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The big question for me is whether he has the smarts to analyze and train a team to changing modern systems? Maybe someone close to Portlaoise will know how he rates?

It is less and less about skill these days and more about systems. No matter how skillful your players are you can't beat organization and strategy any more.

Good to see Portlaoise back at senior so soon. They seemed to have almost no supporters there yesterday. Maybe if they can keep their senior status for a few years they might start attracting more interest. They really are like a rural club in a big town. I wonder is there much being done in the town to get more families, schools and kids involved at grass roots level?

The Senior game was very entertaining, some of the point scoring from Zane and Picky was incredible. Camross hurled like demons and played some great stuff but seemed to fade a little early. C/B couldn't match their intensity and the quality of their hurling for most of the game. I thought that Gearoid Burke was very strong at centre back, especially given the quality of the C/B half forward line. Don't suppose he is interested in returning to the county along with Darren Maher and Willie Dunphy??

I like the idea of divisional teams - more  senior hurlers and more games - as long as teams have a realistic chance of making a semi final. Na Fianna might work in a few years but would need to be competitive. Ideally, Laois would have 10-12 competitive teams with a fiercly difficult intermediate (Senior B) championship.

In terms of senior hurlers for Laois, the following looked the part so far for me:

Willy Dunphy
Mark Kavanagh
Sean Downey
Brian Campion (retired but still young enough and we really need a full back in 2016)
Aaron Bergin Portlaoise?

Plenty of U21s on view across the grades.

I thought Ballinakill did very well and didn't think Camross had two more gears in reserve. Ballinkill competed very well for posession and deserved to be as close as they did. With a few more options around the pitch they would be contenders. Well organized.

Clough Ballacolla were very impressive. The teamwork, movement, passing and intensity was impressive and their second goal exemplified this. Can't understand why BK still look like a team that have never played together before and why some of their 'stars' can't perform. Their golden generation of minor wins will pass them by (a bit like Rathdowney years ago) if they can't find a cohesive first 15 that play for each other.

A final comment on the standards again. Although the crowd was a bit flat for both games the standard of hurling is again miles better than what it was a few years ago. I think the format of the championship and the 8 team restriction is really working well. Some of the movement, touches, catching, defending and scoring from all four teams was top notch. The standout player across the 4 teams was still probably Cha Dwyer, despite potentially poor decision making in the closing minute of the game.

Fair enough merman - thank you for giving me hope. I was honestly sick of despairing at the hammerings and particularly at U14 when there should not be such a huge gap. Perhaps my own club has a lot to learn from the others and I was generalizing. I do think that we need keep asking the hard questions of ourselves when we get these beatings though. I would love to see some data about the quality and quantity of training that we provide at underage across all our clubs, schools and development squads and compare it to KK.

You are spot on beano. However, I think by U21 it is way too late. 

No point in calling it a crisis in 7 years time when our U14s are being hammered as U21s. We need to be developing our U8s-U12s to be AT LEAST AS GOOD as Kilkenny. I think the big difference right now is that we are doing great work with county development squads but the school and club level development is still not good enough. In many clubs, the lads looking after underage development don't have what it takes. In KK for example, a significant proportion of underage coaches are former Kilkenny hurlers - not so in Laois.

It requires plenty of money, focus and being honest with ourselves in terms of development performance. Right now I think we measure success by the existence of the setanta and other programs but not by the endpoints such as the scoring difference when we play A-grade counties. Yes, we are not Kilkenny but there are other smaller counties such as Clare, Wexford and Waterford that are able to develop competitive underage teams with a limited number of clubs to draw from. I think we have been clapping ourselves on the back from beating very poor Offaly teams over recent years rather then focusing on what has gone wrong against KK at minor level for the last number of years.

One thing I have observed is that the clubs seem to be relying on the county to produce their underage 'stars'. Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Yes, there have been improvements, to be fair. However, most of us want us to be winning and there is evidence that we have stopped improving.

Anyone have the results from the weekend? Saw some U15 ones that didn't look too bad but it seems that we got an awful hammering by KK in the Tony Forristal. This is really very very disappointing to be this far behind in development at U14 level. Kilkenny, Tipp, Cork, Waterford all take this tournament very seriously and play their best players. To be beaten by 20 or 30 points over 2 x 15 or 20 minute halves asks many questions about how effective our underage programs really are. How could the skills gaps be so severe for kids so young?

Jack Sheedy has stepped down as Longford football manager. Sheedy with Sean Dempsey as coach?
already worked together and did a decent job with a limited longford side.

Jack showed with Longford and Sean with Laois that they are not strong tactically and at setting a team up to play the modern game. Justin McNulty was the strongest tactical Manager we have had in recent times but didn't seem to have the ability to instill passion into the players. Although I hate myself for saying it, if we want to compete to the same levels as Monaghan or Donegal (we probably have footballers as good as either), we need a systems orientated manager who is also a very good man and team manager. Micky Harte, Joe Kernan or Jim McGuinness types.

I would have Pillar over O'Flaharta any day....

I agree with all of the above, just making the point that physicality is another ingredient. That's why Kilkenny and several others put a strong emphasis on it. Tommy Walsh isn't tall but he is a tough man to push around the place. With all due respects to Butch, John A, Cahir and a few more, they have been bullied around on occasion despite their hurling ability. Even some of our bigger men struggle. Height can be counteracted with muscle to some extent. But when you have neither we are in trouble. In saying this I am conscious that the improvement journey is only a couple of years old, it takes many years to get things to where they need to be.

The league semi final win by Camross over R/E was a big kick in the arse for R/E. Camross were excellent, R/E were very poor. If the county final were to be played in July / August, R/E would be easily beaten. However, they have plenty of time to get things right and  need Ross King fit.

Again, this year looks like being another very exciting club championship. B/K, C/B, Camross and R/E are serious outfits with a great chance of winning silverware and the other 4 will also fancy themselves. To say that the weakest teams of the 8 can realistically beat the best teams says a lot about the quality of hurling in the county.

I think there is something missing in the discussion on where Laois are right now and that is physicality. Our hurling skills and professionalism is continuing to improve, that is very evident in our underage teams, in our league and championship performances and in club games in Laois. However, why were we hammered by Kilkenny at minor this year? Physicality in the air and on the ground. Same against Waterford in 2014 in the qualifiers and in the League this year where we couldn't win a ball in the middle half of the pitch for most of the game. Same against Galway where we looked like kids compared to Galway (even lads like Hyland and Picky who are big men). Dublin played with our full back line using their physical dominance. Galway made some changes to their coaching years ago when they realized that having lovely hurlers counted for nothing against Kilkenny. Just look at the physical conditioning of Kilkenny and how they are able to dominate space using their size as well as their hurling. Some of them have conditioning comparable to a Dublin footballer (thanks to Mick Dempsey). I am definitely convinced that our hurling ability is increasing but we need to build our players up earlier. Thankfully this is much easier than trying to build skill. All the top teams now pack serious muscle. It worries me a little that many, including possibly Cheddar, seem to believe that tactics, belief and new blood are the keys to success. For me watching Laois this year and last, strength and height, especially in the backs was our biggest challenge. 

I think it is fantastic that he is stepping back down the chain - for the benefit of the future.

He and will have learned a lot about the deficiencies we showed yesterday (unable to compete at the top level for primary possession, losing the physical confrontations around the middle third and poor return at the 'breakdown' to use a rugby term). Much has improved, there is no doubt whatever of that and we are still producing at least 2-3 hurlers a year that will go on to become good seniors. However, we MUST learn from days like yesterday in order to avoid them in the future.

Notably, the same issues we had at minor yesterday were obvious in the senior game (totally outmuscled and out hurled in the breakdown) and also in the Waterford game last year. I remember a few years ago Galway put a huge emphasis in developing more physically competitive hurlers that can compete for dirty ball and Waterford have done the same. The results are obvious. No point having nice hurlers if they can't get near the ball.

Fingers very tightly crossed that we can keep the momentum going tomorrow. For me, given the quality of the opposition, I would be happy with a competitive, intense and passionate display and a close game. We need to just keep progressing and be better every day. If that is good enough to win, then great but if not, we are still emerging little by little from the doldrums. I have no doubt in the world we have the players, however it would have been great to have Ross King and Neil Foyle fighting for places in the full forward line (Anyone know how Neil is doing?).

The double-header was never a runner I'm afraid;
Leinster Council control the Gate for Leinster Championship matches; Croke Park control for the Qualifiers.

Not a hope in hell Leinster Council were going to offer up a cut of their gate; they couldn't give a flying f**k about the actual supporters...

How much of a gate do they think they will get from the Antrim game in Portlaoise? Will there be 1000 people there? Given that there was barely 8000 for the Kildare games in OCP, and most of them were from Kildare, how many souls will wander down from the glens to watch what is surely to be one of the least attractive games in the championship this year......