Allianz Football League 2017 - Division 3

[Unlaoised]

Too sick to post ...

The fitness of the players is my biggest worry

[Keyser Söze]

Aye it's the managers fault a player can't behave himself for the few minutes it takes to get a replacement on for him. Always someone else's fault in Laois.

You are an intelligent poster, who understands how things work in team environments.

Players being sent off reflects poorly on the players involved. BUT, if this is happening game after game then there is a bigger issue at play.
The buck stops with Mr. P. Creedon.

[The Rover]

Why on earth do so many people blame management, C.B., referees etc?
the simple fact is with the exception of D.K. we have a bunch of players that probably give their best and invest a lot of their time training etc. we should ask one simple Question how many players do we have that would make the starting 15 on the Dublin, Meath, Kildare, Cork, Kerry, Mayo, Doneygal teams I could list off at least another 10 counties. Not one of our defenders or Midfielders would get a look in.
D.K. is the only footballer that would be considered. Stop the blame game and face the facts

[Don Draper]

Aye it's the managers fault a player can't behave himself for the few minutes it takes to get a replacement on for him. Always someone else's fault in Laois.

You are an intelligent poster, who understands how things work in team environments.

Players being sent off reflects poorly on the players involved. BUT, if this is happening game after game then there is a bigger issue at play.
The buck stops with Mr. P. Creedon.

I understand plenty and I've had a certain card marked for some time. Creedon can't be blamed for that one.

[welcomehome]

the rover..they prob wouldnt get on them teams...But i would prefer to have 15 players that are fit and want to play for laois..Ididnt see that yest...

[Tony]

Well done Town1980 you're delighted. I want to congratulate you on your proud day.

Look, anyone who hasn't seen this happening for years now hasn't been paying attention.

If it wasn't 2017 it was going to be 2019 or 2020.

We've hardly anything coming through and we've players playing in positions they shouldn't be in out of desperation.

The injury list killed us but indicipline buried us. If you've ever played, and you're booked and about to be replaced, what do you do? Blame your coach when you get another booking? It's disappointing from an experienced player and yes they did focus on indicipline in training confirmed.

The ability isn't there. We would have stayed up if we had a normal year of injuries. The players who came in, and fair play to them for trying, but a lot of them are division 4 standard. No disrespect to them, if you haven't got the ability, that's life.

Of course Creedon has to shoulder some of the blame but to blame him solely? Nonsense. Open your eyes.

Where to go from here? Not sure but as I say, we've been poor for years now and it'll likely get worse unless some players develop miraculously. Best bet is to just appreciate the effort as we won't be beating the big guns for a while. And when's the last time we did that anyway? Years ago.

As for this year, we need to regroup and get as many people back and ready for championship as possible. We will need them. Our full back line especially as it is now will not succeed against any team.

Some people say we've hit rock bottom but in truth we've been very low for years. We've been awful in leinster. I don't see how going to division 4 means we're suddenly awful.

We've been poor for years now let's be honest. The ability is not there. There may indeed be a change of management at the end of the year but will ballyroanabu and town1980 be back this time next year when we're still not world beaters and it's still clear our players simply don't have the ability?

Magically then it won't be Padraig Clancy's fault and maybe they will finally open their eyes: we have a poor to average side at the best of times and without the injured and unavailable players, we're crippled.

The only way is up? Maybe. Strange things happen in sport sometimes.

[town1980]

again you think im delighted, i am not im so unhappy with how unprepared this team is is all,,thats what im trying to get across to you/yee,,what laois man is happy that happened yesterday?my own opinion is all im giving,,they are unfit ,,they are unprepared in a very winable division,,there is no exuse for lads not being able to run yesterday absolutley none,,3-6 from one player says enough we were ran off the park,,so im sorry yes i do blame management on this i do think that this set up is a waste of money but again thats my opinion,,am i happy us as a county are in division 4 i am in my arse,,there will be no one at the games next year 

[GAA-SMART]

The reality is lads our aspirations are higher than our current form and has been for a long time now. The CB have obviously got the whole thing wrong the book stops with them. We can sit here and blame creadon but lads that management team done a superb job with Tipperary and the fruits are now being seen with back to back promotions and an All Ireland Semi Final, who are we kidding. I do think we have the players in Laois to compete but dont have the mindset. I genuinely think the standard of Leinster Football is just so shocking its becoming an embarrassment. 8 of the 11 teams playing in either D3 or D4 this year. 1 team in D1 and 2 in D2. Where do we go from here, needs careful consideration, all is not lost. Westmeath made it to 2 leinster finals from D4 so that has to be our target this year however wouldnt be surprised if Longford bait us out the gate in RD1.

[Tony]

Ah lads me b**tard second hand washing machine from China that I bought ten years ago just broke.

It wasn't that it had poor washing ability or that I placed it upside down and out of position and the proper replacement parts weren't available so I pieced it up with nails and duct tape.

No. It's that f***ing Peter Creedon.

It's ok though my plumber Mr Clancy is going to come in and make it perfect. Yeah. That's it.

[BallyroanAbu]

Now your showing your colours Tony,

All year you bigged up a complete fraud and without a seconds thought you knock a Laois Man for the job.

Same old story in Laois if your from the county your shi..te but kiss the feet of some bluffer

Clancy, McNulty, Higgins and Kavanagh are good lads and should be given a chance.  You can never beat youth and ambition.

[Tony]

Ah god love ya, you didn't get my point.

There's nobody knocking Clancy. A fine gentleman that I've a lot of time for.

But last time I checked he can't turn dishwater into wine.

The balanced posters here are pointing out that Creedon isn't exactly the messiah and he does shoulder some of the blame.

But all you and town1980 seem to be worried about is replacing a manager mid season, as if that will stand to us long term.

You don't seem to have a clue about the big picture and the MANY many reasons we are where we are.

[OTF]

end of league....the embarrassment of relegation to the bottom tier.

after 7 league games:
team unfit, club sides are fitter than this outfit.
little or no discipline....you might blame 1 or 2 biased refs, they all can't be wrong....the team mentality is wrong....many of the fouls yielding the red cards have been a result of fitness and planning issues.
the planning issues.....there is no plan....lob it into donie and hope he scores enough to beat the opposition.
once upon a time not so long ago, we had 6 forwards who could score given a chance, now apart from donie, evan and Conway, the rest are shy about shooting...a real sign of weakness in an intercounty team.

we are told the management is popular with the players....are they making life too easily and the whole set up is lazy and easy as compared to the suffering other intercounty squads have to put up with...........every club in this county could appoint a "nice popular" coach...if the performances on the playing field are desperate, those clubs would go into self preservation mode and part company and find an alternative.

on the watch of the current county board chairman we have dropped from div 1 to 4, and it was most likely his call and influence that has appointed two right turkeys in O Flaherty and Creedon.......the chairman's vision has led us down a blind alley.

I 100% agree with previous posters, in that some of these full time coaches are not fit for purpose...our best coaches were volunteers, and said personnel are probably sitting back and wrestling with the idea as to why they should return when others failing system are on a full time contract.

we have not hit rock bottom yet, with nothing coming through at underage level, there is every chance fall further and we will remain for some time at the bottom of the Leinster footballing pyramid with Wicklow and Carlow.

No plan= plan to fail ==  and we achieved this objective.

what to do for now.....
...get rid of this management.....
....appoint a few locals, joe Higgins/Clancy/Rooney to take charge
.....basically write off this season and allow them rebuild from division 4 next winter and start to re-organise at underage level
...perhaps invite all vested parties into a crisis football meeting and maybe encourage those from the successful past back into the fold...
..and no more nepotism!.

I agree, the crisis football meeting needs to be called and soon  the clubs must  demand it, the sooner people stop deluding themselves and get started looking seriously at all aspects of whats wrong especially youth development the sooner we'll pull out of this. This drop to div. 4 was probably needed otherwise the powers that be would endeavour to put some sort of a positive slant on it .... from here there's no such option.

My own view is and (I'm very much open to discussion on this) for the last 40/50 years Portlaoise and Joe's have supplied half the county team between them in all grades more or less, yesterday no outfield player from either club. No Portlaoise player on the u21 panel very small number on  all underage panels.
Rural clubs are suffering big time for numbers, not just in Laois  same in Cork, Limerick and  in most counties just reference the winter long debate here "Gales and Amalgamation thread " and at the same time there a distinct decline of interest in the GAA in big towns ( in many counties ) Dublin of course the exception.
This is the area we must put a huge focus on and try and get a far greater return from than we have being getting in the last 10 years.
The rural clubs are doing wonderful  work and will continue to do so but they are working with ever decreasing numbers.  The big population areas has to be where the big effort comes from or else reinvent the wheel.

[Eagle Eyes]

There is so much wrong with Laois football it's hard to know where to start but I'll give it a go.

The league this year has been extremely disappointing. Despite all the injuries we left three games, Sligo, Antrim and Offaly, behind us. We were fortunate to win away in Armagh and the one game where we defended with some real purpose, Longford, we won.

People will say that the players aren't good enough but looking at the standard across the board, I see some limited enough teams doing well. I wouldn't say Fermanagh or Clare have more natural talent than Laois but they've both played in All Ireland Quarter Finals in recent years. They do however have good management teams in place. We haven't had one in five years.

Going to Tullamore yesterday the plan should have been to make it as hard as possible for Offaly. They had rebounded from their hammering in Armagh with a spirited display against Tipperary and win in Sligo. This was a do or die game and they should have been made earn every score they got. Instead we coughed up soft score after soft score. Tackling, discipline and work rate were all well below the standard you would expect of a team fighting to stay out of Division 4.

A good management team with the right coaches can instill some of the above into teams. We have a forward, Donie Kingston, who is as good as what is playing football in the country but yet at times we are reluctant to let the ball into him. In fact it wasn't really until Meaney went off yesterday that we started to let the ball into him and at that point it was more desperation than any great plan from management. Moving Darren Strong out the field and Dennis Booth back into the full back line looked an obvious swicth but it didn't happen until the later stages of the game. At least play lads where they can try and give their best performances. If it proves not to be good enough then so be it.

Nobody is saying that we should be going toe to toe with the bigger counties but we should be trying to give ourselves the best possible chance of acheiveing something. In the last five years we haven't.

The dogs on the street know what is going on with this County Board for the last number of years is a disaster. Our underage performances have fallen off the map. Our senior team has been relegated three times and bar two spirited performances against Dublin our performances in the Leinster have been poor. Coupled with the fact that the standard in the province outside of Dublin would be pretty even, this is even more disappointing.

[Giovanni]

It is obviously ridiculous to blame Peter Creedon exclusively for this year's abysmal showing.

It is equally ridiculous to try to somehow suggest that Peter Creedon just has some incidental role in the whole thing.  There are a few things that I have observed from this year:

1) Some selection decisions were odd to say the least - I don't think there's a single Laois supporter that would have suggested Darren Strong as a corner back for example. The management team select the team.

2) Compared to Offaly, for example, Laois looked REALLY unfit. Evan looked like he was playing through injury and, if so, hats off to him for trying but most of the rest of them have no excuse that I'm aware of. The management team create the training programme.

3) Laois did not look as hungry as Offaly. The motivation should come, in the first place, from inside the players themselves. This can be developed further by the management team.

4) I didn't see any particular evidence of a system of play other than firing balls into Donie and hoping for the best. This may be because (a) the players don't have the capacity to implement it or (b) there wasn't any particular gameplan to start with

5) Individual performance levels were generally poor. At a personal level, I can't remember a single occasion when I could blame a manager for a bad individual performance (and I've some across some pretty poor managers). Individual performances are down to the individuals. I would have expected more from this team even if there was no manager at all.

[redsetanta]

Darren Strong wasn't a great half back so how is he supposed to be a good corner back? As for young Sean Moore being brought on in a battle like yesterday, the chap doesn't have the physique for senior intercounty football and would be broke up. Leave him be for a couple of years.

You can talk about the reasons for our drop into Div 4 (which isn't the end of the world) but if the footballers played with the mentality of the hurlers they would still be in Div 3. If Darren strongs last minute shot had gone over, if me aunty had balls etc etc.

As has been said here many times similar to the hurling threads structures have to be in place to bring lads from primary school age up to the senior ranks with decent coaching and incentives. Get the coaches to regularly go to juvenile clubs to assist the local coaches and make courses mandatory for the clubs. Subsidise the cost if need be. It's up to the clubs to drive this and make their voices heard for the good of the county but they won't as clubs will look after their own interests first. Situation up in Arles at the moment where 4 lads have to go around looking for a club that will take them as they have no team at that grade.

If, as has been stated here, some of the GDA's are not up to scratch surely that should be raised at county board meetings

Lads these problems are not unique to Laois. Go around any of the forums where teams have ha a poor league and you will hear more of the same, blaming CB is the most popular, but managers, structures, the urban demise, numbers at rural clubs all make the list.

Maybe it's time for an internal review/report and see if that will be acted on.