hard to beat approach that worked for a spell .

We are a small county with a small population counties like ourselves your Monaghan's Wexford's Westmeath's Offaly's can have these golden spell's where a flock of great talent gets produced all at the same time its very hard to keep that going over a sustained period of time especially when nearly half the county don't play football.

Its up to someone hopefully Creedon to build the structures like whats in Tipperary to go forward at underage for the future.

The County Championship needs to be changed that's for sure and until the dinosaur's get their heads out of the sand that won't change.

What might change is our form this year.I felt like everyone else leaving O'Moore Park on Saturday night but i'd still be hoping by the time Tipperary roll into Town in three weeks we'd be in better shape to judge the team.

I get shot down by my own for being an optimist but it's the only way to think if you want to succeed .

We have good players in our ranks,Brody,Timmons,Begley,Attride,Damien O'Connor,Strong,Meaney,Paul and Donie Kingston,O'Loughlin Quigley,O'Carroll,and even the likes of Sean Moore ...If we could get 11 or 12 of these on the pitch by the end of the league Supported by the likes of Gary Walsh ,Lillis,McMahon,Donoher,and the younger lads coming through who's to say we might not have a good summer yet.

Keep the faith.

I'd take what Colm Kelly says with a pinch of salt. I'd say they couldn't believe how piss poor and weak we were. My recollection of those wides were that some of them, most of them even, were pot shots. Lads panicking and making the wrong choices. A pure sign of a nervous or poor player.

Creedon's pedigree suggests he prepares his teams for later in the year. Tipperary, All Ireland semi finalists and an improving team in the last few years, have always languished in the lower leagues. Fair enough, a vote for optimism. But seriously, what I witnessed Saturday night was pathetic. Our lack of work rate without the ball is shameful. Our forwards throw a star jump at backs coming out and then watch them run up the field to set up an attack. And this happens time after time after time. There is no hitting in us, and we just look under pressure all the time. We have to stop that quick transfer of ball from back to front or we will always be under the hammer. Our forwards need to work on getting their own ball, rather than standing there waiting for it to come to them.

The forum was going mad a couple of weeks ago after our draw with Meath with people saying how brilliant we were and things were looking great for the league etc etc. I felt it was great to see at the time aswell however Louth beating them the following day put perspective on that performance and it was said on here.
Since then we get handed our arses in Portlaoise and Kildare do the same to Meath up in Navan.
We might play out a draw with Meath again next year in Div 3.

Injuries to key players was an issue but in saying that Louth were just better drilled and much sharper. The ball carrier always seemed to know that he had support players and when they did break they more often than not raised a flag. Laois on the other hand looked laboured and alot of hand passing went sideways or back. We also had lads doing their own thing and getting dispossessed. One cameo near the end showed Donie trying to break through 3 Louthmen rather than look for someone else. Maybe they weren't available but ultimately he lost the ball and Louth cleared.

Normally you'd say that based on the performance we have no chance in Armagh but of all the teams in Ireland it's the one game you can rarely call so it wouldn't surprise me if we upset the odds. In saying that though it's unlikely with Armagh kicking themselves over their own result at the weekend.

There is a tendency for contributors to take extreme views on victories and losses. It's either a massive high or an almighty low. Managers are cannon fodder for every loss or mistake made and this cult of the all powerful manager is a myth. The reality is that he is only one piece of the jigsaw. Laois were missing a number of key pieces through injury.
The Laois team that took the field against Louth was considerably under strength. Only the likes of Dublin can cope with that loss of first choice players. Of course they were going to struggle to meet the level of performance that supporters like to see.
And the other tendency is to be dismissive of the opposition. This Louth team is playing excellent football, has a lot of pace and is sprinkled with some strong individual talent. They are no mugs.

Laois will be a different animal with the return of the injured players.

Strength in depth is a problem all Division 3 and 4 teams suffer from; they may have a good crop come along every few years but sustaining that level of player isn't possible due to national weaknesses in the current organisational structures of the GAA. These are likely to worsen in the coming years.

Nobody is looking for Creedon's head. We all know the team was under strength. Nobody dismissed Louth - they beat us by 10 points a few years ago and we snaffled a very lucky 1 point win in Drogheda 2 years ago. We would hope that Laois would be better when some of the injuries clear up. We know we are a small county with a small playing pool.

Bearing all of the above in mind, it was still a shocking performance. The worst I've ever seen, and I hope nobody has seen worse than it.

I think Kildare beating us in the championship in 1997 with 13 men for most of the game would be a worse beating than this one, we lost 1-11 to 1-7 that unforgettable day. While this was bad it could turn out to be a blessing in disguise for all concerned, both players and management.

They might have thought at the back of their minds that this was Div.3 and it would be easy enough to get points but they now know just how difficult its going to be to get out of this group. They will have to work as hard as any Div.1 team and keep their concentration to achieve anything this year and I have no doubt that you will see a different team performance next weekend from these guys.

If we had won this game those thoughts of it being relatively easy would have grown and could possibly have given us a false sense of grandeur, especially with most of our top players missing.
We now know in no uncertain circumstances the level we have to be at to succeed and no doubt management will be pushing that fact home to these lads every chance they get.

I wouldn't worry too much about the result last Saturday night. At least all the main important things like fashionable jersies, flash hairdos, designer stubbles and fancy boots were all in place.

You wouldn't worry too much about the result ? I would, Louth were in division 4 last year and had it far from all their own way In fact they were beaten by Leitrim and only bet Waterford by a point and drew with Antrim . Yet they can bully us from start to finish on our home patch . I'd be very worried about Armagh next then Tipp and then Sligo away could have no points after 4 games.

Quote from: Laoiseabu on February 08, 2017, 12:45:09 PM
You wouldn't worry too much about the result ? I would, Louth were in division 4 last year and had it far from all their own way In fact they were beaten by Leitrim and only bet Waterford by a point and drew with Antrim . Yet they can bully us from start to finish on our home patch . I'd be very worried about Armagh next then Tipp and then Sligo away could have no points after 4 games.

I think you need to reset your sarcasm detector.

Quote from: Zooming around on February 08, 2017, 02:01:09 PM

Quote from: Laoiseabu on February 08, 2017, 12:45:09 PM
You wouldn't worry too much about the result ? I would, Louth were in division 4 last year and had it far from all their own way In fact they were beaten by Leitrim and only bet Waterford by a point and drew with Antrim . Yet they can bully us from start to finish on our home patch . I'd be very worried about Armagh next then Tipp and then Sligo away could have no points after 4 games.

I think you need to reset your sarcasm detector.

I think this one went over his head  :o :o :o :o :o :o :o

What's your view on our prospects over the next few weeks Unlaoised ? Can you see results or more misery 👍

I see more misery,,,that group dropped there heads to quick but yes I am giving out management did not help them,,, I see a loss n Armagh and Tipperary sorry just what I think

Quote from: blueandwhite1 on February 06, 2017, 10:41:40 PM
Jack Nolan made some interesting points on Midlands Radio 3. He says that our county players are generally a reflection of the club game in Laois - lacking physicality, intensity and no consequence for a bad season with so many senior teams off the mark.
We need a strong underage structure once again and a dog eat dog championship like in the hurling. Until then, we are going nowhere only backwards.
Even if we do improve, when we see survival in Div 3 as a success, it shows you how far we have fallen. We are now a top 20 county at best.
The good news for me is that many in Tipp credit Creedon with building the structures in the county and taking on the vested interests. I wish him luck in Laois. The recent resistance to reforming the senior championship illustrates the challenges he faces.

https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/still-in-shock-at-poor-they-were

The reason Laois are crap in my opinion is we tend to pick footballers rather than grafters.   We tend to focus on the ball in hand rather than whats going on off it.   I don't think we have an all Ireland winning team, but it would not be too hard to get to the level of Fermanagh/Monaghan or Tipperary.  We consistently pick our players like its a computer game rather than a game of chasing, dragging and pulling.  I am pretty sure we are facing 2 defeats out of the next 3, I will be called negative but at the moment that's how it is.  Until the county board give up on this idea of pretty football and concentrate on where big gains can be made.

We have some great footballers but they all need to up the work rate. What makes Kilkenny hurlers and Dublin footballers so good is the work rate they all put in. Last Saturday against Louth wasnt good enough and unless the intensity is raised 20-30% we're in for a bad afternoon in Armagh.

10 years ago we were producing too many small skillful footballers.

3 years ago we had too many tall athletic types without basic skills.

Now we are producing too many small skillful footballers.

I think we need Abortions for some, miniature American flags for others.

No the actual charge 10 years ago was that we had no size possibly true as muscle mass and size were a bigger factor back then, now its probably speed and work rate and we are poor in both.  Say what you want but Armagh -2 on Sat is a gift,   I have had a problem with Laois Football for a while.  Until we decide to get serious about winning we will continue to be poor.  Serious about winning is a multi layered approach but at Senior, Development and most Importantly Board Level.   We need to wake up to the fact that we are on a path to our lowest level in 25 years that cannot be solved by managerial change the problem is much deeper.   

We are simply not producing enough good footballers. No outfield starter from Portlaoise on Saturday.
Was there even a thousand people there on Saturday.it will fall back to the hundreds for the next home match.
Yet you look at monaghan and they are competing at the top tier from a county with a pop of 60k.

We need a long term plan and hopefully Creedon is the man with the know how to deliver it but the likely
hood is things will get worse before they get better. Hard to keep lads interested as we struggle in the lower divisions playing in front of tiny crowds.

Agree ballyroanabu armagh -2 looks a steal ..

What structures have Monaghan in place that has them successful?

Laois problem is the county is split 50/50 in terms of football and hurling and on top of that half the population is in Portlaoise and there's only 1 club there

Quote from: Butch Cassidy on February 09, 2017, 12:41:30 PM
What structures have Monaghan in place that has them successful?

Laois problem is the county is split 50/50 in terms of football and hurling and on top of that half the population is in Portlaoise and there's only 1 club there

Agree totally with Butch.......Not enough quality out of our major towns also.....Portlaoise have slipped a bit,Portarlington,Mountmellick

creedon is not the man im hearing that they have changed the way there training now for me thats some loada bull,,,again i dont think laois are tactally aware at the minute and a few bad results are gona kill this side,,timmomn n quigley are a good bit away as is carroll,,all above no winter training done,,i hope im totally wrong but my gut says  im not,,i think theres plenty in every county but its all application and your willingness to go that extra bit hits tackles unselfish runs but at the min were showing none of the above,,we drew with meath in stradbally everyone says we were flying,,louth thrashed them as did kildare so lads were way off at the minute

People are saying we are going to lose our next two games to Armagh and Tipp after that it's Sligo away I think that will be just as tough and you wouldn't think it 4 games no points in division 3 my prediction

Antrim away is a tough one Longford at home is winnable Offaly are shite but you can be sure they will rise it for Laois in tullamore

Where is the wake on lads?

I think Saturday night will be hard but after that I think we will have a good chance of taking points off teams.

Lets hope the "Laois always rise it again Armagh"factor comes into play again next Saturday night and we get a win against the odds.

We ain't as bad as people are making out!

Any chance of a lift to Armagh anyone goin , bus , train etc

I'm going but I will be going early and visiting relations up there first so I'm no good to you!

QuoteI think Saturday night will be hard but after that I think we will have a good chance of taking points off teams.

QuoteI'm going but I will be going early

Bloody right you're going early, the match is on Sunday  :D

I dread to think what will happen to some lads on here if we win on Sunday, their heads might just explode. Creedon wasn't brought in to win Division 3 in his first year. He could have fielded a more experienced team on Saturday night, but opted to throw in a handful of inexperienced players, so to me at least, that points to a fella that is planning for further down the line. He was given control of the U-21s as well, and the talk at the time of his appointment was he could have some class of input with the minors if he wanted to. He's been brought in to bring through players and build up a panel, so in that regard I wouldn't be overly worried about losing on Saturday night.

On the flip side, we were so bad at the weekend that if the young lads get a run of games like that, it could completely dishearten them. Trying to develop players in a losing side is as hard as it gets, so he'll have to come up with a formula that makes them competitive as soon as possible. Having complete novices at this level at centre-back and centre-forward probably isn't a great strategy, maybe these newer players could be worked into the team with a little less pressure on them from the start.

Sorry had it in my head it was Saturday night...Thats why I put that down it was originally fixed for 7pm Sat...

I'm heading around 10am sunday morning Breakfast in Drogheda about 11.15 and on to the family then before I tip into the match.

Might get a refreshment in the Armagh City hotel after it if one family will drive home.

Love Laois away days!

Quote from: steven seagal on February 09, 2017, 04:54:29 PM
I dread to think what will happen to some lads on here if we win on Sunday, their heads might just explode. Creedon wasn't brought in to win Division 3 in his first year. He could have fielded a more experienced team on Saturday night, but opted to throw in a handful of inexperienced players, so to me at least, that points to a fella that is planning for further down the line. He was given control of the U-21s as well, and the talk at the time of his appointment was he could have some class of input with the minors if he wanted to. He's been brought in to bring through players and build up a panel, so in that regard I wouldn't be overly worried about losing on Saturday night.

On the flip side, we were so bad at the weekend that if the young lads get a run of games like that, it could completely dishearten them. Trying to develop players in a losing side is as hard as it gets, so he'll have to come up with a formula that makes them competitive as soon as possible. Having complete novices at this level at centre-back and centre-forward probably isn't a great strategy, maybe these newer players could be worked into the team with a little less pressure on them from the start.

Great point about positions SS

I thought last week Gary Walsh or Paul Kingston would be a shoe in to start at 11 and Lillis or begley to start at number 6 even Strong!

Quote from: Laoisguy on February 09, 2017, 02:13:27 PM

Quote from: Butch Cassidy on February 09, 2017, 12:41:30 PM
What structures have Monaghan in place that has them successful?

Laois problem is the county is split 50/50 in terms of football and hurling and on top of that half the population is in Portlaoise and there's only 1 club there

Agree totally with Butch.......Not enough quality out of our major towns also.....Portlaoise have slipped a bit,Portarlington,Mountmellick

Well now if half the county is hurling and half  what's left is only  supplying  2 or 3 players its no great mystery why we're so low at the moment and if the  U15 panel is anything to go by its only going to get worse.
A huge effort is needed by the CB in Portlaoise, Port, Mountmellick Greaguecullen these towns have the numbers, they have bodies what is needed is the will and the effort to turn them into footballers.

Quote from: Unlaoised on February 09, 2017, 04:57:40 PM

Quote from: steven seagal on February 09, 2017, 04:54:29 PM
I dread to think what will happen to some lads on here if we win on Sunday, their heads might just explode. Creedon wasn't brought in to win Division 3 in his first year. He could have fielded a more experienced team on Saturday night, but opted to throw in a handful of inexperienced players, so to me at least, that points to a fella that is planning for further down the line. He was given control of the U-21s as well, and the talk at the time of his appointment was he could have some class of input with the minors if he wanted to. He's been brought in to bring through players and build up a panel, so in that regard I wouldn't be overly worried about losing on Saturday night.

On the flip side, we were so bad at the weekend that if the young lads get a run of games like that, it could completely dishearten them. Trying to develop players in a losing side is as hard as it gets, so he'll have to come up with a formula that makes them competitive as soon as possible. Having complete novices at this level at centre-back and centre-forward probably isn't a great strategy, maybe these newer players could be worked into the team with a little less pressure on them from the start.

Great point about positions SS

I thought last week Gary Walsh or Paul Kingston would be a shoe in to start at 11 and Lillis or begley to start at number 6 even Strong!

Look five  players making their  senior debut and another 4 weren't starters in last years championship ( I think) what can you expect.
We had a brutal start last year as well and a few years ago against Donegal  in fact I cant remember when we last had a good start.
The absence of both Quigley and Jonno was massive and that what worries me, there's nothing coming through to replace them, most certainly not from the u21 or minor teams I watched last year.
I sincerely hope I'm wrong but putting Creedon in charge of the u21 is wishful thinking... the problem lies in the quality of players NOT being produced for the last 10 years.

There was a time when our underage structures were the envy of every other county in the county. It unbelievable to think this article appeared in a paper only 10 years ago and that Laois were considered potential future All-Ireland championship winners. I feel a lot of what went wrong in the last decade was that we believed our own hype, rested on our laurels, didn't invest or appoint wisely, allowed egos develop and as a consequence we stagnated while at the same time counties like Cavan, Tyrone, Roscommon, Tipperary evolved and developed their underage structures. Sadly, we had much better structures in place 10/15 years ago than we currently have now (at present some of the poorest in the country in my opinion). The personnel/know how that we once had just doesn't seem to be there anymore. I'm hoping that Creedon's appointment can help turn the tide again (he did excellent job in Tipperary by all accounts) once more but there is also an urgent need to address the participation levels at underage/juvenile level. Emphasis needs to be placed in promoting GAA properly in the schools and clubs around the county and getting children within the county back playing GAA. If not I fear we are going to fall even further in the next ten years. The time for action is now.   

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/youth-of-laois-have-one-more-final-fling-1.949770

Quote from: Clubber Lang on February 09, 2017, 05:36:46 PM
There was a time when our underage structures were the envy of every other county in the county. It unbelievable to think this article appeared in a paper only 10 years ago and that Laois were considered potential future All-Ireland championship winners. I feel a lot of what went wrong in the last decade was that we believed our own hype, rested on our laurels, didn't invest or appoint wisely, allowed egos develop and as a consequence we stagnated while at the same time counties like Cavan, Tyrone, Roscommon, Tipperary evolved and developed their underage structures. Sadly, we had much better structures in place 10/15 years ago than we currently have now (at present some of the poorest in the country in my opinion). The personnel/know how that we once had just doesn't seem to be there anymore. I'm hoping that Creedon's appointment can help turn the tide again (he did excellent job in Tipperary by all accounts) once more but there is also an urgent need to address the participation levels at underage/juvenile level. Emphasis needs to be placed in promoting GAA properly in the schools and clubs around the county and getting children within the county back playing GAA. If not I fear we are going to fall even further in the next ten years. The time for action is now.   

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/youth-of-laois-have-one-more-final-fling-1.949770

It would do you good reading that Clubber Lang, thanks for the link..
I still can't make out how we went from that to where we are today...

I am sure we won't have to worry about our heads blowing were now talking about a comparable event to an earthquake.

Just seen the team just put us in division 4 already

Laois make three changes for trip to Armagh    (from laoistoday.ie)

Peter Creedon has made three personnel changes and a host of positional switches for Sunday's Allianz Football League game away to Armagh.
Portlaoise's Kieran Lillis, Crettyard's Cormac Murphy and Timahoe's Ruairi O'Connor come into the starting 15 in place of Alan Farrell, Eoin Lowry and David Conway.
It's a first senior league start for Murphy who is named at wing-forward while there is a new midfield partnership entirely as Colm Begley and Danny Luttrell are paired together.

Darren Strong and Kevin Meaney – who played midfield last week in the loss to Louth – have been moved to corner-back and corner-forward respectively.
Lillis is named at centre-back with Eoin Buggie moving to the wing.
The game throws in at 3.30pm in the Athletic Grounds with both sides looking for their first win. Armagh drew away to Sligo in their opening game.


LAOIS TEAM IN FULL:
1. Graham Brody (Portlaoise)
2. Darren Strong (Emo)
3. Denis Booth (The Heath)
4. James Kelly (St Joseph's)
5. Eoin Buggie (Stradbally)
6. Kieran Lillis (Portlaoise)
7. Stephen Attride (Killeshin)
8. Colm Begley (Stradbally)
9. Danny Luttrell (Courtwood)
10. Cormac Murphy (Crettyard)
11. Ambrose Doran (Graiguecullen)
12. Niall Donoher (Courtwood)
13. Ruairi O'Connor (Timahoe)
14. Donal Kingston (Arles-Killeen)
15. Kevin Meaney (Arles-Kilcruise)

Half forward line omg ,,, meaner there would add power height or something.... Danny Lutheran I'm sorry a grand chap but not an inter county midfielder and begley never did well there.... again I hope we win we always beat Armagh for as long as I remember in the league but I don't think so this time...7 point loss

Quote from: OTF on February 09, 2017, 05:05:41 PM

Quote from: Laoisguy on February 09, 2017, 02:13:27 PM

Quote from: Butch Cassidy on February 09, 2017, 12:41:30 PM
What structures have Monaghan in place that has them successful?

Laois problem is the county is split 50/50 in terms of football and hurling and on top of that half the population is in Portlaoise and there's only 1 club there

Agree totally with Butch.......Not enough quality out of our major towns also.....Portlaoise have slipped a bit,Portarlington,Mountmellick

Well now if half the county is hurling and half  what's left is only  supplying  2 or 3 players its no great mystery why we're so low at the moment and if the  U15 panel is anything to go by its only going to get worse.
A huge effort is needed by the CB in Portlaoise, Port, Mountmellick Greaguecullen these towns have the numbers, they have bodies what is needed is the will and the effort to turn them into footballers.

you seem to be obsessed with this panel, can only speak for my own club port but over the last few years we've been well represented  on the underage county panels it hasnt worked its way up to the senior squad yet but hopefully it will.

Armagh starting 15 v Laois announced

1
Mathew McNeice
2
Mark Shields
3
Charlie Vernon
4
Paul Hughes
5
Aidan Forker  (Capt)
6
Niall Rowland
7
Aaron McKay
8
Stephen Sheridan
9
Aaron Findon
10
Niall Grimley
11
Conor White
12
Stefan Campbell
13
Anthony Duffy
14
Ethan Rafferty
15
Oisín Mac Íomhair

Are there not some odd selection decisions on our side? Not sure what David Conway did to lose his place. He was one of the few positive lights last day in my opinion. Same for Alan Farrell who did well I thought.  In the same way, I doubt if there's a single Laois supporter who thinks it's right to leave Gary Walsh on the bench. Strange stuff. Is Gareth Dillon injured too? He'd be a big help too in my opinion.

Asking a lot of young lutrell, meaney obviously will play midfield also but still a big ask,also buggie  on Campbell you would be worried about.armagh away would be the game I'd start as many of the experienced lads as possible.Has Paul Kingston not progressed in last few years games like these are crying out for his ability and size especially with us fielding such a light half forward line

Massive overreaction here on the forum. If we're as bad as we say we are, when then the shock at the defeat.

The teams we're putting out are really the sort of teams that normally line out at the start of the O'Byrne Cup each year, in terms of experience.

We're missing about 9 to 11 first team starters - that's huge.

The only players that are playing up in Armagh that will be guaranteed a place in summer are Brody, Strong, Begley and Donie. 4 players.

I really wouldn't read too much into these early days of the season as we're really trying to blood new players - the focus IS and always should be on the Championship. It's important to have strength in depth then, hence the experimentation. The League, when it comes down to it, doesn't matter all that much does it.

It looks like we'll have a poor league campaign but we're missing massive starters - let's try to bring the other lads on - the debutants and younger lads - we'll need them long term and we will need their experience come summertime.

Prediction : because an earthquake has hit our team and so many are injured, lets just stay in Div 3, blood lots of new players and focus on building a squad with experience for the Championship. We can't honestly think of promotion with the amount of injuries we have. We probably will lose in Armagh but in the context of our injury list it's Longford in May we should be and are building for.

To put it in context, here's the team that will start VS Armagh. And below that is a rough idea of what will start in May VS Longford. 2 TOTALLY DIFFERENT teams. We're incomparably stronger in every line in Summer.



LAOIS TEAM VS ARMAGH IN FEBUARY

Brody

Strong
Booth
Kelly

Buggie
Kieran Lillis
Stephen Attride

Colm Begley
Danny Luttrell

Cormac Murphy
Doran
Donoher

Ruari O'Connor
Kingston
Meaney



LIKELY TO START VS LONGFORD IN MAY

G BRODY

P MCMAHON
M TIMMONS
D O' CONNOR

STRONG
C BEGLEY
ATTRIDE

O' LOUGHLIN
QUIGLEY

DONAGHER
G WALSH
E O' CARROLL

P KINGSTON
D KINGSTON
D CONWAY

i disagree the age profile is too high,,macmahon 33,,timmons 32,,strong 31,,begly 31,,quigley 31,,donaher 31,,,6 lads at the wrong age for the way the games is gone

You are buttering it up quite a bit there Tony. I would be very surprised if that is the team come May.

Lads, first post, congratulations this site reminds me of Laoistalk, it's great to hear the opinions of people who really care about Laois football.
I'm glad Buggie wasn't dropped, big ask throwing him in centre back but my question is does anyone think he has the ability to claim the centre back position?
I'd also prefer Donie out on the half forward line forcing him to up his work rate. Serious talent but wasting as each year zips by.

Quote from: No. 5 on February 10, 2017, 10:24:26 PM
Lads, first post, congratulations this site reminds me of Laoistalk, it's great to hear the opinions of people who really care about Laois football.
I'm glad Buggie wasn't dropped, big ask throwing him in centre back but my question is does anyone think he has the ability to claim the centre back position?
I'd also prefer Donie out on the half forward line forcing him to up his work rate. Serious talent but wasting as each year zips by.

Welcome No.5, glad you are comparing us to Laoistalk which was a brilliant forum for mostly knowledable people who loved Laois GAA. That's why we tried to get as many posters as possible to transfer over here when it closed down and I think that worked.
Centre back has been a problem position for us for many years now and it's worth a try giving some young blood a chance there and the league is probably the best place to do that. Donie is playing very well but teams have copped on to him now and double mark him most days. I think he tries to do too much with the ball when he gets it when sometimes the better option would be to pass it on quickly to a better placed teammate. Hopefully he will do a bit more of that in this league.

I'd have Colm Begley at centre half back, to me he'd suit that position perfectly. A spine of Timmons, Begley, O loughlin, quigley, walsh, donie would be ideal come may, in my opinion, with the option of swapping walsh with donie centre to full. But I'm not the man in charge i suppose

Lads, Donie is what he is at this stage. He's not for changing. He's not going to turn into Michael Murphy. He'll be a second tier forward, when he could have been one of the greats. But second tier will still be a hell of a lot better than anything we'll see in the next 10 years. Its about propping him up at this point with a few workers around him, to get the best out of him we can.

Heading up today but not expecting too much. We are under strength and everyone knows that, but you just want to see a bit of bite from those who go onto the pitch. I don't believe as a county, we have any right to expect victory, but I do believe that we are capable of being competitive with everyone in Leinster bar the Dubs. I want our forwards and half forwards to work their arses off, because I'm not seeing that at all. In short, I just want to se us make Armagh work for it today, and not just hand it to them on a plate. I'd settle for that.

Hard to see us get anything today .. cant see where the scores will come from ..

Im presuming we'll be much improved defensively though ..

Is dillon out injured? We could do with his pace ..

Have they the option of rolling clarke off the bench?

Fair play heading up there high fielder .. look forward to hearing your report afterwards ..

Quote from: Laoiseabu on February 09, 2017, 08:39:37 PM
Just seen the team just put us in division 4 already

Good man yourself.

I was the first one to say laois would be beaten today but OMG what a gutsy win today,,, so many lads not available it was a massive performance I didn't see comming,,, well done and again I eat my words,,,a great two points 👍🏻

Great response after last week's shambles. 2 points gained when all looked lost. Sounded like pure robbery up in Armagh. Well done to all.
Roll on Tipp in a forthright!

Some performance and without Begley beore throw in ...

We can't seem to loose in Armagh or to Armagh

Wow,
The Whingers have will nothing to post!
Well done Laois. Always hard to win in Ulster.
Seems some posters like listening to them selves.
But put no thought or don't what they are talking about.

Great win, this should bring them on a lot in terms of confidence. http://www.leinsterexpress.ie/news/sport/234945/dramatic-comeback-sees-laois-claim-last-gasp-victory.html

Begley, O'Laughlin, Quigley, O'Carroll, Timmons, O'Connor, Walsh all missing, Armagh team with Jamie Clarke back, playing away from home and everyone had written them off. Congratulations to all involved, great character from all and hopefully this is the springboard to a great year. Roll on Tipp. Laois abu!!

SCFC it doesn't cover up the cracks Armagh missed goal chances and got disallowed goals Laois should have been beaten but I still think we could be relegated

Laois manager Peter Creedon was delighted by today's comeback win at Armagh

https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/sometimes-you-just-have-throw-off-the-shackles

Split personality disorder sufferers don't go through as many highs and lows as Laois football fans

Well done to the lads, wasn't there so no idea if performance was good or if we were lucky etc. Must have at least shown some bottle to come back and win. Massive result, especially given players we were missing, which puts us right back in the hunt for promotion.

Glad to be wrong, really thought we would not get the result massive win hopefully the start of a turnaround.  To be honest I am still pessimistic.   We did get results against Armagh last year and still got relegated.  However Big Result.

I've missed only a handful of Laois matches over the last 15 years or so. This time, I decided not to go. I'll know better next time....

Player rating today. Brody 9, Strong 6, Booth 7, Kelly 7, Buggy 6, Lillis 6 Attrite 8, Meaney 9, Luttrell 6, Murphy 5, Doran 5, Donoher 7, O Connor 5 Kingston 7, Ramsbottom 7. Sub Conway 7. Other subs used O Reilly. Munnelly, Lowry, McMahon, P Kingston.

Great result. Meaney was outstanding throughout the whole game. Brody was back to his best. Some lads just not good enough but tried very hard. Is Gary Walsh injured? One of the smallest Laois crowd I've ever seen at a game. Much improved from last week.

Anyone know the extent of the injurys to  Begley, O'Loughlin, O'Carroll, O'Connor and Walsh. Are we likely to have any of them back for the Tipp match in two weeks time.

Walsh is 50/50 . The rest won't be involved . I wouldn't be too worried about Tipp , missing some key individuals also and the league is not on there list of priorities . . Yesterday summed up Laois the past few years . Missed the first ten mins but we were outplayed for most of the first half . Came into afterwards but all the wides and missed chances for Armagh clearly demoralised them and in fairness our lads never gave up . Meaney was the pick of the bunch , Donie hot and cold . A lot of average footballers who give everything to there county jersey , definitely deserve better support than was there yesterday .

I see where Boyle sports have made Laois favourites for promotion with Sligo second favs post the weekend results. They are obviously looking for some foolhardy Laois people to lump on.

Quote from: redsetanta on February 14, 2017, 11:44:29 AM
I see where Boyle sports have made Laois favourites for promotion with Sligo second favs post the weekend results. They are obviously looking for some foolhardy Laois people to lump on.

They'll never find any of them around here.

We're not going to get promoted I don't think, but we'll stay up after that result in Armagh. It'll be great to have JOL and Quigley back shortly. We'll get stronger as the league progresses. If we beat Tipp, we're certainly in with a decent chance of promotion, but I'm calling tipp to win that one. I was at Offaly Antrim game as it turned out & they also look strong. Very fast paced attacking in numbers and well drilled - they will be in with a shout too. Tight division.

What a victory that was and although the football was division three quality it was as exciting game as was played over the weekend.

These bunch of lads deserve great credit for not lying down and showing character I hope people come out to support them against Tipperary on Saturday week.


Again as I always Say my ratings are only my opinion I respect every one of these lads who put so much time and effort into wearing the blue and white jersey.

Brody 9 -He would get a ten if he had to have kicked a point  :),on a serious note he was superb the difference for me.

Strong 6-Jamie clarke really ran him into the ground but the Emo man showed great skill in curling over the winner.Credit due

Booth 7-One of his better performances in a Laois jersey was physical and got one great block in.This should give him confidence

Kelly 8-I thought he was excellent never gave up and was tigerish in the tackle.Has great pace to recover which is a bonus.

Buggy 6-Tried hard but was a little bit off the pace and struggled in the tackle.Was a decent option from kickouts .Will learn a lot from this game.

Lillis 6-Decent game from Kieran picked up a few kickouts and breaks ,certainly adds composure to the back line.

Atttide 8-Another great performance from the Killeshin man set up so many attacks and whats more he can't half defend.

Meaney 9-Best game in a Laois shirt in years.Hit hard ,caught ball ,passed off at the right times .Well done Digger.

Luttrell 6-Got one nice point and put a lot of energy into the game not physical enough on or off the ball for this level yet in my opinion.

Murphy 5-Got a point but didn't really feature much.Lost a few balls but again is learning all the time.Will grow and learn from each game.

Doran 5-I can't remember Ambrose getting on the ball at all that much surprised he last till 50 minutes.He will have better days.

Donoher 8-One of the Courtwood man's best games in a Laois jersey he did well up there last year aswell. Two great points and a sublime goal.

O'Connor 5-Lost three early ball's and this was a catalyst for him being subbed.there will be other games to suit the skillful forward.

Kingston 8-Hot and cold one report says,I thought he was more hot showed well won free's and a peno that changed the game.Kicked a free from 50 yards not many in Ireland would.#Class

Ramsbottom 7-Ran out of steam after the late call up but can be happy with his days work.Got stuck in and what a pass for the first Laois goal.

Subs
Conway 7-Can't believe he didn't start and proved why he should have when he came in.A great outlet for a ball always seems to be able to win it.Needs however to add scores to his game!

Munnelly 5-Never really got to the pitch of the game but did well in possession and showed his experience.


McMahon 6- Thought he was decent made one great interception and was confident on the ball looks in good shape too.

P.Kingston 6-Got the red card but put himself about and fouled in the right areas .Was certainly hungry for it Sunday.

O'Reilly and Doran did nothing wrong and got a few possessions unfair to rate them for the five/six minutes they were on.

Overall a great 2 points ,whilst I won't be getting carried away and I believe Tipperary will be a tougher test I'm happy with the heart this side showed and it will give the camp an great boost for the two weeks of training ahead of the Tipp game.

Hopefully a few more might come back in contention for that game.

Still Damien O'Connor,James Finn,Evan O'Carroll,Colm Begley,John O'Loughlin,Brendan Quigley,Mark Timmons ,Gary Walsh to comeback and compete for places.

Great report UnLaoised, love reading these.. Is there any truth that MJ Tierney was back on the panel???

Are we really thinking about MJ at this stage folks

MJ is a great guy and works very hard but I personally don't see him as a starter. Great to have on the panel though - best placed ball freetaker in Laois. In play though, I don't see him adding much to the team but i hope i'm proved wrong on that. He just always seemed a bit small and light for inter-county open play and was never tigerish enough in the tackle or tracking back, in my opinion - again I hope i'm proven wrong on that as MJ is a fine man with plenty of talent.

If he proves himself in training and wins a place in starting team on merit then by all means I'd welcome him back. I have respect for anyone who commits himself to playing intercounty football in this day and age, especially those who don't make the starting team. Huge ask on anyone and when you're not getting any game time even more so.   

Always thought he was underappreciated in his own county. He was one of those lads that suffered from the consensus that we weren't big enough to play football 10 years ago or so. I remember he scored 10 or 11 points against Donegal in a league match when they were approaching their prime. We haven't too many to do that today.

I don't think it was that Giovanni. He was an excellent freetaker without doubt but he could be very frustrating to watch in open play. He woould often take on impossible shots and you would have to question his workrate at times. I don't think he was a great team player, although he wouldn't be alone in Laois in that regard.

Before Donie came along he was worth his place for frees and 45s alone...even still he is the only one on the panel bar Evan O'Carroll who could kick a 45 I'd say!

If M. J good enough to back in I am surprised they have not looked at one or two more of ours.  Gavin Tynan is prob a better ball player than the vast majority of senior panel but thus far has not had a look in.

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on February 16, 2017, 03:32:56 PM
If M. J good enough to back in I am surprised they have not looked at one or two more of ours.  Gavin Tynan is prob a better ball player than the vast majority of senior panel but thus far has not had a look in.

What age is he BA, never heard of him before is he from the village.

YES Giovanni, I remember that game against Donegal when MJ gave a exhibition off free taking from all
over the park that day, I heard that Jim McGuinness said he never saw anything like it.
thank MJ for a great memory.

Tierney I seen no impact on the club champ last two yr,,,, nvr made it at senior grade

What age is he BA, never heard of him before is he from the village.
[/quote]

MJ is 30 heading for 31, I played under age football with him for Ballyroan nearly 15 years ago, even at under 16 he was slotting over 45's, and had serious skill back then, but always lacked in size, but there's nothing he can do about that, when you're short you're short!!

Quote from: Junior Ex Laoistalk on February 16, 2017, 01:24:47 AM
Is there any truth that MJ Tierney was back on the panel???

Still didn't get an answer, IS he on the panel this year does anyone know ? ? ? ? ?

Quote from: Ballygowen on February 16, 2017, 11:38:54 PM

What age is he BA, never heard of him before is he from the village.

MJ is 30 heading for 31, I played under age football with him for Ballyroan nearly 15 years ago, even at under 16 he was slotting over 45's, and had serious skill back then, but always lacked in size, but there's nothing he can do about that, when you're short you're short!!
[/quote]

It was Tynan I was wondering about

I heard a few weeks back he went back in around the same time as McMahon but I'm not so sure he is still there.

O'Loughlin looks set to miss Tipperary at the moment Quigley is hoping to be back in contention for the Sligo game on the 5th of March.

Tierney is not on the county panel . No where near county standard even if we are lacking in some places . There's a lot more than kicking a 45 to be given an opportunity at this level nowadays .

Slightly unfair to mj. While I think he has the natural talent to be there or thereabouts, I think he's taken the foot off the pedal the last few years as he has a young family and lots of career stuff going on. If he dedicated all his time to gaa, I'd say he'd be on the panel at least. He's in his 30's now though, it's hard to come back to inter county level at that age post a break of a couple of years. It'll be interesting to see how padraig does this season, in that context.

Great to get the points in Armagh. A crucial win and gets us back on track.

Division 3 a very tight division, very little between any of the sides except Antrim.

Antrim look set for relegation and anyone could join them.

In terms of promotion, I wouldn't put any money on it. A number of teams in the hunt.

Clare got promoted last year with only 8 points.

A lot of 50/50 games. Tipperary next, hard to call. Sligo away, tricky. I would fancy a win in Antrim. Then hopefully most of the injured guys will be back for Longford at home and Offaly away in the last round.

All to play for. I like that we are building a good solid panel for the championship.

Longford in the championship the main aim. Give me a win over Longford in the championship instead of the league every day of the year. The acid test would be to play Kildare in the quater final in June. Thats where the questions will be answered.

Tierney I think was asked in around the same time as McMahon, honestly don't know if he went in or not.   I have seen him the last two years, prob not the player he was a couple of years ago that's not saying he could not come on for the training and practice he would get in with a county panel.   If he wanted to come in and try I would not say no to him,  his relatively fresh so there might be still something to give.  Gavin Tynan is 22-24 age bracket,  he is about 6'3 still too skinny but he has ability to be honest I do wonder how come he has never been looked at plenty of lads have come and gone that would not be as good and the sort that their is still alot left in the locker if someone can get it out of him. 

Good to see Evan O'Carroll get a run out with Cretty at the weekend . On the road to recovery which is good news .

Laois played Westmeath Friday night not sure how it went tho

More injury woes today. Looks like both Meaney and Lillis willmmiss the Tipp game.

Quote from: redsetanta on February 21, 2017, 10:54:56 AM
More injury woes today. Looks like both Meaney and Lillis willmmiss the Tipp game.

JOL, Begley and Finn all due to be back. JOL played against Westmeath last week and Finn is back in training. O Carroll should be available for a few minutes too. Gary Walsh is still a doubt.

Swings and roundabouts.

better to have injury problems now and not come start of championship. Least it gives Creedon a chance to test his panel. If you are going to be successful you need a strong panel of 23/24 players so giving different players game time is needed anyways. You don't want to be in a position with 15/20 minutes to go where you need reinforcements/to make substitutions and you don't have to requisite strength and depth from the bench. A lot of championship games won and lost because of the caliber of player you can bring on when the game is in the melting pot. 

Quote from: Clubber Lang on February 21, 2017, 03:17:03 PM
better to have injury problems now and not come start of championship. Least it gives Creedon a chance to test his panel. If you are going to be successful you need a strong panel of 23/24 players so giving different players game time is needed anyways. You don't want to be in a position with 15/20 minutes to go where you need reinforcements/to make substitutions and you don't have to requisite strength and depth from the bench. A lot of championship games won and lost because of the caliber of player you can bring on when the game is in the melting pot.

True but Lillis and Meaney played so well in Armagh and are so experienced its a big loss.Begely and O'Loughlin will not be firing on all guns and Finn and O'Carroll haven't kicked much this season at all.


It will be a massive result if on Saturday night if we can turn Tipperary over!

Team named for Tipperary game
http://www.laoistoday.ie/2017/02/24/oloughlin-returns-laois-football-team-named-clash-tipp/

David Conway in the inside forward line Johnno out to centrefield.

Quote from: redsetanta on February 24, 2017, 11:32:53 AM
David Conway in the inside forward line Johnno out to centrefield.

That would mean moving either Danny Luttrell or Seán Ramsbottom to center forward, can't see that happening...

Tipperary SF Team v Laois

The Tipperary football team to play Laois in Round 3 of the Allianz Football League Division 3 encounter in O'Moore Park, Portlaoise tomorrow Saturday, February 25th, at 7pm has been announced by manager Liam Kearns.
It's as you were for Kearns' side as Tipp look to bounce back from the one point defeat to Sligo in the last round.


The team lines out as follows;

1.            Evan Comerford – Kilsheelan-Kilcash
2.            Alan Campbell – Moyle Rovers
3.            Paddy Codd – Killenaule
4.            Willie Connors – Kiladangan
5.            Kevin Fahey – Clonmel Commercials
6.            Robbie Kiely – Carbery Rangers
7.            Jimmy Feehan – Killenaule
8.            Alan Moloney – Rockwell Rovers
9.            Martin Dunne – Moyle Rovers
10.          Josh Keane – Golden-Kilfeacle
11.          Liam McGrath – Loughmore-Castleiney
12.          Brian Fox (Capt.) – Éire Óg Annacarty-Donohill
13.          Conor Sweeney – Ballyporeen
14.          Michael Quinlivan – Clonmel Commercials
15.          Philip Austin – Borrisokane

And we're paying an outside manager for this??

Poor result in the end ...kicked so many balls away .

So many basic errors by most if not all the players we must have kicked 7-8 wides in the first half and as for the passing it was really bad tonight.

Promotion is gone its all about staying up now and shaping a team for the championship getting the likes of quigley Timmons O Connor Meridth Meaney  Walsh Lillis  and a fit O loughlin back into the spine of team.

Same sh.it different circus.  Dreadful defending is shambolic. 

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on February 25, 2017, 10:34:55 PM
Same sh.it different circus.  Dreadful defending is shambolic.

The skill levels are just dreadful. Too many passengers that look way out of their depth in Division 3. The injured players will make things better but it is blatantly obvious that the quality of footballer we produce in the county these days is not good enough. It is a reflection of our underage teams and our club championship.

Rating tonight: Brody 6, Strong 6, Booth 8, Kelly 7, Buggy 5, Begley 6, Attrite 6, Luttrell 5, John O Loughlin 7, O Reilly 5, Donoher 6, Conway 8, Ramsbottom 5, P Kingston 5, d Kingston 6.

Some players out at a RAG week during the week? Surely not a good sign. All about staying up now

Promotion is gone its all about staying up now and shaping a team for the championship getting the likes of quigley Timmons O Connor Meridth Meaney  Walsh Lillis  and a fit O loughlin back into the spine of team.

When is Conor Merdith due home?

Is David Conway enjoying a bit of an "Indian Summer"?
Or has the standard around him fallen?

Very disappointing display tonight, we leave so much space in the middle section of the field it's just unbelievable.
Hopefully we can now stay up and build this team over the next 3 years...

Say what you want about his work rate or application but Donie Kingston was the most talanted footballer on the pitch tonight.

Maybe later in the year we can have a team like this:
Brody, Attrite, Timmons/Booth, O Connor, Strong, Lillis, Kelly, Quigley, O Loughlin, Begley, Merdith, Meaney, Conway/Moore, O Carroll, D Kingston.

Quote from: blueandwhite1 on February 25, 2017, 10:52:09 PM

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on February 25, 2017, 10:34:55 PM
Same sh.it different circus.  Dreadful defending is shambolic.

The skill levels are just dreadful. Too many passengers that look way out of their depth in Division 3. The injured players will make things better but it is blatantly obvious that the quality of footballer we produce in the county these days is not good enough. It is a reflection of our underage teams and our club championship.

AGREE,     BEGINNING TO HAVE DOUBT ABOUT THIS MANAGER.

How many times did Tipp walk through the middle  (after getting a quick kick out) without getting tackled? It needs to be worked on before Sligo and hopefully we've some lads back from injury .

Quote from: town1980 on February 25, 2017, 09:37:07 PM
And we're paying an outside manager for this??

Still better value for money than Lillis

Quote from: Don Draper on February 26, 2017, 09:43:36 AM

Quote from: town1980 on February 25, 2017, 09:37:07 PM
And we're paying an outside manager for this??

Still better value for money than Lillis

On what basis? I wouldn't rule out Creedon being a success yet, but at the moment we are at least as bad as last year

I thought Donie Kingston and Kelly were good, not much to pick out other than that. Sideline slow to make changes, four if not five of our forwards struggled badly. Some of our younger players do not look ready. Buggie and O'Reilly I think have great potential but not performing at the moment. I find the selection of lutrell at midfield very strange, JOL actually played as a corner forward for a portion of second half.

Defensively we made silly errors, a couple of scores came from lads being drawn to ball rather than tracking own man

Surely Sean Moore worth giving a chance up front?

We have players to come back, but still these performances are worrying. Not showing enough quality up front to break down defences

was so disappointed leaving omoores park last night...Thought after beating armagh last,that we were going somewhere...too many passengers in my opinion,not up to senior standard.I no donie is talented,i thought some of his finishing was poor for such a talented footballer.We will be lucky to stay in division 3,if last night is anything to go by.....

We gave out about Lilia but this is worse,,,, go to the posts at xmas people saying set up is great all this crap in my mind..... the team has no plan look at tip pushed up on some kick outs didn't on others,,, a plan our team is a shambles full stop

Quote from: town1980 on February 26, 2017, 10:50:56 AM
We gave out about Lilia but this is worse,,,, go to the posts at xmas people saying set up is great all this crap in my mind..... the team has no plan look at tip pushed up on some kick outs didn't on others,,, a plan our team is a shambles full stop

Lillis was an abomination. Stop talking out your hole.

Quote from: Target Man on February 26, 2017, 10:03:27 AM

Quote from: Don Draper on February 26, 2017, 09:43:36 AM

Quote from: town1980 on February 25, 2017, 09:37:07 PM
And we're paying an outside manager for this??

Still better value for money than Lillis

On what basis? I wouldn't rule out Creedon being a success yet, but at the moment we are at least as bad as last year

I thought Donie Kingston and Kelly were good, not much to pick out other than that. Sideline slow to make changes, four if not five of our forwards struggled badly. Some of our younger players do not look ready. Buggie and O'Reilly I think have great potential but not performing at the moment. I find the selection of lutrell at midfield very strange, JOL actually played as a corner forward for a portion of second half.

Defensively we made silly errors, a couple of scores came from lads being drawn to ball rather than tracking own man

Surely Sean Moore worth giving a chance up front?

We have players to come back, but still these performances are worrying. Not showing enough quality up front to break down defences

Creedon has half a team. I'll judge him when he has the players available that the other lad had.

Players your talking about.. quigley 31 injured.. Timmons 31 injured.. meaney in and out of the team 31,,, Garry Walsh attitude is terrible was dropped last year for abusing management and has done the same this year... o Carroll yes good player but no where near fit...Meredith in America and o Connor in and out of the side,,,,. so wat else is there left ???? You work with wat you have and lads there is no plan in place

Quote from: town1980 on February 26, 2017, 11:06:36 AM
Players your talking about.. quigley 31 injured.. Timmons 31 injured.. meaney in and out of the team 31,,, Garry Walsh attitude is terrible was dropped last year for abusing management and has done the same this year... o Carroll yes good player but no where near fit...Meredith in America and o Connor in and out of the side,,,,. so wat else is there left ???? You work with wat you have and lads there is no plan in place

Your man had all those players last season and couldn't even find a pitch to train them on.

First of all we are missing a lot of big guns. Damien O'Connor, Brendan Quigley, Mark Timmons, Gary Walsh, Kevin Meaney, Evan O'Carroll. 

Second of all Tipperary were in an All Ireland semi final 6 months ago. They are a good team.

Good to see John O'Loughlin back though I doubt he is back at full fitness yet. Good to see Garett Dillion get a run out. Thought Davy Conway took his goal well.

While Tipperary were in control and fully deserved their win, we at least fought back form 6-1 down to level at 7 each early in 2nd half and again got back to one with ten minutes left 0-13 to 1-9.

Tipperarys goal was a lucky one just at the end.

We will have to improve on our shooting though and there were some sloppy passes at times.

Results should improve in March with our big guns starting to return.

I have held fire on this year so far, last year I spent my time giving out about Lillis.
So this is where I am at
Plays Meath (lot of hope)
Plays Louth (hope lost, guy has obviously not watched Laois Football before looking at team he named)
Play Armagh (same as louth but Armagh have their own problems we fluke a win)
Play Tipperary (same again but this time its more torture as Creedon obviously hasn't a clue)
So here is where I am at anyone who sends out a team so unorganized and without any idea of balance clearly has no clue. 
There is very little defensive understanding, over reliant on inexperienced players and some big names being picked when they are under performing.
I am sure he possibly can turn things around but honestly he has Laois so naively set up I doubt it.
verdict a more organized version of Mick Lillis

Lilis  did it for nothing what are we paying this man for with same results?? That's my point,, how many of the current group would stay in last night I bet you over half were out boozing management issue again I think,, ,look we are in the doldrums odds on to go down my point is we're paying for a set up that act creedon  on can't back up tactically that's all

Town to be honest I have thought about this a good bit over the last year,  Lillis regardless of payment was dreadful and the fact he was free does not take away from it.  Creedon looks equally dreadful and his been paid I suppose that means we are now into fool me once, fool me twice territory we are actually on the third time.  Blame clearly lies with county board. Or whoever is picking these managers and developing our overall football strategy from U14 up.

what i saw last night was no forward wanted to kick from 30 metres out what does this say lack of belief or what

Some good news today. Conor meredith is back from new York for good.

Give the man a chance, couple of league games and u want him sacked. Roman abromovich would be better. We have to be realistic. We're missing a lot of players and even when we have them were only average. We just don't have the ability. How is this a surprise? I'm just content they're trying hard and lots more players back shortly. Cool the beans

Tony always the same with you, ever the optimist.   

There is a clear difference between Lillis and Creedon. Lillis sounded like he just didn't know what was going on and how to address it. In fairness, Creedon does sound like he knows what he is about and his track record in Tipp stands for itself. He is credited with much of the underage and senior transformation down there. I think he will do a good a job as any manager could with these players and I would imagine he is hugely frustrated. The plan is clearly to defend in numbers, which we did well from time to time last night and turned over plenty of ball, and then to break at speed which we didn't have they players to do. We have developed a habit of running laterally and then stopping and hand passing around the fringes and don't have players other than maybe Evan O'Carroll that will take on a defence. I thought Tipp were average last night but at least when they had the ball they ran at pace and didn't pull up when they reached the 45.

The elephant in the room is how poor the quality of player at our disposal. We are now a division 3/4 team. Until there is an influx of new blood it is hard to see things improving. We must be one of the slowest paced teams in Ireland. The forwards movement last night was embarrassing as was the shot selection and execution.

I think creedon deserves the benefit of the doubt for now.
Lets give him the league before we start condemning the lad.
Granted its been a bad start.
If we get a few of the more experienced players back we'll survive.
A longer term view ala tipp is what we need and that requires patience ..

To be fair to Creedon, at least when he spoke on the radio after the game he recognises where Laois are going wrong and knows what to address. That in itself is a vast improvement from Mick Lillis, who came out after nearly every game last year and said he didn't know why they were losing, and then set about blaming training facilities and pitches.

Any hope we had of promotion before the league is well and truly gone now, and the other results point to a fairly unpredictable Division. We'll struggle to stay up if we don't get some experience back into the team, and we could do with the pace of Sean Moore up front too, although he's very light for this level.

Aside from the deficiencies already mentioned we had our most influential player black carded and conceded an own goal.

Quote from: redsetanta on February 27, 2017, 09:04:06 AM
Aside from the deficiencies already mentioned we had our most influential player black carded and conceded an own goal.

That black card was a cunting disgrace.

Yes, I thought the referee seemed to lose the run of himself in the second half. I'd say 10-15 minutes of the second half were lost with the referee calling lads back and booking lads and black carding lads. Generally, I don't think the black card should be used except where a cynical foul is committed in a scoring position. There was nothing cynical about Kingston's tackle - not even sure it was a foul.

The fact that the players seem to be buying into Creedon's system is obviously a good thing. However, I just can't understand how an inter-county team is sent out on the field without a strategy to deal with the opposition's kick-outs. For about 25 minutes of the first half, we were neither really pressing nor really organising ourselves further back down the pitch. It was total shambles. Surely to God this is something that can/should be worked on in training?

Would agree with most of the comments on performances. Overall, I find some of the selection decisions very strange (although I accept that some experimentation is worthwhile). I don't think Darren Strong will ever be a corner back and we could do with a few more experienced half forwards. Stephen Attride is doing well at wing back but he might be a better bet at corner back while we're waiting for some of the injuries to heal. Don't know why Dillon hasn't been chosen more often (or why he wasn't introduced earlier on Saturday). Of the young lads, I think Alan Farrell has shown far more than any other the others and still he's being left out.

Generally though, the lack of organisation is really very worrying. A lot of this can be solved on the training pitch and you'd like to think that you would be seeing an improvement shortly.

All in all, I dont think there was a good game played over the weekend. Every county seemed to struggle. The two week break is usually used for hard slog, and every county seemed to be in that boat. Obviously it doesn't matter a f**k what others are at, but when you see Kerry fail to score from play in the second half at home against Monaghan then you wonder should we ease off a little bit on a team missing so many and blooding so many.

If Creedon is still like this with a full deck, then I'll have an issue, but in respect to everyone who lined out Saturday, there's a few there, that have gotten the handiest Laois jersey in quite a long number of years. That can't be overlooked.

My bigger concern over the weekend is that minor trimming. That is shambolic.

Comparing Lillis to Creedon exposes your ignorance, that's all. Creedon is credited with taking Tipp from a very poor side to very competitive and having a fine underage setup (their reaching the all ireland semi last year with his help over the years can't be ignored). He didn't do that within a couple of months though, it took YEARS, as expected. He's taken on the responsibility of the U-21s and seniors here in Laois and has JUST STARTED - give the man a chance. Meanwhile, legend has it that Mick Lillis is still searching for a pitch to train on in Laois.

It's clear for all to see, surely, that we're carrying 5 - 7 players at the moment and no team can do that in any division & hope for promotion. I'm fine with staying in Div 3 this year and focussing on the Championship. The team will look vastly different then. The impatience I'm seeing by a few here on the forum is baffling. It's not all rosey in the garden in Laois football at the moment but get realistic too will ye - at least we've chosen a manager with PROVEN pedigree with developing underage structures in a county and good experience taking a div 3/4 side much higher than they were before he arrived. Don't be chasing this guy out after a couple of poor performances in winter with a huge injury list. Give the lad and the players a chance. We're clearly trying to build but it won't be built in a matter of weeks.

Everyone is talking about the players that have to come back. The last couple of years that we have had these lads there was also problems so what next like. A lot of the lads that have to come back are on the wrong side of thirty aswell.

Quote from: Laoiseabu on February 27, 2017, 10:58:04 AM
Everyone is talking about the players that have to come back. The last couple of years that we have had these lads there was also problems so what next like. A lot of the lads that have to come back are on the wrong side of thirty aswell.

Just because they're the wrong side of 30 doesn't mean they're finished.

Just because they were there the last couple of years, doesn't mean they're bad players. We looked f**king abysmal in '02 against Meath with a lot of players you'd despair about, yet in '03...

Being the wrong side of 30, means they're experienced, and can at least help younger players who are starting out. Instead we have a situation where the likes of Begley, Donie, Strong, Attride and Johnno are trying to do their own jobs, and help others who are struggling to stay afloat. Have you ever been fucked in the deep end in a trial match and tried to make an impact with a load of lads trying to do the same? Our young players may or may not be up to the level yet, but given their less than stellar underage careers, they've little or no hope without a bit of experience or steel alongside them.

There is a lot of things wrong defensively it's like a knife through butter when our lads are ran at by opposition. What's the point in us carrying the ball down the field in slow motion and running into opposing defenders and getting turned over. They only time we look like doing something is when we kick quick ball into Kinger it bypasses the blanket defence instead off running into it and loosing possession

I don't think any reasonable Laois supporter expects the team, missing several experienced regulars, to perform like All-Ireland winners after a few months of a new manager.

On the other hand, it shouldn't "take years" to work out how to deal with the opposition's kickouts. You don't have to be a team of All-Stars to do that either. If you're organised (and you don't need great players to be organised), you can make it hard for the opposition. There are, of course, a lot of elements to being organised but it should be possible to get some of the basics right within a matter of a few months. Hopefully, we'll start to see that in a much more systematic way in the remaining games.

Another thing what's the point in having extra men back if we still can't stop sheep. It's pure slavery trying to carry the ball through all the lines it's what I call Egyptian football . It's one thing having players not up to the mark but then the manager trying to play a shite brand of football is another thing that finishes it altogether . We aren't penetrating to opposition lines carrying it into trouble yet our lines are penetrated with ease. I disagree with this running game we are trying to pull of its what I call Egyptian football Laois should get back to playing FOOTBALL we have the best full foward in the country like?

being the wrong side of 30 is a major problem as you can see the game involves a lot of tracking back then turning over ball and breaking the line ,,,fitness wise the lads we have comming back will not be at this level as players are training since last october they just wont be at the pace of the game simple as so we have to make do with what we have but the lack of a plan and fitness is just alarming thats the issue ,,,thats what creedon is employed for so to me his struggling with aspect of management well sorry thats what it looks like and we have to bring garry and the other selectors too into this because they seem to lack this too,,im sorry im being negative but jeez tipp made us look like fools they missed 5 sitters the other nite we got a fluke goal as much as they did also but they were the better side from the off

Quote from: Laoiseabu on February 27, 2017, 11:43:56 AM
Laois should get back to playing FOOTBALL we have the best full foward in the country like?

Great insight there. Back to playing football, 15 on 15. Awesome, in 2017, that will work. Apply for the job next year mate, nobody has thought of "playing football" 15 on 15 and how that will work against any good organised team. Genius

Some laughable posts comparing Lillis and Creedon after a few league games.
Obvious problems have been arising the past number of years and is scarily to the forefront of our performances this year (including our lucky escape against Armagh). The number and type of young player being developed for Senior ball from an earlier age is not to a good enough standard anymore. At club and county level. End of. Would be interesting to see the age profile of the squads from the past few years.  Every year some young guys are drafted from minor/U21 panels for the seniors. 2-3 years later they are no where to be found on the panel. Is this through lack of interest? Lack of development? Is it happening in other counties?
Anyway for this years league campaign, I still feel we still can be promoted, slate me if you will for believing that. Clare got promoted last year from this division on 8 points.

So far Creedon has not set the world on fire, and worryingly our decline continues.   You don't get time in management another couple of losses and the confidence goes.  Players who were on your side are now back stabbing, whispers begin and your over before you start.  Creedon needs to get winning fast.   So far I see no comparable difference results wise in the last 3 managers, each one was brutal.   

Quote from: Tony on February 27, 2017, 10:17:56 AM
. Meanwhile, legend has it that Mick Lillis is still searching for a pitch to train on in Laois.

That is a little bit over snide for my liking. He didn't have the benefit of the Centre of Excellence for his Winter training. And I'd imagine the CB should be the ones finding a training base.

Also, I think some people here need to open their eyes to the fact that I'm sure Creedon wasn't alone in building Tipp football.
The fact is that guys who take on counties like Laois have at the very least a small whiff of "chance your arm journey man" manager.

Hopefully all turns out well. But I'd be fairly confident that Lillis took on the job for the most noble reasons. It didn't work out, but he put his hand up and got the job. He kept his powder dry and stepped aside quietly.
He doesn't deserve to be lampooned.

Tony , Corofin walked the all Ireland handy two years ago and gave st Vincent's a good going over playing proper football how has it changed. Teams are just trying to over complicate with systems and Laois are now doing the same and are not at the races. Creedon will not succeed in improving us due to the lack of talent and the bullshit brand of Egyptian football. Ohh and by the way Tony no I wouldn't go for the Laois job as I don't think much can be done with that pool of players. If I was to handpick a job it would be Cork or Galway , two young big strong teams that are sleeping giants of the game at the moment but with lots of potential. Another thing if you kept your six fowards in their foward positions the opposition backs wouldn't be as quick to run down the field as they have a man to mark. Quick ball into the fowards cuts out this bullshite and negates the blanket defence. Personally if I was Kingston I'd pull the plug and tell Creedon to go home. Creedon actually wants to run the ball down the field and get turn over instead of hitting our in my opinion only foward at the moment up to the mark. Kingston is unstoppable one on one so get the ball in quick so he has time and space one on one instead of walking the ball up the field and giving the opposition defenders time to get back honestly. If a properly coached Cork, Galway Tyrone Dublin Mayo Kerry got at this Laous team at the moment playing in this manner it would be frightening.

Quote from: Keyser Söze on February 27, 2017, 07:01:27 PM

Quote from: Tony on February 27, 2017, 10:17:56 AM
. Meanwhile, legend has it that Mick Lillis is still searching for a pitch to train on in Laois.

That is a little bit over snide for my liking. He didn't have the benefit of the Centre of Excellence for his Winter training. And I'd imagine the CB should be the ones finding a training base.

Also, I think some people here need to open their eyes to the fact that I'm sure Creedon wasn't alone in building Tipp football.
The fact is that guys who take on counties like Laois have at the very least a small whiff of "chance your arm journey man" manager.

Hopefully all turns out well. But I'd be fairly confident that Lillis took on the job for the most noble reasons. It didn't work out, but he put his hand up and got the job. He kept his powder dry and stepped aside quietly.
He doesn't deserve to be lampooned.

There's only one poster here who keeps bringing up Lillis. Take a look back.

There's a lot that could be said about last year but it should be left there once and for all. Creedon will be judged on his own merits, but trying to grind some Lillis axe against him is a dangerous game for that poster to play.

Quote from: Don Draper on February 27, 2017, 07:49:26 PM

Quote from: Keyser Söze on February 27, 2017, 07:01:27 PM

Quote from: Tony on February 27, 2017, 10:17:56 AM
. Meanwhile, legend has it that Mick Lillis is still searching for a pitch to train on in Laois.

That is a little bit over snide for my liking. He didn't have the benefit of the Centre of Excellence for his Winter training. And I'd imagine the CB should be the ones finding a training base.

Also, I think some people here need to open their eyes to the fact that I'm sure Creedon wasn't alone in building Tipp football.
The fact is that guys who take on counties like Laois have at the very least a small whiff of "chance your arm journey man" manager.

Hopefully all turns out well. But I'd be fairly confident that Lillis took on the job for the most noble reasons. It didn't work out, but he put his hand up and got the job. He kept his powder dry and stepped aside quietly.
He doesn't deserve to be lampooned.

There's only one poster here who keeps bringing up Lillis. Take a look back.

There's a lot that could be said about last year but it should be left there once and for all. Creedon will be judged on his own merits, but trying to grind some Lillis axe against him is a dangerous game for that poster to play.

I still have a problem with some of what is being said. TIt didn't work and he left. The stuff about pitches is below the belt. Circumstances have changed and that's not his fault.

Biggest problem as I see it is a real lack of defensive players. The only lad that I had confidence in in the last number of years was Healy. It's very hard to convert a player into being defensively minded, and even more so when he's not much cop as a footballer anyway. In my opinion, we are always going to be under pressure in the backs, and our hand is being forced into playing crazy systems. We're a poor team, that much is obvious, but you can't build a whole lot without a solid foundation. Our tackling in particular wouldn't be good enough in a top Minor game.

Quote from: Don Draper on February 26, 2017, 10:55:55 AM
Lillis was an abomination. Stop talking out your hole.

In diplomatic terms, really, Lillis just wasn't up to the standard required.

Anyway, lets be realistic - we do have an average enough side. If Creedon can get us giving 100% effort, staying in Div 3 and perhaps having 1/2 wins in Leinster / all ireland series, i'd be happy enough.

just wondering has the u16 laois football panel being named.see u15 and 14 named bit odd

Quote from: Don Draper on February 27, 2017, 09:07:53 AM

Quote from: redsetanta on February 27, 2017, 09:04:06 AM
Aside from the deficiencies already mentioned we had our most influential player black carded and conceded an own goal.

That black card was a cunting disgrace.

Just caught highlights
Agree 100% with you
Pretty sure that was same Tipp player that was Black carded for a dive in semi -final v Mayo.
Tom Tom went ape shit in the commentary box
Said something like " it wasn't fair giving a black card to someone after eight minutes"

First time Laois have lost to Tipp twice in a row since losing league matches in 1956 & 1972. Co-incidentally, both games were round 3 fixtures as well!

Laois then went unbeaten from then to June 2010, when Tipp beat us in the championship.

(http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/statsgaa/Tipp_zpsejaygixy.jpg) (http://s32.photobucket.com/user/statsgaa/media/Tipp_zpsejaygixy.jpg.html)

My ratings for Saturday night

Again I stress these are only my opinions from being at the game and then watching it back on T.V(which didn't make great viewing I might add)

I appreciate what the players give and I don't mean to be anyway critical of them its just an opinion from this particular game.

I know the effort and commitment it takes to be there and they deserve ever credit for this despite results going against us at the minute.


Brody 7 - Very good kick outs made two excellent saves,one slight error where he went to bounce the ball on the muck and lost it which lead to a score but that came after a great take of a high ball.Excellent keeper and one of the plus points of the league so far.

Strong 5-Not a great day for Darren,did play some lovely balls forward with accurate foot passes and made the goal for Conway but kicked two into the keepers hands and failed to hold on to the ball which gave Tipp their only goal.Needs to improve tackling but so does everyone.

Booth 7-After a shaky opening he grew into the game and played well might have been different if Quinlivan had to have stayed on the field and pushed in on him but the Heath man can be happy with his nights work.

Kelly 8-After again a poor opening 15 minutes I thought the young man grew into the game,Sweeney did cause him problems but he does that to most corner backs and I thought he recovered well and had a fine second half.

Attride 6-found it hard to give the Killeshin man a mark he didn't do anything wrong and was on the ball a few times ,great ball carrier but need to see more defensively .In saying that he was harshly blown for a few fouls from a ref who got very involved as the game wore on.

Begley 7-Was decent in the first half when Laois were poor and scored a cracking point .Tackling was surprisingly poor as its usually his strong point.Probably best option for the number 6 role at the moment.Is certainly not lacking effort which some people accuse him of.

Buggie 5-Worked hard but his man Josh Keane got on a lot of ball ,he was poor in the tackle like so many Laois players .Will learn from this experience .Needs to toughen up for this level if he wants to make it in the half backs.Does get his head up well while on the ball which is a great trait to have going forward.

Luttrell 5-Had a decent spell in the first half when things were going against Laois ,Fetched two good balls and carried one well when he ran at Tipp. Lost possession too man times and got swallowed up by the Tipp midfield I thought he could have been replaced earlier as he was up and down all night on a very heavy pitch to his credit.

Ramsbottom 6-Put himself about and showed good composure on the ball.Did not tackle well which seems to be a recurring theme in this league.Ran out of steam but got his well deserved applause when subbed on 40 mins.Like his partner Luttrell his legs went from a lot of running.

O'Reilly 5-Nothing really came off for the Graigue man on Saturday night.Lost  possession very easily and kicked one silly ball into the keepers hands plus had a bad wide when Laois had a few options inside.Fouled too many times but did cover a lot of ground for the cause.He is honest as the days long and will have better days.

Conway 8 -Probably Laois's best player ,worked hard in the first half even against the tide.His passing into Paul and Donie was excellent and he got a great goal.Should have passed to Paul Kingston when he took his point that can be my only gripe.

Donoher 5-A poor game in a  Laois shirt is rare for Niall .His passing was very poor.Kicked one over the sideline and hand passed two balls straight to Tipp. Just one of those nights he  never stopped trying however and did kick a nice score in the first half.You can bet he won't have a bad game against Sligo!!

O'Loughlin 6-Hard to know what to give John was on a lot of ball did kick a good score but lost so many balls and slowed the play up.I wish he would stop taking balls one yard away from a lad when he is marked in a crowded area but he Never gave up and never stops looking for the ball.

Kingson 7-Again a shining light.Farce of a black card.Scored the point of the night in the first half and nearly had a great goal in the second.Made use of any good ball that went into him.Needs to up his work rate off the ball but hard to be critical of the man when it was never his game.

P.Kingston 6-Showed well in the first half but had two wides he would expect to pop over.Links well with Donie and is good at winning his own ball.I think he will improve and be a big player as the year progresses.He has the quality for this level in my opinion.


Subs
A Farrell 6-Got through a lot of work and showed good work rate while on the pitch decent man to stand up players and not foul he cleared one great ball off the line which would have killed Laois earlier.

E Lowry 5- Bit harsh as it was hard for him to get into the game especially when Donie got black carded.I like him as a player and I think he will shine in a game for Laois yet.

R O'Connor 5-Again hard to rate a man who got so little ball did well with what came into him and showed one lovely piece of Skill to hold on to possession that Laois should have got more from.

Finn 5-Thought they would play him inside as a direct replacement for Kingston as O'Loughlin was out on his feet at that stage.Did okay with the ball he got has a great long range kick pass.He Stopped Tipp running down the middle just by being physical and using his size.Should improve with more game time.

Munnelly 5-Didn't see much ball but what he did he used well.Looked in decent shape and made one great run along with Finn at one stage if Begely could have found them when breaking out.Was hoping he would take that last free just to get him on the scoreboard for the year.

Dillion 5-Again a harsh rating should have been on earlier in my opinion to run at Tipp when we were breaking as times in the second half as that's what he is good at.Must be close to pushing for a start I would think!He was excellent in the league this time last year.




We are bottom of Division three but I think we have probably played our three hardest games.

I fancied Louth to be strong this year and getting them early with so many missing was a tough ask.Armagh away was a great victory against all the odds and I think they will be in the shake up in a few weeks.

Tipperary are probably the best of the rest and will also be near the top at the end.

Sligo away is another hard game and it will shape the rest of the season.Sometimes we are better away from home it seems like that lately.

A win and your looking up with Antrim Longford and Offaly to play a defeat and its going to be helter skelter to stay up.

I believe we will improve to have so many injuries is hard on the management and the players especially the younger guys.

They players that will come back in will take time to get up to speed and I don't see them transforming it straight away .

Still come May if we have a team with a fit Timmons, Quigley,Meaney,Lillis,Damien O'Connor,O'Loughlin ,Meridth,Walsh etc it will make a big difference and make it so much easier for the likes of James Kelly Danny Luttrell and maybe a Sean Moore make an impact going forward.

Lads will say some of these lads are coming to the wrong side of 30 etc but if they are fit maybe a campaign with rest and not so many league games will benefit a few of the lads like Quigley and Timmons who have given so much down through  the years.

I remember Pauric Clancy coming back late in the league in his latter years and going on to have a great Summer for a couple of seasons.

I'm ever the optimist which doesn't go down well sometimes in this county.

I'm clever enough to know we haven't the quality of the bigger teams like Dublin Kerry Mayo Tyrone Monaghan and Donegal and are probably some way behind the likes of Galway Roscommon and Cavan .

I still think we are every bit as good with a full side as the likes of Kildare,Derry ,Down,Armagh,Tipperary Clare etc and on any given day we could beat them.

I wish the players well as we go to Markievicz Park on Sunday for a 2.30pm throw in .

I hope to be there to see how they get on.

Didnt see the match on Saturday but someone put it up on YouTube.

Played reasonably well in the first half. Went 6 -1 down and fought back well. Should have gone in a few up at half time

2nd half was a bit of a mess. The younger lads faded and we started to run into dead ends.

It looked like a first choice tipp team against half a laois team. They were marginally better.

I feel when the experienced players return, it will take the pressure of the younger lads.

I think we will survive in the division. Would like to see dillon and farrell start the next day.

Its been a tough start for creedon with such a ridiculous injury list.

I think we will improve e as the league rolls on...

Sligo will be a dogfight though .. need a fitter JOL, meaney,dillon, lillis back to get a result..

Im hearing Conor Merdith wont be involved this year.

Quote from: justinn on March 01, 2017, 10:20:01 AM
Im hearing Conor Merdith wont be involved this year.

I heard different that he will be back but not until the end of the league!

Creedon: 'Our forward play really wasn't good enough'
http://www.laoistoday.ie/2017/02/26/creedon-forward-play-really-wasnt-good-enough/

Sligo is a hard one to call...

I feel we can go up there and get the two points talking to a Tipp man Saturday night they were  short  and not long back playing ball when they played them in Tipperary.

Tipp had a player sent off early in the second half and were missing a few regulars esp in the backs.

The let in two very soft goals in the first half he said and despite being ten points behind in the second nearly won it with 14 men.

Armagh were well in front of Sligo as well before they had a melt down.

What look like the weakest team Antrim beat them last Sunday so I feel we have a great chance up there.


I hope there might be one or two more back to help the lads and the game last week should bring on O'Loughlin plus Finn can be another option after getting a bit of game time.

We really need to sort out the back line I think Farrell should be given a chance and I'd push Darren strong up a line or two.

My team

Brody
Kelly
Booth
Attride
Farrell
Begley
Dillion

O'Loughlin
Ramsbottom/Luttrell

Strong
Conway
Donoher

Kingston
Kingston
Finn(3rd midfielder as Creedon likes)


Eoin Lowry must be close to starting as well ...

Hopefully Meaney Walsh Lillis and Sean Moore are not far away ...

I know Quigley Timmons and Damien O'Connor will be another while

You're watching too much of the soccer unlaoised with 3 points ;) but agree nonetheless a tough one to call. If we lose any chance of promotion most definitely gone.

Quote from: Helix on March 02, 2017, 09:19:05 AM
You're watching too much of the soccer unlaoised with 3 points ;) but agree nonetheless a tough one to call. If we lose any chance of promotion most definitely gone.

????Three points??? ;D ;D ;D ;D

Quote from: Unlaoised on March 02, 2017, 09:11:58 AM


My team

Brody
Kelly
Booth
Attride
Farrell
Begley
Dillion

I know some lads might argue about loose markers but I'd very much agree with this formation in the back 7

Quote from: Giovanni on March 02, 2017, 10:17:11 AM

Quote from: Unlaoised on March 02, 2017, 09:11:58 AM


My team

Brody
Kelly
Booth
Attride
Farrell
Begley
Dillion

I know some lads might argue about loose markers but I'd very much agree with this formation in the back 7

Dillion deserves a Start and is a great ball carrier.Attride can play corner back in fact he stared fro DCU there in a few games last year.

I think Farrell would add a bit of pace to the back line and Kelly and Booth deserve to keep their spots after the last day.

Strong is better up the park he can make and kick scores I'd love to see him in the free role!

Same team named. Strong continues as a corner back.

Quote from: redsetanta on March 03, 2017, 10:14:55 AM
Same team named. Strong continues as a corner back.

http://www.laoistoday.ie/2017/03/03/laois-name-unchanged-team-crucial-clash-away-sligo/

Quote from: Junior Ex Laoistalk on March 03, 2017, 10:31:34 AM

Quote from: redsetanta on March 03, 2017, 10:14:55 AM
Same team named. Strong continues as a corner back.

http://www.laoistoday.ie/2017/03/03/laois-name-unchanged-team-crucial-clash-away-sligo/

Thats a surprise....I would say there might be changes before throw in!

This is off topic I know but when you see below it is hard to see how Football in our county can improve.

·         Féíle na nOg (Fri 7 April / Sat 8 April)

"A" – 5 Teams – Ballyroan Abbey, Portarlington, Portlaoise, St Pauls, St Joseph's;

     "B" – 19 Teams - Ballyfin, Ballylinan, Clonaslee St Manman's, Graiguecullen, Kilcavan, Killeshin Crettyard, Mountmellick, Na Fianna Og, O'Dempsey's, Park Ratheniska Spink, Rathdowney Errill, Rosenallis, StradballyParish Gaels, The Harps, The Heath, Camross, Castletown Slieve Bloom, St Fintans Mountrath, The Rock.

Double the numbers of A team's in the feile u14 hurling

"A" – 10 Teams – Borris in Ossory Kilcotton, Camross, Castletown Slieve Bloom, Clough Ballacolla, Portlaoise, Raheen parish Gaels, Rathdowney Errill, Rosenallis, St Lazerians Abbeyleix, The Harps;
"B" – 7 Teams – Ballinakill, Clonaslee St. Manmans, Na Fianna, Park Ratheniska Timahoe, Slieve Margy, St Fintans Mountrath, St Pauls;

Underage football around that age is always poorly organised. It was poorly organised back in the day when I was a wee lad. And Laois had excellent minor teams when I was a minor. So to say it means that football in the county will be poor because of it, is not necessarily true. Having said that, I'd be nice to get it right.

Yes totally off the topic start a new thread there... on times game Sligo are as bad as Laois but I still fear for  Laois going up there.... lads commented on eoin Lowry omg lads his way out of shape I feel for a lad training since October.... we loose we're doomed I think to div 4 and lets be honest div 3 isn't a bad division it's winnable,,, county board for all there will in employing creedon his not tactically aware.. that's the problem

im probably being harsh on the young lowry but i havent seen a thing for him to warrant a start,,,garry walsh a better option or evan o carroll if he has only 10\15 mins in the legs

League record v Sligo

(http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/statsgaa/Sligo%20NFL%202016_zpszcnyxj1l.png)

Last win: 2011 Laois 1-14 Sligo 2-8 in Sligo
Last defeat: 2004 Laois 0-8 Sligo 2-6 in OMP
Last defeat in Sligo: 2001 Laois 0-7 Sligo 0-13
Biggest win: 1991 Laois 1-17 Sligo 0-4 in Port
Biggest defeat: 2001 Laois 0-7 Sligo 0-13 in Sligo

Quote from: gaastats on March 05, 2017, 08:31:28 AM
League record v Sligo

(http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/statsgaa/Sligo%20NFL%202016_zpszcnyxj1l.png)

Last win: 2011 Laois 1-14 Sligo 2-8 in Sligo
Last defeat: 2004 Laois 0-8 Sligo 2-6 in OMP
Last defeat in Sligo: 2001 Laois 0-7 Sligo 0-13
Biggest win: 1991 Laois 1-17 Sligo 0-4 in Port
Biggest defeat: 2001 Laois 0-7 Sligo 0-13 in Sligo

That 2001 game was in Portlaoise not Sligo, seem to recall Mick Lawlor having an altercation with one of the officials that day but I might be wrong, but it definitely was down there.

Markievicz had a pitch inspection and passed so game goes ahead, have had brutal weather up here.

Quote from: Owenmoresider on March 05, 2017, 10:14:07 AM

Quote from: gaastats on March 05, 2017, 08:31:28 AM
League record v Sligo

(http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/statsgaa/Sligo%20NFL%202016_zpszcnyxj1l.png)

Last win: 2011 Laois 1-14 Sligo 2-8 in Sligo
Last defeat: 2004 Laois 0-8 Sligo 2-6 in OMP
Last defeat in Sligo: 2001 Laois 0-7 Sligo 0-13
Biggest win: 1991 Laois 1-17 Sligo 0-4 in Port
Biggest defeat: 2001 Laois 0-7 Sligo 0-13 in Sligo

That 2001 game was in Portlaoise not Sligo, seem to recall Mick Lawlor having an altercation with one of the officials that day but I might be wrong, but it definitely was down there.

Markievicz had a pitch inspection and passed so game goes ahead, have had brutal weather up here.

You're right. Annoyed I got that wrong.

In that case, the last league defeat was in 1972 Laois 0-7 Sligo 0-9.

If Laois win today, it will be the first three-in-a-row vs Sligo since a five -in-a-row 1973-1992.

Loosing meaney killed us I hope I'm wrong but I think we're div 4 doomed

Sligo are abysmal and they beat us,  we can hop out excuses but maybe we need to have a long hard look at ourselves. 

What did Meaney do? Laois were 7 points up when he got the line. You can't afford to have a midfielder and 1 of your more experienced players sent off. Antrim away next is must win

Shameful from Meaney.

I have no doubt that Meaney won't be very happy with himself tonight.

On the other hand, it is a bit sickening to see the Sligo lad (Murphy I think) going down like he was hit by a haymaker. Meaney did raise an arm for sure but it could hardly be described as a punch. There were 3 or 4 incidents of diving from Sligo players going on during the game which the referee, to be fair, picked up. Meaney did raise an arm and it was quite possiblly a sending off offence but the meal that was made of the foul was pathetic to be honest. Murphy ended up with 4 or 5 points from play after so it didn't affect him too much....

Sligo were really poor in the first half and had it not been for a brilliant save from the Sligo keeper in the first half and a few really bad shot selections from our side, we would have been going in 10 or 11 points up at half time. The two Kingstons were winning everything that went in and Sligo were being continually turned over all over the park (much of which was down to their own ineptitude rather than anything that we were doing).  They got a hammering from Mayo with Aidan O Shea at FF a few years ago and this match looked like it could be a repeat with the Kingstons.

Meaney's dismissal changed the whole complexion of the game and in the second half Sligo were running through us again far too easily. The Kingstons were forced way out the field and, as a result, their influence on the game faded. We continued to make a lot of bad decisions in possession of the ball.

The only silver lining for me was the performance of McMahon and the return of Quigley (who looked rusty at times). Begley went off with what looks like a hamstring. I thought the young lads (apart from Farrell, who did OK but did make a few mistakes) just aren't at the level yet. You'd like to think that management would be learning the lessons at this stage.

Overall, very disappointing. A game we could probably have won easily.

Murphy was smart, Meaney was foolish. Simple as that. Cost us the game.

Quote from: Don Draper on March 05, 2017, 07:23:50 PM
Shameful from Meaney.

That's not an appropriate choice of words

Tough to analyse the game after such a major turning point the sending off was.

Although it would be a completely different game with 15 players for a full 70, very worrying of how disjointed we were in the second half.

We dropped very deep and stood off sligo, understandable given the situation of being a man down. But we lack a serious amount of creativity and although we play a running game, there's no real link up play or set players designated to carry that out.

We were too predictable and ran out of ideas quickly. Then the inevitable happened, they chased down our lead and leave us in a tough position now.

Kingstons looked sharp early on. Echoing what Giovanni said, McMahon was very good. Quigley, Conway and O' Loughlin tried hard but have a little too much to do at times.

Quote from: Keyser Söze on March 05, 2017, 11:16:35 PM

Quote from: Don Draper on March 05, 2017, 07:23:50 PM
Shameful from Meaney.

That's not an appropriate choice of words

Sure it is. 6 points up, away from home in a must win game. Experienced player on an inexperienced team. I could call it a damn lot worse.

The problem for me is that this is just a repeat of past problems, our defence is poor and while people will talk about Meaney as a turning point.  We are now 3 losses from 4 in Division 3.   This is really poor fare whatever anyone says.  We should have been beaten by Armagh and prob should have won against Sligo so they equate each other.   We really need to stay in Div 3,  championship is only going to be a disaster if we are relegated continously.  People will waffle on about turning it around in championship, you don't usually it's a continuation of league form.  Creedon had an opportunity to build confidence in Div 3,  he hasn't managed that and I fear his reign will be short.

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on March 06, 2017, 07:01:14 AM
The problem for me is that this is just a repeat of past problems, our defence is poor and while people will talk about Meaney as a turning point.  We are now 3 losses from 4 in Division 3.   This is really poor fare whatever anyone says.  We should have been beaten by Armagh and prob should have won against Sligo so they equate each other.   We really need to stay in Div 3,  championship is only going to be a disaster if we are relegated continously.  People will waffle on about turning it around in championship, you don't usually it's a continuation of league form.  Creedon had an opportunity to build confidence in Div 3,  he hasn't managed that and I fear his reign will be short.

Another manager for the Laois chopping block. By god aren't we fierce unlucky we keep getting all these poor managers all the same begorrah.

Spot on Ballyroanabu. Another worrying point people seem to be overlooking is Sligo were more or less missing there three best forwards Mark Brehony(wasn't playing), David Kelly ( wasn't playing) Pat Hughes( only fit to play last ten not near full fitness) and there brightest young player Cian Brehony ( not fit only played last ten) 4 main players. And oh yes Brenadan Egan from St Vincent's only played the last 15. A patched up Sligo team.

Quote from: Laoiseabu on March 06, 2017, 09:33:11 AM
Spot on Ballyroanabu. Another worrying point people seem to be overlooking is Sligo were more or less missing there three best forwards Mark Brehony(wasn't playing), David Kelly ( wasn't playing) Pat Hughes( only fit to play last ten not near full fitness) and there brightest young player Cian Brehony ( not fit only played last ten) 4 main players. And oh yes Brenadan Egan from St Vincent's only played the last 15. A patched up Sligo team.

Hard to believe a full strength Laois side didn't beat them.

macmahon was excellent and how we have waited so long to play him is beyond me,,,,quigley did ok but he gave away 3 scores with his distribution,,,look we can win the last three games too the oposition is very poor but so are we like broanabu said i think management have learnt absolutely nothing and its another loss,,,we chat about lads comming back but most of them were on the field while sligo had so many of there stars not playing,,laois football is in a bad place at the minute

It's continuity we need as this is a transitional period for Laois football with so many of our better players coming towards the end of their playing days. Whether that is Creedon or a home grown manager is up to the CB but looking for him to go after 4 games is crazy stuff.
When the appointment was made i was relatively happy to hear it based on his stint with Tipperary. We need to start producing better underage players to be able to compete down the line because they are not coming through at the moment. Its' 10 years since our last decent minor team and look at the contribution that made to the county team.
You can have all the managers you want but unless you have a certain quality of players you are where you are. Just look where Offaly are at the moment beaten by 30 points.
We need stability and a manager that has the respect of the players who will work together and give 100% for the county.

Quote from: town1980 on March 06, 2017, 09:43:07 AM
macmahon was excellent and how we have waited so long to play him is beyond me,,,,quigley did ok but he gave away 3 scores with his distribution,,,look we can win the last three games too the oposition is very poor but so are we like broanabu said i think management have learnt absolutely nothing and its another loss,,,we chat about lads comming back but most of them were on the field while sligo had so many of there stars not playing,,laois football is in a bad place at the minute

Laois had the winning of that game the same as sligo did. Sligo though didn't lose an experienced central player to a moment of stupidity. O Loughlin McMahon and and Quigley can't be blamed for that.

Unfortunately the rot has already set in,  TOF was a joke manager, Lillis was dreadful & Creedon unfortunately was a gamble who has not worked out.  The CB and most of Laois Football fail to realise that we are going to have to think outside the box to start to rebuild.  Poor performance on the pitch = less support and money.  This means we are unable to put more development coaches out into our big towns, Players commit for a few months then just give up.  Do people honestly think we're going to get better without doing something radical.  Yes the answer is we should get rid of our manager  as this guy is clearly a waste of our time and money.  We cannot afford to spend 5 years rebuilding we need green shoots of recovery fast.  We are into our fifth year of regression so I think we have wasted enough time.

Who has to come back at this stage?   Damien O Connor wouldn't be any different to the rest of the back , Timmons wouldn't be any upgrade on Booth at this stage of his career, Gary Walsh I think is not involved ( attitude problems) , Evan O Carroll if he gets himself fit and focused is the only one that can make a difference so it's scarce isn't it.

No, it's all Meaney's fault and it's as simple as that..........

i have to say ballyroanabu your making alot of sense,,,,quigley i havent seen him play a game for laois and to see him come on then i just think thats madness he was so rusty and im not running him down its a management decision but does not look great for lads training since october,,evan and garyy are the only two that would have made a differance thats all we have lads

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on March 06, 2017, 10:51:44 AM
Unfortunately the rot has already set in,  TOF was a joke manager, Lillis was dreadful & Creedon unfortunately was a gamble who has not worked out.  The CB and most of Laois Football fail to realise that we are going to have to think outside the box to start to rebuild.  Poor performance on the pitch = less support and money.  This means we are unable to put more development coaches out into our big towns, Players commit for a few months then just give up.  Do people honestly think we're going to get better without doing something radical.  Yes the answer is we should get rid of our manager  as this guy is clearly a waste of our time and money.  We cannot afford to spend 5 years rebuilding we need green shoots of recovery fast.  We are into our fifth year of regression so I think we have wasted enough time.

Mad stuff here!

So after 4 league games Creedon has already not worked out and a waste of time and money?? 4 games!

Radical thinking, think outside the box....or maybe just do what has got us any bit of success we've had over the last 20 years. Start producing underage quality again!

Quote from: Timmy on March 06, 2017, 11:45:15 AM

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on March 06, 2017, 10:51:44 AM
Unfortunately the rot has already set in,  TOF was a joke manager, Lillis was dreadful & Creedon unfortunately was a gamble who has not worked out.  The CB and most of Laois Football fail to realise that we are going to have to think outside the box to start to rebuild.  Poor performance on the pitch = less support and money.  This means we are unable to put more development coaches out into our big towns, Players commit for a few months then just give up.  Do people honestly think we're going to get better without doing something radical.  Yes the answer is we should get rid of our manager  as this guy is clearly a waste of our time and money.  We cannot afford to spend 5 years rebuilding we need green shoots of recovery fast.  We are into our fifth year of regression so I think we have wasted enough time.

Mad stuff here!

So after 4 league games Creedon has already not worked out and a waste of time and money?? 4 games!

Radical thinking, think outside the box....or maybe just do what has got us any bit of success we've had over the last 20 years. Start producing underage quality again!

No worse than whats gone on for the last 5 years, for 5 years people have been saying things are going to turn around they have not, more like a whole  lot worse.  You can't produce underage quality on the money given to County Boards by Leinster Council & Croke Park.   The O Moore Park development while positive is no advantage every county in Ireland got one.  We need more games development officers, however that's not going to happen without money.  Senior Teams, U21 teams & minor teams have been dreadful , end result raising money is not happening.  We need results on the field to get the vibe going thats why Creedon is doing untold damage.  This is not entirely of his making but unfortunately he can not lift us from it.   Cut the cord sooner rather than later, we are only wasting time.  Portarlington, Portlaoise, Graigue & Mountmellick are providing poor returns on population.  We need to do something radical to get back into these towns.

Your argument is valid and I agree with alot of it but it's for another thread.

Regarding the next game, it will really be a '4 pointer' in two week in Antrim, a game that is a must win however Antrim managed to go to Sligo and win so it will be no easy task. Our advantage is that we have played the top teams in the division which gives us a chance.

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on March 06, 2017, 12:02:44 PM

Quote from: Timmy on March 06, 2017, 11:45:15 AM

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on March 06, 2017, 10:51:44 AM
Unfortunately the rot has already set in,  TOF was a joke manager, Lillis was dreadful & Creedon unfortunately was a gamble who has not worked out.  The CB and most of Laois Football fail to realise that we are going to have to think outside the box to start to rebuild.  Poor performance on the pitch = less support and money.  This means we are unable to put more development coaches out into our big towns, Players commit for a few months then just give up.  Do people honestly think we're going to get better without doing something radical.  Yes the answer is we should get rid of our manager  as this guy is clearly a waste of our time and money.  We cannot afford to spend 5 years rebuilding we need green shoots of recovery fast.  We are into our fifth year of regression so I think we have wasted enough time.

Mad stuff here!

So after 4 league games Creedon has already not worked out and a waste of time and money?? 4 games!

Radical thinking, think outside the box....or maybe just do what has got us any bit of success we've had over the last 20 years. Start producing underage quality again!

No worse than whats gone on for the last 5 years, for 5 years people have been saying things are going to turn around they have not, more like a whole  lot worse.  You can't produce underage quality on the money given to County Boards by Leinster Council & Croke Park.   The O Moore Park development while positive is no advantage every county in Ireland got one.  We need more games development officers, however that's not going to happen without money.  Senior Teams, U21 teams & minor teams have been dreadful , end result raising money is not happening.  We need results on the field to get the vibe going thats why Creedon is doing untold damage.  This is not entirely of his making but unfortunately he can not lift us from it.   Cut the cord sooner rather than later, we are only wasting time.  Portarlington, Portlaoise, Graigue & Mountmellick are providing poor returns on population.  We need to do something radical to get back into these towns.

I'm pretty sure for the last 5 years people have been predicting exactly where we are now! Who's been saying things will turn??

Look unfortunately we are at our level now. This is not Creedon's fault, he's only been working with the players for about 4 months. He needs to be given a chance, unless you have someone better in mind???

I accept playing for Laois may not be the 'cool' thing to do for a young lad in Laois anymore, but there was also no success to speak of in counties like Monaghan, Cavan, Roscommon or Tipperary before they got their acts together.

And we happen to have some of the main people in the Tipp story in Laois now. But maybe we should just get rid of him!!

There's too much of a laissez faire attitude in the county expecting the county board to fix the lack of talent in the county. Until this attitude is addressed we will go nowhere. The clubs as a whole need to be more proactive in recruiting players and developing rather than have a divine right to players,  particularly in the urban areas as previously mentioned. Rugby soccer has had a massive rise in playing over the years. We took our eye off the ball and are paying dearly for it in the county.

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on March 06, 2017, 12:02:44 PM

Quote from: Timmy on March 06, 2017, 11:45:15 AM

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on March 06, 2017, 10:51:44 AM
Unfortunately the rot has already set in,  TOF was a joke manager, Lillis was dreadful & Creedon unfortunately was a gamble who has not worked out.  The CB and most of Laois Football fail to realise that we are going to have to think outside the box to start to rebuild.  Poor performance on the pitch = less support and money.  This means we are unable to put more development coaches out into our big towns, Players commit for a few months then just give up.  Do people honestly think we're going to get better without doing something radical.  Yes the answer is we should get rid of our manager  as this guy is clearly a waste of our time and money.  We cannot afford to spend 5 years rebuilding we need green shoots of recovery fast.  We are into our fifth year of regression so I think we have wasted enough time.

Mad stuff here!

So after 4 league games Creedon has already not worked out and a waste of time and money?? 4 games!

Radical thinking, think outside the box....or maybe just do what has got us any bit of success we've had over the last 20 years. Start producing underage quality again!

No worse than whats gone on for the last 5 years, for 5 years people have been saying things are going to turn around they have not, more like a whole  lot worse.  You can't produce underage quality on the money given to County Boards by Leinster Council & Croke Park.   The O Moore Park development while positive is no advantage every county in Ireland got one.  We need more games development officers, however that's not going to happen without money.  Senior Teams, U21 teams & minor teams have been dreadful , end result raising money is not happening.  We need results on the field to get the vibe going thats why Creedon is doing untold damage.  This is not entirely of his making but unfortunately he can not lift us from it.   Cut the cord sooner rather than later, we are only wasting time.  Portarlington, Portlaoise, Graigue & Mountmellick are providing poor returns on population.  We need to do something radical to get back into these towns.

It seems everyone is at fault for this omnishambles

1.Creedon can only deal with what he is given,he is at the very end of the conveyor belt,this is the culmination of 10 years of underachievement and woeful mis-management at underage level.

2.The Funding for the GDA's comes from Hq and isn't based on the senior county teams current performance,thank fut for that.

3.Its up to the county board to present a viable business case for more funding for GDA's etc....,a little bit more professionalism and backbone in this area please,if you shout louder you tend to get more.(a la Portlaoise GAA and their  rathleague funding from central council)

4.I would have serious concerns as to some of the work being produced by the GDA's,I was recently at an u16 training session in a club which my nephew is a panel member,The GDA rocked up with very little in the way of required training equipment  and didn't see fit to inform the club what was needed,the same fella doesn't seem to drive himself either,i've seen him on 3 occasions being driven to sessions,maybe there is a reason for this,I hope to jaysus we didn't hire a GDA without a drivers licence.

5.The 4 towns you've mentioned need to have a look at why they are failing to produce,even if you had 10 GDA's it up to these clubs and their mentors to get the finger out,get a coherent infrastructure in place and get playing numbers up.

one final thing,there's nothing to stop 1,2 or even 3 clubs banding together and hiring in a full time  GDA,HQ will fund 1/2 (up to a certain point) of the cost.

I realise Croke Park pays for the GDA's but nothing stopping the County Board raising additional funding themselves and paying more GDA's out of their own pocket.  Problem here is that the Croke Park nearly breeds a dependency on them for funding.  Counties should be well able to raise cash themselves.

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on March 06, 2017, 12:02:44 PM
We need results on the field to get the vibe going thats why Creedon is doing untold damage.  This is not entirely of his making but unfortunately he can not lift us from it.   Cut the cord sooner rather than later, we are only wasting time.  Portarlington, Portlaoise, Graigue & Mountmellick are providing poor returns on population.  We need to do something radical to get back into these towns.

Alright so BallyroanAbu and Town1980 - given that both of you believe you have the answers - who would you put in charge? Do you really think that even a combination of Micko, Mickey Harte and Jim Gavin would have this Laois team flying?!? Sack the manager and replace him with what exactly?

Creedon has a track record of building from the roots up which takes years, not weeks. He is also a shrewd man in terms of how he sets up his teams. Not his fault that the players can't tackle, kick a score or execute on basic skills at times. How attractive would we be to other prospective managers if we sacked him now? The suggestion is idiotic and very poorly considered. You should get a job with the Trump administration. To look at what is wrong in Laois football we need to look much more closely at the schools, the club structures and championships, and our own county board who have failed miserably to build on the huge successes of the 90s and 00s. 

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on March 06, 2017, 12:57:45 PM
I realise Croke Park pays for the GDA's but nothing stopping the County Board raising additional funding themselves and paying more GDA's out of their own pocket.  Problem here is that the Croke Park nearly breeds a dependency on them for funding.  Counties should be well able to raise cash themselves.

Why would you go as a county and fundraise for GDA's when HQ has the wherewithal to fund GDA's,are we that timid that we wont even ask???

by all means fundraise,but don't spend hard needed cash on things that HQ should be providing!!!!. 


Would your club Ballyroan Abu be willing to pay 1/2 or a third or a sixth of the cost of a full time GDA ?

Creedon if he was such a organized, well researched guy would never have taken the Laois Job.  So that debunks your theory he is getting a lot of credit for Tipperary's run last year maybe true but there were plenty of other reasons and people.  He did not attend most if any Laois Club Championship games.  He got a lot of credit for being organized at the start, maybe this is a sad reflection on what went before.  I don't need to be Trump, we were relegated to Div 3 first time in 30 years( not Creedons fault) were heading to Div 4 (Creedons Fault).  He signed up to the job the buck stops with him.   He is been paid to do a job(poorly)  that means he is judged by higher standards.  The County Board & the Clubs stand responsible for the poor structures within Football (probably hurling).   

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on March 06, 2017, 01:08:25 PM
Creedon if he was such a organized, well researched guy would never have taken the Laois Job.  So that debunks your theory he is getting a lot of credit for Tipperary's run last year maybe true but there were plenty of other reasons and people.  He did not attend most if any Laois Club Championship games.  He got a lot of credit for being organized at the start, maybe this is a sad reflection on what went before.  I don't need to be Trump, we were relegated to Div 3 first time in 30 years( not Creedons fault) were heading to Div 4 (Creedons Fault).  He signed up to the job the buck stops with him.   He is been paid to do a job(poorly)  that means he is judged by higher standards.  The County Board & the Clubs stand responsible for the poor structures within Football (probably hurling).

maybe we should looked for a disorganized,badly informed manager instead

mudder a jaysus

We already pay 1/2 the cost of the GDA to go into Schools.   I am pretty sure as our financial situation improves we will be paying for more work with Coaches and GDA's.   If your waiting for Croke Park and Provincial Council to sort our problems out you will be waiting along time.

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on March 06, 2017, 01:13:22 PM
We already pay 1/2 the cost of the GDA to go into Schools.   I am pretty sure as our financial situation improves we will be paying for more work with Coaches and GDA's.   If your waiting for Croke Park and Provincial Council to sort our problems out you will be waiting along time.

Im talking about an actual full time GDA not the coach schools liaison,ill take that as a no then.

Where in any of my comments regarding GDA funding, did I say anything about waiting for HQ,You go to them.

but then again too many of us would prefer to curse the dark than light a candle......

Were getting our act together, we made more mistakes than most but I think we are starting to see improvements.  On GDA's, Croke Park don't just grant you want. Say if Laois want 2-3 more GDA's the hoops that they have to through could take up to a year and most likely they will be turned down.  You don't get them because you ask, there is a lot of politics in the granting of them.

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on March 06, 2017, 01:40:48 PM
Were getting our act together, we made more mistakes than most but I think we are starting to see improvements.  On GDA's, Croke Park don't just grant you want. Say if Laois want 2-3 more GDA's the hoops that they have to through could take up to a year and most likely they will be turned down.  You don't get them because you ask, there is a lot of politics in the granting of them.

Best not to bother then.......

Some crazy talk going on here at the moment. Lads expecting Creedon to make wine out of water. Simple fact is that a lot of these players are being played out of position because needs must. We have a hand full of inter county standard footballers but not much more. We tackle like Under 12s and because of that, we leak too many scores. Creedon inherited all of this. Blame him if you want but you're deluding yourself if you think he is to blame for all of this. It's been a long time coming.

High Fielder the problem here is if Creedon was in Division 1 or even Division 2 your point would be fair enough but the truth is we are facing relegation to Div 4.  We may not have top class inter county players but the teams we are playing against are not world beaters.

Unfortunately, your argument is premised on us being better that's what's around us. And you have no evidence of that. We're a moderate outfit. Offaly are worse and they have a better pedigree. It happens, but it's certainly not Creedon's fault. As I said, you could count our inter county players on one hand. Most of our lads, and you'll notice I said most, are not strong enough for this level, either technically, physically or both. Hard to swallow but again, not Creedon's fault.

Quote from: High Fielder on March 06, 2017, 02:36:12 PM
Some crazy talk going on here at the moment. Lads expecting Creedon to make wine out of water. Simple fact is that a lot of these players are being played out of position because needs must. We have a hand full of inter county standard footballers but not much more. We tackle like Under 12s and because of that, we leak too many scores. Creedon inherited all of this. Blame him if you want but you're deluding yourself if you think he is to blame for all of this. It's been a long time coming.

Great point here about the tackling ...since McNulty left it has been non existent on Laois teams I've seen ...We ship so many scores its unreal.

Bad result yesterday after being ahead and having the platform to go on and win it.

We should still have enough to beat Antrim and Longofrd or Offaly which will probably see us safe in Division 3

Very poor result but those calling for creedons sacking a few games into his reign need to cop on a bit in fairness. Laois football cannot be saved in a few months. Give him a chance. We'll still likely stay up if we win 2out of the last 3. It's not a great start but I'm willing to give it time as he has proven pedigree. He's not just a random man on the street. I'm beginning to question the knowledge and memory of some posters when saying for example that booth and timmons (one of the best full backs in the country) are the same and that we're pretty much full strength. We're nowhere near full strength. Also, you want to sack creedon and his team and get who exactly? At least that man has a long term plan and has a proven track record. I want to see creedon there for at least 3years. There's no way he can improve laois football properly in any time frame shorter than that. He's had a very unlucky start with injuries. We're trying our hardest but again, we're carrying far too many players who simply don't have the ability for this level.That's why we need our big players back AND fit. The likes of quig might be back but he's not match fit.

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on March 06, 2017, 01:08:25 PM
Creedon if he was such a organized, well researched guy would never have taken the Laois Job.  So that debunks your theory he is getting a lot of credit for Tipperary's run last year maybe true but there were plenty of other reasons and people.  He did not attend most if any Laois Club Championship games.

why are you posting that? I know for a fact that he attended a lot of club championship games in laois. He's been a regular for a while due to his proximity with where he's based. This point just proves you're talking out of your arse to be fair.

There seems to be two issues that are consistently getting tangled on this forum.

On the one hand, there is the issue of the long-term decline of Laois football, the structures needed to ensure a good supply of talented young lads, the financial issues, developing football in the urban areas, etc. I don't know whether or not it's Creedon's job to work on these problems over the medium-term but God almight himself couldn't fix these problems overnight. If that is his job, he might very well be an excellent choice and his track record in Tipperary (whether he was entirely responsible or not) has to be respected.

A completely different issue is the performance of the Laois Senior Football team against Sligo in Div 3 of the league on a Sunday in March. This is certainly Creedon's job. The job is to send out a well-prepared team with a high level of motivation and a game plan that suits the players we have. He is responsible for the team selection and for ensuring that the players know their jobs (for opposition kickouts and the like). We may not have a team of world beaters but I think we have more than enough players to be competitive in Division 3. It's true that he has been terribly unfortunate with injuries and any manager needs some time but you don't need years to get a team motivated or playing to a particular system. This should be becoming evident relatively soon.

Great post Giovanni .. BallyroanAbu talking about sacking Creedon after 4 matches is beyond ludicrous ..
Give the man a chance. Lets all take a deep breath and judge where we are at after the league
The players are not there anymore .. No underage success in a decade ..
Tipp are the opposite of us.. Their recent success was built on hard slog at underage ..
Creedon was heavily involved in this ..

And i agree with Tony - stop talking out of your arse .. Creedon was at numerous Club Championship games.

Right lads keep telling yourselves this gets better I will be back after the Antrim game, but for the guts of 5 years the same people on here or previous forum having been telling us more time.  This is a shambles the manager is no better than the previous two, your deluding yourselves that this needs time. 

I am sorry if I come across overly pessimistic as I do realize most of you on here do have the best interests of Laois at heart and while I do not agree with you,  I hope your right and I am wrong.

Look while to certain degree Ballyroanabu you are right its not really the thread for it..

Creedon has being dealt a weak hand at the start of this league and very unlucky to have key players missing in so many vital positions .

Meaney and Begley leaving the fray yesterday certainly didn't help matters.

I will give him more time before I judge him on the basis of what he had to work with so far.

Lets see how he does against a fancied Louth side with the u21s on wednesday night and take it from there.

There is no right or wrong, and your passion is obvious, but we're not at the races just now. Because we're a dual county, we might never be at the races again. The GAA climate doesn't look after counties like Laois, and realistically, we will always need a freak crop of players. We have a terrible habit of bigging up what look like good footballers, but in actual fact are only really ordinary. I personally don't think we have the players, particularly backs, so my expectations are low. I always get the feeling that those who expect a lot are those who overrate our players. Until they prove otherwise, they are what they are and it is what it is. Jim Gavin wouldn't do any better with this panel in my opinion.

Yeah I agree high fielder. We just don't have the players at the moment, and let's be realistic - we've never won an all Ireland in football. We've never had an excellent team consistently. Even in 2003-2006 we didn't make it beyond the quarter finals.
For that reason, my expectations are also low. But I've always said, if I see my team trying their best, I'll be happy enough. I do see these players, though most not good enough to challenge the top tier, are definitely busting a gut for the county. And for that reason I'm happy to follow them around the country.

In the last 30-40years we've only had 5or so relatively successful years in football. And that's just the reality of it. Following laois gaa is definitely not very rewarding in terms of success but to see 15 lads give it all for the county is enough. Having said that, to see a really great season again in the next five to ten years would be very much appreciated but not expected.

We've had six managers now since micko, time to stop blaming managers, we just don't have the ability at the moment to really challenge, especially with over 5 injuries to our top players and some not committing. That's just the way it is. That's why I'm going easy on creedon for now. You can tell a player what to do with an excellent game plan all day long but if they just don't have the ability, it's not the managers fault is it.

Of course it's not and I agree with every word of that post. It's too easy to be critical and we're not the only county struggling.

As a matter of fact, managers matter a lot.

It's not a coincidence that McNulty's teams made it very hard for the oppostion but two years later the same players were conceding huge scores under TOF.

Any manager should be judged according to whether he has managed to get the maximum out of his group of players. I think the record of the previous 5 or 6 managers is very variable in this regard. Certainly, I wouldn't like to underestimate the role of the manager.

http://www.leinsterexpress.ie/news/sport/238487/14-man-laois-caught-late-on-by-sligo.html

If we beat Antrim and offally which is not a given by any stretch we should stay up ,
I really think it's imperative we stay in div 3 and I think the future few years for Laois should be all about concentrating on the league and trying to get back to div 2 and consolidate there and try make a push for div 1 , seems miles away now but I really think the league should be Treated like Laois's championship for the forseeable future.

Right ratings again from what I saw on Sunday up there.

Again just my opinion no disrespect to anyone I admire all the players in this county who commit to the Blue and white!

Graham Brody-8 Can't fault our keeper anyway I thought he was good one decent save and very good distribution his kickouts short and long were superb especially that one to Quigley late on.

Alan Farrell-5 Never really happened for the Ballylinan man ,he cover the ground and did the simple things well but like so many in the second half he coughed up possesion to easy and was very poor in the tackle.

Denis Booth-7 Can't fault the Heath man I thought he had another solid game kept his man relatively quite and caught a few dangerous balls.He is doing well for Timmons in there at the minute.

James Kelly -6 Was turned a few times which he needs to work on but did come out with some great ball and never gives up.

Darren Strong-6 Missed a great goal chance did keep possesion well at times in the second half when we were up against it.Hard to know where he was playing.Not suited to corner back in my opinion.

Stephen Attride-6 Spent a lot of time covering other men which is taking away from his game.Needs to work on his tackling. Did score a nice point when he got forward.

Colm Begley-# Hard to rate a player only on the field a little more than ten minutes

Kevin Meaney-4 Was doing so well up until that moment of madeness made the second goal and was winning great ball.I didn't see what happened but I've been told it was more than likely a red card.Disappointing!

John O'Loughlin -6 worked extremly hard and was one of Laois's better players when the tide was turning against us in the second half scored one excellent point in that second period.

Danny Luttrell-5 Another day that didn't really work out for the young Courtwood man lost possesion too many times and offered little going either way.Hopefully he can have a good game for the u21s Tomorrow night which will build confidence.


David Conway-6 Not really a centre forward as such but worked his socks off.won balls he should have never have won scored one great point in the second half and his link play was good all around.

Danny O'Reilly-5 Inexperienced at this level and it showed Again the u21 game on wednesday might bring him on more and build confidence.

Niall Donoher-6 Mixed bag for the courtwood man didn't lack effort or belief and always shows for the ball ,kicked a few silly balls away again which will annoy him but was better than the Tipp game for sure.

Donie Kingston-8 1-1 from play and a few nice frees his goal was a thing of beauty and in the first half he was unplayable at times.Drifted out the field in the second half and wasn't as much of a threat.Laois must learn how to use this deadly weapon better going forward.


Paul Kingston-7 Again 1-1 from play and in the first half he was superb .Him and Donie link so well and I still believe this will be a big year for the Kileen man.


Subs:
Padraig McMahon-7  for Begley  The Ballyroan man didn't look out of place and added great pace to Laois coming out with the ball which we haven't seen since him and O'Leary were off the scene.Was loose at the back and his man did kick a few too many scores.

Brendan Quigley -7 Nearly got a full half was rusty at times giving away two very bad hand passes which lead to Sligo scores did a lot of work in the middle and is very good at stopping and holding up a man which so many others can't.Caught three great balls which we have missed in previous games.

Gareth Dillon -6 Didn't do anyhting wrong but wasn't really a stand out for the time he was on.Could like so many Laois men be stronger in the tackle and maybe take more of the ball in tight situations as he is experienced enough now.


Ross Munnelly -5 Never really got on much ball and it was a hard ask for him when we played so deep .Not really his cup of tea although he did put the hard yeards in.Thought Finn or Walsh would been more suited to that role.


Overall a disappointing loss after been so good in the opening 25 minutes I really thought we were going to blow Sligo away at one stage.No doubt the Red card changed the whole complexion of the game as not only were we down to 14 but we had lost a player who was having such a good game before that so in reality it was a double blow.

Loosing Begley early didn't help matters although McMahon rolled back the years with a decent display.

Really was a sore one to take having battled so well for spells of the secong half and nearly doing enough to get a win or at least a point up there.

Results mean we are in a real battle now I just hope we can get the 4 points needed which should see us safe.

Did David Conway spend the game at centre forward? I don't understand that decision at all as Davy is a corner forward.

Quote from: redsetanta on March 07, 2017, 11:08:13 AM
Did David Conway spend the game at centre forward? I don't understand that decision at all as Davy is a corner forward.

Yeah he did same as the Tipp game but to be fair everyone was so deep in the second half he was down in his own half back line for much of it.

Still agree with you Play him further up the field.

Hopefully the couple of league games will stand to our u21s tomorrow night. Creedon has to be commended for persevering with these lads in the opening league games despite the criticism and some poor performances. The experience gained and trust show by the manager in their abilities will be vital to their development and should stand to them for u21 championship this year and allow them to step up as leaders on that team. With the favorable draw Laois could potentially find themselves in an under 21 final. Having Laois underage teams competing in Leinster finals again would be nice and help to lift the apathy that currently exists within the county. Tipp's underage success was built brick by brick and I think there is already evidence to suggest that Creedon is doing that in Laois. At senior level we are going to lose 6/7 key players in the next two to three years so it is vital for Creedon to introduce and develop young players from the off so that they are in a position to step up when the retirements do come about. While people may be criticizing results now, in the long term it will hopefully stand to these young players the experienced gained and lessons learned.     

Quote from: Clubber Lang on March 07, 2017, 02:14:27 PM
Hopefully the couple of league games will stand to our u21s tomorrow night. Creedon has to be commended for persevering with these lads in the opening league games despite the criticism and some poor performances. The experience gained and trust show by the manager in their abilities will be vital to their development and should stand to them for u21 championship this year and allow them to step up as leaders on that team. With the favorable draw Laois could potentially find themselves in an under 21 final. Having Laois underage teams competing in Leinster finals again would be nice and help to lift the apathy that currently exists within the county. Tipp's underage success was built brick by brick and I think there is already evidence to suggest that Creedon is doing that in Laois. At senior level we are going to lose 6/7 key players in the next two to three years so it is vital for Creedon to introduce and develop young players from the off so that they are in a position to step up when the retirements do come about. While people may be criticizing results now, in the long term it will hopefully stand to these young players the experienced gained and lessons learned.   

Excellent post Clubber. Tomorrow will be very interesting indeed from that point of view. If the lads on the senior panel end up being leaders for the u-21s tomorrow, then the investment in these lads will have been worth it. I'd have some doubts that that's what'll happen but I hope I'm proved wrong.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C60woXoW0AERqRa.jpg)

Win against Antrim would lift the mood dramatically in the camp.

I believe we can beat them although there will be nothing easy about going up there.


Hopefully the news on the injury front will be a bit better before Sunday !

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C69G2rPWsAAaNtP.jpg)

Team picked for Antrim game.

1. Graham Brody (Portlaoise)

2. Darren Strong (Emo)

3. Denis Booth (The Heath)

4. Alan Farrell (Ballylinan)

5. Stephen Attride (Killeshin)

6. Kieran Lillis (Portlaoise)

7. Padraig McMahon (Ballyroan Abbey)

8. James Finn (Ballyfin)

9. John O'Loughlin (St Brigid's)

10. Niall Donoher (Courtwood)

11. David Conway (Arles-Kilcruise)

12. Eoin Lowry (Killeshin)

13. Ross Munnelly (Arles-Kilcruise)

14. Donal Kingston (Arles-Killeen)

15. Paul Kingston (Arles-Killeen)

Good to see Ross and Padraig ready to start. Hope their experience will pull us through.

I don't get these team selections.

I have not gotten his selections once this season.

while i do think creedon isnt the man for the job i also think its too early for clancy mcnulty also,,,,,management is a tough gig and while the two of them i rate highly to date its still early days,,,lets see how mcnulty reacts to defeat and lets see if graig progress,,,if they both do well then yes i would like broan abu says take a chance there,,,,ballyroan abbey i sense a certain degree of dislike towards clancy from your view ????but as a spectator clancy did progress yee yee were candidates to go down you might not like me saying that but from the outside yee were a poor side but definately made progress under him,,,time will tell from a graig point of view will judge then,,mcnulty had an easy job but now faces his first dielma,,,i could be wrong but i think portlaoise are in trouble

Lads, I've been reading with great interest the reaction to our season so far.

2003 was our high tide mark- Div1 final, Leinster title, Mick O'Dwyer manager, All-Ireland Minor title.
We had it so good.

But where is our real position?
Heading for Div4 is a disaster for football in the county.
Div3 is almost as bad.

As a predominantly football county I think our correct league position is in Div2 with an ambition to make Div1, challenge for a Leinster final and see how far we can get in All Ireland series.

Just my opinion as a fan and optimist.

Totally agree No.5,  why are people accepting this.  Everybody is saying what can't be done our players are of Div 2 standard they always were.  Peter Creedon is a bluffer and has as far as I can see not an iota of a clue what his doing.  Mick Lillis was the same last year and TOF was a complete joke with a jokers C.V. We are now 5 years into this absolute disaster and people want to give it time I am sick of giving it time.  I am sick of what is the norm when Creedon gets relegated he should be sacked as he has failed spectacularly in what he was paid to do.

I agree. We had good managers in Micko and Kearney and we blackguarded both of them. Maybe if we blackguard a few more we'll stumble across a good one.

So who will be our saviour BallyroanAbu?

What great manager will bring us back to our 'rightful place'?

Before you and Town 1980 answer, ye might consider the players that were available to be both Micko and Creedon, underage success in the 8 years before they took over, and the state of club football in the county at that time.

Quote from: Don Draper on March 19, 2017, 09:37:35 AM
I agree. We had good managers in Micko and Kearney and we blackguarded both of them. Maybe if we blackguard a few more we'll stumble across a good one.

And Tom Cribben. Creedon should get the full year before any initial judgement is made.

Lets be fair here no one gets shafted when they are getting paid for the job.  Micko walked out of Laois with a €250,000 all in so in fairness nice gig if you get it. He did a good job but it prob ran it's course.  If you remember correctly back then it was driven from within the county board and players who wanted Micko gone and in fairness McNulty came in and did a good job.  Everyone hated his style but that was life.  TOF & Creedon are losing managers who are getting paid for this so we are not shafting anyone these guys are not volunteers doing it for Laois Football they are paid, in my view are not doing the job that they were paid to do.  Maybe the crop of players is not as good as previous(not my belief) but we are failing in Div 3 not Div 1 or Div 2.   Lillis was dreadful but he was not paid so I judge him by a lesser standard.  This is not a Sunday soccer manager who shows a bit of enthusiasm, organisation & willingness stays in the job.  This is a paid gig and your remit is results you may not agree with me but their will be no uplift this season.  Creedon will be sacked at the end of it(should have been sooner won't be because County Board are essentially treating Creedon like his a volunteer).   What I am saying is give it to young club coaches within the County(it's a gamble but could it be any worse than what's going on).  Because things are so bad we can take a risks and we may uncover a coach within our own county who if we had to pay from similar coach from outside could cost €50,000 plus.  I think somewhere among our Club Coaches  their is someone far better than what we have been paying for outside the county.   If we want someone to develop players then hire someone for that role it's not the job of county senior manager.

So you want to compare
Micko, McNulty and Cribbin they won more matches than they lost
against
TOF Lillis and Creedon
lets be fair here

Personally was very fond of Tom Cribbin he was all heart.

Quote from: SCFC on March 19, 2017, 10:11:38 AM

Quote from: Don Draper on March 19, 2017, 09:37:35 AM
I agree. We had good managers in Micko and Kearney and we blackguarded both of them. Maybe if we blackguard a few more we'll stumble across a good one.

And Tom Cribben. Creedon should get the full year before any initial judgement is made.

Cribben got an awful doing. Especially for a man who gave the GAA its first professional player.

Interesting how BABU is completely ignoring Kearns btw.

Both Attride and Donie Kingston gone off injured, losing 0-6 to 0-4 coming up to half time. Evan O'Carrol on for Kingston..

Kearns thought he was cat, surprising me with Tipperary.

what a terrible day for laois football...unless a miracle ,we will be in divison 4 next year....I honestly  dont no what to say..what worries me more is dere indiscipline..they must have someone sent off in nearly every game...we have gone back so much which is frightening....

What a waste of money this management team is lads slated ballyroanabu,, he did predict a loss ,,,today I felt myself we would win this game  ii is f---ing Antrim lads.,,, I for one on this forum am calling for him to be replaced.,,, one win so far a game we shouldn't have won.. lost to Offaly in the u21 also.,,, nontactics plan fitness and players are openly saying the fitness levels are shite,,, peter time to go

TBH when you bring somebody in, give him free reign on how he wants to do things, allow him to bring an extensive backroom team of his own choosing AND pay him a lot of money, there must be certain expectations.
Some level of discipline and beating the likes of Antrim when you need a win would be among the most basic of these expectations.

Blame the manager and the setup all you want. We clearly don't have the ability. Joe Higgins, Malachy or Pat Roe are not going to change the fact that we're at a poor level at the moment with lots of injuries and some players playing well out of position. A new manager will not work miracles. Give it a break.

Just back from the match, really poor quality game, spoiled by the wind. Both teams were equally as poor. Antrim didn't make as many mistakes as us. Firstly anything that could go wrong did, Kingston and attride went off early. Attride had to be carried off. Then o Connor's unforgivable sending off. We were really on the back foot. We conceded an awful goal when four backs ball watched and then messed up a high ball, leading to a soft goal. Conway who had been good was black carded and we had no threat up front. We had numerous chances but poor shooting, bad tackling and poor decisions cost us.

McMahon was the best of the backs and carried a lot of ball. The rest of the backs handled a lot of ball but didn't do their primary job marking. John was good and was fouled consistently. With no out ball in the forwards, he often went lateral and handled it to long. Conway in the forwards ploughed a lone furrow. Evan came on and started great but faded badly. He was stretching his leg just before he kicked an awful free wide. The league doesn't lie, that is our standard. On the way home their was a piece about Offaly football on the radio, you could put us instead of them. We don't have the players or the money to attract a top manager. You can blame creedon for some things but not For what Some of the players did today.

Quote from: Tony on March 19, 2017, 06:53:51 PM
Blame the manager and the setup all you want. We clearly don't have the ability. Joe Higgins, Malachy or Pat Roe are not going to change the fact that we're at a poor level at the moment with lots of injuries and some players playing well out of position. A new manager will not work miracles. Give it a break.

And a man being paid handsomely (and most likely tax free) is in a position where people are entitled to ask questions of him.
Players being sent off game after game after game reflects extremely poorly on a manager (as well as the players involved).

You cannt blame the manager for what O'Connor did. Both himself and his marker were booked, before play started again he kept niggling and threw a dig. This was right in front of the linesman. The fact that everybody was telling him beforehand to walk away made it even worst. Serious case of red mist but it cost us badly

Peter Creedon term as Laois Manager is a unmitigated disaster, we will all hear at the convention that football side of things is coming along nicely.   At the moment this county is as low as it has been in 30 years.  This is costing money and interest and yet I am the fool,   I really am sick of people on here saying Clancy, McNulty and Higgins would be dreadful how do you f...king know if you don't try them.  They could not do any worse than the last 3 managers who were complete jokes.  If this keeps up we will be like Carlow before long.  There is nothing wrong with the talent level in Laois.  The ones who jumped down my throat for saying Jim McGuinness would be my dream manager,  how else can we get Laois's equivalent of Jim McGuinness if we don't go with young passionate Laois Men as County Managers because I am 100% sure the muppets we are hiring would not be fit to lace any of their boots.  All that a county that Laois can attract from outside the county with the resources we have are clowns we have a better chance of getting someone with abit about them from inside the county and because of their passion for Laois Football would take the job. 

Quote from: on the hop on March 19, 2017, 07:04:44 PM
You cannt blame the manager for what O'Connor did.

When different players are being sent off game after game, does this issue ever become a management issue?

Get real lads. You're fooling yourselves. Sacking a manager after a few games in the league would not attract a good manager, believe me. Open your eyes. The players are trying hard but the ability isn't there. Ross has been some servant but is past it, the fact that he was on today shows you we're struggling. We're carrying a lot of players who try hard but are not up to standard. We should have won that game today, the sending off has cost us dearly. Do you think Creedon encouraged that sending off? Reality check needed.

We haven't had a good season in years. You're talking like we're constantly top of our league and challenging in the championship. The reality is we're nowhere near that and have not been so for years. We've been struggling in the league for the past 10 years with the odd exception and our championship form is similar - we've been awful in Leinster for 10 years in a row now. It's more of the same this year. This has been building up for 10years. You're deluded if you think getting rid of Creedon will do any good, ESPECIALLY when he showed up just a few months ago. Realise we don't have strength in depth, we cannot deal with losing a man to a sending off, losing kinston, conway and Attride and still competing with an already huge injury list. We can't compete to our potential with that. Really now, open your eyes to that. Antrim are poor but we're no better with our injuries and lack of strength in depth and carrying 5-7 hard working but average ability lads. Show me the objective facts that state otherwise. Knee jerk reactions while not looking at the big picture over the last 5-10 years is fooling nobody only yourselves.

Quote from: on the hop on March 19, 2017, 06:55:01 PM
Just back from the match, really poor quality game, spoiled by the wind. Both teams were equally as poor. Antrim didn't make as many mistakes as us. Firstly anything that could go wrong did, Kingston and attride went off early. Attride had to be carried off. Then o Connor's unforgivable sending off. We were really on the back foot. We conceded an awful goal when four backs ball watched and then messed up a high ball, leading to a soft goal. Conway who had been good was black carded and we had no threat up front. We had numerous chances but poor shooting, bad tackling and poor decisions cost us.

McMahon was the best of the backs and carried a lot of ball. The rest of the backs handled a lot of ball but didn't do their primary job marking. John was good and was fouled consistently. With no out ball in the forwards, he often went lateral and handled it to long. Conway in the forwards ploughed a lone furrow. Evan came on and started great but faded badly. He was stretching his leg just before he kicked an awful free wide. The league doesn't lie, that is our standard. On the way home their was a piece about Offaly football on the radio, you could put us instead of them. We don't have the players or the money to attract a top manager. You can blame creedon for some things but not For what Some of the players did today.

Everything you said there, I'd echo. We need to drop the blinkers.

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on March 19, 2017, 07:17:17 PM
Peter Creedon term as Laois Manager is a unmitigated disaster, we will all hear at the convention that football side of things is coming along nicely.   At the moment this county is as low as it has been in 30 years.  This is costing money and interest and yet I am the fool,   I really am sick of people on here saying Clancy, McNulty and Higgins would be dreadful how do you f...king know if you don't try them.  They could not do any worse than the last 3 managers who were complete jokes.  If this keeps up we will be like Carlow before long.  There is nothing wrong with the talent level in Laois.  The ones who jumped down my throat for saying Jim McGuinness would be my dream manager,  how else can we get Laois's equivalent of Jim McGuinness if we don't go with young passionate Laois Men as County Managers because I am 100% sure the muppets we are hiring would not be fit to lace any of their boots.  All that a county that Laois can attract from outside the county with the resources we have are clowns we have a better chance of getting someone with abit about them from inside the county and because of their passion for Laois Football would take the job.

Did you not say we need to attract Jim McGuinness? Two very different things.

The only thing that has been proven in the last few years is how underrated mcnulty was, another man we ran out of the place, because we werent playing swashbuckling so called laois style, weather lads agree or not with getting rid of creedon the reality is it wont happen til at least the end of the year, so we should get behind him and the team when they need it most instead of the usual bitching and moaning

Not everybody who has criticised Creedon has suggested that we get rid of him.
Some posters would do well to comprehend that.

Some of those defending him seem to think that he shouldn't be criticised.

Too early to run him? Yes.
Too early to expect more of him and the team? No.
Too early to criticise him? No.

He's in a well paid position. I don't see any problem with people expecting the basics to be in place. For example keeping 15 men on the field on a regular basis.

"There is nothing wrong with the talent level in Laois" .. jaysus ballyroanabu .. the underage results from the last decade would suggest otherwise .. if we had everyone fit wed be a good division3 team or a bad division2 team .. I'm with Tony and don ..talent is no there .. sack creedon if u want but it might or mightnt make a small difference .. but we do not have the players anymore .. your living in the past .. we have no real defenders .. without donie we are dreadfully limited up front .. and we arecommend an aging team .. I think division 3 is our level for the foreseeable.. I'll continue to support the team no matter what division they are in but I'm realistic about where laois football is now

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on March 17, 2017, 11:37:48 AM
At this stage I would go for a complete miracle shot, in an ideal world Clancy and McNulty but they are not coming out of their club jobs.   If money was not an object Jim McGuinness if we go outside we need to think big.   If cheap and doable, I like Higgins but I would think a bit of experience longside like Jason Ryan would not be an issue.  But if gun to my head Clancy and McNulty.   I really think Clancy has something special and we would be stupid not to give him the job at some point.
[/quote

That's what I said if money was no object, it is a problem I am well aware of it. 

Creedon should get the chop now , he won't but I think the selection policy should really look at inside the county and the coaches that are getting results.

Talent is there,  peanuts been spent on bringing them on.  I easily think we could be comfortable in Div 2 with what's available.  Tony spent the last 6 months telling me I was a fool and a clown at various points.  Now he resorted to the talent is not there well I am telling you we could operate easily in Div 2 with what's available.  We do need a over arching development manager to see what we are doing and where we are going so that we are developing players to fit our needs.  But first our senior team needs to get results.  If all you can aspire to is been sh..t then that's what you will be.

I said this in September rings a little more true today, Tony called me an idiot then also.
Quote from: BallyroanAbu on September 27, 2016, 09:00:19 AM
How can saying this appointment is a waste of time be stupid, at worst it's a different opinion.  Peter Creedon is  a low profile appointment who will at best keep us in Division 3 at worst relegate us to Division 4.   The County Board by going this way is continually showing short-term behavior when have they stopped and asked what is going wrong with Laois Football ? They have continually kept their heads down and avoided criticism they are volunteers and maybe that is not in their remit.  But under their stewardship Laois Football is now at it's lowest point in over 30 years.  So if you think Peter Creedon is going to sort all this by being a good manager well good for him.  I just think Laois Football is in bigger trouble than just needing a new manager.  I think at this stage we are very much like Offaly which is quite amazing considering where we were over 4 years ago.  It wont be too long before people on here are dancing

That's what I said if money was no object, it is a problem I am well aware of it. 

Creedon should get the chop now , he won't but I think the selection policy should really look at inside the county and the coaches that are getting results.
[/quote]

I dont know if this is your agenda or not but a new trainer wont lead to more ballyroan abbey lads playing county lads your aware of that

It's a waste of money however much it costs. Lads come and go and the ones that are there are trying to do the right thing. Fair play to them, but the majority of them are ordinary enough footballers. None of our players would get into the top sides because none of them are the complete package. I'd be happier if we folded up the tent at this moment in time and didn't play in the Championship. We haven't the first idea what we're doing and it's pitiful watching what little talent we have being pissed down the drain. Offaly are in the same boat, Carlow Westmeath and Longford similarly. Between the whole lot of us we wouldn't have a decent team so f**k knows exactly why we are bothering. I'm not even bothered any more if it's Division 4 or 2 that we play in. Either way, we are wasting money and going nowhere.

Oh and by the way, today was maddening. Antrim were sitting ducks even with an extra man.

Who from Ballyroan get on it bar McMahon or Tynan at a push?

Now I have an agenda?, I don't care who get Laois Job as long as if your a young man from Laois with a bit of ambition that you are given a more that fair shake.  Which if you knew anything about the appointments is far from what is happening.  Tell me who appointed Creedon,  & TOF and on what  basis and targets,  then tell me I am wrong.

You're peddling false hope Ballyroan. The players are not there and neither are the coaches to coach them. You're one of many who rate Laois football and it's footballers too highly

You're talking nonsense Ballyroan. You don't even realise you're contradicting yourself. You said "I just think Laois Football is in bigger trouble than just needing a new manager" but yet, given the amount of trouble we're in, you still want a man gone after a few months for not working a miracle?

I thought we'd be doing better at this stage as well, to be fair. But at full strength we have an average team so what are we when we miss 6-8 of our top performers. I'm not delighted with Creedon's performance but you have to be objective sometimes and realise the talent aint there. We're struggling like over 20 other counties. It's the norm. The gap is getting bigger between the likes of Laois, Offaly and Longford vs the elite.

If you remember Tony it was the nature of the appointment, back then I said we should be appointing internal candidates to reignite the passion in Laois Football.  I suppose you are clutching at straws.   To be honest I like the banter with you all but I do wonder why your stuck on Creedon?

Secondly why appointing young fellas with a bit of passion within the county is such a bad thing I know they are high risk but honestly where is the downside.  if we are successful I could get your view but where we are at this moment I don't. 

Has the talent pool at underage completely dried up?
Or, as I personally suspect, have we for the best part of the last decade employed two full-time football GDAs who have summarily failed to bring through well-rounded footballers on a consistent basis? I do not understand how our GDAs get their yearly contracts renewed every year with no questions asked. Their role seems vague and incompatible with the needs of our adult teams.

Footballers with natural ability like the Kingstons, Moores, O' Carrolls etc will always come through but even despite their own fine talents, they each have deficits in certain areas. Have they and their likes gotten the coaching they would have received in say Tipperary?

It's perplexing looking at our underage development panels and the lack of consistency and cohesive planning. No defensive blueprint, no basic starting blocks in terms of work rate or graft and then history repeating itself every couple of years with promising teams getting turned over in the hot heat of Championship battle at minor or u21 level.

I know it's easy beat on County Boards and Officials who at the end of the day are volunteers but there's something rotten within Laois GAA. At best it's basic ineptitude; at worst it's wilful negligence.

Where's County Man? Quite a descending post you put up towards us on 17th Feb. Especially since we must have showed you something in the qualifiers in Portlaoise in July 15. Anyway all still to play for in this very competitive division where ALL teams are capable of beating each other!

It is a bit of craic at the end of the day BallyRoanAbu, but yes we do all want the best for Laois football. Nobody died but we're in a poor state in football and hurling and that's been the case for a while. I was one of Mick Lillis' biggest critics last year as I genuinely thought he was a nice man but totally not up to the job. I'm not going to run Creedon as, you have to admit, we've been woefully unlucky with injuries. He's been dealt a very very poor hand, I can't remember a year we had it so bad with injuries. But most importantly, I know he's a smart with good experience and wants what's best for Laois (I dont care what he's paid). Fair enough, if Jim McG was waiting in the wings to come in, I'd say do it, but when you name Clancy, Higgins etc as replacements, it's clear that's not going to solve anything. The players really like the setup, that's a fact. They're trying hard, that's also a fact. But the most important fact is that without our 4-6 top performers (and likely more now with Donie and Stephen out for the next game) we're going to struggle in any division. I don't see how you can just ignore that.

Peter Creedon post Antrim: https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/peter-creedon-post-antrim (https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/peter-creedon-post-antrim)

Tony draper ballyroan abbey to me yee are absolute clowns on here,,, yere level of no how and maybe here insight of competitiveness is just a joke we av fu--ing  won one game yes persist with the notion of managers who av experience,, wat did creedon win abs nothing wat has Higgins won nothing mcnulty a championship winner with  portlaoise Clancy nothing ide rather give the Laois lads who won nothing chaps who won a final who competed at a high level who are young enough to no the game and relate to players than some old man  who Wundt enspire a fern mouse,,, yes knock ballyroan Abu but he makes more passionate sense than any of yee remits who for me haven't a clue,, waiting for a manager to win something heel be waiting yee g--shites

Quote from: town1980 on March 19, 2017, 10:57:08 PM
Tony draper ballyroan abbey to me yee are absolute clowns on here,,, yere level of no how and maybe here insight of competitiveness is just a joke we av fu--ing  won one game yes persist with the notion of managers who av experience,, wat did creedon win abs nothing wat has Higgins won nothing mcnulty a championship winner with  portlaoise Clancy nothing ide rather give the Laois lads who won nothing chaps who won a final who competed at a high level who are young enough to no the game and relate to players than some old man  who Wundt enspire a fern mouse,,, yes knock ballyroan Abu but he makes more passionate sense than any of yee remits who for me haven't a clue,, waiting for a manager to win something heel be waiting yee g--shites

Enjoy the hangover in the morning old friend.

Quote from: town1980 on March 19, 2017, 10:57:08 PM
Tony draper ballyroan abbey to me yee are absolute clowns on here,,, yere level of no how and maybe here insight of competitiveness is just a joke we av fu--ing  won one game yes persist with the notion of managers who av experience,, wat did creedon win abs nothing wat has Higgins won nothing mcnulty a championship winner with  portlaoise Clancy nothing ide rather give the Laois lads who won nothing chaps who won a final who competed at a high level who are young enough to no the game and relate to players than some old man  who Wundt enspire a fern mouse,,, yes knock ballyroan Abu but he makes more passionate sense than any of yee remits who for me haven't a clue,, waiting for a manager to win something heel be waiting yee g--shites
[/quote

have you ever considered the possibility that laois football isnt that good? o'flatherta, dempsey, micko, kearns, mcnulty, lillis and now creedon not good enough in the eyes of the supporters. Lets be honest the ratio of supporter demands/whinging to players ability is probably the worst in the country. I actually have the feeling that lads like yourself prefer the team loses so it gives you something to complain about. Relax a bit, it a game at the end of the day, just because someone have a different opinion to you doesnt make them a clown, the same way a person who has a simular opinion to you doesnt make them a genius. I suggest you may need more hobbies that dont upset you

No hangover just a tired driver >:(

Quote from: town1980 on March 19, 2017, 11:41:33 PM
No hangover just a tired driver >:(

That's worse. Texting on gaaboard while driving is prob not a good idea mate. Look it's a game at the end of the day. We all have different opinions. I personally think, while I'm not happy with how we've begun the season, it's pointless even talking about a new manager as A: it's not going to happen mid season and B: we have to give it a bit more time, SURELY, as we can all agree we weren't exactly flying before he took over.

Critisise Creedon all you want but to bring up Clancy and McNulty etc to take over mid season - what a pointless conversation to have. It's not going to happen and it wouldn't be good for Laois football anyway, firing a respected manager like that mid season. Calm down, we all want whats best for laois football. If we all had the same opinion it'd be a boring forum wouldn't it.

I didn't expect much this season but if I see signs of building for the future (which I do with the introduction of new u-21 lads to senior and a focus on improving the underage setup with long-term goals) while also seeing a good effort from the senior lads, win or lose, I'm fairly content. We're not sitting pretty in the table but I do see a long-term plan coming into fruition. Of course we want to stay in Div 3 or 2 but getting higgins or clancy in now is an absolute panic move and will not benefit anyone long term.

"one of the poorest first 25minutes seen from laois in many a day.

this is division 3 and we are making louth look good.

4 passengers in the front 5, and the two midfielders only contribution was to get booked.

on this evidence with 4 away games to come, we will be relegated.

maybe division 3 will be an exercise in proving what players are up to intercounty or otherwise, doran, luttrell and lowry are in the otherwise category."



the above is the comment I posted from the stand at half time in the louth game and I am afraid, that game was merely a taster of what was to come.......bar the freak/fluke win in Armagh, this league campaign must rate as the poorest by any county participating in all 4 divisions.
Without Kingston, attrite Quigley and o connor next Saturday evening, Longford will beat us at their leisure, they will draw soft fouls and keep the scoreboard ticking over and win handy....the 6/4 on Longford is money for old rope, the 4/6 laois to be relegated is simply 66% profit on investment.

jack Nolan's piece sums up the situation and it is grim........we are now firmly in a position offaly football found itself 7-8 years ago and no light on the horizon.

I would say, any 3 of the forum members at random could have done better with this squad than this paid management.... other counties have enjoyed a spike due to a new manager, wexford etc.....for a new management to proceed and weaken the brand further takes some doing.

look, most of the current executive were responsible for appointing O Flaherty and we all know he was a dud....worse still they put up with him for 2 years.........how would you expect the same executive to unearth a manager who would act as a saviour/miracle worker?.

jacks article.

http://www.laoistoday.ie/2017/03/20/jack-nolan-laois-football-now-reached-time-low/

I do see a long-term plan coming into fruition. [/quote]

Could you share with us the main points of this long-term plan?

agree with the last two posts i am def not looking for anyone to take over mid season sorry i meant at the end of the year but you could not expect anyone to pick up the mess that has been created,,,no poster here could have thought we would be in this position bar ballyroanabu,,its a sad state of affairs and only getting worse people

Laois have never operated out of Division4 proper before. We were there in a group called Division4 1947/48, but it was geographical. We were in a Division4 in 1967/68 as well, but I think it was more sections, than divisions.

Relegation/promotion was only brought in, in the early 70s. Laois have never operated below Division3 since then.

Current
Antrim 4pts
Longford 4pts
Laois 2pts
Offaly 2pts

Rd6
Armagh v Antrim
Laois v Longford
Sligo v Offaly

Rd7
Antrim v Longford
Offaly v Laois

If we beat Longford (and esp if Armagh beats Antrim), then it comes down to us beating Offaly.

In fairness to the chairman of the county board, he did say he wanted to bring Laois to the next level. He has watched over as that has been achieved two years in a row now.

Silly me, I thought he meant the next level upwards, but obviously not.

At the start of the year I was slated on this forum for predicting division 4 relegation and I said the players were not there. I could see this coming over the last couple of seasons and it's not going to get better any time soon with so many of the key men moving on age wise. I can not see us beating Longford without Kingston and I don't know who is going to step into the backs in place of attride and begley. Prediction: Longford by 5 or 6.

Can we take a minutes silence there for the injury list.

If we had a full strength squad without injuries we'd be safe now and possibly going for promotion with the last 2 games.

No question.

Get a grip with your predictions, you're not Nostradamus. You got lucky with the awful injury list to our BEST players.

Can anyone name another team in any division with a worse injury list to their top players compared to us? I certainly can't. We're not performing well but that injury list is something crazy; we've never had it so bad in donkeys years.

Tony I think your been quite unfair, You have had your say LaoisAbu is entitled to his opinion.  At this juncture in time you are wrong, you may turn out another time to be right.   Sometimes we get an opinion of someone or an idea that we can't let go of.  For you I think Peter Creedon is it, your digging a deeper hole the more you defend him the more tragic it looks.  Winning and losing are small margins and Creedon can't buy one it's not going to work out for him that's life.  If his any good he will resurface somewhere else but  his time in Laois will be short Oct - June unless some clown wants to stand by their man.  Unfortunately whats going to happen is they will sack Creedon end of June and replace him somewhere around Oct with some other journeyman who will be equally useless.  I have a bad feeling Jack Sheedy's name will come up.

We would have 6 points if it wasn't for poor discipline.
Probably at least 8 if it wasn't for an injury list as long and more detrimental on any Laois team that I can remember.
Yes we have serious problems. Another poor U21 campaign highlighted that further, but Creedon is not one of them.

I'm not so much defending Creedon, BallyroanAbu - I'm more trying to get people to open their eyes that we've been very poor for 10 years, we have a very significant injury list to our best players throughout the entire league and also we're not bringing brilliant players through to escape the fact that we're mediocre standard the best of times and struggling poorly when under strength.

So in short : my point is : we're all disappointed with how this season is going so far but to blame Creedon for it all is very,very short sighted in my opinion. He's not the messiah but he's not the instigator of all this either - surely you can see that. I like reading people's opinions but we have to all acknowledge some basic facts too.

Quote from: Laoisonic on March 20, 2017, 10:56:59 PM
We would have 6 points if it wasn't for poor discipline.
Probably at least 8 if it wasn't for an injury list as long and more detrimental on any Laois team that I can remember.
Yes we have serious problems. Another poor U21 campaign highlighted that further, but Creedon is not one of them.

I must be the only one who thinks it, but as far as I am concerned that is a massive contradiction.

Regular poor discipline, from a variety of players, is a major management failure. It is a matter which requires no talent and does not depend on opposition performance. It should be easily resolved where this is respect and high standards.

If management cannot address this over the course of 5-6 months that raises serious questions, to my mind!

Disappointing few weeks with the league but as pointed out by more than one post: we're crippled with injuries to our key players, indiscipline costing us dear. Players must take responsibility for indiscipline. They're adults, they should bloody well know when they act the sh*te, they'll get punished.  People are expecting Creedon to turn water into wine with what we have. Getting rid of him will achieve very little. The talent pool is drying up and now we see the ill effects when the panel is stretched with injuries. I understand some posts point that maybe a better return should be gotten considering a significant back room team that cost enough. Not a concrete game plan in place and seem to be lost at sea a lot of the time. We have talent but talent wins you little without hard work. I hope the lads get a decent turnout on Saturday night in OMP. I hope some plan is in place to play smart and get 2 points most importantly. Fingers crossed we can avoid a bigger mess than we're in.

Quote from: Keyser Söze on March 20, 2017, 11:01:53 PM
Regular poor discipline, from a variety of players, is a major management failure.

Not striking someone in the face is more basic than hopping and soloing. And you don't expect new management to come in and teach the lads how to hop and solo now, do you. By your logic Alex Ferguson is responsible for Roy Keane pole axing Alfie Haland and trying to break his legs as well as 7 other red card offences? And I thought drinking stopped on Sunday. What about that time Cantona kung fu kicked the palace supporter and regularly got yellow and red cards? Yep, Fergies fault.

Conceding 7/8 points or so every game from frees due to persistent fouling and poor discipline in defense is a coaching problem. Players should drilled enough to cut that out during matches. But im talking about 3 red cards in 5 games.
Getting a straight red card for striking an opposition player isn't exactly the managers fault? These lads are senior inter county players, they and aren't under 14. I dont think they have to be told.

Quote from: Tony on March 20, 2017, 11:45:36 PM

Quote from: Keyser Söze on March 20, 2017, 11:01:53 PM
Regular poor discipline, from a variety of players, is a major management failure.

Not striking someone in the face is more basic than hopping and soloing. And you don't expect new management to come in and teach the lads how to hop and solo now, do you. By your logic Alex Ferguson is responsible for Roy Keane pole axing Alfie Haland and trying to break his legs as well as 7 other red card offences? And I thought drinking stopped on Sunday. What about that time Cantona kung fu kicked the palace supporter and regularly got yellow and red cards? Yep, Fergies fault.

This is the thing Tony my dear friend.
You claim to be ok with criticism of Creedon and that your issue is that people are calling for his head NOW. I have made it clear that I am not calling for his head now, yet you cannot take criticism of him!

Are you implying that playing with 14 players in so many of your competitive games is normal/acceptable?
Do you not think that management have a major say in a team's discipline?
If this was a different manager, such as last years one, these incidents would partially be blamed on a lack of respect among the players for management. You keep telling us how highly the players regard this fella. You don't continuously let somebody who have the height of respect for down. Something doesn't add up there.

Criticism of Creedon is not treason or burying our heads in the sand. I speak for myself and have made it clear why I am critical of him.
He is well "compensated". I don't expect him to work miracles. But he has had long enough to have basic things like discipline in place.
There is a serious lack of discipline there. The league is almost over.
That is not good enough.

Quote from: Keyser Söze on March 20, 2017, 11:01:53 PM

Quote from: Laoisonic on March 20, 2017, 10:56:59 PM
We would have 6 points if it wasn't for poor discipline.
Probably at least 8 if it wasn't for an injury list as long and more detrimental on any Laois team that I can remember.
Yes we have serious problems. Another poor U21 campaign highlighted that further, but Creedon is not one of them.

I must be the only one who thinks it, but as far as I am concerned that is a massive contradiction.

Regular poor discipline, from a variety of players, is a major management failure. It is a matter which requires no talent and does not depend on opposition performance. It should be easily resolved where this is respect and high standards.

If management cannot address this over the course of 5-6 months that raises serious questions, to my mind!

A bit of personal f**king responsibility wouldn't go astray. Poor discipline is nothing new with any Laois panel sadly. I was slated for saying how idiotic and costly Meaney's act was against Sligo, it seems its just more of the f**king same.

It was interesting to read Jack Nolans piece where he said that the players are happy with management and management seems to be happy with the players there is a problem. The quote is below.

'Of course the players are putting in a huge effort and sacrifice at training but if the players are happy with the management and the management happy with the players then there is something seriously wrong with the performances on the field.

There is no shape to the team. There is no describing the type of football they are playing in positive terms'

I'll tell you why we're underperforming on the field. Because we have 6-8 lads on the team who work hard but don't have the ability required. And other players working harder to cover for them. In addition, we've a lot of players playing out of position, clearly. These players are not to blame, they're trying hard, but the reality is that poor shooting, poor discipline and decision making is mainly an individuals fault. I can try all day to coach someone to play the way I want them to play ALL DAY LONG, but if they don't have the required ability, I'm going to fail. The only way this season is going to turn around somewhat is to get our injured, best players back and fit, ASAP. That's just the long and short of it.

Quote from: Tony on March 21, 2017, 09:30:03 AM
I'll tell you why we're underperforming on the field. Because we have 6-8 lads on the team who work hard but don't have the ability required. And other players working harder to cover for them. In addition, we've a lot of players playing out of position, clearly. These players are not to blame, they're trying hard, but the reality is that poor shooting, poor discipline and decision making is mainly an individuals fault. I can try all day to coach someone to play the way I want them to play ALL DAY LONG, but if they don't have the required ability, I'm going to fail. The only way this season is going to turn around somewhat is to get our injured, best players back and fit, ASAP. That's just the long and short of it.

I would suggest our big players aren't doing enough. Players who should have grabbed the thing by the scruff of the next some years ago, haven't. I'm not simply relating that to this year, but the last 5-10 years. There is no reason why we should not be doing what the likes of Monaghan are doing. But we have a CB who know where they want to go, but can't even decide how to get off the chair to get us there, and players, who for whatever reason, haven't grabbed the f**king thing by the throat and as a result, have had lesser careers than they could or should have.

In the meantime, we have slowly begun slipping down the rankings, with no discernible hope about how we can or when we can return. The decline is not terminable, but its difficult to see how it could be stopped. Also, if all these coaches who are being touted as the answers, are out there, then why haven't they been getting involved in our development squads? Does everyone want to be handed a senior job from the off nowadays?

Quote from: Don Draper on March 21, 2017, 09:36:32 AM

Quote from: Tony on March 21, 2017, 09:30:03 AM
I'll tell you why we're underperforming on the field. Because we have 6-8 lads on the team who work hard but don't have the ability required. And other players working harder to cover for them. In addition, we've a lot of players playing out of position, clearly. These players are not to blame, they're trying hard, but the reality is that poor shooting, poor discipline and decision making is mainly an individuals fault. I can try all day to coach someone to play the way I want them to play ALL DAY LONG, but if they don't have the required ability, I'm going to fail. The only way this season is going to turn around somewhat is to get our injured, best players back and fit, ASAP. That's just the long and short of it.

I would suggest our big players aren't doing enough. Players who should have grabbed the thing by the scruff of the next some years ago, haven't. I'm not simply relating that to this year, but the last 5-10 years. There is no reason why we should not be doing what the likes of Monaghan are doing. But we have a CB who know where they want to go, but can't even decide how to get off the chair to get us there, and players, who for whatever reason, haven't grabbed the f**king thing by the throat and as a result, have had lesser careers than they could or should have.

In the meantime, we have slowly begun slipping down the rankings, with no discernible hope about how we can or when we can return. The decline is not terminable, but its difficult to see how it could be stopped. Also, if all these coaches who are being touted as the answers, are out there, then why haven't they been getting involved in our development squads? Does everyone want to be handed a senior job from the off nowadays?

I would agree with most of this. I don't know enough about what the County Board is doing or not doing but I do think that the senior players in the group haven't shown great leadership (including discipline) at key times. Although Meaney was very unfortunate in Sligo, a pattern of bad discipline is evident. Discipline here is not just about red and yellow cards - it's about having the mindset to do the right thing at the right time (and this especially is the case when lads are making tackles).

Reading some of the posts above, you would think that the manager has nothing at all to do with the performances on the field. However, the players have to take responsibility too. Even with the long injury list, if we're properly prepared and have the right mindset, we should be competitive in Division 3 regardless of the injuries.

We can discuss the problems and issues about Laois football all day long but relagation to Division 4 and the detrimental affect it will have on football in this county is the most worrying aspect .
Currently I don't this Laois team beating Longford on Saturday . I would love to be proven wrong .
Creedon has two big games left and the consequences of losing either will leave him in a very difficult position .

Our county is divided in two; hurling and football. Comparisons with Monaghan are wide of the mark because they pay lip service to hurling. Dual counties are struggling, Cork included, and unless you have a huge population base, you will be on the back foot. It's a numbers game and we don't have them. Suck it up because it isn't going to change even with Jim McGuinness, Jim Gavin or Eamon Fitzmaurice in charge. Our Club Championship is shite and the players coming out of it are not good enough. It's as simple as that really, and as long as you try to give reputations to players that are undeserving, you will continue to bang your head off the wall. Half the people on here don't even go to matches, particularly away ones, and I know this because I am nearly on first name terms with everyone that does. So if you believe in them, at least go and support them and put your money and time where your mouth is. otherwise, give it a break. I've read some vomit on this forum since Sunday

Quote from: High Fielder on March 21, 2017, 02:06:35 PM
Our county is divided in two; hurling and football. Comparisons with Monaghan are wide of the mark because they pay lip service to hurling. Dual counties are struggling, Cork included, and unless you have a huge population base, you will be on the back foot. It's a numbers game and we don't have them. Suck it up because it isn't going to change even with Jim McGuinness, Jim Gavin or Eamon Fitzmaurice in charge. Our Club Championship is shite and the players coming out of it are not good enough. It's as simple as that really, and as long as you try to give reputations to players that are undeserving, you will continue to bang your head off the wall. Half the people on here don't even go to matches, particularly away ones, and I know this because I am nearly on first name terms with everyone that does. So if you believe in them, at least go and support them and put your money and time where your mouth is. otherwise, give it a break. I've read some vomit on this forum since Sunday

I'm not in a position to attend many games anymore and I depend on this forum and a number of posters whose judgement I've come to trust regarding players coming through etc.(yourself included HF)
Now it's no surprise to me that we're struggling right now as we're down a few players and what's coming through are just not at the required standard.
Just one example, the first team named for the league this year, there were 5 starters who weren't on anyone's radar ...that's ridiculous lads on here know every player in the country and none of theses players were mentioned as starters.
Ok we have a few injuries but players coming in ARE going to be our top players next year or the year after... does that thought scare anyone.
The club championship is shite many believe and needs to be restructured and that's the reason the players are poor, I think it's the other way around poor players will never make a good championship.
Will div 4 be a disaster or a wake up call, who knows but even if we start right now it will take 10 years ...scary.

Quote from: High Fielder on March 21, 2017, 02:06:35 PM
Our county is divided in two; hurling and football. Comparisons with Monaghan are wide of the mark because they pay lip service to hurling.

Laois has a greater population than Monaghan, by about 20% or so. We have the numbers to be doing better, that is the only reason I mention them, they are what we should aim for. Once upon a time we were what others aimed for, but its time to forget those days, as they are so far gone, its almost like it never happened, and no amount of old youtube videos will bring it back.

That we aren't doing better is down to the CB. The bigger towns are also culpable of course, the returns we are getting from them all are almost embarrassing. I couldnt give two fucks for Jim McGuinness, much like Ger Loughnane, he could be shit in another county for all we know, and besides, he's not coming, not a f**king hope is he coming. We need to mobilise ourselves. we need passionate men, who know how to achieve results. Wooly has said it ad nauseum that the people in charge of CB's arent qualified for the job outside the bigger counties and he's right. I've criticised Croke Park in the past for not providing more funding, but what would be the point at the moment you'd wonder. It'd simply be throwing good money after bad.

People can take cuts off Creedon all they like, but the truth is, there was no obvious candidate in Laois, up to the job. I have no idea if Creedon is, but he's in the job now. We'd be better off figuring out why we're not getting managers coming through, why the people being mentioned here aren't in Development squads, and what happened the likes of Rooney and Conroy who seemed to be making decent strides.

And finally, people not going to matches? Well, thats a question as old as time, which came first, the chicken or the egg? Give them the team to follow, and they'll follow it. Its tough on the players, but they have a role to play in this too. There's a lot of distractions nowadays, and you need to build the bandwagon, horrible and all a words as that is. If the product is shit, the public won't buy it. Its a sad truth of modern society. But give them something to root for, and you'll see, they'll return.

Relegation through 3 divisions, losses to Antrim, Clare, Tipperary, etc in recent years, that won't float any bandwagon. Sad, but true.

Ulster Minor football championship:

2013   Monaghan 4–10   Tyrone 2–14
2012   Tyrone 0–14   Monaghan 1-8


Ulster U21 football championship:
2016   Monaghan 0-13   Tyrone 0-11

This might help people understand how Monaghan remain competitive. Not a magic wand manager or trying to coach lads at 24 years of age how to handpass a ball or track a runner.

Saying that, we are not as bad as current results suggest. Our best footballers, which came from good underage structures haven't existed for a few years, are still good by any standard. The problem is with the fringe players and the younger guys coming through to take the place of the lads who are leaving.

Hard to argue that Brody, Timmons, Begley, Attride, Strong, Lillis, Quigley, Meaney, D. Kingston, Evan O'Carroll, Niall Donoher, John O'Loughlin are not intercounty standard. There are a few more such as young Moore with potential and David Conway is showing up well. The two problems we have are that not even a large subset of this group have been on the field at the same time this year and that the lads in to replace them are either too junior or not nearly up to standard. Creedon is trying to find some gems from the U21 panel but not too many are showing up well yet. Add all this together and you have a team without confidence with their backs to the wall.

It always seems to be the case that whenever Laois are in underperforming it's the club championships fault.Well the county has nearly sole access to over 30 county players from November  to the following July with the clubs then getting them back for 2 months and now you have zero access to your county minors till they finish which was August last year in Laois .My point is with  prob over 80% of their time spent in with county panels it's not the clubs fault for us underperforming at moment

This notion that it is our club championship's fault we have a poor senior team is a load of sh*te. It is not up to the club championship to provide players to our senior intercounty team, that's what your development squads, minor and U-21 teams are for. It must be the guts of ten years since we beat any of Dublin, Meath or Kildare at minor or U-21 level. That drought is now playing out at senior level.

For the majority of players coming through, their sole experience of intercounty football is limited to a handful of minor and U-21 Leinster championship games, against the likes of Louth, Wicklow, Longford etc. They are hopelessly under-prepared for senior football, and that is what we are seeing now. It should be no surprise to anyone who has paid attention to our results at underage level for the last decade or so that our senior team are headed for Division 4.

Looking down the Barrell of D4 at the weekend, Longford will be hard bet and our home form is nothing short than a disgrace. Really concerned with the state of football, The 21s was a disaster aswell no matter what way you look at it. The Minors have a chance depending on the draw of getting to a Leinster Semi/Final but probably no match for the likes of Meath-Dublin-Kildare. The dream team of creedon needs time to sort themselves out but what a terrible start and doesn't bowed well for a decent Summer especially if Longford turn us over this weekend. They have no fear of O Moore park as it is anyway.

Interesting discussion going on here. But will the deplorable state of Laois football be discussed at all at County Board level? Or, do they give a damn?

Its good to see people giving a shit about the state of play. Laois football has been in decline for the last decade.
The senior team will always be the yardstick and now that division 4 is on the horizon people are sitting up and taking notice.
There is the give Creedon a chance posters here and the get rid of him and put someone else in immediately posse.
Although im bitterly disappointed with our performances so far (even given our injury curse) i still know this is so much bigger than Creedon.
It could take 5+ years for things to start to improve .. for now i think things will get worse first

We dont have the cash for a high profile appointment but im not sure that would make much of a difference anyways.
So its the likes of Creddon who has a decent cv or a joe higgins type appointment.

All we can do as supporters is turn up Saturday and next week in Tullamore and shout the lads on.  They are giving it their all.
We will be decimated again by injuries on Saturday but maybe with a good defensive plan and a
willingness to fight like dogs we might get the 2 points ..
Given the injury crisis we have suffered staying in division 3 would be a reasonable achievement

Quote from: Giovanni on March 21, 2017, 11:48:47 AM
Reading some of the posts above, you would think that the manager has nothing at all to do with the performances on the field.

That is what has irked me.

Is Garry Walsh still involved? we will need everyone if Donie is gone for a few months.
Team for Saturday? Brody, Strong, Booth, Kelly, Farrell, Lillis, McMahon, Meaney, OLoughlin, Donoher, Conway, Finn. Munnelly, O Carroll, P Kingston.

Can we stop with the Darren Strong corner back experiment. To be honest I never saw him more as a half forward but successive managers have put him in the half back line but corner back. There has to be a better 'corner' back than Darren Strong in the county. Play Strong further up field.

   
We dont have the cash for a high profile appointment but im not sure that would make much of a difference anyways

Money won't solved our problem, bring in good coaches for our development squads, and I mean Good.

Quote from: redsetanta on March 22, 2017, 04:48:49 PM
Can we stop with the Darren Strong corner back experiment. To be honest I never saw him more as a half forward but successive managers have put him in the half back line but corner back. There has to be a better 'corner' back than Darren Strong in the county. Play Strong further up field.

He's no corner back but what's the alternative?

Quote from: justinn on March 22, 2017, 04:44:15 PM
Is Garry Walsh still involved? we will need everyone if Donie is gone for a few months.
Team for Saturday? Brody, Strong, Booth, Kelly, Farrell, Lillis, McMahon, Meaney, OLoughlin, Donoher, Conway, Finn. Munnelly, O Carroll, P Kingston.

Lillie was way off the pace last week. Darren strong played centre forward for much of the game after conway went off

Probably not a time to be discussing this 5 games deep in the league! But where are Jamie Farrell, Matty Campion, Gearoid Hanrahan? These guys played big league and championship games last year and were impressive. I know giving Under 21s some senior game time is important, but with all these injuries, experienced bodies is becoming scarce. Does anyone know if more players been drafted in with the injuries?

Quote from: Laoisonic on March 22, 2017, 11:40:38 PM
Probably not a time to be discussing this 5 games deep in the league! But where are Jamie Farrell, Matty Campion, Gearoid Hanrahan? These guys played big league and championship games last year and were impressive. I know giving Under 21s some senior game time is important, but with all these injuries, experienced bodies is becoming scarce. Does anyone know if more players been drafted in with the injuries?

All discarded i believe.
Where are (to name a few more) Gary Walsh, Conor Boyle,Paul Cahalane,Ambrose Doran gone,All have huge experience that we could do with

Very hard to understand why Gearoid Hanrahan would be discarded. We have almost no genuine corner backs and he was one of the few that looked relatively comfortable in the position. Very strange.

Maybe some of these players don't want to play for Laois or are not able to fully commit to the set up. Just cos there not on the panel doesn't mean they are being discarded.

Gary Walsh is on the panel but currently injured. Conor Boyle, Paul Cahalane and Gearoid Hanrahan made themselves unavailable.  Jamie Farrell and Matty Campion were dropped off the panel before the league which is very disappointing. Ambrose Doran played first few league games but wasn't good enough.

How badly injured is Donie....i read here that it could be out for two months. Gary Walsh played for his club recently in a league game and played very well so he cant be that badly injured

I just cant understand why Jamie Farrell wasn't selected. We have selectors that should know the sort of ability he has. If im correct, he kicked the winning score against Armagh last year?
Is Dillon still involved?

That team should get the job done.

LAOIS TEAM IN FULL:

1. Graham Brody (Portlaoise)
2. Darren Strong (Emo)
3. Denis Booth (The Heath)
4. James Kelly (St Joseph's)
5. Eoin Buggie (Stradbally)
6. Colm Begley (Stradbally)
7. Padraig McMahon (Ballyroan Abbey)
8. John O'Loughlin (St Brigid's)
9. Kevin Meaney (Arles-Kilcruise)
10. James Finn (Ballyfin)
11. David Conway (Arles-Kilcruise)
12. Niall Donoher (Courtwood)
13. Alan Farrell (Ballylinan)
14. Evan O'Carroll (Crettyard)
15. Paul Kingston (Arles-Killeen)

Strong team, all they need is confidence and a bit of luck.

Quote from: Don Draper on March 24, 2017, 10:14:24 AM
That team should get the job done.

LAOIS TEAM IN FULL:

1. Graham Brody (Portlaoise)
2. Darren Strong (Emo)
3. Denis Booth (The Heath)
4. James Kelly (St Joseph's)
5. Eoin Buggie (Stradbally)
6. Colm Begley (Stradbally)
7. Padraig McMahon (Ballyroan Abbey)
8. John O'Loughlin (St Brigid's)
9. Kevin Meaney (Arles-Kilcruise)
10. James Finn (Ballyfin)
11. David Conway (Arles-Kilcruise)
12. Niall Donoher (Courtwood)
13. Alan Farrell (Ballylinan)
14. Evan O'Carroll (Crettyard)
15. Paul Kingston (Arles-Killeen)

Probably the best we can select .
Brody is good
Full back line is a make shift one. Strong and Kelly are weak as both are far better further up
half Back line is decent although Begley is a poor marker and Buggy is easily turned
Midfield is decent if Meaney holds his head and does the simple things
Forwards overall are weak with Conway the best followed by Carroll and K P Kingston. If its tough Kingston will disappear. The rest are ball carriers and work horses.

i hope we win but im not expecting it,,,gona say a longford win by 5 but as i said i hope it doesnt happen div 4 would be a disaster

Quote from: town1980 on March 24, 2017, 12:07:23 PM
i hope we win but im not expecting it,,,gona say a longford win by 5 but as i said i hope it doesnt happen div 4 would be a disaster

Division 4 would be a disaster alright. It was always a possibility after last years manager got us relegated out of Division 2, that was an awful blow.

Hard to see where the scores will come from .. hopefully O'Carroll will have a stormer

It's about the strongest team we could pick in the circumstances, however, it probably looks stronger than it is as the likes of Begley, JOL, Evan, Padraig and Kevin wouldn't be inter county match fit and / or physically firing on all cylinders after injury. Can we place a finger on why so many are injured or were injured? I wonder has it anything to do with training method / frequency / surface. Our longest term injury is probably Mark Timmons but of course that was a surgery he has needed for some time. It'll be great to get him back but that might not be till summer.

If we had Timmons at full back, Booth could go into the corner, freeing up the likes of Strong to go wing. Strong, in my book, is not a corner back at all. The silver lining of the year so far has to be the return of Padraig McMahon. He seems to be in decent shape if a little rusty to inter county level (plus questions over his pace). We could well do with him anyway although I'd leave him at wing back and not corner as if I'm correct about his pace, he won't be fast enough for the position. Where's Dillon? Anyway, fingers crossed that we survive and stay in Div 3. That'd be something at least. We were never going to get promoted with the injury list but mid table would be satisfactory. Then we can look at summer knowing at least that we wont be in Div 4 next year. Longford and Offaly. Won't be easy and we'll have to dig deep as they are also battling. This will be a good test of the will of the players, but also the management to see if we can have a game plan to beat both of those teams.

Tony, I agree about strongest team we could put out.  Considering injuries I was surprised it looked so strong. Good point about match fitness though, and not a whole lot on bench. Anyone have info on Dillon situation?

I fancy us to win tomorrow night. Form suggests we should lose by a few scores but if these lads have any heart they'll tear into it and win at all costs.

Why haven't we seen any of this attitude? Getting sent off is petty and a false show of commitment. Not worth anything to us, just condemns team to another defeat.

Anyway, I fancy a win tomorrow and an almighty showdown in tullamore.

It's about time Creedon had a bit of luck and hopefully tonight will be that time. I don't think I've ever seen a Laois manager have to suffer as many injuries as he has in his first few months in charge and things have really gone wrong for him as a result.
He has been forced to play a number of u-21s and inexperienced players in vital games and it will probably stand to them in the long run but for the moment we have to depend on some luck and fighting spirit to keep us in this division.
If we can survive it will only get stronger as we go along and the fact that the players have faith in him is enough for me. We all feel bad about the situation we find ourselves in but we have to support management and players to get out of this. There's enough knockers around the country who would love to see us fail so lets all get together and show our support..

He won't get any luck but again I presume if we beat Longford,  I am back to being an idiot.  So will see you down at O Moore Park in front of 1000 people 600 of them from Longford for a Longford win.  Creedon is clueless and I will tell you something Laois will find it hard to get more than 12 points   ( my heads for chopping block) with these predictions lump on Longford at 13/8.

Corrected, that's it ? a spelling mistake surely the  status quo brigade are not going to leave it at that.

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on March 25, 2017, 11:07:12 AM
He won't get any luck but again I presume if we beat Longford,  I am back to been an idiot.  So will see you down at O Moore Park in front of 1000 people 600 of them from Longford for a Longford win.  Creedon is clueless and I will tell you something Laois will find it hard to get more than 12 points   ( my heads for chopping block) with these predictions lump on Longford at 13/8.

'Being an idiot'

I'm with BallyroanAbu on this one I can't see where the scores will come from unless Longford have brutal backs. Anyone know what Longford are Like ?

Well this is it,best of luck to the team tonight

Game on live here  in USA on gaago hopefully it's a bit better than tipp and Louth games which were bad viewing and a better result would be nice also ,

Quote from: Don Draper on March 25, 2017, 12:25:36 PM

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on March 25, 2017, 11:07:12 AM
He won't get any luck but again I presume if we beat Longford,  I am back to been an idiot.  So will see you down at O Moore Park in front of 1000 people 600 of them from Longford for a Longford win.  Creedon is clueless and I will tell you something Laois will find it hard to get more than 12 points   ( my heads for chopping block) with these predictions lump on Longford at 13/8.

'Being an idiot'

You're not an idiot for having an opinion and I respect that. I just think that we have a team of proud Laoismen out there and they will battle to the end.

Hopefully turn around second half. We can't tackle or seem to mark. Longford should be down to 14 with foot out from no 12. Light the candles!

The full forward line has to start moving, staying too static and allowing them to hold their shape

Your full forward has got most of the scores wat game u at?

A battling performance. Discipline again let them down. Referee was very frustrating.  Everything a laois man fouled, he seemed to book them and he seemed to let Longford off with a few questionable ones, especially the foot trip. There destiny is in their own hands now.

A win is a win and that's all that matters.
Well done

That'll do. Definitely more like it. Should have been more comfortable but I'll take it.

Another sending off. I simply don't know what's wrong with our players intelligence in pressure situations, it's infuriating, yet utterly predictable. We can't help ourselves. We don't help ourselves.

Anyway, we got the win. Well done for that lads, big players stood up. Finish the f**king job in Tullamore next week and let us never speak of this again. 

Referring at this level is brutal

Now:

Longford   6   2   0   4   -6   4
Antrim   6   2   0   4   -17   4
Laois   6   2   0   4   -20   4
Offaly*   6   1   0   5   -32   2

*presuming Offaly will lose....by, say 1 point.

The results were perfect today. Offaly losing tomorrow will tee up next week. If Laois win, they cannot be relegated, as Longford will be playing Antrim.

I think we would have won comfortably if evan didnt get sent off .. stupid by him

Stood up when we had to in the 2nd half .. pressed high up .. did it well ..

Team still looks a bit unfit but respect to the lads they fought like dogs

Im confident we'll beat offaly

Quote from: Dave like the tv channel on March 25, 2017, 10:41:02 PM
Now:

Longford   6   2   0   4   -6   4
Antrim   6   2   0   4   -17   4
Laois   6   2   0   4   -20   4
Offaly*   6   1   0   5   -32   2

*presuming Offaly will lose....by, say 1 point.

The results were perfect today. Offaly losing tomorrow will tee up next week. If Laois win, they cannot be relegated, as Longford will be playing Antrim.

I wouldn't presume Sligo will beat Offaly. Sligo are pretty poor and wouldn't have beaten us only for the sending off.

I wouldn't presume anything when it comes to Offaly but if we beat them next week we stay up
Is that right ?

I think both ourselves and Antrim should be -19

Is McNamee back with Offaly?

Quote from: Don Draper on March 26, 2017, 11:09:03 AM
Is McNamee back with Offaly?

Hasn't played in this years league anyway.

Quote from: SCFC on March 26, 2017, 02:24:57 PM

Quote from: Don Draper on March 26, 2017, 11:09:03 AM
Is McNamee back with Offaly?

Hasn't played in this years league anyway.

If we can't beat a McNamee'less Offaly, we'll deserve what we get. This is gut check time.

Don't forget a McNameeless Offaly just gave Sligo a good beating, something we couldn't do...

Quote from: Junior Ex Laoistalk on March 26, 2017, 08:25:58 PM
Don't forget a McNameeless Offaly just gave Sligo a good beating, something we couldn't do...

And we've only ourselves to blame for that. Lose to Offaly and be relegated to Division 4. That's the reality.

I wouldn't say much more before they walk out the door of the dressing room.

A fine win last night.

Great hunger shown by all players. Donie is a genius. Some lovely scores from play from Donie K, Evan O'Carroll, Alan Farrell and Buggie. Great finish for the goal by Davy Conway.

Great organisation and players playing to a plan. Decent defending.

Lets bring another another good performance to Tullamore.

Very true Tony, I think the lads will know more than Creedon the significance of this game. What great preparation for Leinster championship, this is do or die, proper do or die, as has been said here before relegation to division 4 is disastrous for a predominantly football county where we fancy ourselves as a second tier team, not a fourth tier team.

We have to be manic, but controlled manic, getting a player red carded almost every game is ridiculous and will relegate us if it happens again.

Like this weekends result I fancy us to beat Offaly in Tullamore. I truly believe we are currently at best a division 2 team, at worst a division 3 team, not a division 4 team.

What worries me is the lack of talent coming through. It's only like yesterday we had a glut of young players challenging the old guard: great servants and talents like Barney, Mick Lalor, Hughie, Goggie, Tom Bowe, PJ Dempsey, Turley being pushed out by Garvan, Higgins, Tom Kelly, Beano, Fitzgerald, woolly etc. The future doesn't excite me and that's worrying.

I meant Don!!!

Not a great performance last night. But one with some heart and character that was enough to get a job done against a plucky Longford team.
Longford probably played better football for majority of the game. Whereas we had Donie, EOC and Conway up front to win ball, draw frees and take scores, they didn't have enough players of that quality.
I still think we're not cohesive enough as a team. The way we play is a little raw and off the cuff.
And yet AGAIN, we finish the game with 14.
I thought McMahon, Alan Farrell in the second half and Booth all were impressive aswell.
Roll on next Sunday, have been looking forward to this since the fixtures were announced!

Decent win last night alright. Pace is a real problem. Noticed last night that much of our poor tackling is because we are so easily outpaced and a lot of the fouling is coming from lads chasing shadows and flailing their arms in desperation. Hard to tackle a lad you can't catch. Saying that, can't fault the hard work. Our shape in the second half was good and some of the kick passing was first class. Only for Donie though, we would already be relegated. His miraculous recovery was well timed.

Thought Alan Farrell had a fine game last night. He has a huge engine and carried a huge amount of ball. Booth is also doing very well. Hopefully Begley is ok for next week and we can get one or two more back shortly.

I'll take the win but still plenty to work on. Very disappointed with how certain players continue to give away cheap frees. Meaney for example, with a minute to go, conceded a needless free about 30 metres straight in front of goal by throwing out a flailing arm with his opponent going away from goal. Longford ultimately missed the free but had it been knocked over like it should have been there was every chance Longford could have won the next ball from the Laois kickout and sneaked an equaliser. Carroll's sending off was also silly and had Longford completed their comeback we would have been in the position of losing three games on the bounce thanks largely to having a man sent off. Some of our tackling can be lazy and lacking 100% in effort and it is going to kill us in close games. There is very little in difference between most division 2 and 3 teams in personnel. What divides them is how they apply themselves on the field, discipline and working collectively as a team. Counties like Monaghan, Galway and Louth seem to have mastered that at the moment. We still have a bit of work to get to that level. There won't be too much between Laois and Offaly but I would fancy us to preserve our Division 3 status if Kingston, O'Loughlin, Carroll and Conway are firing. I think Laois have a slightly better scoring threat to Offaly that will ultimately prove the difference.   

Is the general consensus here that Evan O Carroll deserved to be sent off? It could be that I'm missing something.

Generally though that referee on Saturday night was the worst I've seen since the heady days of Derek Fahy and Marty Duffy.

Quote from: Giovanni on March 27, 2017, 11:05:19 AM
Is the general consensus here that Evan O Carroll deserved to be sent off? It could be that I'm missing something.

Generally though that referee on Saturday night was the worst I've seen since the heady days of Derek Fahy and Marty Duffy.

Yes. He was on a yellow card. 3 times he blocked the mans run off the ball, and then pulled him down unnecessarily.

His first yellow card, while harsh, was justified if you count it for what it was.

The referee was shocking, but you couldn't argue with what he gave out in these instants, if going by the rule book.

Quote from: Clubber Lang on March 27, 2017, 01:46:34 AM
I'll take the win but still plenty to work on. Very disappointed with how certain players continue to give away cheap frees. Meaney for example, with a minute to go, conceded a needless free about 30 metres straight in front of goal by throwing out a flailing arm with his opponent going away from goal. Longford ultimately missed the free but had it been knocked over like it should have been there was every chance Longford could have won the next ball from the Laois kickout and sneaked an equaliser. Carroll's sending off was also silly and had Longford completed their comeback we would have been in the position of losing three games on the bounce thanks largely to having a man sent off. Some of our tackling can be lazy and lacking 100% in effort and it is going to kill us in close games. There is very little in difference between most division 2 and 3 teams in personnel. What divides them is how they apply themselves on the field, discipline and working collectively as a team. Counties like Monaghan, Galway and Louth seem to have mastered that at the moment. We still have a bit of work to get to that level. There won't be too much between Laois and Offaly but I would fancy us to preserve our Division 3 status if Kingston, O'Loughlin, Carroll and Conway are firing. I think Laois have a slightly better scoring threat to Offaly that will ultimately prove the difference.

While I don't doubt the endeavour, dedication and committment of our footballers, the footballing intelligence of some leaves a lot to be desired at time. They're their own worst enemies in this regard.

You might be right but I very much doubt that the rulebook would be applied this way in a match between Kerry and Dublin.

Quote from: Giovanni on March 27, 2017, 11:52:07 AM
You might be right but I very much doubt that the rulebook would be applied this way in a match between Kerry and Dublin.

Well it should be surely? Don't the rules apply to all? Anyway, once is one thing, but blocking the run 3 times, then the tackle left him wide open to punishment.

Quote from: Don Draper on March 27, 2017, 12:49:31 PM

Quote from: Giovanni on March 27, 2017, 11:52:07 AM
You might be right but I very much doubt that the rulebook would be applied this way in a match between Kerry and Dublin.

Well it should be surely? Don't the rules apply to all? Anyway, once is one thing, but blocking the run 3 times, then the tackle left him wide open to punishment.

rules never apply to everyone.  Always different set of rules for the smaller counties.

If the large counties were having lads sent off for the likes of that, there'd be uproar (and no-one would be going to the matches).

Anyway, I certainly hope that they don't try to limit too much the edge that's in Evan's game. I remain of the opinion that his sending off was very harsh indeed. Indeed, I would say that at least 50% of the yellow cards issued during the match were very harsh indeed (and some made no sense whatsoever). How they pass muster with officials, I do not know.

Speaking of officials, I happened to be sitting quite close to several of the members of the Country Board. At half time, 2 points down, they all disappeared for sandwiches and didn't seem to be in the least bit concerned about what was happening on the pitch. I don't know the work of the county board very well (I'm living in Galway) but I was surprised how unconcerned they seemed to be at the real prospect that we would be in Division 4 in half an hour.

Love coming on here after to we win to read a few somewhat positive posts!
Not a perfect performance by any stretch, but the passion and desire was pleasing in the 2nd half.

Heres my ratings for the game. First time posting so dont be too critical!


Brody:    10
Everything he done was inch perfect so why not!

Strong:   6.5
He's a versatile player that can just about play anywhere on the pitch, but he's just not a good man marker. Was very good when he was on the ball out the field.

Booth:    7.5
Still concedes the odd soft free. But was commanding and sharp again.

Kelly:      6.5
Found it hard on a cute corner forward.

Buggie:    6
Kicked a good point. Improving and gaining confidence, but physically a little behind still.

McMahon: 7.5
A typical McMahon performance we've been used to from down through the years.

Begley:     7
Solid and commanding, but found it tricky to man mark that very decent centre forward in the first half. Where will we see him play when the injured players return?

JOL:         6.5 (by his standards)
Worked hard. Possibly not 100% back to his full fitness yet.

Meaney:    6
Dispossessed too many times, concedes too many silly fouls. Due our ridiculously short knockouts, he is really underused

A Farrell:   7.5
Sprung into life in the 2nd half and kicked a wonderful score.

Conway:   8
This man just has an incredible will to win every ball. Seriously well taken goal.

Donoher:   7
Put in a good shift, was a big loss when he was sent off IMO.

P.Kingston 5
Just couldn't get into the game. In future, would he be better off starting out at 11 and then moved inside?

O' Carroll   8
He has become a great target man as his movement inside has drastically improved. He makes all the right runs and is as good as a ball winner as Kingston. Unfortunately, another player with a discipline issue.

D.Kingston 9
Different class. In hindsight the difference between the two teams.

Nice first post Stradism and welcome to the forum

Quote from: Giovanni on March 27, 2017, 01:26:55 PM
If the large counties were having lads sent off for the likes of that, there'd be uproar (and no-one would be going to the matches).

Anyway, I certainly hope that they don't try to limit too much the edge that's in Evan's game. I remain of the opinion that his sending off was very harsh indeed. Indeed, I would say that at least 50% of the yellow cards issued during the match were very harsh indeed (and some made no sense whatsoever). How they pass muster with officials, I do not know.

Speaking of officials, I happened to be sitting quite close to several of the members of the Country Board. At half time, 2 points down, they all disappeared for sandwiches and didn't seem to be in the least bit concerned about what was happening on the pitch. I don't know the work of the county board very well (I'm living in Galway) but I was surprised how unconcerned they seemed to be at the real prospect that we would be in Division 4 in half an hour.

Not to stand up for the CB here, but are you begrudging a man a sandwich here? Given than many of them would have been there in some official capacity for about 3 hours or so at that stage?

I see we're in a double header next Sunday. €20 to watch our game. Personally I've no interest in staying to watch Tipp massacre Offaly in hurling.

It annoys me when that happens. The costs are reduced significantly having both games on at the same venue anyhow. If the reduced priced tickets are available beforehand it might not be too bad. It would normally be €15 on the day anyhow so if you arrive with a Laois jersey you should only have to pay €15.
Sure any 'dual' Laois supporters will already have paid €15 on Saturday evening so that's a combined €35 payout for the two games at that rate!

i dont agree with the ratings as happy as i am that we won the game was just terrible,,kimgston is the only footballer that would grace the top teams in my mind,,offaly would never be a problem and now it is,,,again i hope we win but i just dont no,,they would be absolutely delighted to send us down revenge is a long time comming for them

So the players are not there as you say or it's all Creedons fault? Which one is it today town1980?

Regarding #SandwichGate, I'm with Don on this one. Surely they're allowed a hang sandwich. And what do you want them to do because we were 2 points down Giovanni? Cry? Just like you were doing?

Sur maybe they should have went in and gave the half time team talk or maybe tog out and put their shoulder to the wheel.
Such nonsense, giving out about a few lads having a sandwich at half time. That really shows how unconcerned they are about laois football.

Generally speaking I'm finding this forum to be only slightly less juvenile than Hoganstand.

Based on what I saw on Saturday night, there isn't much evidence that the County Board is very perturbed about the decline in our fortunes. I prefaced these comments by pointing out that I don't know the work that they do very well. However, if the general consensus amongst Don and Tony, who clearly know much more about this (and everything else) than I do, is that they're doing a fine job, then who am I to argue?

I can understand why High Fielder and a few other sensible posters don't appear too often.......

Quote from: Giovanni on March 27, 2017, 10:10:13 PM
Generally speaking I'm finding this forum to be only slightly less juvenile than Hoganstand.

Based on what I saw on Saturday night, there isn't much evidence that the County Board is very perturbed about the decline in our fortunes. I prefaced these comments by pointing out that I don't know the work that they do very well. However, if the general consensus amongst Don and Tony, who clearly know much more about this (and everything else) than I do, is that they're doing a fine job, then who am I to argue?

I can understand why High Fielder and a few other sensible posters don't appear too often.......

Point out where I have ever said that about the CB please. I simply stated you couldn't begrudge a man working for a few hours a sandwich and a cup of tea, regardless of the issues with the county. I'd f**k half them out in the morning, but I'd at least let them have a sandwich.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C79SlmgW0AEY-hf.jpg:small)

Quote from: Don Draper on March 27, 2017, 11:01:27 PM

Quote from: Giovanni on March 27, 2017, 10:10:13 PM
Generally speaking I'm finding this forum to be only slightly less juvenile than Hoganstand.

Based on what I saw on Saturday night, there isn't much evidence that the County Board is very perturbed about the decline in our fortunes. I prefaced these comments by pointing out that I don't know the work that they do very well. However, if the general consensus amongst Don and Tony, who clearly know much more about this (and everything else) than I do, is that they're doing a fine job, then who am I to argue?

I can understand why High Fielder and a few other sensible posters don't appear too often.......

Point out where I have ever said that about the CB please. I simply stated you couldn't begrudge a man working for a few hours a sandwich and a cup of tea, regardless of the issues with the county. I'd f**k half them out in the morning, but I'd at least let them have a sandwich.

Exactly. You're being a bit shnakey there Giovanni. We all know CB leave a lot to be desired. That doesn't mean I want them to starve at half time for their sins. Now let's go back to posting about things that actually matter.

PS lads my neighbours dog died yesterday. But I saw him having toast and tea this morning. It's like he doesn't care at all. He ought to starve.

Think you got those rating pretty on the money stradism ..

I keep waiting for P Kingston to have an influence on a game but it never seems to happen

Though Booth was good again in defence .. him and timmons would be a good fb line come championship

Buggie played well too .. got a cracking point

Need a bit more movement between donie, evan and conway to keep defenders guessing

If our heads are 100% right we'll beat Offaly .. if they're not we won't

There is not a chance of any of the fellas on County Board starving,  even I can't whinge about the sandwich's they are prob in O Moore Pk a couple of hours before the game.  However I agree with they don't seem overly worried about the long term decline in football and hurling within the county.

The thing about Booth is, winter seems to suit him. Come summer, his performances generally haven't come up to his league standard. It's as if the softer ground suits his style better. I hope to be wrong as we really need the numbers in fb line. I hear timmons should be back by may. Fantastic player, I wish him a speedy recovery & hopefully he'll be his solid and consistent self.

just read peter creedons interview ,,,he says laois are improving and he is talking about style oh holy god,,,what games has this man been at?????

So you don't think the win over Longford was an improvement? Really? The general consensus (99%) is that the Longford game was an improvement, from Jack Nolan to national newspaper articles to fan forums. So the question really is, what games have YOU been at town1980?

Your using Jack Nolan as one of your references? Seriously

Longford are brutal, thought they would beat Laois.
Offaly are brutal I think they will beat laois

Something in common all three of these teams are brutal and are in Div 3 relegation dogfight

Let me take you back to January when our goal was to get out of Div 3 via promotion at a minimum and actually we all thought we would win it. 

I would say back Offaly but they are equally brutal

Stop it with the optimism it's only Wednesday Tony

What optimism? I'm saying that Longford was a clear improvement. How anyone can deny that is beyond me.

And yeah I thought we might have a chance of promotion too but our injury list killed that and we're starting plenty 21's and inexperienced players that are not up to standard yet.

So I agree, we're not a good team right now. But yourself and town1980 must have some awful short term memories. We've been very poor for years. Creedon wasn't here for years. 2+2 = 4.

I thought we played well in patches last saturday and would have won easily except for stupidity by Evan

Some people are just desperate for Creedon to fail so they can i told you so .. 

I have short and very long term memories Tony but I count the teams that we have played this year as absolutely brutal,, a Sligo team Offaly beat an Antrim team that's wer abs shocking and I was at that game,, so here you are tony saying Longford is an improvement,, the first half was chronic,,, it's not about getting creedon out,,, it's the shite there playing ,, there playing levels ,, lack of a plan there motivation to die for the cause as to which our county board EMPLOYS mr creedon and his array of back room team to bring,,, just my opinion is that that level is not being reached that's what pisses me off,,, we are way more than a div 4 or bottom div 3 team,, I see no difference than mick Lilis and he cost fek  all so for me this is a pure waste of money

You probably see no improvement to last year as we have a much worse team with our injuries. It's not rocket science like. We've been missing 6-8 of our top performers for most of the League. You can't turn water into wine for the rest. I don't think Creedon is the best manager in the country by a long shot but he's about the best we can get this year. Our failings are mostly down to the ability of the players. You can drill them all day long but if they don't have it, they don't have it.

One thing I'm really enjoying about this years football is, we're giving it our all. 100%. Ability is not there for all 15 but if they give 100%, we surely can't ask for much more. For us to get promoted this year, we would have had to have Quigley, JOL, Timmons, Walsh, Begley, Merideth, Lillis, Evan for all the league and fit. The likes of Luttrell are trying hard but they need to develop more. That all seems pretty obvious to me but I suppose people are entitled to their opinions. The likes of Higgins or Roe wouldn't have got more out of this team this year and that's just a fact.

If we do in fact manage to beat Offaly, I'll be very happy indeed. In the circumstances, staying in Div 3 is par for the course, in my opinion. Promotion was unrealistic with the amount out, let's just call it like it is. If we do stay up, we have a lot to play for come summertime, with a much stronger looking team likely. Again, I'm not being unrealistic - given our form over the last 10 years, a win or maybe 2 in Leinster would be great and maybe a win or 2 in qualifiers. That's realistically all we can hope for. As I said earlier, if the lads and management give 100%, really how can we ask for more.

Quote from: town1980 on March 29, 2017, 08:40:38 PM
I have short and very long term memories Tony but I count the teams that we have played this year as absolutely brutal,, a Sligo team Offaly beat an Antrim team that's wer abs shocking and I was at that game,, so here you are tony saying Longford is an improvement,, the first half was chronic,,, it's not about getting creedon out,,, it's the shite there playing ,, there playing levels ,, lack of a plan there motivation to die for the cause as to which our county board EMPLOYS mr creedon and his array of back room team to bring,,, just my opinion is that that level is not being reached that's what pisses me off,,, we are way more than a div 4 or bottom div 3 team,, I see no difference than mick Lilis and he cost fek  all so for me this is a pure waste of money

Is Mick raging he didn't ask for a few bob?

Quote from: Tony on March 29, 2017, 09:10:37 PM
The likes of Higgins or Roe wouldn't have got more out of this team this year and that's just a fact.

The likes of Higgins and Roe would be getting slated regarding our discipline issues if they were in the job at present, and that is also a fact!

How do you know Higgins would not have gotten anything out of them because you seem cocksure Creedon has. We won't be winning anything like 4 games in championship.

I would have been happy enough going to Tullamore and expecting a positive result on Sunday, but I think the double header is a big plus for them. We have nobody to blame but ourselves if we do drop. It happened to Westmeath even after appearing in a Leinster final, so it can happen to us too. It goes without saying that we are under strength, so this notion that any Laois team can just go out on a pitch and win matches is both fanciful and wrong. It grates me that some people look at Laois in an abstract way, rather than analysing the sum of its parts. They do say that ignorance is bliss though. Truth be told, we lost good panel members in Kehoe, Hanrahan and Seale from our backs last year, and along with injuries, it has been a struggle. Cahillane also didn't commit, and Boyle and one or two others from previous seasons. So ignore that if you want, but don't expect everyone else to follow suit. We need everyone on board and good luck with injuries. We've had neither this year.

Tullamore has never been a happy hunting ground for any Laois team and many's a time we left after a good beating. Anyone who thinks we will beat Offaly handy enough on their home patch on Sunday are in for a shock.

I don't think anyone thinks that redsetanta and if they do, they probably haven't been paying any attention. It's always very difficult to go there, no less this year. I'd be over the moon with a one point victory. I expect this one to have real championship edge. Winner takes all.

Quote from: High Fielder on March 30, 2017, 10:12:06 AM
Truth be told, we lost good panel members in Kehoe, Hanrahan and Seale from our backs last year, and along with injuries, it has been a struggle. Cahillane also didn't commit, and Boyle and one or two others from previous seasons.

I see Cahillane scored 3-4 for Portlaoise in the league last night. He seems, and I don't know the chap, happy enough playing a bit of club and still playing his bit of soccer too.

It seems to be the way alright SCFC. He has his reasons, as they all do, and even if they never wanted to pull on the jersey, you would understand. It's a massive sacrifice with very little reward, and that applies to maybe all but a handful of counties. But this is what sickens me about Ballyroan Abu and town 180. You can't just go out and get another Paul Cahillane. They don't exist, and chances are the lad you replace him with won't be as good. That's analysis in the abstract; how you think Laois should be and how they actually are. Two different things. Peter Creedon isn't playing with a full deck and, he has been very unlucky with injuries. It's too easy to say he's not god enough and he's making a hames of the job. Those people who follow Laois closely know that we're far from being an easy bunch to manage. We also have serious problems with commitment. I doubt Peter Creedon thinks now that the job is all it was cracked up to be.

Completely agree High Fielder

Story goes the panel are really behind what Creedon is trying to do and his methods

The feelings are they have been very unfortunate with injuries and some dubious ref decisions
I hope we get the win and a bit of stability in terms of game time for the final panel

Great post High Fielder. Only for stupid red cards Laois could be in a position where a win against Offaly would see them finish the league with five wins and two losses. Both those losses were with seriously depleted teams with a lot of our senior panel members missing or not fully fit. We don't have the reserves in Laois to compensate for injured players and county standard players (Boyle, Meredith etc) unable to commit to panel. I'm satisfied with the job Creedon has done so far- he's blooded a number of new players and has used the league to build his squad. When you see the likes of McMahon returning to the fold at 32 years of age and Munnelly staying on to provide his experience it would indicate to me that things are good in the Laois set-up. These lads have been great servants to Laois football and wouldn't still be there if things weren't right. Creedon should be judged on how this team develops over the next 24 months. At present he is working with a team that didn't end up in Division 3 by fluke. For a number of years we flirted with relegation from Division 2 before the inevitable happened.     

There's a good chance Conor Boyle and Paul Cahillane will be back in the county fold after the league comes to a close Sunday
. The negatives are always the easiest to pull out but a win Sunday and then a good Month and half preparation for the championship with a few players returning to the fold ..things will not be bad as it seems . The league will be long forgotten by Creedon and judging from his past endeavours with Tipp and Carberry Rangers he is without doubt Championship driven .
Then will be the time to judge him , not after ' with respect a meaningless league match on a college pitch in Belfast in front of an handful of half interested spectators. If Laois have a near enough full deck of cards regarding players come May ,then will be the time to cast judgement on his reign . Give the man time .
Offaly will be tough and can only see a kick of a ball in it Sunday . That' last time I felt satisfied coming out of Tullamore watching the Laois Senior Footballers was back in 2003 and I remember as a kid watching Laois destroy a strong Meath team in 85 there also . Few and far between , hopefully this Sunday will be sweeter again .

are you for real high fielder when did cahalline dominate county football so what are you on about,,,such a stupid statement omg,,creedon is therre to inspire the LADS that are commited to laois and him so what are you on about,,he is  not able to do this effectively as is evident in the performances,,talking about lads that are not there??well there all over 30-31 so next year they will be 31-32 most are at the end of there careers

Quote from: town1980 on March 30, 2017, 02:46:16 PM
are you for real high fielder when did cahalline dominate county football so what are you on about,,,such a stupid statement omg,,creedon is therre to inspire the LADS that are commited to laois and him so what are you on about,,he is  not able to do this effectively as is evident in the performances,,talking about lads that are not there??well there all over 30-31 so next year they will be 31-32 most are at the end of there careers

Nobody said anything about dominate. He's a good footballer and every good footballer that leaves or gets injured leaves a gap. Those gaps are getting harder to plug with each passing year, and you're right, maybe our darkest days are ahead of us because we have very little coming through. That's not Creedon's fault either, but you and Ballyroan Abu seemed determined to pin the blame on him for everything. Now it's impossible to know what your actual agenda is, and to be honest who cares anyway, but neither of you want to be balanced in your argument. For that reason, taking either of you seriously, for me at least, is hard. Here's hoping Laois win on Sunday. I'm just hoping you two feel the same.

So many errors in that post town1980, me head is melted. Who thought you in school at all   ::) :P.

High Fielder never said that Paul dominated club football. He was clearly saying he's a good player who's hard to replace.

He certainly would be in my starting 15, probably corner forward instead of Paul Kingston. Same with Boyle - we could really do with him on the panel. Same with Cahir Healy for that matter, that would give us a massive boost.

Unfortunately, those players aren't there at the moment, and in addition to those players missing through injury, surely this must be taken into account when judging a manager's performance. In any case, I believe March in his first year is way too early to properly judge a manager's performance, unless of course he's not even performing his basic duties.

I feel like we've argued this one into the ground at this stage.

My prediction for the weekend: Offaly 1-11 Laois 1-12.

he is being paid to do a job and at the minute and its not being donr right is that me blaming someone or is it not the case,,,,yee think  i have an agenda i do in my ass,,,i see a team that has won two games in a league competition who arent competitive at the minute so how are myslef and broanabu that wrong???again its my opinion and if you look at the results how is it not a fair reflection on the games as we see it??????i think will beat offaly still

You need to accept that the team wasn't good enough on the day. Missing players, injuries, suspensions and defections have weakened Laois. That's just a fact. Your expectations have not lowered despite all these factors. You are putting us on a pedestal we do not deserve, and you fail to see how many players are out of position and how many players are getting the jersey because others are not there. We have no right to anything. Westmeath have a better recent history than us in the Championship and they are in Division 4. Offaly have a much richer pedigree than us and we face them in a Division 3 relegation battle. Do you think they are worried about Laois? You blame Creedon and all he did was inherit a mess; a mess that may never be cleared up.

Quote from: Tony on March 30, 2017, 03:10:01 PM
My prediction for the weekend: Offaly 1-11 Laois 1-12.

How many players do you predict Laois will finish the game with?
Hopefully we manage to keep 15.

Any word on the team for Sunday? Is Begley fit?

There's plenty of debate about the loss of players through injury, leaving the panel or other reasons. Just to compare and contrast these are the teams that lined out against Armagh last year and this year in the league.

Laois v Armagh Feb 2016

LAOIS: G Brody; R Kehoe, M Timmons, D Seale; D Strong, P Cotter, G Dillon; K Lillis, K Meaney; J Farrell, D Kingston, N Donoher; P Cahillane, E O'Carroll, G Walsh.

Subs: M Campion for Meaney (17), A Farrell for Cotter (BC, 33), D O'Connor for Strong (52), D O'Reilly for Walsh (55), R O'Connor for Campion (58)

Laois v Armagh Feb 2017
LAOIS:
Graham Brody (Portlaoise)
Darren Strong (Emo)
Denis Booth (The Heath)
James Kelly (St Joseph's)
Eoin Buggie (Stradbally)
Kieran Lillis (Portlaoise)
Stephen Attride (Killeshin)
Seán Ramsbottom (Timahoe)
Danny Luttrell (Courtwood)
Cormac Murphy (Crettyard)
Ambrose Doran (Graiguecullen)
Niall Donoher (Courtwood)
Ruairi O'Connor (Timahoe)
Donie Kingston (Arles-Killeen)
Kevin Meaney (Arles-Kilcruise)

Subs:
David Conway (Arles-Kilcruise) for O'Connor (14 mins)
Ross Munnelly (Arles-Kilcruise) for Murphy (46 mins)
Padraig McMahon (Ballyroan-Abbey) for Doran (49 mins)
Paul Kingston (Arles-Killeen) for Ramsbottom (55 mins)
Danny O'Reilly (Graiguecullen) for Lillis (63 mins)
Eoin Lowry (Killeshin) for Donoher (63 mins)

This is the story.

Last year we had an awful league campaign followed by a very poor championship campaign.

Lillis left and we were left in a very poor state, something that has been inevitable for years.

What did we need at that point?

A manager and background team that have experience with developing underage structures & have a proven pedigree with being successful in this area.

How long did it take for Tipp to get from poor side to good side and looking like they'll be a tier 1 side within a few years? It took a LOT of time. Years.

So, surprisingly enough we managed to get a manager and background team with proven pedigree with Tipperary.

Honestly, I would keep him even if we got relegated to div 4 & had a poor championship. It all needs time - him, his background team and other people involved with developing laois gaa underage need and deserve time.

Why? Because we need to give this years, we need to develop underage especially minor / u21 throughout the county. WHY OH WHY would you throw out a man with PROVEN pedigree in this area. Tipp are going from strength to strength and like it or not, it's a fact he had a significant influence on Tipp's turnaround.

To throw him out would be lunacy, in my opinion, ESPECIALLY given the clear as day context of players not available / injured / playing out of position / you name it.

Careful what you wish for. At least with this setup we're aiming to go in the right direction and have a holistic plan for minor / u21 / senior. It certainly beats the clueless mentality that we've witnessed for years now.

You can throw Roe in there or higgins or clancy but let's face it. That's more of the same like dempsey or lillis and not focussing on underage. We need a sea change in the county & that's what's being attempted. I can't for the life of me understand the short-sightedness of town1980 and B-abu. Granted it's only a very small portion of voices on here but I have to wonder if you're thinking about the long-term and I also have to wonder if you're seeing what's in front of your eyes : players missing from all over the park. Not up to standard ability from large numbers of our players. Players playing out of position etc. You don't seem to even acknowledge that. I'm not saying Creedon & his team are Jesus and his apostles - We're saying they have proven experience in getting a poor team across u-21 and senior into a better one over the course of years. We're a poor team weather you like it or not & we're trying to get better holistically but it needs time.

Div3 Permutations

To secure promotion:
Louth (10, +11): promoted
Armagh (9, +46): Avoid defeat against Tipperary
tipperary (8, +18): Need to beat Armagh

To avoid relegation:
Offaly (4, -27): Need to beat Laois
Antrim (4, -19): Need to beat Longford
Laois (4, -18): Need to avoid defeat against Offaly as a draw will bring their superior scoring difference into play.
Longford (4, -6): Need to avoid defeat against Antrim as a draw will bring their superior scoring difference into play.

Quote from: Tony on March 30, 2017, 07:07:55 PM
This is the story.

Last year we had an awful league campaign followed by a very poor championship campaign.

Lillis left and we were left in a very poor state, something that has been inevitable for years.

What did we need at that point?

A manager and background team that have experience with developing underage structures & have a proven pedigree with being successful in this area.

How long did it take for Tipp to get from poor side to good side and looking like they'll be a tier 1 side within a few years? It took a LOT of time. Years.

So, surprisingly enough we managed to get a manager and background team with proven pedigree with Tipperary.

Honestly, I would keep him even if we got relegated to div 4 & had a poor championship. It all needs time - him, his background team and other people involved with developing laois gaa underage need and deserve time.

Why? Because we need to give this years, we need to develop underage especially minor / u21 throughout the county. WHY OH WHY would you throw out a man with PROVEN pedigree in this area. Tipp are going from strength to strength and like it or not, it's a fact he had a significant influence on Tipp's turnaround.

To throw him out would be lunacy, in my opinion, ESPECIALLY given the clear as day context of players not available / injured / playing out of position / you name it.

Careful what you wish for. At least with this setup we're aiming to go in the right direction and have a holistic plan for minor / u21 / senior. It certainly beats the clueless mentality that we've witnessed for years now.

You can throw Roe in there or higgins or clancy but let's face it. That's more of the same like dempsey or lillis and not focussing on underage. We need a sea change in the county & that's what's being attempted. I can't for the life of me understand the short-sightedness of town1980 and B-abu. Granted it's only a very small portion of voices on here but I have to wonder if you're thinking about the long-term and I also have to wonder if you're seeing what's in front of your eyes : players missing from all over the park. Not up to standard ability from large numbers of our players. Players playing out of position etc. You don't seem to even acknowledge that. I'm not saying Creedon & his team are Jesus and his apostles - We're saying they have proven experience in getting a poor team across u-21 and senior into a better one over the course of years. We're a poor team weather you like it or not & we're trying to get better holistically but it needs time.

Tony, I would guess that the vast majority of people would agree with your views on the current set up, players and the reasons for our downfall. In fairness, the slide has been predicted consistently for years on this website and on Laoistalk. I wouldn't waste my breath trying to convince the two or three 'Manager out' contributors on here as their arguements are puerile. There is not a soccer forum.

Thanks Tony, you don't ever stop insulting me.  It's 5 years of Jokers as managers not 2.  At least I am not in your deluded mode.

some off yee posters are actually deluded,,creedon was empolyed to sort out the mess no??tony i agrre with some facts you have yes and some very good points but at the end of the day we are worse off this year we will be lucky to survive in division 3 which  i HOPE WE DO,,,all im saying as regards bringing us forward he isnt the man look at our u21s he was calling the shots from the stand at half time etc,,look at our senior team the way they have being performing we havent seen one game where we all could agree jeez he knows what his at he has the lads fighting for him etc etc etc or can any poster here give me an example???i totally understand lads time is key and give the man time but there at it since last october and me as a supporter im actually seeing no progress at all,,,i no i sound like a negitive gobshite but its just my opinion also,,,i hope the lads get the result on sunday

Great post Tony. Thoughout, balanced and factual.

Hope the lads can do it on Sunday. It will be a dogfight. But if our attitude is spot on and Donie and Evan have their shooting boots on i think we'll have to much for them.

Quote from: Keyser Söze on March 30, 2017, 05:31:07 PM

Quote from: Tony on March 30, 2017, 03:10:01 PM
My prediction for the weekend: Offaly 1-11 Laois 1-12.

How many players do you predict Laois will finish the game with?
Hopefully we manage to keep 15.

This is the game in which I fully expect there to be at least a sending off on either side. I would tolerate it far more in this one, than in the previous games.

Quote from: town1980 on March 31, 2017, 09:54:54 AM
some off yee posters are actually deluded,,creedon was empolyed to sort out the mess no??tony i agrre with some facts you have yes and some very good points but at the end of the day we are worse off this year we will be lucky to survive in division 3 which  i HOPE WE DO,,,all im saying as regards bringing us forward he isnt the man look at our u21s he was calling the shots from the stand at half time etc,,look at our senior team the way they have being performing we havent seen one game where we all could agree jeez he knows what his at he has the lads fighting for him etc etc etc or can any poster here give me an example???i totally understand lads time is key and give the man time but there at it since last october and me as a supporter im actually seeing no progress at all,,,i no i sound like a negitive gobshite but its just my opinion also,,,i hope the lads get the result on sunday

Yer a gas aul f**ker all the same.

Slightly off topic but I was thinking about what our starting 15 might look like if availability and injuries weren't an issue. Not a bad looking side. Might be forgetting one or two.


                    Graham Brody

Cahir Healy     Mark Timmons     Stephen Attride

Padraig McMahon    Colm Begley    Darren Strong

      John O Loughlin   Brendan Quigley

Zach Tuohy     David Conway    Conor Merideth

Paul Cahilane    Donie Kingston    Gary Walsh.


Subs : K. Meaney, P. Kingston, D. Booth, N. Donoher, K. Lillis, E. O Carroll, R. Munnelly, A. Farrell, C. Boyle


I think we could compete well enough on our day with that team. However, being realistic, the current team minus availability minus injury list is just a shadow of what we could be. Still, happy enough if we give 100% with what we've got.

And the Laois team actually named for Sunday's game vs Offaly is:


1. Graham Brody (Portlaoise)

2. Darren Strong (Emo)

3. Denis Booth (The Heath)

4. James Kelly (St Joseph's)

5. Eoin Buggie (Stradbally)

6. Colm Begley (Stradbally)

7. Padraig McMahon (Ballyroan Abbey)

8. John O'Loughlin (St Brigid's)

9. Kevin Meaney (Arles-Kilcruise)

10. Alan Farrell (Ballylinan)

11. David Conway (Arles-Kilcruise)

12. Niall Donoher (Courtwood)

13. Donie Kingston (Arles-Killeen)

14. Evan O'Carroll (Crettyard)

15. Paul Kingston (Arles-Killeen)

The team is good enough to win but Sunday will be a dog fight and every player has to be up for it in the right way. If they are and are mentally tuned in they should beat Offaly handily enough. But it is Laois we're talking about and not even mystic meg could help.

I think it's a decent team redsetanta but you have to take into consideration, Begley, JOL and Evan are not 100% fit. They're carrying niggles so they wont be at 100%. Offaly will be no walkover in Tullamore at all. Also, confidence isn't 10/10 at the moment. A win would be massive. A draw will do too, to keep us up. I'd take a draw any day. Looking forward to being there anyway on Sunday. It feels like a championship game.

Offaly to win in Tullamore, Laois to be Relegated .  Laois nor Offaly to score 15 points.  Laois several blacks cards no red because they can't tackle through the middle even though they will be warned not to get a red.  I hope I am wrong and Laois Win but this game is truly 50/50 and Offaly have home advantage.

Quotethis game is truly 50/50 and Offaly have home advantage.

If it is truly 50/50 then home advantage doesn't matter

Quote from: steven seagal on March 31, 2017, 12:49:14 PM

Quotethis game is truly 50/50 and Offaly have home advantage.

If it is truly 50/50 then home advantage doesn't matter

"I hope that I'm wrong, but a big part of me wants to be right".

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on March 31, 2017, 12:06:19 PM
Offaly to win in Tullamore, Laois to be Relegated .

With "supporters" like this.....

Quote from: SCFC on March 31, 2017, 02:11:01 PM

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on March 31, 2017, 12:06:19 PM
Offaly to win in Tullamore, Laois to be Relegated .

With "supporters" like this.....

In fairness, he's just stating his opinion. I don't agree with his theory on Creedon but if he thinks we're going to get relegated that's fair enough. Doesn't make a bad supporter.

Fair play to B-ABU on throwing out his last statement. If Laois lose then he'll be posting feeling vindicated for his criticism of current Laois management. However by also stating that it's a 50/50 game it gives him a way out if Laois do pull off a victory. 

I don't rate Offaly's forward line too highly and would be hopeful that the Laois defense will contain Offaly to a reasonable score. If we can supply good ball into Kingston and Evan then we should have every chance. Offaly have conceded big against other teams with good forward lines in this year's league- Tipp 2-15, Armagh 6-22, Louth 2-13. Sligo managed to find back of Offaly net twice last week as well. They are vulnerable- the issue is if we can supply the forwards with enough good ball to do damage. My gut feeling is that we will. The stakes are high and I hope the lads respond and give their best performance of the league to date.     

I would think I am a decent enough supporter would not say I attend training sessions in Portlaoise but reasonable enough match attender.   I don't want Laois to be relegated,  why would I want to be right on that.  It sickens me to my core where Laois stand at the moment and sorry if I think we are in a dreadful state.  I solidly believe this is not good enough and we are been short changed by a malaise which has shot through the county.  I want 10,000 Laois Supporters in O Moore Park giving Dublin dogs abuse but I am not going to jump off a cliff pretending that what is going on at the moment is anything less than shambolic.  Thats not just Creedon

Laois will beat Offaly and I think it will be with a bit to spare

Offaly 0-13 Laois 2-14

Sometimes reading this forum would put humps on a camel

Yes your allowed to be realistic and have an opinion but from what i know and see Creedon is doing a decent job and I expect Laois to improve as the year goes on .

We ain't as bad as you would think you could get a big surprise if you go over Sunday and we click .

If im wrong ill hold my hands up

Fair enough opinion unlaoised, I hope you're right! I think a dry, nice day would suit us as we have some nice players that can damage a team when the ground is good and conditions are good for football. If it's wet and windy, I really can't call it. Dog fight is my prediction.

I think Laois will win this with that team. Our run of bad luck has to come to an end soon and I have every confidence in the management team that they can turn this season around, hopefully starting on Sunday.
A lot depends on the referee as up to now we have been on the wrong side of some 50/50 calls. We need to start playing as a team and stop running into dead ends, get the ball in quickly and accurately into the full forward line where we have the lads to do damage.
The league is over now for us and this really is a knockout championship game and should be treated as one by our lads. If they do then I can only see one winner and hopefully the start of a good run for us.

Tipp 6/4 to beat Armagh.Head ruling heart those odds are very tempting I have to say.If Tipp are up for this at all I can only see one outcome

Quote from: Tony on March 30, 2017, 07:07:55 PM
This is the story.

Last year we had an awful league campaign followed by a very poor championship campaign.

Lillis left and we were left in a very poor state, something that has been inevitable for years.

What did we need at that point?

A manager and background team that have experience with developing underage structures & have a proven pedigree with being successful in this area.

How long did it take for Tipp to get from poor side to good side and looking like they'll be a tier 1 side within a few years? It took a LOT of time. Years.

So, surprisingly enough we managed to get a manager and background team with proven pedigree with Tipperary.

Honestly, I would keep him even if we got relegated to div 4 & had a poor championship. It all needs time - him, his background team and other people involved with developing laois gaa underage need and deserve time.

Why? Because we need to give this years, we need to develop underage especially minor / u21 throughout the county. WHY OH WHY would you throw out a man with PROVEN pedigree in this area. Tipp are going from strength to strength and like it or not, it's a fact he had a significant influence on Tipp's turnaround.

To throw him out would be lunacy, in my opinion, ESPECIALLY given the clear as day context of players not available / injured / playing out of position / you name it.

Careful what you wish for. At least with this setup we're aiming to go in the right direction and have a holistic plan for minor / u21 / senior. It certainly beats the clueless mentality that we've witnessed for years now.

You can throw Roe in there or higgins or clancy but let's face it. That's more of the same like dempsey or lillis and not focussing on underage. We need a sea change in the county & that's what's being attempted. I can't for the life of me understand the short-sightedness of town1980 and B-abu. Granted it's only a very small portion of voices on here but I have to wonder if you're thinking about the long-term and I also have to wonder if you're seeing what's in front of your eyes : players missing from all over the park. Not up to standard ability from large numbers of our players. Players playing out of position etc. You don't seem to even acknowledge that. I'm not saying Creedon & his team are Jesus and his apostles - We're saying they have proven experience in getting a poor team across u-21 and senior into a better one over the course of years. We're a poor team weather you like it or not & we're trying to get better holistically but it needs time.

Ok, before I start this is not meant to be an anti Peter Creedon rant. I was happy enough with the appointment, he has a decent record and seems to speak a lot of sense on the game. Im not that impressed by what Ive seen so far, but we have had a lot of injuries and he deserves time to make his mark with the team. The players seem very positive about the setup, thats a huge plus imo.

Tony, you have stated a few times that Creedon has proven pedigree in developing underage. Have you got good evidence for this statement?
Below are some fact as far as I can ascertain (if there are mistakes apologies, Im not a specialist on Tipp football)

Creedon managed Tipp minors 2003-2006
He managed Tipp U21s 2006-2008.
They won no munster titles in this time.They didnt win a minor till 2011 and u21 in 2010

He managed Tipp Seniors 2012-2015. He has a decent record, generally beating teams you would expect him to beat (an underrated trait in managers), losing to better teams. Liam Kearns had better results last year, with what was a weaker panel on paper

Now Im sure he has had some positive effect on Tipp football, there are good signs such as all the teams keeping him 3+ years. But as someone posted earlier in thread its unlikely he single handedly lifted Tipp football on his own. I'm pretty sure John Evans likes to take some credit (rightly or wrongly), David Power won an all Ireland to name two I've heard of. Again I dont know all the facts he may have been hugely influential in their underage structures and been the main driver of a ll this

Hes a manager with a decent record, but I think its been inflated a bit by some.

Also wheres the evidence of this "holistic" plan for Laois football? Creedon was appointed as manager of senior and u21 teams (although the 2nd title mysteriously moved to Gary Kavanagh) with some vague line about input to minor team. Id be surprised if he has had any input into structures, I dont see much evidence of the county board driving a plan either.  If we want a holistic plan it needs to include clubs,school and county from U6 up. A director of football (preferably well paid) needs to be appointed to oversee it, imo it would be both undesireable and impractical for this to be the County senior manager.

Best of luck to the lads Sunday. I think we'll win but will be very tough in Tullamore, always hard get over line when lacking confidence after losing a few games. Dropping to division 4 would be a disaster, we would need a very impressive championship to make up for it.

Quote from: T Fearon on April 01, 2017, 07:13:59 AM
Tipp 6/4 to beat Armagh.Head ruling heart those odds are very tempting I have to say.If Tipp are up for this at all I can only see one outcome

Good man

Quote from: Target Man on April 01, 2017, 08:24:53 AM

Quote from: Tony on March 30, 2017, 07:07:55 PM
This is the story.

Last year we had an awful league campaign followed by a very poor championship campaign.

Lillis left and we were left in a very poor state, something that has been inevitable for years.

What did we need at that point?

A manager and background team that have experience with developing underage structures & have a proven pedigree with being successful in this area.

How long did it take for Tipp to get from poor side to good side and looking like they'll be a tier 1 side within a few years? It took a LOT of time. Years.

So, surprisingly enough we managed to get a manager and background team with proven pedigree with Tipperary.

Honestly, I would keep him even if we got relegated to div 4 & had a poor championship. It all needs time - him, his background team and other people involved with developing laois gaa underage need and deserve time.

Why? Because we need to give this years, we need to develop underage especially minor / u21 throughout the county. WHY OH WHY would you throw out a man with PROVEN pedigree in this area. Tipp are going from strength to strength and like it or not, it's a fact he had a significant influence on Tipp's turnaround.

To throw him out would be lunacy, in my opinion, ESPECIALLY given the clear as day context of players not available / injured / playing out of position / you name it.

Careful what you wish for. At least with this setup we're aiming to go in the right direction and have a holistic plan for minor / u21 / senior. It certainly beats the clueless mentality that we've witnessed for years now.

You can throw Roe in there or higgins or clancy but let's face it. That's more of the same like dempsey or lillis and not focussing on underage. We need a sea change in the county & that's what's being attempted. I can't for the life of me understand the short-sightedness of town1980 and B-abu. Granted it's only a very small portion of voices on here but I have to wonder if you're thinking about the long-term and I also have to wonder if you're seeing what's in front of your eyes : players missing from all over the park. Not up to standard ability from large numbers of our players. Players playing out of position etc. You don't seem to even acknowledge that. I'm not saying Creedon & his team are Jesus and his apostles - We're saying they have proven experience in getting a poor team across u-21 and senior into a better one over the course of years. We're a poor team weather you like it or not & we're trying to get better holistically but it needs time.

Ok, before I start this is not meant to be an anti Peter Creedon rant. I was happy enough with the appointment, he has a decent record and seems to speak a lot of sense on the game. Im not that impressed by what Ive seen so far, but we have had a lot of injuries and he deserves time to make his mark with the team. The players seem very positive about the setup, thats a huge plus imo.

Tony, you have stated a few times that Creedon has proven pedigree in developing underage. Have you got good evidence for this statement?
Below are some fact as far as I can ascertain (if there are mistakes apologies, Im not a specialist on Tipp football)

Creedon managed Tipp minors 2003-2006
He managed Tipp U21s 2006-2008.
They won no munster titles in this time.They didnt win a minor till 2011 and u21 in 2010

He managed Tipp Seniors 2012-2015. He has a decent record, generally beating teams you would expect him to beat (an underrated trait in managers), losing to better teams. Liam Kearns had better results last year, with what was a weaker panel on paper

Now Im sure he has had some positive effect on Tipp football, there are good signs such as all the teams keeping him 3+ years. But as someone posted earlier in thread its unlikely he single handedly lifted Tipp football on his own. I'm pretty sure John Evans likes to take some credit (rightly or wrongly), David Power won an all Ireland to name two I've heard of. Again I dont know all the facts he may have been hugely influential in their underage structures and been the main driver of a ll this

Hes a manager with a decent record, but I think its been inflated a bit by some.

Also wheres the evidence of this "holistic" plan for Laois football? Creedon was appointed as manager of senior and u21 teams (although the 2nd title mysteriously moved to Gary Kavanagh) with some vague line about input to minor team. Id be surprised if he has had any input into structures, I dont see much evidence of the county board driving a plan either.  If we want a holistic plan it needs to include clubs,school and county from U6 up. A director of football (preferably well paid) needs to be appointed to oversee it, imo it would be both undesireable and impractical for this to be the County senior manager.

Best of luck to the lads Sunday. I think we'll win but will be very tough in Tullamore, always hard get over line when lacking confidence after losing a few games. Dropping to division 4 would be a disaster, we would need a very impressive championship to make up for it.

I would see the rot starting in the TOF,  I don't think Lillis was a good appointment but the damage was already done.  However I pretty much second everything else you have said.  A director of football type post is needed,  I would give David Power much of the credit for Tipperary's underage success.  However my point on appointing a Laois Manager does sync into this, we are playing fantasy football unless the senior team starts improving.  The finances as it stands means we are putting all our eggs into improving facilities, if the county team improved we would see an increased revenue which would allow more flexibility with finances.  No matter what anyone thinks Money = Success not Coaches, Players or County Boards.  I think an outside appointment unless an expensive high profile does nothing to  lift to fair weather fans but that a high profile internal (risky) appointment is very much a doable cheaper alternative.

Quote from: Target Man on April 01, 2017, 08:24:53 AM

Quote from: Tony on March 30, 2017, 07:07:55 PM
This is the story.

Last year we had an awful league campaign followed by a very poor championship campaign.

Lillis left and we were left in a very poor state, something that has been inevitable for years.

What did we need at that point?

A manager and background team that have experience with developing underage structures & have a proven pedigree with being successful in this area.

How long did it take for Tipp to get from poor side to good side and looking like they'll be a tier 1 side within a few years? It took a LOT of time. Years.

So, surprisingly enough we managed to get a manager and background team with proven pedigree with Tipperary.

Honestly, I would keep him even if we got relegated to div 4 & had a poor championship. It all needs time - him, his background team and other people involved with developing laois gaa underage need and deserve time.

Why? Because we need to give this years, we need to develop underage especially minor / u21 throughout the county. WHY OH WHY would you throw out a man with PROVEN pedigree in this area. Tipp are going from strength to strength and like it or not, it's a fact he had a significant influence on Tipp's turnaround.

To throw him out would be lunacy, in my opinion, ESPECIALLY given the clear as day context of players not available / injured / playing out of position / you name it.

Careful what you wish for. At least with this setup we're aiming to go in the right direction and have a holistic plan for minor / u21 / senior. It certainly beats the clueless mentality that we've witnessed for years now.

You can throw Roe in there or higgins or clancy but let's face it. That's more of the same like dempsey or lillis and not focussing on underage. We need a sea change in the county & that's what's being attempted. I can't for the life of me understand the short-sightedness of town1980 and B-abu. Granted it's only a very small portion of voices on here but I have to wonder if you're thinking about the long-term and I also have to wonder if you're seeing what's in front of your eyes : players missing from all over the park. Not up to standard ability from large numbers of our players. Players playing out of position etc. You don't seem to even acknowledge that. I'm not saying Creedon & his team are Jesus and his apostles - We're saying they have proven experience in getting a poor team across u-21 and senior into a better one over the course of years. We're a poor team weather you like it or not & we're trying to get better holistically but it needs time.

Ok, before I start this is not meant to be an anti Peter Creedon rant. I was happy enough with the appointment, he has a decent record and seems to speak a lot of sense on the game. Im not that impressed by what Ive seen so far, but we have had a lot of injuries and he deserves time to make his mark with the team. The players seem very positive about the setup, thats a huge plus imo.

Tony, you have stated a few times that Creedon has proven pedigree in developing underage. Have you got good evidence for this statement?
Below are some fact as far as I can ascertain (if there are mistakes apologies, Im not a specialist on Tipp football)

Creedon managed Tipp minors 2003-2006
He managed Tipp U21s 2006-2008.
They won no munster titles in this time.They didnt win a minor till 2011 and u21 in 2010

He managed Tipp Seniors 2012-2015. He has a decent record, generally beating teams you would expect him to beat (an underrated trait in managers), losing to better teams. Liam Kearns had better results last year, with what was a weaker panel on paper

Now Im sure he has had some positive effect on Tipp football, there are good signs such as all the teams keeping him 3+ years. But as someone posted earlier in thread its unlikely he single handedly lifted Tipp football on his own. I'm pretty sure John Evans likes to take some credit (rightly or wrongly), David Power won an all Ireland to name two I've heard of. Again I dont know all the facts he may have been hugely influential in their underage structures and been the main driver of a ll this

Hes a manager with a decent record, but I think its been inflated a bit by some.

Also wheres the evidence of this "holistic" plan for Laois football? Creedon was appointed as manager of senior and u21 teams (although the 2nd title mysteriously moved to Gary Kavanagh) with some vague line about input to minor team. Id be surprised if he has had any input into structures, I dont see much evidence of the county board driving a plan either.  If we want a holistic plan it needs to include clubs,school and county from U6 up. A director of football (preferably well paid) needs to be appointed to oversee it, imo it would be both undesireable and impractical for this to be the County senior manager.

Best of luck to the lads Sunday. I think we'll win but will be very tough in Tullamore, always hard get over line when lacking confidence after losing a few games. Dropping to division 4 would be a disaster, we would need a very impressive championship to make up for it.

Very close to my reading of the situation,however I have a few points to make.
I have no problem with Creedon either,but for the life of me I can't see how we can have a great championship after that league.
I'd very much fear a well paid director of football would be a CB cronie.

Quote from: Target Man on April 01, 2017, 08:24:53 AM
Ok, before I start this is not meant to be an anti Peter Creedon rant. I was happy enough with the appointment, he has a decent record and seems to speak a lot of sense on the game. Im not that impressed by what Ive seen so far, but we have had a lot of injuries and he deserves time to make his mark with the team. The players seem very positive about the setup, thats a huge plus imo.

Tony, you have stated a few times that Creedon has proven pedigree in developing underage. Have you got good evidence for this statement?
Below are some fact as far as I can ascertain (if there are mistakes apologies, Im not a specialist on Tipp football)

Creedon managed Tipp minors 2003-2006
He managed Tipp U21s 2006-2008.
They won no munster titles in this time.They didnt win a minor till 2011 and u21 in 2010

He managed Tipp Seniors 2012-2015. He has a decent record, generally beating teams you would expect him to beat (an underrated trait in managers), losing to better teams. Liam Kearns had better results last year, with what was a weaker panel on paper

Now Im sure he has had some positive effect on Tipp football, there are good signs such as all the teams keeping him 3+ years. But as someone posted earlier in thread its unlikely he single handedly lifted Tipp football on his own. I'm pretty sure John Evans likes to take some credit (rightly or wrongly), David Power won an all Ireland to name two I've heard of. Again I dont know all the facts he may have been hugely influential in their underage structures and been the main driver of a ll this

Hes a manager with a decent record, but I think its been inflated a bit by some.

Also wheres the evidence of this "holistic" plan for Laois football? Creedon was appointed as manager of senior and u21 teams (although the 2nd title mysteriously moved to Gary Kavanagh) with some vague line about input to minor team. Id be surprised if he has had any input into structures, I dont see much evidence of the county board driving a plan either.  If we want a holistic plan it needs to include clubs,school and county from U6 up. A director of football (preferably well paid) needs to be appointed to oversee it, imo it would be both undesireable and impractical for this to be the County senior manager.

Best of luck to the lads Sunday. I think we'll win but will be very tough in Tullamore, always hard get over line when lacking confidence after losing a few games. Dropping to division 4 would be a disaster, we would need a very impressive championship to make up for it.

Very sensible and accurate post IMO.

Best of luck to the guys tomorrow.

If we produce the type of performance shown in the second half against Longford, we will win.

David Conway talks about tomorrow's game.
http://www.laoistoday.ie/2017/04/01/conway-win-offaly-set-us-championship/

Lads, as with last game I think we'll win tomorrow. On paper it's a decent team (I acknowledge match fitness amongst our bigger names may be lacking). I'd be happy with Creedon if we can scrape survival in Division 3, setting us up for promotion to Division 2 next year. Division 4 is unthinkable. A Leinster title is out of reach for foreseeable future due to Dublin dominance. Division 3 survival with goal of Division 2 is acceptable for the moment. 

Quote from: No. 5 on April 01, 2017, 11:09:44 PM
Lads, as with last game I think we'll win tomorrow. On paper it's a decent team (I acknowledge match fitness amongst our bigger names may be lacking). I'd be happy with Creedon if we can scrape survival in Division 3, setting us up for promotion to Division 2 next year. Division 4 is unthinkable. A Leinster title is out of reach for foreseeable future due to Dublin dominance. Division 3 survival with goal of Division 2 is acceptable for the moment.

What in the name of all that's holy suggests that we are "set up" for promotion next year?!

The hurlers did it tonight when they had to and we can do it tomorrow. It's in the blood that when the chips are down we can deliver.
This is a proud team who know they are better than where they find themselves and tomorrow is a massive challenge to their belief in themselves.
It's a must win game, I just can't bear thinking what will happen to football in this county if we drop to Div 4...

The graveyard that is O'Connor Park.

I think its official now. Creedon appointment was a disaster.

Poor discipline, some players very very overrated, We will need to perform a lot better in the league next season if we have any ambition of getting promotion from Division 4.
I have never seen a poorer Laois team. Midfield out of their debt, defenders unable to tackle, opposing teams just walk trough them.

Beaten and relegated to the pits of the league
The root cause of this started when the CB and a certain few clubs decided to get rid of the likes of Sean Dempsey.Eddie Kelly,and a few more who who gave their services for free.These guys were replaced by paid GDOs (Presently 5 are getting paid) Since these appointments the development squads have done nothing, and i believe the amount of young lads going into these squads has halved in numbers. Consequently,the standard of players that we now see in our senior squad. Bar Kingston,JOL and a small few more are very poor. Sad day and shame on those who decided to shaft the real passionate laois people who worked wonders.

Bring back Sean Dempsey to coach underage players, and soon!! And Dick Miller as chairman of CB!!

Is there any accountability as regards these GDO's? If the buck stops (or partially stops) with them as regards the level of a young players skillset and they are getting financially covered for it then they are clearly not fit for purpose based on the last number of years.

As for the county chairman, I think he is more interested in getting his face in the Leinster Express than any meaningful progress of the game in the county.

Just back from tullamore..disaster...another sending off..i blame management ,everone on the terrace knew dat de player was going to be sent off.Icannot understand how de couldnt see dat themselves...Would love  to know who dere fitness trainer is..at dis stage a lot of players look unfit..not doing a great job..only for donie jol...and brody...no one else tried...Its apity that dey dont have the same heart ,as the hurlers had last night...another bad day for laois football...isnt it hard to believe how much dey have back..few years ago we were in division1..and now division 4.... :'( :'(

I am waiting to read the great Tony's report?thats was abs shite I watched

The more I sit the angrier ingest,,, the fitness levels of that team are a disgrace the worst I have ever seen in a team ... I totally blame management I totally blame the county board who only care about there Laois jacket and like to walk around like guards in o Moore park than put in place a good management team,,, Louth manager is young just out of playing knows the way the game is developing and our lads are absolutely clueless full stop... again the Donnie Kingston show the rest aren't fit enuf to compete at any level 8 points down on two occasions... like fern offaly,,, OMG,, Broan  Abu called it all year like it or not posters he was right so hats off to him ,,, anyone that talked him down eat your words... an absolute disgrace of a league and year to date,, creedon now out for me

The whole lot are a bloody disgrace.  [ bar a few ]

Aye it's the managers fault a player can't behave himself for the few minutes it takes to get a replacement on for him. Always someone else's fault in Laois.

And another thing, this was the second game that Kevin Meaney was sent off where if we had the full 15 we more than likely would have seen the victory out. To do it once is bad, to do it a second time is unforgivable.

Offaly were deserving victors they twice let Laois back into the game, I don't particularly blame Creedon ( he was a bad appointment) but I do blame the people who appointed him.  This relegation to Div 4 has taken 5 years and actually the 3 managerial appointments just got more and more deplorable.   I don't think we have a Div 1 team, I do think we are mid table Div 2 with possibly the best forward in the country.  A few people on here called me an idiot well I won't do the same thing.   However if you think that defending this joke of a set up is the right thing continue on.  Unfortunately the people in charge have necks like the jockeys proverbials but if anyone had sense they would hang their heads in shame and resign.

Despite disjointed performance I think we would have won with 15 .. 4 matches in a row someone sent off ..

Offaly are average but we conceded 3-16 which is staggering. We have no corner backs and booth was poor today ..

We seem unfit all over despite lads returning from injury etc .. we should surely be fitter .. walsh being brought on then off  .. the attempts at tackling all over the field were shocking ..

Donie is a wonderful player but he can't do it all .. jol died with his boots on .. brody is a top keeper .. but we have so many average players

I have defended creedon on here saying give him the league b4 judging him but we were awful today

Division 4 could be the death knell for laois football

I don't know what the answer is .. some lads saying go with Higgins or clancy as manager .. I don't know how much of a difference it would make ..

Sad day .. division 1 to 4 in the years ..

Then again we prob would have won it with 15 men .. how could mean eye get sent off twice in 3 matches .. jaysus Kevin!!

end of league....the embarrassment of relegation to the bottom tier.

after 7 league games:
team unfit, club sides are fitter than this outfit.
little or no discipline....you might blame 1 or 2 biased refs, they all can't be wrong....the team mentality is wrong....many of the fouls yielding the red cards have been a result of fitness and planning issues.
the planning issues.....there is no plan....lob it into donie and hope he scores enough to beat the opposition.
once upon a time not so long ago, we had 6 forwards who could score given a chance, now apart from donie, evan and Conway, the rest are shy about shooting...a real sign of weakness in an intercounty team.

we are told the management is popular with the players....are they making life too easily and the whole set up is lazy and easy as compared to the suffering other intercounty squads have to put up with...........every club in this county could appoint a "nice popular" coach...if the performances on the playing field are desperate, those clubs would go into self preservation mode and part company and find an alternative.

on the watch of the current county board chairman we have dropped from div 1 to 4, and it was most likely his call and influence that has appointed two right turkeys in O Flaherty and Creedon.......the chairman's vision has led us down a blind alley.

I 100% agree with previous posters, in that some of these full time coaches are not fit for purpose...our best coaches were volunteers, and said personnel are probably sitting back and wrestling with the idea as to why they should return when others failing system are on a full time contract.

we have not hit rock bottom yet, with nothing coming through at underage level, there is every chance fall further and we will remain for some time at the bottom of the Leinster footballing pyramid with Wicklow and Carlow.

No plan= plan to fail ==  and we achieved this objective.

what to do for now.....
...get rid of this management.....
....appoint a few locals, joe Higgins/Clancy/Rooney to take charge
.....basically write off this season and allow them rebuild from division 4 next winter and start to re-organise at underage level
...perhaps invite all vested parties into a crisis football meeting and maybe encourage those from the successful past back into the fold...
..and no more nepotism!.

I am going to say it on here tonight and again I will be an idiot Padraig Clancy is my preference for the job NOW or at the end of the year.   But I have no issue with any young manager from Laois with hunger and ambition getting it.  Hopefully they set the tone for every little aspect of Laois Football,  totally agree with the poster on our demise to Div 4.  I am not so sure the return of Sean Dempsey is a good thing but an overall appointment of a INDEPENDENT Football Development Manager would not be a bad thing as long as no relative of anyone on the county board could apply.

Creedon said in an interview Danny Luttrell was to come on for Meaney, then he (inevitably) got his second yellow.

For anyone that says Creedon is to blame:
Antrim, Clare, Tipperay-        The last three teams to beat us in the last three years.
Wicklow x4, Louth x3, Offaly- The only teams we have beaten in the last EIGHT years at Under21 level.

We cant exactly sack Creedon for an overwhelming lack of talent.
What this relegation has done is highlight our shortcomings and our the total absence of any aspirations from our CB over the last number of years. At the club scene, development squads, Minor and U21.

Lack of planning, no ambition, where would you even start with our CB. Can anyone step forward and take a bit of responsibility? Because the chickens have well and truly come home to roost.

As for the rest of the season:
Wrap up Donie Kingston, O'Loughlin, Quigley, Begley and co. in cotton wool until May 21st. Maybe go see Meredith, Cahillane and Gearoid Hanrahan and ask then to come back and play!

Then at the end of the year we can end the talking and start acting. Strip down our current system, put a reasonable 5 year plan in place. A 'director of football' (as such). Serious GDAs. Work with the clubs. See why the numbers of players are dropping at underage and senior level with clubs. What more can they do to develop them. A new programme for our development squads with quality coaches, not just whoever wants it.
Just a start! (of a serious restructuring that's needed)

At last people agreeing this current management are shite,,, TONY where are you ????? I wanna hear your view on today's performance??? Or lack of it ,, the last 4/5 posts are great reading and proper points made,, stradism great post

u can get what manager u like..u have to have 15 players that want to play for laois..I am sorry to say we dont have dat ,we have only a few..Feel so sorry for donie jol and brody the effort they put in,and some of the other players just sauntering around....

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on March 06, 2017, 12:02:44 PM

Quote from: Timmy on March 06, 2017, 11:45:15 AM

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on March 06, 2017, 10:51:44 AM
Unfortunately the rot has already set in,  TOF was a joke manager, Lillis was dreadful & Creedon unfortunately was a gamble who has not worked out.  The CB and most of Laois Football fail to realise that we are going to have to think outside the box to start to rebuild.  Poor performance on the pitch = less support and money.  This means we are unable to put more development coaches out into our big towns, Players commit for a few months then just give up.  Do people honestly think we're going to get better without doing something radical.  Yes the answer is we should get rid of our manager  as this guy is clearly a waste of our time and money.  We cannot afford to spend 5 years rebuilding we need green shoots of recovery fast.  We are into our fifth year of regression so I think we have wasted enough time.

Mad stuff here!

So after 4 league games Creedon has already not worked out and a waste of time and money?? 4 games!

Radical thinking, think outside the box....or maybe just do what has got us any bit of success we've had over the last 20 years. Start producing underage quality again!

No worse than whats gone on for the last 5 years, for 5 years people have been saying things are going to turn around they have not, more like a whole  lot worse.  You can't produce underage quality on the money given to County Boards by Leinster Council & Croke Park.   The O Moore Park development while positive is no advantage every county in Ireland got one.  We need more games development officers, however that's not going to happen without money.  Senior Teams, U21 teams & minor teams have been dreadful , end result raising money is not happening.  We need results on the field to get the vibe going thats why Creedon is doing untold damage.  This is not entirely of his making but unfortunately he can not lift us from it.   Cut the cord sooner rather than later, we are only wasting time.  Portarlington, Portlaoise, Graigue & Mountmellick are providing poor returns on population.  We need to do something radical to get back into these towns.

A month later was I wrong ? 

Where is Tony????

Lads here delighted Laois were bet. So they can win the internet.  >:(

Thinking the same SCFC. And some of their own club men involved. We would have won today with Seale in one corner and Hanrahan or Kehoe in the other. There last year but not this. I suppose that's Creedon's fault too. We have paid the price for not being good enough and our full back line in particular were atrocious. In fairness to Kelly and Strong, neither are corner backs. Some of those lads today have no interest in the jersey. If they did, they would show a lot more than they did. No names mentioned, and in fairness to them, they are only there because others can't or won't commit. Hard to look at though......

Quote from: SCFC on April 02, 2017, 10:08:50 PM
Lads here delighted Laois were bet. So they can win the internet.  >:(

It's a sorry state of affairs but it's true.

No not happy but was annoyed at being called an idiot by several on here.   This is actually a serious business,  a lot of people are putting time and effort into raising money to be totally ignored and treated like idiots by the CB.  Have you ever been at a county convention how the clubs are ignored by the chosen few.  Have any people any idea how Peter Creedon got the job who choose him or what were the parameters of the appointment.  You don't matter to those that make the decisions in Laois we are all clowns in their eyes and long may the party continue.

High fielder are you for real saying that?? Its creedons job to get all involved that's what his paid to do,,, yee all mention lads that aren't playing why????? They don't want to commit to this so forget them,, I agree what it looks like with the players but there manager doesn't inspire them .... he has noooooooo tactical brain that's the problem,,, do u think I'm happy this shit has happened I am not happy ,,, I agree with Broan Abu because he makes perfect sense he calls it right that my opinion,, today was an unfit team in planned in trained team that's the problem mate that's all

Quote from: High Fielder on April 02, 2017, 10:20:45 PM
Thinking the same SCFC. And some of their own club men involved. We would have won today with Seale in one corner and Hanrahan or Kehoe in the other. There last year but not this. I suppose that's Creedon's fault too. We have paid the price for not being good enough and our full back line in particular were atrocious. In fairness to Kelly and Strong, neither are corner backs. Some of those lads today have no interest in the jersey. If they did, they would show a lot more than they did. No names mentioned, and in fairness to them, they are only there because others can't or won't commit. Hard to look at though......

Maybe we would but the 3 lads you named have decided not to play for Laois this year. So we have to go on without them.

Everyone wants to throw out Creedon the gdas, the co board.

Co board is democratically elected, so your clubs can all sort that.

Gdas protected by employment laws, they're here to stay

Creedon I'm not that impressed​ with , probably give him the year. Not exactly a lineup of managers with outstanding cvs ready to take over.

At the end of all the hand wringing we all need to go back to our own clubs and work from the ground up. The gdas can't make x club produce x no of county players.  Clubs need their own structures in order rather than whining at co board

That said this is a bleak day for Laois football. Division 4 is a disaster for us. Imo opinion we have players good enough to make us a div 2 team. That should be our short term aim, as we need to be at least there to have a shot at making an impact on championship

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on April 02, 2017, 10:29:20 PM
No not happy but was annoyed at being called an idiot by several on here.   This is actually a serious business,  a lot of people are putting time and effort into raising money to be totally ignored and treated like idiots by the CB.  Have you ever been at a county convention how the clubs are ignored by the chosen few.  Have any people any idea how Peter Creedon got the job who choose him or what were the parameters of the appointment.  You don't matter to those that make the decisions in Laois we are all clowns in their eyes and long may the party continue.

I'm no fan of co
board, but have you evidence there was lack of due process in Creedons appointment nor are you just ranting for

I just asked who appointed him, and what were the parameters of the appointment.  I am pretty sure many on here would like to know how much this set up cost, considering what happened to Mark Rooney.

I don't think we are anywhere near a division2 team anymore .. division 3 is what we should be .. division 4 due to poor mgmt / injuries / illdiscipline

Looking at the bigger picture it's an old team.. half of them in their thirties with very little coming through .. we could be fluttering between division 3 and 4 for the foreseeable.. I expect a raft of retirement after the summer and maybe 1 or 2 before that ..

Hard to see creedon turning it around during the summer .. if he is costing a lot ballyroanabu I can see why u want him gone but I think the bigger picture of the 2003 minors retiring and nothing coming thru as the major problem for laois football in the short to medium term

Quote from: SCFC on April 02, 2017, 10:08:50 PM
Lads here delighted Laois were bet. So they can win the internet.  >:(

f**king sickening.

Too sick to post ...

The fitness of the players is my biggest worry

Quote from: Don Draper on April 02, 2017, 07:31:25 PM
Aye it's the managers fault a player can't behave himself for the few minutes it takes to get a replacement on for him. Always someone else's fault in Laois.

You are an intelligent poster, who understands how things work in team environments.

Players being sent off reflects poorly on the players involved. BUT, if this is happening game after game then there is a bigger issue at play.
The buck stops with Mr. P. Creedon.

Why on earth do so many people blame management, C.B., referees etc?
the simple fact is with the exception of D.K. we have a bunch of players that probably give their best and invest a lot of their time training etc. we should ask one simple Question how many players do we have that would make the starting 15 on the Dublin, Meath, Kildare, Cork, Kerry, Mayo, Doneygal teams I could list off at least another 10 counties. Not one of our defenders or Midfielders would get a look in.
D.K. is the only footballer that would be considered. Stop the blame game and face the facts

Quote from: Keyser Söze on April 02, 2017, 11:41:19 PM

Quote from: Don Draper on April 02, 2017, 07:31:25 PM
Aye it's the managers fault a player can't behave himself for the few minutes it takes to get a replacement on for him. Always someone else's fault in Laois.

You are an intelligent poster, who understands how things work in team environments.

Players being sent off reflects poorly on the players involved. BUT, if this is happening game after game then there is a bigger issue at play.
The buck stops with Mr. P. Creedon.

I understand plenty and I've had a certain card marked for some time. Creedon can't be blamed for that one.

the rover..they prob wouldnt get on them teams...But i would prefer to have 15 players that are fit and want to play for laois..Ididnt see that yest...

Well done Town1980 you're delighted. I want to congratulate you on your proud day.

Look, anyone who hasn't seen this happening for years now hasn't been paying attention.

If it wasn't 2017 it was going to be 2019 or 2020.

We've hardly anything coming through and we've players playing in positions they shouldn't be in out of desperation.

The injury list killed us but indicipline buried us. If you've ever played, and you're booked and about to be replaced, what do you do? Blame your coach when you get another booking? It's disappointing from an experienced player and yes they did focus on indicipline in training confirmed.

The ability isn't there. We would have stayed up if we had a normal year of injuries. The players who came in, and fair play to them for trying, but a lot of them are division 4 standard. No disrespect to them, if you haven't got the ability, that's life.

Of course Creedon has to shoulder some of the blame but to blame him solely? Nonsense. Open your eyes.

Where to go from here? Not sure but as I say, we've been poor for years now and it'll likely get worse unless some players develop miraculously. Best bet is to just appreciate the effort as we won't be beating the big guns for a while. And when's the last time we did that anyway? Years ago.

As for this year, we need to regroup and get as many people back and ready for championship as possible. We will need them. Our full back line especially as it is now will not succeed against any team.

Some people say we've hit rock bottom but in truth we've been very low for years. We've been awful in leinster. I don't see how going to division 4 means we're suddenly awful.

We've been poor for years now let's be honest. The ability is not there. There may indeed be a change of management at the end of the year but will ballyroanabu and town1980 be back this time next year when we're still not world beaters and it's still clear our players simply don't have the ability?

Magically then it won't be Padraig Clancy's fault and maybe they will finally open their eyes: we have a poor to average side at the best of times and without the injured and unavailable players, we're crippled.

The only way is up? Maybe. Strange things happen in sport sometimes.

again you think im delighted, i am not im so unhappy with how unprepared this team is is all,,thats what im trying to get across to you/yee,,what laois man is happy that happened yesterday?my own opinion is all im giving,,they are unfit ,,they are unprepared in a very winable division,,there is no exuse for lads not being able to run yesterday absolutley none,,3-6 from one player says enough we were ran off the park,,so im sorry yes i do blame management on this i do think that this set up is a waste of money but again thats my opinion,,am i happy us as a county are in division 4 i am in my arse,,there will be no one at the games next year 

The reality is lads our aspirations are higher than our current form and has been for a long time now. The CB have obviously got the whole thing wrong the book stops with them. We can sit here and blame creadon but lads that management team done a superb job with Tipperary and the fruits are now being seen with back to back promotions and an All Ireland Semi Final, who are we kidding. I do think we have the players in Laois to compete but dont have the mindset. I genuinely think the standard of Leinster Football is just so shocking its becoming an embarrassment. 8 of the 11 teams playing in either D3 or D4 this year. 1 team in D1 and 2 in D2. Where do we go from here, needs careful consideration, all is not lost. Westmeath made it to 2 leinster finals from D4 so that has to be our target this year however wouldnt be surprised if Longford bait us out the gate in RD1.

Ah lads me b**tard second hand washing machine from China that I bought ten years ago just broke.

It wasn't that it had poor washing ability or that I placed it upside down and out of position and the proper replacement parts weren't available so I pieced it up with nails and duct tape.

No. It's that f***ing Peter Creedon.

It's ok though my plumber Mr Clancy is going to come in and make it perfect. Yeah. That's it.

Now your showing your colours Tony,

All year you bigged up a complete fraud and without a seconds thought you knock a Laois Man for the job.

Same old story in Laois if your from the county your shi..te but kiss the feet of some bluffer

Clancy, McNulty, Higgins and Kavanagh are good lads and should be given a chance.  You can never beat youth and ambition.

Ah god love ya, you didn't get my point.

There's nobody knocking Clancy. A fine gentleman that I've a lot of time for.

But last time I checked he can't turn dishwater into wine.

The balanced posters here are pointing out that Creedon isn't exactly the messiah and he does shoulder some of the blame.

But all you and town1980 seem to be worried about is replacing a manager mid season, as if that will stand to us long term.

You don't seem to have a clue about the big picture and the MANY many reasons we are where we are.

Quote from: oneflewoverthecuckoonest on April 02, 2017, 08:23:44 PM
end of league....the embarrassment of relegation to the bottom tier.

after 7 league games:
team unfit, club sides are fitter than this outfit.
little or no discipline....you might blame 1 or 2 biased refs, they all can't be wrong....the team mentality is wrong....many of the fouls yielding the red cards have been a result of fitness and planning issues.
the planning issues.....there is no plan....lob it into donie and hope he scores enough to beat the opposition.
once upon a time not so long ago, we had 6 forwards who could score given a chance, now apart from donie, evan and Conway, the rest are shy about shooting...a real sign of weakness in an intercounty team.

we are told the management is popular with the players....are they making life too easily and the whole set up is lazy and easy as compared to the suffering other intercounty squads have to put up with...........every club in this county could appoint a "nice popular" coach...if the performances on the playing field are desperate, those clubs would go into self preservation mode and part company and find an alternative.

on the watch of the current county board chairman we have dropped from div 1 to 4, and it was most likely his call and influence that has appointed two right turkeys in O Flaherty and Creedon.......the chairman's vision has led us down a blind alley.

I 100% agree with previous posters, in that some of these full time coaches are not fit for purpose...our best coaches were volunteers, and said personnel are probably sitting back and wrestling with the idea as to why they should return when others failing system are on a full time contract.

we have not hit rock bottom yet, with nothing coming through at underage level, there is every chance fall further and we will remain for some time at the bottom of the Leinster footballing pyramid with Wicklow and Carlow.

No plan= plan to fail ==  and we achieved this objective.

what to do for now.....
...get rid of this management.....
....appoint a few locals, joe Higgins/Clancy/Rooney to take charge
.....basically write off this season and allow them rebuild from division 4 next winter and start to re-organise at underage level
...perhaps invite all vested parties into a crisis football meeting and maybe encourage those from the successful past back into the fold...
..and no more nepotism!.

I agree, the crisis football meeting needs to be called and soon  the clubs must  demand it, the sooner people stop deluding themselves and get started looking seriously at all aspects of whats wrong especially youth development the sooner we'll pull out of this. This drop to div. 4 was probably needed otherwise the powers that be would endeavour to put some sort of a positive slant on it .... from here there's no such option.

My own view is and (I'm very much open to discussion on this) for the last 40/50 years Portlaoise and Joe's have supplied half the county team between them in all grades more or less, yesterday no outfield player from either club. No Portlaoise player on the u21 panel very small number on  all underage panels.
Rural clubs are suffering big time for numbers, not just in Laois  same in Cork, Limerick and  in most counties just reference the winter long debate here "Gales and Amalgamation thread " and at the same time there a distinct decline of interest in the GAA in big towns ( in many counties ) Dublin of course the exception.
This is the area we must put a huge focus on and try and get a far greater return from than we have being getting in the last 10 years.
The rural clubs are doing wonderful  work and will continue to do so but they are working with ever decreasing numbers.  The big population areas has to be where the big effort comes from or else reinvent the wheel.

There is so much wrong with Laois football it's hard to know where to start but I'll give it a go.

The league this year has been extremely disappointing. Despite all the injuries we left three games, Sligo, Antrim and Offaly, behind us. We were fortunate to win away in Armagh and the one game where we defended with some real purpose, Longford, we won.

People will say that the players aren't good enough but looking at the standard across the board, I see some limited enough teams doing well. I wouldn't say Fermanagh or Clare have more natural talent than Laois but they've both played in All Ireland Quarter Finals in recent years. They do however have good management teams in place. We haven't had one in five years.

Going to Tullamore yesterday the plan should have been to make it as hard as possible for Offaly. They had rebounded from their hammering in Armagh with a spirited display against Tipperary and win in Sligo. This was a do or die game and they should have been made earn every score they got. Instead we coughed up soft score after soft score. Tackling, discipline and work rate were all well below the standard you would expect of a team fighting to stay out of Division 4.

A good management team with the right coaches can instill some of the above into teams. We have a forward, Donie Kingston, who is as good as what is playing football in the country but yet at times we are reluctant to let the ball into him. In fact it wasn't really until Meaney went off yesterday that we started to let the ball into him and at that point it was more desperation than any great plan from management. Moving Darren Strong out the field and Dennis Booth back into the full back line looked an obvious swicth but it didn't happen until the later stages of the game. At least play lads where they can try and give their best performances. If it proves not to be good enough then so be it.

Nobody is saying that we should be going toe to toe with the bigger counties but we should be trying to give ourselves the best possible chance of acheiveing something. In the last five years we haven't.

The dogs on the street know what is going on with this County Board for the last number of years is a disaster. Our underage performances have fallen off the map. Our senior team has been relegated three times and bar two spirited performances against Dublin our performances in the Leinster have been poor. Coupled with the fact that the standard in the province outside of Dublin would be pretty even, this is even more disappointing.

It is obviously ridiculous to blame Peter Creedon exclusively for this year's abysmal showing.

It is equally ridiculous to try to somehow suggest that Peter Creedon just has some incidental role in the whole thing.  There are a few things that I have observed from this year:

1) Some selection decisions were odd to say the least - I don't think there's a single Laois supporter that would have suggested Darren Strong as a corner back for example. The management team select the team.

2) Compared to Offaly, for example, Laois looked REALLY unfit. Evan looked like he was playing through injury and, if so, hats off to him for trying but most of the rest of them have no excuse that I'm aware of. The management team create the training programme.

3) Laois did not look as hungry as Offaly. The motivation should come, in the first place, from inside the players themselves. This can be developed further by the management team.

4) I didn't see any particular evidence of a system of play other than firing balls into Donie and hoping for the best. This may be because (a) the players don't have the capacity to implement it or (b) there wasn't any particular gameplan to start with

5) Individual performance levels were generally poor. At a personal level, I can't remember a single occasion when I could blame a manager for a bad individual performance (and I've some across some pretty poor managers). Individual performances are down to the individuals. I would have expected more from this team even if there was no manager at all.

Darren Strong wasn't a great half back so how is he supposed to be a good corner back? As for young Sean Moore being brought on in a battle like yesterday, the chap doesn't have the physique for senior intercounty football and would be broke up. Leave him be for a couple of years.

You can talk about the reasons for our drop into Div 4 (which isn't the end of the world) but if the footballers played with the mentality of the hurlers they would still be in Div 3. If Darren strongs last minute shot had gone over, if me aunty had balls etc etc.

As has been said here many times similar to the hurling threads structures have to be in place to bring lads from primary school age up to the senior ranks with decent coaching and incentives. Get the coaches to regularly go to juvenile clubs to assist the local coaches and make courses mandatory for the clubs. Subsidise the cost if need be. It's up to the clubs to drive this and make their voices heard for the good of the county but they won't as clubs will look after their own interests first. Situation up in Arles at the moment where 4 lads have to go around looking for a club that will take them as they have no team at that grade.

If, as has been stated here, some of the GDA's are not up to scratch surely that should be raised at county board meetings

Lads these problems are not unique to Laois. Go around any of the forums where teams have ha a poor league and you will hear more of the same, blaming CB is the most popular, but managers, structures, the urban demise, numbers at rural clubs all make the list.

Maybe it's time for an internal review/report and see if that will be acted on.

i never once sais replace the man half way threw the season im in no way a fan of that so what are you on about tony?im sorry if i gave that impression but i dont want to see that happen,,,the last few posters i agree with everything they have said,,they are excellent posts and im thinking the way they are thinking,,maybe im guilty of being to brash with my comments for that im sorry,,im just seeing nothing in the current set up for the money that is being spent thats all,,,and im sure its not only me and broan abu that are thinking this

Quote from: town1980 on April 03, 2017, 12:33:02 PM
its not only me and broan abu that are thinking this

No, you were just the fella who wanted to knife him after the first game.

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on April 02, 2017, 08:17:31 PM
Offaly were deserving victors they twice let Laois back into the game, I don't particularly blame Creedon ( he was a bad appointment) but I do blame the people who appointed him.  This relegation to Div 4 has taken 5 years and actually the 3 managerial appointments just got more and more deplorable.   I don't think we have a Div 1 team, I do think we are mid table Div 2 with possibly the best forward in the country.  A few people on here called me an idiot well I won't do the same thing.   However if you think that defending this joke of a set up is the right thing continue on.  Unfortunately the people in charge have necks like the jockeys proverbials but if anyone had sense they would hang their heads in shame and resign.

Delusional

Can posters just stop asking for Creedon to be sacked.
Whether you think he should or not, its NOT going to happen so start talking about things that actually matter.

Lets go back a couple of years under Mcnulty.
A committed group of lads, playing one of the most rigid defensive systems I've ever seen. However, this group of players were much more talented than the squad at present. Munnelly playing the ball of his career, McMahon, O'Leary, Clancy etc. This squad had experience and a bit of know how to win big games.

Many despised the style of football we played but didnt care when we ran All Ireland champions close two years in a row.
Very few young players were given any chance by McNulty but that didnt matter after the nice wins over Meath & Monaghan.
Although we had horrible defeats to Kildare, Louth & Longford, the panel from 1-35, was quite simply better than the ageing one we have today and everyone needs to understand that.

Now what happened in them few years is important:
Our Minors suffered from the neglection of decent development squad coaching.
Our U21s were having the worst results in 20 years or so.
There was a massive decline in the quality of our club scene. A drop in the playing numbers in big clubs and rural clubs now at breaking point.

The CB buried their heads in the sand. Ignored the deteriorating club championship. Did anyone ask how we went from a kick of a ball to winning an U21 leinster in 09', to winning only 2 games in the next 4 years?
We were all a bit deluded.

Now we could go and get high profile manager next year. A big payout for a nice backroom team, get all the ageing uncommitted (this season) players back on board for another year or two. We might get within 8 points of Dublin. Beat another Meath.

Or we can accept that our years of denial has led us to this point and realise short term success is not the answer.
A new manager, positionally selecting a better team and beating Longford is going to get us no where.
We cant hide behind our Division 2 status or a decent qualifier run anymore.
If a relegation to Division 4 kick starts us into action then so be it.

People expecting more are blind to how weak Laois football is. Portlaoise got complacent and look what happened to them. Truth be told, with everyone on board, and I mean everyone, we might be a Division 2 team. With our current panel, and I'm pointing out the obvious here, we are Division 4. Portlaoise are the only team in Laois that could hold their own in Leinster. And even they are getting weaker. It's all in decline. The only way is up.

Couldn't say it better myself. The league doesn't lie, that is the standard we are at. I was at the Antrim game and both teams were the worst I have seen in the league. Even with a stronger hand in the last few seasons we still were not strong enough for those divisions. The delusion that we are stronger than we are is half the problem. There are good things being done with the centre of excellence but there is nothing coming out the schools, minor or u21 level. The club championship as also dipped in the last few years.The players are not there at present and next year is going to be equally as tough with age profile of the team. There really needs to be a massive re think of what we are at. I also think that hurling needs to be looked at, the same problems are there.

The Longford game has now huge importance.

The best way forward isn't a pissing contest between the obvious 4 or 5 on this group cause after yesterday no one won.
What happened was a build up of years of no real enthusiasm being put into young squads. Ive be been watching how a few of the GDAS conduct themselves and it would make you scream. The current highest coaching level is 2 in this country can you guess how many of the GDAS have attained this level ......0 in football. Basic strenght and conditioning has to begin at u 14 (this isn't weight training) things like mobility flexibility core strenght running mechanics are par for course in all top counties and they don't cost the world. How many GDAS have a qualification in strenght and conditioning wait for it .....0

I went to an under 14 match last year there wasn't even a medic there the ref on the day had to attend to the player on the pitch and carry him off.Plus the laois lads looked like rah ball rovers waiting about kicking with no purpose cause the GDA was late and he looked worse for ware on arrival.  These are small things that lead to overall standards dropping it's infectious and gets in everywhere.
Rebuild properly from the bottom get local qualified passionate people in to implement plans for the next 5 years (this is a starting point )
I can see there is talent in this county but it's raw and needs serious coaching.

Some good points being made, I'm just going to make a curveball point here and sometimes it's as simple as this.

When I was playing football and I won't mention the year but I did a lot with the club AND a bit with the county until u-21 (no I was never very good and usually was on bench with county).

Anyway, the years I was playing, I grew up (a long long time ago now) and played with some of the players from very good Laois teams.

Let me tell you, training was not sophisticated or well organised at all. Yet it yielded a high crop of good players that made quality inter county players.

It was a group of lads enjoying themselves playing a bit of ball and quite a number (more than average) happened to be good at that time. Not through fantastic coaching, but just because they were very good athletes and minds and the little coaching that we had was enough.

So my point is : sometimes, with a county the size of Laois, you just have periods where you don't yield a lot of GOOD RAW talent that's needed to make a good county team.

We seem to be going through a period of that now.

Now before you get me wrong, I do of course believe good coaching can improve a player a lot.

But sometimes the field just isn't yielding good crop and you have to make do.

I think that's a lot of what's happening with underage now, which is a bit scary. The good raw talent isn't there and the law of averages dictate it might be some years before it comes back.

The way the game is developing will not help us either because it's become so complex regarding training etc.

Anyway, I know that's definitely not the sole reason why we're not yielding top players and of course coaching is important but really, sometimes you yield more Joe Bloggs in a given 10 year cycle and a lot less Donie Kingstons.

The bottom line to rectify this is to get as many young lads to start playing GAA as possible, AND to make it enjoyable. That way we give ourselves as much chance as possible to convert them into mini Donies later on in life.

The expectations of Laois football and the supporters can be debated. Is it right to think that with the present panel we should be aiming for promotion? It's reasonable to expect them to be in the hunt at the very least.

Football across the board isn't strong. Did Sligo, Antrim and Offaly produce anything outstanding to beat us? No they didn't. We contributed to our own downfall in the three games. Laois, with debatebable management setups, have beaten Armagh four times in under a year so the standard up there must be pretty poor too.

I think any manager worth his salt would have taken Meaney off yesterday after he got away with the frontal charge that could have seen him get a second yellow card. Get the message on for a player to go down for treatment or anything at all that will give you the chance to make the change. The player himself must take responsibility but you could see what was coming. Don't stand with your hands on your hips waiting for it to happen.

Peter Creedon was appointed on the basis of his underage record with Tipperary. That's fine but the age profile of our squad doesn't have the time for that. It didn't have the time when Tomas O'Flatharta was appointed four years ago and it had less time this time around. Every effort should have been made to leave the Laois football team in the best possible position.

The Longford game in a few weeks is important but not as an important as yesterday. If we wanted to develop players we needed to make sure that next spring they were playing at as a high a level as possible.

It now looks like the County Board have botched three managerial appointments in a row. Everyone seems to have a horror story about the underage coaches. The whole setup requires serious work and really good decision making but you wouldn't want to hold your breath.

It's easy say the CB botched 3 manager appointments in hindsight. I think most people were happy enough when Creedon was appointed as he had experience and a decent set up. Nobody foresaw the current situation when he was brought in and if anything we were talking about promotion.

I'm new to this so have patience. In my opinion I think the lack of competitiveness in Laois over the last ten years is the real problem. Portlaoise won nine in a row and fair to them. The rest of the club teams put out 15 players with some of them not fit to play junior but clubs had no choice. In days of old when there were bigger families clubs could field no problem but now most families are smaller and not everyone wants to play GAA anymore. So would it not be better to have parish teams to try raise the competitiveness in the county and reduce the championship to 8 teams??

With regard to population the opposite is true

The population soared from less than 59,000 in 2002, to almost 85k in 2016. By 2023 it is predicted to reach almost 90,000.

In 2011 figures, Laois had the highest population in the country of 0-18 year olds. Nearly 39 percent are aged under 25, compared to 34 percent nationally.

Portlaoise will pass 25k when the next census results are released,how many of the blow ins or the new Irish are being enticed into playing or mentoring with laois club gaa?.

We need a root and branch overhaul of how we conduct our gaa business,a lot of it will be painful and the results may not be seen in the next 7/10 years but it needs to be done now.

As the old saying goes,never waste a good crisis to implement change

Coaching of development squads is important I agree. However success breathes success if the Senior county team is struggling (Which it has been for a number of years) then the interest in football goes. Enthusiasm is lost amongst clubs and even within these development squads.
Hence the drop in the number of players within clubs being mentioned.
How many guys on these squads really want to go play for Laois? Or even young clubmen on the county panel fringes? Not just to be a county star, but I mean have a real passion for Laois.

Optimism is low and no Senior team to inspire. When a group isn't winning, whether it's an U14 or senior, the interest begins to fizzle away. Guys won't put in the work required to develop themselves. Once every few years we will get a Kingston, a Brody or an O'Carroll, but we need teams to be successful, not players

Everyone talking about the successful underage teams of past. Those panels were apart of something special. They pushed themselves to become better footballers for the rest of the team, for the good of Laois, not just themselves. That's why Davy Conway, O'Loughlin etc are still showing the desire like they did yesterday.

Anyway, onto yesterday's shambles of a game.
Many key guys not at 100% fitness, but playing anyway cos of a lack of talent to replace them. (Walsh, Donoher, O'Carroll, O'Connor)
Others shown up.
Lads can't think on their feet. Too one dimensional. No ideas. Wrong team selected. Too many passengers, not only because they don't have the ability, but have an unwillingness to get involved in the play and take responsibility.

Quote from: Tony on April 03, 2017, 10:42:22 AM
Ah lads me b**tard second hand washing machine from China that I bought ten years ago just broke.

It wasn't that it had poor washing ability or that I placed it upside down and out of position and the proper replacement parts weren't available so I pieced it up with nails and duct tape.

No. It's that f***ing Peter Creedon.

It's ok though my plumber Mr Clancy is going to come in and make it perfect. Yeah. That's it.

Idiotic in the extreme.

Quote from: clonadmad on April 03, 2017, 05:12:15 PM
With regard to population the opposite is true

The population soared from less than 59,000 in 2002, to almost 85k in 2016. By 2023 it is predicted to reach almost 90,000.

In 2011 figures, Laois had the highest population in the country of 0-18 year olds. Nearly 39 percent are aged under 25, compared to 34 percent nationally.

Portlaoise will pass 25k when the next census results are released,how many of the blow ins or the new Irish are being enticed into playing or mentoring with laois club gaa?.

We need a root and branch overhaul of how we conduct our gaa business,a lot of it will be painful and the results may not be seen in the next 7/10 years but it needs to be done now.

As the old saying goes,never waste a good crisis to implement change

Exactly, I made this point earlier.

Quote from: Mort on April 03, 2017, 05:07:05 PM
I'm new to this so have patience. In my opinion I think the lack of competitiveness in Laois over the last ten years is the real problem. Portlaoise won nine in a row and fair to them. The rest of the club teams put out 15 players with some of them not fit to play junior but clubs had no choice. In days of old when there were bigger families clubs could field no problem but now most families are smaller and not everyone wants to play GAA anymore. So would it not be better to have parish teams to try raise the competitiveness in the county and reduce the championship to 8 teams??

With their total domination one would think they would backbone the country team not so.
The reason the local championship is poor is because of lack of quality.
Good players =good championship not the other way around.

Quote from: No. 5 on April 01, 2017, 10:09:44 PM
Lads, as with last game I think we'll win tomorrow. On paper it's a decent team (I acknowledge match fitness amongst our bigger names may be lacking). I'd be happy with Creedon if we can scrape survival in Division 3, setting us up for promotion to Division 2 next year. Division 4 is unthinkable. A Leinster title is out of reach for foreseeable future due to Dublin dominance. Division 3 survival with goal of Division 2 is acceptable for the moment.

What in the name of all that's holy suggests that we are "set up" for promotion next year?!

My post does seem ridiculous now but my hope was for us to scrape survival, Creedon would have more time to get his methods in place (assuming he knew what he was doing), and hoping for a less freaky run of injuries to our best players. In short I was being optimistic ahead of our most important game in a long time. Relegation to Division 4 is barely believable.

Is Jack Nolan right when he suggests that no one seems to care? Do the county board give a damn about the plight of Gaelic Games in the county. Even if they do, are they capable of doing anything about it?

Read the posts on here, Unison. It's clear what the view on the CB is. They need a clear vision of the future and they don't have one. Nero fiddled, while Rome burned. They should have stepped down, in embarrassment, after the SFC debacle a few years ago.

The GDAs (Begley excused) are not working out. Is that a job for life, or do they actually have targets? Can they just churn out year after year of muck and be allowed to continue?

The GDAs (Begley excused) are not working out. Is that a job for life, or do they actually have targets? Can they just churn out year after year of muck and be allowed to continue?
[/quote]

Couldn't agree more donnie brennan and james kelly have turned into council workers appointed through nepotism lazy no vision but untouchable should be a clean sweep every 3 -5 years

Quote from: O moore parklife on April 04, 2017, 08:42:23 AM


The GDAs (Begley excused) are not working out. Is that a job for life, or do they actually have targets? Can they just churn out year after year of muck and be allowed to continue?

Couldn't agree more donnie brennan and james kelly have turned into council workers appointed through nepotism lazy no vision but untouchable should be a clean sweep every 3 -5 years
[/quote]

A few years ago the clubs call for an EGM I think to discuss the type of football McNulty was imposing on the senior team.
What are the clubs doing now .... why are they not now calling for the removal of the people who have presided of the debacle that is Laois football (all levels) right now.

As for the GDA's  well I wouldn't fire them if the were any good there should certainly be a yearly review..... but who's would carry out such  a review  ?? 

There's plenty of people who could carry out a review. Ex players like Colm Browne or someone like Cheddar who only wants the best for Laois Gaa.

Ask someone like Mick Dempsey to have a look and give his opinion, pay him for his time. He could look at it in comparison to how things are done in KK.

Plenty of people could step in and give a review and it wouldn't have to be the likes of Deloitte or KPMG.

Quote from: redsetanta on April 04, 2017, 09:58:43 AM
There's plenty of people who could carry out a review. Ex players like Colm Browne or someone like Cheddar who only wants the best for Laois Gaa.

Ask someone like Mick Dempsey to have a look and give his opinion, pay him for his time. He could look at it in comparison to how things are done in KK.

Plenty of people could step in and give a review and it wouldn't have to be the likes of Deloitte or KPMG.

Can I suggest, with the greatest of respect to the man, that given Mick Dempsey was the head hunter who appointed Mick Lillis, he may not be the silver bullet he's made out to be at times? Also, and again, respect for his past endeavours, but Colm  Browne was head of Games Development during a time when our decline continued unabated, possibly not the best man either. Individual thinkers are needed, and as we've seen with Cheddar, they're at times very much unappreciated.

Its at times like this, that perhaps, someone from Deloitte or KPMG is the answer. We have plenty living in the county who could offer their services. We need to think outside the box, doing the same thing, and going back to the same people over and over, will leave us where we always have been.

I would suggest that we get no one from within the county in to to do this.

We need 2/3 people who would look at this completely dispassionately and make recommendations without fear or favour.

Quote from: clonadmad on April 04, 2017, 10:16:35 AM
I would suggest that we get no one from within the county in to to do this.

We need 2/3 people who would look at this completely dispassionately and make recommendations without fear or favour.

I'd be content to get nobody from with the usual GAA circles, but I have no doubt we have plenty of professional people in the county who could easily carryout such a task. Thats the thing, we have lots of untapped potential in this county, but sadly we see the same faces in front of us at Conventions year in year out.

Either way, I wouldn't go to either of the two mentioned above. This needs to be done immediately as well, and ensured that it is returned and published asap, and not mothballed like Offalys was for months and years.

Only the clubs can ensure this happens.

If it's an operational review of the County board's practices and structure,fair enough I'd have no issue with getting management consultants in.Peter Quinn would be top of my list here.

If its a review with recommendations as to best practices in terms of coaching and development across all cohorts in the county then it's a horse of a completely different color.

Setting the terms of reference early on would be key to defining the scope.

Also there would need to be a binding agreement that there a.would be the finance made available to implement change and b.agreement to put the findings of the report in place.


The reason why the Offaly one was shelved was due to all available funds going to service the debt on Oconnor park,Micheal Duignan also submitted 2 brilliant youth development plans for Offaly underage hurling which are gathering dust somewhere.

Doing a report for the optics of being seen to do something anything is a waste of time and resources.

Sick from that performance

Is Creedon able to sufficiently get through to the Laois psyche I don't know

Panel is happy seemingly but Offaly were just so up for that game
Laois skillset is just so poor that's the reason why we are in Division 4

Decisionmaking and discipline at times was mindblowing

Quote from: clonadmad on April 04, 2017, 10:16:35 AM
I would suggest that we get no one from within the county in to to do this.

We need 2/3 people who would look at this completely dispassionately and make recommendations without fear or favour.

Agree

When some posters were saying that Division 4 would be a disaster they werent joking but to be honest i think we'd be heading that
way in the next couple of years anyways if we had survived

looking at the team from Sunday there are so many over 30+

DStrong
D Booth
P McMahon
K Meaney
D Conway

Subs
Gary Walsh
Niall Donoher

Injured but certain starters if fit
Mark Timmons
B Quigley
C Begley

Thats 10 of the likely best 15 starters that could retire this year or next ..

Then there are players like Dillon and O'Connor in their late twenties, will they commit to Division 4 football?

Players like Donie and JOL who've been carrying us for years .. will they have the appetite for it.

It used to be a huge honour to play for Laois, i dont get that feeling anymore ..

It really is time to stand back and start from scratch .. sometimes you have to hit rock bottom .. and thats where we are ..

I dont know what the story is with the CB or any of that as I'm based in Dublin but there was at most 300 at the longford game
so there could be less than 100 at the matches next year .. surely that has to hit home financially and will force change ?

To sick to even post after that defeat Sunday....

I don't know where to start.

Beating Longford now will be a hard task and if we do would we really be able to put it up to Kildare?

Thing is I still think there is the basis of a decent outfit there but something isn't right.

I also know we have taken the eye off the ball regarding coaching for a number of years now and are light years behind your Kildares Monaghan's and Tipps of this world who we should be competing with.

I'm usually positive and I respect everyone that tog's for this proud county but I just feel empty this week.

The CB have to take stock now. Their positions should be deemed untenable. They (some of them) have overseen Laois' fall from Div1 in 2012 to Div4 in 2017.

The GDAs (Begley excused) are not working out. Is that a job for life, or do they actually have targets? Can they just churn out year after year of muck and be allowed to continue?

Excuse my ignorance, to be honest i don't know the roles of the GDA's so im not being smart  but why is Begley  excused? Does he have a different role or something?

Quote from: Unlaoised on April 04, 2017, 01:07:36 PM
To sick to even post after that defeat Sunday....

I don't know where to start.

Beating Longford now will be a hard task and if we do would we really be able to put it up to Kildare?

Thing is I still think there is the basis of a decent outfit there but something isn't right.

I also know we have taken the eye off the ball regarding coaching for a number of years now and are light years behind your Kildares Monaghan's and Tipps of this world who we should be competing with.

I'm usually positive and I respect everyone that tog's for this proud county but I just feel empty this week.

I get laughed at by Laois people for still going to support them. They obviously feel they're the clever ones. I think they're disloyal. The players who use Laois like a revolving door obviously know better too. We're in a proper state and I see no passion from anywhere. I'd be happy enough if we pulled out of the Championship and make a proper contribution to Gaelic football. We're not competing, so at least show the whole thing up for what it is. I feel like we're the biggest bunch of patsies in the world right now. Punch bags. Whipping boys.

Quote from: High Fielder on April 04, 2017, 02:00:24 PM

Quote from: Unlaoised on April 04, 2017, 01:07:36 PM
To sick to even post after that defeat Sunday....

I don't know where to start.

Beating Longford now will be a hard task and if we do would we really be able to put it up to Kildare?

Thing is I still think there is the basis of a decent outfit there but something isn't right.

I also know we have taken the eye off the ball regarding coaching for a number of years now and are light years behind your Kildares Monaghan's and Tipps of this world who we should be competing with.

I'm usually positive and I respect everyone that tog's for this proud county but I just feel empty this week.

I get laughed at by Laois people for still going to support them. They obviously feel they're the clever ones. I think they're disloyal. The players who use Laois like a revolving door obviously know better too. We're in a proper state and I see no passion from anywhere. I'd be happy enough if we pulled out of the Championship and make a proper contribution to Gaelic football. We're not competing, so at least show the whole thing up for what it is. I feel like we're the biggest bunch of patsies in the world right now. Punch bags. Whipping boys.
[/quote

Nothing much different from the majority of the last 130 years so

Nothing like this. This beats all. I don't expect much but I hate a team folding like we do.

Too sick to talk about Sunday but as has been said it was coming, if not this year then possibly next.
At least we might have Cahir Healy back next year.

http://www.laoistoday.ie/2017/04/04/healy-talks-hurling-joy-football-portlaoise-commute-london/

Anyone on this forum ever had personal experience working with any of the GDA's? What is your opinion on them and why?

Quote from: ollie12 on April 04, 2017, 01:33:24 PM
The GDAs (Begley excused) are not working out. Is that a job for life, or do they actually have targets? Can they just churn out year after year of muck and be allowed to continue?

Excuse my ignorance, to be honest i don't know the roles of the GDA's so im not being smart  but why is Begley  excused? Does he have a different role or something?

He's only in the door. Plus, feedback on him is very good.

Quote from: redsetanta on April 04, 2017, 04:29:54 PM
Anyone on this forum ever had personal experience working with any of the GDA's? What is your opinion on them and why?

How one or two of these lads were appointed (nepotism) was wrong, especially when it was clearly evident that they were unsuitable for the job. A lack of desire or onus on the part of these same individuals to engage in CPD at present is also very worrying. However, I don't think we should tar all the GDA's with the same brush and starting a discussion with regards to personal experiences of working with them achieves nothing and would be unwise.

Quote from: Clubber Lang on April 04, 2017, 05:33:19 PM

Quote from: redsetanta on April 04, 2017, 04:29:54 PM
Anyone on this forum ever had personal experience working with any of the GDA's? What is your opinion on them and why?

We would have to start up a new forum if lads were to start contributing to this Red Setanta. Appointments by nepotism and then not showing any desire to go and undertake any CPD through courses/training/upskilling should be grounds for concern.

Maybe we should have a thread dedicated to GDAs

I'd be uneasy about critiquing people's professional performance on an anonymous forum like this.

They should be critiqued, and at least bi-annually, by suitable personnel.

People mentioning Colm Browne to come in and examine what they are doing. I'd like to have seen an honest appraisal of his work for the few years spent in the job. (Bit rich considering my opening statement I know!). 

Quote from: redsetanta on April 04, 2017, 04:29:54 PM
Anyone on this forum ever had personal experience working with any of the GDA's? What is your opinion on them and why?

See my post a few pages back. Tip of the iceberg I once asked for a look at a development plan didn't even receive an email back

There is some horse manure on this forum,

GDA's ? The problem is not the GDA's, it's that there is not enough of them Begley is 15 Hrs, Kelly is 20 I think Donie is Full time.  Secondly clubs are doing very little themselves, Schools are doing absolutely nothing( Nice to see Portarlington winning today but how far have the 3-4 big schools fallen)  Clubs are also acting the bollox with GDA's saying who cannot and can be trained in the schools this is because the clubs are paying some of the GDA's wages. Niall Handy is swamped and is supposed also to be running the GDA's.  Were on about the GDA's there should be more of them,  I think Begley and Kelly are fine,  have not worked with Donie so don't know what he is like but they need a manager and more staff.  I said this earlier this month because of the poor show of our Senior Team. We are now working from the Leinster Council budget which is a pittance.  I don't know the answer to our issues but MONEY is at the core of it and the solution.

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on April 04, 2017, 06:48:57 PM
Niall Handy is swamped

Ah come on, he's well paid to be "swamped".
A lot of counties don't even have a full time secretary.

County Secretary pay €55,000 7 Days a week 24/7 on the Phone and in the County Board Office all hours.

I don't believe I am sticking up for him, but been a county secretary is not an easy job by any stretch and then been asked to over see the Strategic Set Up in Laois and Manage GDA's is not easy the admin side of been a County Secretary is as far as I can see a brutal job.  Would not do it for all the tea in China

quote author=SCFC link=topic=27317.msg1684994#msg1684994 date=1491329875]

Quote from: BallyroanAbu on April 04, 2017, 06:48:57 PM
Niall Handy is swamped

Ah come on, he's well paid to be "swamped".
A lot of counties don't even have a full time secretary.
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I think most counties have full time County Secretaries paid for by Croke Park and the county board cannot imagine too many volunteer ones (they would have no time for a job)

To have a team of Cahir Healy's would be something special. The passion he has for the jersey, commuting each week from the UK is extremely rare in this era of GAA. I'm extremely proud of him and the lads that showed up this year to give their all for the jersey, both in football and hurling, even though the year has not been very successful so far. It's extremely hard going in 2017. The game has gone ridiculously professional in all but name and it's going to hurt weaker counties most. Fair play for the lads that show up for the love of the game & jersey.

Swamped  ;D