Allianz Football League 2017 - Division 3

[Tony]

To have a team of Cahir Healy's would be something special. The passion he has for the jersey, commuting each week from the UK is extremely rare in this era of GAA. I'm extremely proud of him and the lads that showed up this year to give their all for the jersey, both in football and hurling, even though the year has not been very successful so far. It's extremely hard going in 2017. The game has gone ridiculously professional in all but name and it's going to hurt weaker counties most. Fair play for the lads that show up for the love of the game & jersey.

[Don Draper]

Swamped 

[BallyroanAbu]

For all those feeling down this week, I know his not from Laois but watching him all ways makes me smile

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ctz1FbTxt0

[clonadmad]

County Secretary pay €55,000 7 Days a week 24/7 on the Phone and in the County Board Office all hours.

I don't believe I am sticking up for him, but been a county secretary is not an easy job by any stretch and then been asked to over see the Strategic Set Up in Laois and Manage GDA's is not easy the admin side of been a County Secretary is as far as I can see a brutal job.  Would not do it for all the tea in China

quote author=SCFC link=topic=27317.msg1684994#msg1684994 date=1491329875]

Niall Handy is swamped

Ah come on, he's well paid to be "swamped".
A lot of counties don't even have a full time secretary.

Don't ever look for a job in a county which has 2 or 3 or 4 times the number of clubs that Laois has,Niall

You'd definitely find out what swamped really is.

As for "overseeing the strategic setup"

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[theoldvet]

Just thinking back to last sunday it make me
so mad, no way should our county be in div 4.
Looking back we had 4 players sent off in our
last 4 league games,   14 against 15
plus one of our under 21 player got the line against louth
all under this management, I can't get my head around that,

[Tony]

If you want to blame management for an experienced player like Kevin Meaney getting sent off twice in a few games, then go ahead. Anyone who has played the game knows who's at fault for that and the player himself knows who's at fault for that.

[Don Draper]

If you want to blame management for an experienced player like Kevin Meaney getting sent off twice in a few games, then go ahead. Anyone who has played the game knows who's at fault for that and the player himself knows who's at fault for that.

Don't be so sure about that last part

[Keyser Söze]

Just thinking back to last sunday it make me
so mad, no way should our county be in div 4.
Looking back we had 4 players sent off in our
last 4 league games,   14 against 15
plus one of our under 21 player got the line against louth
all under this management, I can't get my head around that,

If you want to blame management for an experienced player like Kevin Meaney getting sent off twice in a few games, then go ahead. Anyone who has played the game knows who's at fault for that and the player himself knows who's at fault for that.

How many times does this have to be brought up, and by how many people before you will actually accept it for what it is?

An experienced player getting sent off without good reason- silly and shame on the player.
Players getting sent off game after game after game and costing the team- hang on, there is a deeper problem. Is it fitness, general mentality, mental resilience, poor attitude? I don't know.
But it is not, i repeat NOT, a difficult aspect of team preparation/performance for a respected management to sort out. It really isn't.
Yet so many posters on here tell us that the players "like" this current set up.
There is something missing in the middle here. I don't know what it is.

If the players "like" the set up and are "buying in", and the management have consistently highlighted the effect of going down to 14 men (which they have), then this should no keep happening

Something is wrong here.

[town1980]

Tony your on your on with your views I tink

[SpeculativeEffort]

All the sendings off would be somewhat understandable if we were a physical team playing on the edge and difficult to play against. The opposite is actually true. We seem to track runners even if the ball carrier is running straight down the middle. We rarely get in a decent tackle or force the carrier back or surround him. Makes it more frustrating.

[Tony]

I've been sent off 3 times in my "playing career". I thought it was bad decisions on my part. Should I just blame the manager and have no responsibility? According to some of you guys, I should. I don't think I should. It was my fault for all three, in my opinion. Basic stuff.

Let's take a soccer analogy: Roy Keane consistently yellow carded and often times red carded. Now, is that the player's fault or is it Ferguson's fault?

The management team should rightfully take some of the blame for our relegation - they didn't do enough to keep us up. But blaming them for schoolboy errors with certain members of the team just doesn't make sense. There are certain things at senior level that you shouldn't need to train (even though they did focus on it in later training). Basic, basic stuff. The players tried their best but surely they will be and are man enough to put their hands up for some things they should have done better and some errors made were unsatisfactory.

Anyway we're really arguing this into the ground. What matters most, now, is how we respond in championship. What are we really made of. What does it mean to you to wear the shirt. What have we been training since early winter for. Time to stand up, take responsibility and be counted, come championship. Division 4 is not good news but it's not the end of the world and can be changed with the right mind-frame across the Laois GAA community from CB to players to clubs. We can bury our heads in the sand or put our hearts into changing things for the better. Vague but that has to be the intention for everyone in Laois GAA so that we can fulfill our potential over the next years.

[GAA-SMART]

Every club in Dublin has a GPO and unless we go down the same road there is a big wind and we are getting fairly wet going the loo against it.

[redsetanta]

http://www.leinsterexpress.ie/news/gaelic-games/243438/the-collapse-of-laois-as-a-force-at-underage-level-made-relegation-to-division-4-inevitable.html

[Don Draper]

So, where do we go from here? Well, for a start, Laois GAA could publish the Review of Football in the county which they commissioned in January of 2015. Portarlington man Seamus Hunt was put in charge of producing it, after he had been a repeated critic of the football structures in the county at the monthly county board meetings.

The Review was to be completed by October of that year and handed to county chairman Gerry Kavanagh, but nothing has been heard about it since. If it was completed, then it wasn't publicised, and it would be interesting to know what exactly the recommendations were, and what has been done about them. If indeed the report was ever compiled.

Thats what you're dealing with.

[The Monument Road]

Do you know what lads. Those same players have been under performing for years now. They have had 3 or 4 managers  and when they lose they lay the blame on management,training facilities,overnight stays, etc etc you name the whinge and they have used it.

Word has it now that they like Creedon and his team and they still end up in the pits of the league.Players have a huge responsibility for their own actions including preparation, how they prepare on the days leading up to games and how they behave on match day. I know otherwise. Some county players in Laois have a very active social life and are acting the Bollix , feigning injuries, turning up at training with niggles that would embarrass most of us and make themselves unavailable for match day.
Ill give you an example of something i overheard from a very prominent player after we were beaten by Tipperary in a qualifier a few years back.  He said" Im happy we were beat as it will be the end of the Manager and his thick selectors. Roll on next year"The years have rolled on and he is on his 4th manager and he is still playing and winning nothing

Poor discipline/performances arises from poor preparation not alone on the training field but away from the field. As the Great Roy Keane used to say " Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail"

A lot of them should have a chat with themselves first and then with Cahir Healey on how to prepare etc.