Messages

I think that we need someone to help these players to believe in themselves. The stark difference for me between Laois and Kildare was self belief. We went 3 points down from being a point up in a few minutes and what do we do? We stop believing and go defensive. And not aggressive defending, passive defending with no real belief that we could fight Kildare and overcome the 3 point deficit. Even at 7 points down there was still time but we were beaten mentally by then. Micko may not have been a tactical genius but he got the players to believe in themselves and bring out the best in themselves. I think that is how Jason Ryan got Kildare over the line too.

We saw that same lack of belief against Meath and of course in the first game against Kildare when we blew a 3 point lead with the wind behind us.

Of course the underage structures and development energy needs a massive overhaul but no matter how talented the pool of players you have, if they don't believe they are good enough, they won't be.

Not surprising that same starting team was announced. If there are changes, I am guessing we will know at around 7.10 tomorrow.

I think it is good that Kildare are being viewed as favorites for this. No doubt their confidence will be up. I still think we have better footballers.

I hope we adopt an effective strategy to counter Shane Dooley. He is a great talent and key to Offaly's success.

Other than that, I hope the leaden-footedness of the 3 games in the round robin has been put to one side. We will need to be lightening fast and accurate in execution to have a chance.

The whole thing is tragic. I too hope there is some way to get him back, not just for 2015 but for another 3 years.

Was really surprised at what Jack Nolan said about Cheddar putting much of his own money into the setup - this is astonishing to me. There has never been a more dedicated Laois hurling man in my living memory and he should have been at a minimum financially neutral from his efforts. The county board didn't even pay for the training trip abroad earlier in the year.

I too believe that there probably was some frustration in how Laois have been playing this year, they have been inexplicably flat despite all the preparations seeming ideal. However, I think this was part of the learning curve for the management team. The Boris KK practice match probably added to the frustration and tipped him over the edge.

Shocking result, to be fair.

Wow. Are all the abovenamed involved?

The most striking part of that team is the quality of the lads that can't get on to it. Different times.

I would be worried about the tendency of Laois to adopt defensive style tactics - it sets the wrong tone in the team and was the reason we nearly blew it against Carlow. I hope we have learned. It was quite similar against Waterford in the second half in the league. Best defence in hurling is to attack and keep the scoreboard moving, and to hit hard when lads are running at you.

Well at least there will be no fear of taking the opposition for granted.....

Some great points made but we need to guard against short memory syndrome.

The quality of Laois underage hurlers is immeasurably better in recent years. Yes we should be hungry for more but the most important thing we need to do is feed 3-4 top class hurlers a year into the senior system. Counties like Waterford have been doing that for years successfully without winning a tonne of underage all-irelands. Our seniors struggle for strength and depth (take the full back line for instance - there is no top class backup to support John A, Cahir and Butch). It would be great to win silverware but for me it is all about building characters and skillful hurlers for future senior intercounty hurling and the evidence is very strong in that regard. The average quality is rising and we need to support the likes of Critchley and Cheddar as their contributions have been immense. I agree that Cheddar shouldn't try to sit back and defend when we are totally on top and that Pat needs to solve some positional weaknesses with the Minors but I for one hope that we have their services for coming years and that they keep building hurling in Laois - we owe them a lot.

Beating Offaly 4 years running is some feat - we should be very positive about it. If we beat their Seniors the same way it would definitely be seen as progress.