2015 Laois Senior Hurling

[redsetanta]

An extra game against the winners of 2A is of no benefit to Laois. Beat Antrim next week and line up a couple of challenge games against quality teams.
Any posters here down in Limerick? Any reports on the game. Zane scoring his first penalty of the league. Double header next weekend with the footballers in O'Moore Park so should be a decent crowd for both.

[County Man]

Could not make it to Kilmallock as was in Tuam for the football.

Good to hear we were competitive against the Limerick men and led at half time.

The game against Antrim next Saturday should be an interesting outing before we play them in the championship. Would be nice to beat them again and boost morale in the camp.

[Unlaoised]

5pm throw in next Saturday evening ...Laois should win but antrim beat us last year in Portlaoise and must not be taken for granted.

We are playing them again in the championship so be nice to put down a marker here and escape having to scrap with Westmeath to stay in Div 1b

[Thewildcat]

An extra game against the winners of 2A is of no benefit to Laois. Beat Antrim next week and line up a couple of challenge games against quality teams.
Any posters here down in Limerick? Any reports on the game. Zane scoring his first penalty of the league. Double header next weekend with the footballers in O'Moore Park so should be a decent crowd for both.

Cheddar doesn't look at it like that, he has a fear they could drop out of division 1B 

[TheGreatGame]

Absolutely vital we stay in Div 1B.  With Antrim and Laois it's almost like we take turns beating each other so I'm very wary of Saturday's match.  Records show that the venue doesn't really sway things between the counties either as we've beaten Antrim away and they have turned us over in Portlaoise.  It's going to be a battle and a very nervy time for the loser.

[Thewildcat]

but sure who ever gets beaten sunday still have another game again westmeath or kerry. its crazy Antrim haven't won a point in two years in the league but yet stay up every year.

[redsetanta]

Agreed, it's very unfair on the winner of 2A and I don't agree with the rule. Is there a league anywhere else in the world where the bottom team in a league gets another chance?

[redsetanta]

Best of luck to the hurlers tomorrow. I hope they hurl as if it was a relegation decider and get the win. I think their confidence needs the win and will give us momentum going into the championship.

[Teo Lurley]

It'd be nice to get a win, for confidence and moral more than anything because neither team will lose to Westmeath anyway. It's a ridiculas system.

[redsetanta]

If ever a goal was badly needed for Laois. Fair play Keenan.

[redsetanta]

Barely had the post sent when King rattles the back of the net. Game over now. Fair play to Cha Dwyer, man of the match today. Never lets the county down and gets stuck in and wins the dirty ball.

[G@@]

Great result. Laois 2-18 v 1-13 Antrim. Division 1B preserved. Cha is becoming a great player for us, Keenan coming good too.

[merman]

Great result. Laois 2-18 v 1-13 Antrim. Division 1B preserved. Cha is becoming a great player for us, Keenan coming good too.

I agree completely re Cha but I saw no evidence that Keenan is coming good.
I believe his goal, although very-well taken, masked a distinctly underwhelming performance.

As a whole, I'm delighted to see the team secure their position in 1B but I'm nervous before the championship. That was an abysmal Antrim team, as bad as I've seen from them in years, and we nearly let them back into a game we should have buried!
I worry that we have, at best, stood still from last season and arguably have regressed....

[TheGreatGame]

Great to get the win, but by God we made hard work of it!  We were much the better team in the first half but the soft goal meant Antrim were closer than they should have been at half time.  Our handling and decision making for much of the second half just wasn't good enough and we let Antrim power back into the game.  As often happens the ref gave Antrim a lot of very dubious calls after they had a man sent off.  Two super finishes from Zane and Roddy sealed the win for us, with Roddy's goal a template for what we have to work towards.  Get him one on one with his marker and he can do that in every game.  That performance will do his confidence the world of good and he could be in line for a big summer.

We have a lot of things to work on however, a few points:

Handpassing was a problem for us today.  Between lads making the wrong runs, lads not comfortable handpassing with their dominant hand, overcooking a hand pass etc.,  numerous times we went from positions where we could have worked scores to giving Antrim possession and conceding scores.

Joe Fitz was left half back.   Why?  He's a born no.5.  At 7, and particularly when receiving short puck outs at 7, he tends to veer into the traffic to get on to his favoured right side.  It makes absolutely no sense to switch him.  He thundered into the game in the last 10 mins and is a super hurler for us but he should remain at right half back.

We are too inclined to always look up the field when in possession.  I'm all for working the ball intelligently and retaining possession, but at this level a split second remaining stationary and someone is on you.  There's a time to pick out a pass and there's a time to be more direct and hit the full forward line.  We don't have the balance quite right yet.

Conceeding silly free's.  Yes the ref was poor, but we need to stop giving away the stupid, lazy free's.  A defender pulled back an Antrim player going though for a goal near the end.  That's ok, it saved a probable goal.  What's not okay is pulling back a lads arm or jersey 50/60/70 yards outs,  9/10 of these free's are converted.  It's just lazy and a total lack of discipline.  Against better teams there's no way we can afford to give them 5 or 6 really soft free's and hope to edge a win.  If a ref is letting that stuff go then work away, but it was clear after 5 mins that the ref was going to blow for everything but we never copped on.

I know it's easy to write all this from the comfort of a chair, but it wouldn't frustrate me if I didn't think we're capable of a lot more.  So many times great work is undone by a simple, unforced error. 

There were also some real positives to take from it:
In the last 5 minutes we went up a gear and produced some super hurling, the game was there to be won by whichever team wanted it more and that was us. 
It's great to have James Walsh back!  Such an intelligent hurler. 
His clubmate Cha is now a main player for us.  Wing forwards who can consistently hit 3 or 4 points a game and win their own ball are rare as hens teeth, and we now have one on both wings.  Hyland didn't score as much as usual but he dominated his wing winning free's and puckouts throughout.  I'd say Kevin Ryan dreads the sight of him at this stage! 
Cahir Healy seems to be getting more comfortable at 3.  He was very solid today as was the full back line in general. 
We were missing Matthew, Butch, Tom Delaney, Neil Foyle and Picky, that's five starters that were nailed on last year to come back into the mix.
PJ Scully looks to be realising the potential we all know he has. 

[portlaoisekid]

Great to get the win, but by God we made hard work of it!  We were much the better team in the first half but the soft goal meant Antrim were closer than they should have been at half time.  Our handling and decision making for much of the second half just wasn't good enough and we let Antrim power back into the game.  As often happens the ref gave Antrim a lot of very dubious calls after they had a man sent off.  Two super finishes from Zane and Roddy sealed the win for us, with Roddy's goal a template for what we have to work towards.  Get him one on one with his marker and he can do that in every game.  That performance will do his confidence the world of good and he could be in line for a big summer.

We have a lot of things to work on however, a few points:

Handpassing was a problem for us today.  Between lads making the wrong runs, lads not comfortable handpassing with their dominant hand, overcooking a hand pass etc.,  numerous times we went from positions where we could have worked scores to giving Antrim possession and conceding scores.

Joe Fitz was left half back.   Why?  He's a born no.5.  At 7, and particularly when receiving short puck outs at 7, he tends to veer into the traffic to get on to his favoured right side.  It makes absolutely no sense to switch him.  He thundered into the game in the last 10 mins and is a super hurler for us but he should remain at right half back.

We are too inclined to always look up the field when in possession.  I'm all for working the ball intelligently and retaining possession, but at this level a split second remaining stationary and someone is on you.  There's a time to pick out a pass and there's a time to be more direct and hit the full forward line.  We don't have the balance quite right yet.

Conceeding silly free's.  Yes the ref was poor, but we need to stop giving away the stupid, lazy free's.  A defender pulled back an Antrim player going though for a goal near the end.  That's ok, it saved a probable goal.  What's not okay is pulling back a lads arm or jersey 50/60/70 yards outs,  9/10 of these free's are converted.  It's just lazy and a total lack of discipline.  Against better teams there's no way we can afford to give them 5 or 6 really soft free's and hope to edge a win.  If a ref is letting that stuff go then work away, but it was clear after 5 mins that the ref was going to blow for everything but we never copped on.

I know it's easy to write all this from the comfort of a chair, but it wouldn't frustrate me if I didn't think we're capable of a lot more.  So many times great work is undone by a simple, unforced error. 

There were also some real positives to take from it:
In the last 5 minutes we went up a gear and produced some super hurling, the game was there to be won by whichever team wanted it more and that was us. 
It's great to have James Walsh back!  Such an intelligent hurler. 
His clubmate Cha is now a main player for us.  Wing forwards who can consistently hit 3 or 4 points a game and win their own ball are rare as hens teeth, and we now have one on both wings.  Hyland didn't score as much as usual but he dominated his wing winning free's and puckouts throughout.  I'd say Kevin Ryan dreads the sight of him at this stage! 
Cahir Healy seems to be getting more comfortable at 3.  He was very solid today as was the full back line in general. 
We were missing Matthew, Butch, Tom Delaney, Neil Foyle and Picky, that's five starters that were nailed on last year to come back into the mix.
PJ Scully looks to be realising the potential we all know he has.

Excellent post and I could not agree more.

I thought Cha was superb and is really becoming a leader. I would worry about the height in our defence ATM, Antrim had some big lads on but some of the bigger lads they had on were poor in the extreme but it wont always be like that. We need Matthew Whelan back for championship. Yesterday was a poor enough performance but as a match it was just about winning it and moving on. I firmly believe this Laois team will improve no end as the ground gets harder and with better conditions will come better hurling.

Special word for Rowland in goals, he made a big mistake for their goal but he showed real composure on a few occasions after that when he could have folded, fair play to him.