Laois Senior Footballers 2024

[Laoiseabu]

We were lucky that we weren't beaten by more today because if Offaly won by 10-15 points it wouldn't of flattered them at all . They easily could of had at least 5 goals pulling up too .
That's a very average Offaly team and you could say they were missing arguably their entire first choice full forward line in Cian Farrell , Anton Sullivan and Nigel Dunne today due to injury/suspension .
In a way it could be a blessing in disguise that we don't have to face into playing Dublin in the wide open spaces of croke park . We could honestly be hit for 10 goals if Dublin really wanted to

[Heshs Umpire]

Incredibly flat performance. Lucky in some ways not to lose by more but from where I was standing Kelly's red card looked harsh. Hyland dropping like a stone didn't help him.
Coughing up the two goals like we did was infuriating.
Thought we might have gone to the bench sooner.
The lads will probably benefit from a week or two back with their clubs before regrouping for the Tailteann Cup.

[Chrimtain]

Offaly the better team by far. Positives for Laois; we are not playing Dublin in Croke Park, opportunity for everyone to rest for a week or two begore giving the Tailtean Cup a go. Playing eight games in the league (in awful weather conditions), these lads have had no break since January.

Its a crazy system, whereby teams who have been successful in the league go straight into the championship with little or no break.

No disrespect to the older players, but lets see a couple of newer faces in the Tailtean Cup. Its time to bring in the likes of Fingleton, Burke, Dunne and Murphy.

Lets see a fresher team in the Tailtean Cup.

Good luck to Offaly against Dublin. They will play them with no fear.

[on the hop]

Really poor performance and were on the back foot from the start. Offaly brought a  bit more in terms of pace and intensity that we have been used to and exposed our weaknesses. Damon Larkin's injury robbed us of our only mobile, pacey option and then the sending off allowed them the space to carry hard up the sides as we had retreated back to try limit the damage. We never really got a handle on Egan or Pearson carrying forward. Did well to get level but then gifted them two terrible goals, can't understand why we went short on the kick out as they high pressing and also when a pod of four players had started to position themselves near the stand to receive. At times we were terribly unstructured and the substitutes didn't offer much though you would have to wonder what Murphy is doing wrong looking at some of our forwards. Mcnultys dreadful  record in the Leinster Championship continues .

[The PRO]

Has Justin McNulty ever won a Leinster Championship match?

One out of five after last night.
Should be a good few changes for first game in T Cup. The likes of Daly, O'Flynn and Rioghan Murphy must be wondering what they have to do to get a run. Looks like Dempsey, possibly Byrne and Larkin will be injury concerns for next game.

[Countyminor]

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

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

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

[Saint88]

Surely there's more psychological damage in getting a hiding from Offaly at home than getting expectedly beaten by Dublin.

We got a reality check yesterday. You can't expect a manager to come in and miraculously lift a county that has mismanaged its development of players of the last 20years. It's impossible. In the Tailteann Cup we will beat most division 4 teams and maybe some division 3 teams but as soon as we meet quality we're gone.

[Sideline12]

Surely there's more psychological damage in getting a hiding from Offaly at home than getting expectedly beaten by Dublin.

We got a reality check yesterday. You can't expect a manager to come in and miraculously lift a county that has mismanaged its development of players of the last 20years. It's impossible. In the Tailteann Cup we will beat most division 4 teams and maybe some division 3 teams but as soon as we meet quality we're gone.

[Joeythelips]

A bad beating for sure and a realisation of where we are in the pecking order. Offaly, a team who lost 4 of their 7 games in Division 3, tore us apart basically.

I would hope McNulty uses the TC to try and blood some new players. It is never a good sign to have a player like Timmons in such a crucial position, I get its more a reflection of the quality of alternatives rather than Timmons himself as is a great servant to the county but there needs to be some future planning in place.

[Ballybrittas Boy]

Team I'd like to see next day (assuming those injuries and Kelly suspended).

Roche

J Lacey, S Lacey, Fingleton

Buggie, O'Flynn, Shaun Fitz

Heffernan, Swayne

Dunne, Lowry, R Murphy

Barry, Evan, Paul K.

Hopefully Kelly's suspension could be overturned.

[Laois Rising]

Plenty of time to regroup and focus on the Tailteann Cup. Priority for the year was league promotion and progressing and challenging in the latter stages of the Tailteann Cup. Saturday was poor but ultimately the Leinster championship was not a priority this year. Losing to Offaly doesn't hurt as bad as it would have 20 years ago knowing that they will probably suffer a right hiding against Dublin next day out. In fact, we probably did ourselves a favour losing on Saturday. 

[County Man]

Looking back on the game v Offaly, we can have no complaints with the result, they throughly deserved their win.

In the opening 20 minutes we were hesitant and not tuned in. Offaly went 0-7 to 0-2 up. We were unlucky with Damon Larkin having to go off and the sending off of James Kelly which looked harsh to me, a yellow card would have been enough. We did extremely well to get level by half time, good character shown there.

Overall the gap between Division 3 and 4 showed amd in fairness, Offaly have some fantastic players. Next year for year 2 of Justin McNulty's reign, it will be vital that we stay in division 3.

As for the remainder of this season, lets try have a good run in the Tailteann Cup. I believe the draw for it is in 2 weeks with the first of the 3 group games on May 11/12th. There is plenty to play for yet.

[Joeythelips]

In a group with Fermanagh, Wicklow and Carlow. Decent draw but can take nothing for granted.