Messages

"You'd be terrified. If we defend like that, Dublin will be gone out the gate after 15/20 minutes and they won't even look behind them. Dublin would destroy us on that performance. We can just hope we won't be as poor but stopping Dublin is a mammoth task. I don't know is there anyone capable of doing it, never mind us.

As somebody said to me after the game 'the pick of the four teams wouldn't beat Dublin', and they're probably right. I don't know what we have to bring to it, maybe a few snipers in the stand, I'm not too sure"
Laois Manager Mick Lillis - after wicklow game

For a manager to say things like this make his position untenable in my book. We all know the Dublin squad is the best around at the minute, but they are not unbeatable by any stretch.

Look what Jim McGuinness and Donegal did to this Dublin side just 2 years ago. An organised, focussed and well drilled football team with a game plan beat them by 6 points in a All Ireland final, was that Donegal team full of players who will make peoples list of all time greats....no, it was not. But they were really focussed and had huge belief in themselves which they got via hard work over the previous years under the management.

Imagine being a Laois player right now who has trained hard during the winter months probably with this game in mind, and basically his manger thinks he should not have bothered and has wasted his time. Shocking.

The attitude of Lillis is the attitude that has held Laois back as a county over the years, we literally have no belief in ourselves. If he has any shame he should admit he is out of his depth and step aside, Cunningham should be offered the role straightaway. Cunningham was in charge of a Galway hurling side, again who are no world beaters but who took on once of the greatest hurling teams of all time. I doubt very much he would have said things like "I don't know is there anyone capable of doing it, never mind us. "

We wonder why GAA is struggling in the county, we cannot even organise games for clubs at this stage. I am from Kilcavan, a small rural club where the gaa pitch is the main landmark in the area. They have an intermediate team who are competing in Division 3A, according to the league table they have played 5 games but in actual fact they have only played 2.  Although it has to be said midweek fixtures suit nobody really in this day and age considering the amount of people who are based in Dublin for work and education.

Kilcavan have started preparing underage teams in recent years as they have more people in the area (previously the youngsters competed with Mountmellick underage teams) as they try an build the club and create an interest in the sport for kids in the community, there are soccer and rugby clubs not a million miles away so the work been done is vital. Youngsters also need a team to follow and with the adult team getting 2 league games thus far does not reflect well on the league. The county board need to get all the clubs together and trash out what is need to give teams good competitive games. In the same league are Barrowhouse, a club along similar lines to Kilcavan who also have to put up with these walkovers.

I would have to agree with you Tony, we will look back at the All Ireland quarter finals and see the likes of Kerry, Dublin, Tyrone, Roscommon & Mayo but we will also see two more from the pack, the likes of Fermanagh, Galway, Cavan, Meath etc now there is no doubt we have a squad of players good enough to compete with these teams and once you are at that stage you will have a bit of momentum behind you and who knows where it can take you. We got there under McNulty and if we believed a bit more could have taken the Dubs but never diverted from our game plan. (I was reminded of that game watching Man City playing Real Madrid the other night, losing 1-0 with 15 mins to go they still never really attacked Madrid and had no shoots on target, seemed bizarre, like Laois that day they contained the Dubs for majority of the game and kept it tight but never really threatened Dublin.)

I like the appointment of Cunningham who has a lot of top level experience but he needs to be in charge and not just some advisory nonsense. We see offaly hurlers having Liam Sheedy in an advisory role which seems a bit of a farce. If the two can work together well and good but financially it seems a waste of resources as why are we paying Lillis if he is not up to the job.

Its not rocket science that our defensive play is what is letting us down, and I agree the managers interviews are frustrating when you hear terms  like 'Its not good enough' and 'I don't understand it' on a few occasions. The team are clearly fit and strong to compete for the division 2 title from what we have seen. You don't need to be a statistician, just a simple look at the table tells us where our problem lies. We have scored 93 points in our games to date which is more than the average of the division or in fact any division in this years football league, so we can win possession and convert it into scores with the best of them. However we have conceded 118 points which is the most conceded by a team in all 4 divisions. The management team have to be able to see this and look at someway of sorting it out, even if it means bringing in a defensive coach. In fairness we have had some injury problems with defenders and the fact is one of the best defenders in the county is focussing on hurling so its not a simple fix, but we can certainly compete with the majority of teams in the country if we sort our defensive issues out.

People complain about Cheddar's negative tactics but there is a reason for it and the performances this year have shown it, the standard of players in our county is just not up to what is required. A scoreline like that is hard to take for all involved especially as they work so hard but Laois have a small pool to pick from, and the panel lost plenty of good hurlers this year and the youngsters coming through are just not good enough yet I am afraid. Hopefully it wont have too negative an impact on them as we desperately need a flow of good underage talent to invigorate the panel and drive the thing on. When Cork wiped the floor with us it was more frustrating as we all knew the players were better than that, but at the minute we have to be honest and say the current standard is not good enough. They have a huge game next against a wounded wexford side, so better to judge on that one but 6-29 is hard to stomach.

Jesus, presume it was as bad to watch as it was to listen to. An absolute hiding. Manager sent to the stands on Fermanagh player scoring 1-11. After all the positive vibes from here I was starting to get excited about the championship and feel like i got punched in the stomach.

Team has been named:
http://www.laoisgaa.ie/news/373129/Senior_Hurling_v_Offaly

Huge test for these players, Offaly will be looking to bury them and after the Kerry result most neutrals will expect a convincing win for the Biffos. But it is when the pressure is greatest you find out the most about players character so this is a massive game for Laois. Hope a big crowd turns up to cheer them on.

In fairness to Cheddar he can only use a game plan for players at his disposal, Laois must be physically one of the smallest teams around and we don't have a huge pool of talent. He plays a defensive system to limit the other team and try and counter attack to get scores.  People have short memories as Laois were a joke before Cheddar, also we have lost some of our best players since last year, today some players had a chance to step up to the plate but did not take it. Laois need players coming through and in fairness there is good work being done at underage but they dont turn into top IC players overnight. Also one other point, Kerry are a similar shape to Laois  in that they are a side in development and on an upward curve so its not the massive shock some make out, they would have been preparing all winter for this fixture.

Good wins for Courtwood and Annanough. Courtwood look strong this year and the next game v Annanough will be a huge game. Kilcavan were missing a couple of key players last night and a club with such a small pick cant afford to lose one never mind 3 so their next game against Annanough is huge for them and the game last year was very close between the two sides. Timahoe are strong alright and deserve to be favourites but can see a few twists in this. Is it top two or three that progress in the groups?

Niall Tully is a coach and has a good reputation in the county, plenty of the laois minors who wont all irelands in the 90s would have been trained by him at school level (he was a teacher in Ballyfin) and players speak very highly of him Don is right he is not from Laois, he a meath man.

Antrims hammering today really underlines TOF's reign as a failure.

Martin Mchugh?? He managed Cavan to ulster title in 1997, thats a world away from the level needed to compete in todays game to be fair. He turned down his own county also so would hardly take up a county like ourselves anyway. Also with regards to the underage setup, being successful is not what it is all about, as Dapper Dan said being competitive is whats important, each year a minor team should produce 2/3 players good enough to be top senior level players.

If they win trophies at underage level fine but not the end of the world, Ross Munnelly was hardly on successful underage teams yet he is one of the best senior players we ever produced. Also look at the Westmeath team that took Meath apart in the second half at the weekend, they have hardly being uprooting trees at underage recently yet they had plenty of youthful talent on the pitch who were well coached and unlike Laois this year did not fall apart when all looked lost. I think our panel (even without absentees this year) is every bit as good if not better than Westmeaths yet they are on a high looking forward to a Leinster final while we must enjoy our armchairs and high stools for the rest of the summer

TOF was certainly found out, he was found out before the Laois job in fairness. Whats needed is a good management team. Good managers surround themselves with good people and delegate all the roles creating a professional set up where nothing is left to chance. Justin Mcnulty had such a set up but his failing was tactically going forward he had very little ideas, the best example was the quarter final against Dublin where we ran them very close but I never once really thought we would win it.

I dont mind given outside managers a chance once they are proven but i can t think of any ones out there that are available. But we have some good coaches and managers working hard in Laois. My club Kilcavan had Derek Conroy for example for a few years, he also did a decent job with the u-21s this year, not the best tactically attacking wise similar to Mcnulty but he was very organised and an excellent defensive coach. I would like to see a management team of Joe Higgins and a few others like Conway, Conroy. These are proud Laois men who would know every player in the county regardless of grade. If they gave half what they gave as players we would do very well indeed.

I also agree that the underage structure needs help as we seem to be producing very few new talents in recent years, Sean Dempsey may have been found wanting at senior level but the man did great work at underage and should be in charge of this.

I think the big thing against galway was the physical size of them, some of the laois lads looked like minors against them. Dublin gave Galway a decent game in first match but as we know thats the time to catch Galway cold, and this year they were up and running. I think we also stuck to the defensive side of things for too long, we were 7/8 points down and playing with two lads back in the first half, have to be able to adapt better. Hopefully the players can lift themselves once more and give the Dubs a good rattle

There are worse county sides out there than Laois lads, I think Laois are definitely better than they have shown under O Flatharta although the last two defeats may have long term affect on the players.
At the minute we are a mid table division 2 team and have some high quality players in the shape of  JOL, Kingston and Quigley (and was very impressed with O'Carroll) but unfortunately we have a small pool of players with very little talent coming though which is what is needed to keep the thing fresh. From what i seen this year there is potential in the team and next managerial appointment is vital and get all the players in the county pulling in one direction. That is all that really happened when Micko came on board (although much better pool of players back then), the year before we were hammered by Meath and then we win Leinster, now im under know illusion we will be winning a Leinster but we could certainly compete against the majority of teams and maybe get ourselves up to Div 1 with a serious appointment, but as posters have said it is not the most attractive of posts and cant think of too many top candidates off the top of my head.

Think some of the comments here are a bit harsh. Laois are a decent intercounty side, not in the same league as the likes of kerry, dublin etc in terms of quality but they give a lot with what they have got. The fact that Ross is still there tells a lot about the quality of players coming through.

We all hear about the lack of Portlaoise players on the team but the fact is very few would make much of a difference. Wolly Parkinson even admitted this on off the ball recently. Healy would make a big improvement but he is committed to the hurlers.

Given our current squad im not sure how much more we could improve with a new manager. The players give everything so i commend their commitment. In fairness we were caught with a blitz, but we should have been much further ahead by this point. Kildare knew they got out of jail in the first half and caught us napping.