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King is back training and will be available in the next few weeks .
I don't see much improvement from last year presently. 
The word is everything is been geared towards the Joe Mcdonagh. Hard to be fully convinced just yet.

That's a red if it's a rugby game!!

But it is not a rugby game....

Probably our least impressive performance of the league so far .
Improved in the second half but Carlow are a poor outfit  . We dominated their kickouts in the second half with Roche competing for the majority of them .
Swayne and Larkin the standout players and good to see Kingston and Lowry back in the mix .

Decent crowd in fairness .

Laois Senior Football Panel 2024
Aaron Cooney (St Joseph's)
Brian Daly (St Joseph's)
Mikie Dempsey (St Joseph's)
James Kelly (St Joseph's)
Jack Lacey (St Joseph's)
Cormac Murphy (St Joseph's)
Kevin Swayne (Portlaoise)
Damon Larkin (Portlaoise)
Kieran Lillis (Portlaoise)
Ben Dempsey (Portlaoise)
Conor Brown (Portlaoise)
Conor Heffernan (Killeshin)
Eoin Lowry (Killeshin)
Killian Roche (Killeshin)
Brian Byrne (Graiguecullen)
Danny O'Reilly (Graiguecullen)
Mark Timmons (Graiguecullen)
Eoin Buggie (Stradbally)
Liam Knowles (Stradbally)
Mark Barry (O'Dempsey's)
Fionn Holland (O'Dempsey's)
Niall Dunne (Courtwood)
Sean O'Flynn (Courtwood)
Ciaran Burke (Crettyard)
Evan O'Carroll (Crettyard)
Shaun Fitzpatrick (Ballyroan-Abbey)
Aaron McEvoy (Ballyroan-Abbey)
Ryan Brady (Ballylinan)
Seamus Lacey (Ballylinan)
Simon Fingleton (Park-Ratheniska)
Niall Corbet (Clonaslee-St Manman's)
Dylan Kavanagh (The Heath)
Paul Kingston (Arles-Killeen)
Padraig Kirwan (Emo)
Rioghan Murphy (Portarlington)

first time to see the hurlers in a while and they made hard work on beating a very limited Kildare team who were down several injured players. Strong wind throughout the game was with Kildare in the first half and they started very strong before Laois got their bearings. Both teams deployed a sweeper at times which benefitted Kildare more as they got off a lot of shots, had they been more accurate they could have been further ahead. Laois seemed to have issues tracking players in the middle third. Despite the wind being very strong Laois seemed to persist in hitting high balls into the corners which didn't suit the inside line.

Scoring rate for both teams decreased in the second half as both seem to be very laboured at times, possibly doing heavy training. Laois exploited a few mistakes in the second half and finished with three good goals. Kildare fell away for 20 minutes where Laois scored well to open a gap. near the end they became a bit ill disciplined and let Kildare get a few scores. Wasn't the best performance but got over the line.

What are the facilities like at Hawkfields OTH ? Never been out there .

We are spending too much time questioning McNultys decision to make the trip to wexford. 

People who addressed his decision and described it as foolish and stupid etc clearly don't know the man .
This whole episode will be forgotten in a couple of weeks .

The improvement in organisation from the debacle of past couple of years is clearly evident. From what I hear and see the lads involved this year are loving the environment. Himself and Munnelly have brought a freshness to the set up.

Let him do what he has to do and his dedication to Laois is there to be seen.  Time to get behind him and forget about the outside distractions.
I am pretty sure he has .

Is Kfm (Kildare) pretty good about broadcasting full matches? It looks like the Kildare football match follows the hurling match.

No football this weekend .

Good convincing win down in Wexford.

The difference to the last couple of years was very evident last night. 
There is a plan in place and strategy that all the players are following. 
Defensively we look so much more sound and the players are instructed to play to  there individual strengths. 

I thought all the subs made an impact . Murphy , Fingleton and O'Reilly all were all introduced at appropriate times .


I expected more from Wexford tbh. 

Carlow in a few weeks will be interesting.  Not sure where they are in development etc . Beat an under strength Tipp team and a poor Waterford outfit last night .
We never get too worried about Carlow .

Good solid win .Scoreline flattered Longford. They weren't up to much and we were much the better side all over the pitch .

I like the look of our full back line . Dempsey,Lacey and Kelly all tigerish markers and decent at breaking forward. 
Also noticeable how physical we have become on the ball and in the tackle .
There's a plan in place and it's evident in how we keep the ball more comfortably in possession .
Early days but lots of reasons to be positive. 

Killian Roche (Killeshin);

Ben Dempsey (Portlaoise), Seamus Lacey (Ballylinan), James Kelly (St Josephs);
Eoin Buggie (Stradbally), Mark Timmons (Graiguecullen), Brian Byrne (Graiguecullen);
Conor Heffernan (Killeshin), Damon Larkin (Portlaoise);
Kevin Swayne (Portlaoise), Niall Dunne (Courtwood), Shaun Fitzpatrick (Ballyroan);
Mark Barry (O'Dempsey's), Evan O'Carroll (Crettyard), Niall Corbet (Clonaslee St Manman's)

Nothing to report except I saw them in a few league & championship games.
He seemed to stand back and defer to others in the set up.
Obviously I don't know what happened behind the scenes!

Lol

Greg Ramsbottom training Ballymun Kickhams this year . Best of luck to him .

 Heard they won . Fiesty affair by all accounts.

Pre season or not conceding 6-29 against a depleted Galway is shambolic. Is Maher Making any progress at all ?

I've always thought Laois Today were doing a fine job but their failure to cover a fairly significant story pertaining to Laois GAA in early December has led me to reassess, given that the story made it into the national newspapers and was front page headline news on the Laois Nationalist!
 One wonders!🤔

Maybe its my age but I missed that story myself. Could you enlighten me please...

I'm presuming Saint is referring to an incident that took place at a minor match between Portarlington and Stradbally .