Allianz Football League 2017 - Division 3

[town1980]

i never once sais replace the man half way threw the season im in no way a fan of that so what are you on about tony?im sorry if i gave that impression but i dont want to see that happen,,,the last few posters i agree with everything they have said,,they are excellent posts and im thinking the way they are thinking,,maybe im guilty of being to brash with my comments for that im sorry,,im just seeing nothing in the current set up for the money that is being spent thats all,,,and im sure its not only me and broan abu that are thinking this

[Don Draper]

its not only me and broan abu that are thinking this

No, you were just the fella who wanted to knife him after the first game.

[clonadmad]

Offaly were deserving victors they twice let Laois back into the game, I don't particularly blame Creedon ( he was a bad appointment) but I do blame the people who appointed him.  This relegation to Div 4 has taken 5 years and actually the 3 managerial appointments just got more and more deplorable.   I don't think we have a Div 1 team, I do think we are mid table Div 2 with possibly the best forward in the country.  A few people on here called me an idiot well I won't do the same thing.   However if you think that defending this joke of a set up is the right thing continue on.  Unfortunately the people in charge have necks like the jockeys proverbials but if anyone had sense they would hang their heads in shame and resign.

Delusional

[Stradism]

Can posters just stop asking for Creedon to be sacked.
Whether you think he should or not, its NOT going to happen so start talking about things that actually matter.

Lets go back a couple of years under Mcnulty.
A committed group of lads, playing one of the most rigid defensive systems I've ever seen. However, this group of players were much more talented than the squad at present. Munnelly playing the ball of his career, McMahon, O'Leary, Clancy etc. This squad had experience and a bit of know how to win big games.

Many despised the style of football we played but didnt care when we ran All Ireland champions close two years in a row.
Very few young players were given any chance by McNulty but that didnt matter after the nice wins over Meath & Monaghan.
Although we had horrible defeats to Kildare, Louth & Longford, the panel from 1-35, was quite simply better than the ageing one we have today and everyone needs to understand that.

Now what happened in them few years is important:
Our Minors suffered from the neglection of decent development squad coaching.
Our U21s were having the worst results in 20 years or so.
There was a massive decline in the quality of our club scene. A drop in the playing numbers in big clubs and rural clubs now at breaking point.

The CB buried their heads in the sand. Ignored the deteriorating club championship. Did anyone ask how we went from a kick of a ball to winning an U21 leinster in 09', to winning only 2 games in the next 4 years?
We were all a bit deluded.

Now we could go and get high profile manager next year. A big payout for a nice backroom team, get all the ageing uncommitted (this season) players back on board for another year or two. We might get within 8 points of Dublin. Beat another Meath.

Or we can accept that our years of denial has led us to this point and realise short term success is not the answer.
A new manager, positionally selecting a better team and beating Longford is going to get us no where.
We cant hide behind our Division 2 status or a decent qualifier run anymore.
If a relegation to Division 4 kick starts us into action then so be it.

[High Fielder]

People expecting more are blind to how weak Laois football is. Portlaoise got complacent and look what happened to them. Truth be told, with everyone on board, and I mean everyone, we might be a Division 2 team. With our current panel, and I'm pointing out the obvious here, we are Division 4. Portlaoise are the only team in Laois that could hold their own in Leinster. And even they are getting weaker. It's all in decline. The only way is up.

[on the hop]

Couldn't say it better myself. The league doesn't lie, that is the standard we are at. I was at the Antrim game and both teams were the worst I have seen in the league. Even with a stronger hand in the last few seasons we still were not strong enough for those divisions. The delusion that we are stronger than we are is half the problem. There are good things being done with the centre of excellence but there is nothing coming out the schools, minor or u21 level. The club championship as also dipped in the last few years.The players are not there at present and next year is going to be equally as tough with age profile of the team. There really needs to be a massive re think of what we are at. I also think that hurling needs to be looked at, the same problems are there.

The Longford game has now huge importance.

[O moore parklife]

The best way forward isn't a pissing contest between the obvious 4 or 5 on this group cause after yesterday no one won.
What happened was a build up of years of no real enthusiasm being put into young squads. Ive be been watching how a few of the GDAS conduct themselves and it would make you scream. The current highest coaching level is 2 in this country can you guess how many of the GDAS have attained this level ......0 in football. Basic strenght and conditioning has to begin at u 14 (this isn't weight training) things like mobility flexibility core strenght running mechanics are par for course in all top counties and they don't cost the world. How many GDAS have a qualification in strenght and conditioning wait for it .....0

I went to an under 14 match last year there wasn't even a medic there the ref on the day had to attend to the player on the pitch and carry him off.Plus the laois lads looked like rah ball rovers waiting about kicking with no purpose cause the GDA was late and he looked worse for ware on arrival.  These are small things that lead to overall standards dropping it's infectious and gets in everywhere.
Rebuild properly from the bottom get local qualified passionate people in to implement plans for the next 5 years (this is a starting point )
I can see there is talent in this county but it's raw and needs serious coaching.

[Tony]

Some good points being made, I'm just going to make a curveball point here and sometimes it's as simple as this.

When I was playing football and I won't mention the year but I did a lot with the club AND a bit with the county until u-21 (no I was never very good and usually was on bench with county).

Anyway, the years I was playing, I grew up (a long long time ago now) and played with some of the players from very good Laois teams.

Let me tell you, training was not sophisticated or well organised at all. Yet it yielded a high crop of good players that made quality inter county players.

It was a group of lads enjoying themselves playing a bit of ball and quite a number (more than average) happened to be good at that time. Not through fantastic coaching, but just because they were very good athletes and minds and the little coaching that we had was enough.

So my point is : sometimes, with a county the size of Laois, you just have periods where you don't yield a lot of GOOD RAW talent that's needed to make a good county team.

We seem to be going through a period of that now.

Now before you get me wrong, I do of course believe good coaching can improve a player a lot.

But sometimes the field just isn't yielding good crop and you have to make do.

I think that's a lot of what's happening with underage now, which is a bit scary. The good raw talent isn't there and the law of averages dictate it might be some years before it comes back.

The way the game is developing will not help us either because it's become so complex regarding training etc.

Anyway, I know that's definitely not the sole reason why we're not yielding top players and of course coaching is important but really, sometimes you yield more Joe Bloggs in a given 10 year cycle and a lot less Donie Kingstons.

The bottom line to rectify this is to get as many young lads to start playing GAA as possible, AND to make it enjoyable. That way we give ourselves as much chance as possible to convert them into mini Donies later on in life.

[Eagle Eyes]

The expectations of Laois football and the supporters can be debated. Is it right to think that with the present panel we should be aiming for promotion? It's reasonable to expect them to be in the hunt at the very least.

Football across the board isn't strong. Did Sligo, Antrim and Offaly produce anything outstanding to beat us? No they didn't. We contributed to our own downfall in the three games. Laois, with debatebable management setups, have beaten Armagh four times in under a year so the standard up there must be pretty poor too.

I think any manager worth his salt would have taken Meaney off yesterday after he got away with the frontal charge that could have seen him get a second yellow card. Get the message on for a player to go down for treatment or anything at all that will give you the chance to make the change. The player himself must take responsibility but you could see what was coming. Don't stand with your hands on your hips waiting for it to happen.

Peter Creedon was appointed on the basis of his underage record with Tipperary. That's fine but the age profile of our squad doesn't have the time for that. It didn't have the time when Tomas O'Flatharta was appointed four years ago and it had less time this time around. Every effort should have been made to leave the Laois football team in the best possible position.

The Longford game in a few weeks is important but not as an important as yesterday. If we wanted to develop players we needed to make sure that next spring they were playing at as a high a level as possible.

It now looks like the County Board have botched three managerial appointments in a row. Everyone seems to have a horror story about the underage coaches. The whole setup requires serious work and really good decision making but you wouldn't want to hold your breath.

[redsetanta]

It's easy say the CB botched 3 manager appointments in hindsight. I think most people were happy enough when Creedon was appointed as he had experience and a decent set up. Nobody foresaw the current situation when he was brought in and if anything we were talking about promotion.

[Mort]

I'm new to this so have patience. In my opinion I think the lack of competitiveness in Laois over the last ten years is the real problem. Portlaoise won nine in a row and fair to them. The rest of the club teams put out 15 players with some of them not fit to play junior but clubs had no choice. In days of old when there were bigger families clubs could field no problem but now most families are smaller and not everyone wants to play GAA anymore. So would it not be better to have parish teams to try raise the competitiveness in the county and reduce the championship to 8 teams??

[clonadmad]

With regard to population the opposite is true

The population soared from less than 59,000 in 2002, to almost 85k in 2016. By 2023 it is predicted to reach almost 90,000.

In 2011 figures, Laois had the highest population in the country of 0-18 year olds. Nearly 39 percent are aged under 25, compared to 34 percent nationally.

Portlaoise will pass 25k when the next census results are released,how many of the blow ins or the new Irish are being enticed into playing or mentoring with laois club gaa?.

We need a root and branch overhaul of how we conduct our gaa business,a lot of it will be painful and the results may not be seen in the next 7/10 years but it needs to be done now.

As the old saying goes,never waste a good crisis to implement change

[Laoisonic]

Coaching of development squads is important I agree. However success breathes success if the Senior county team is struggling (Which it has been for a number of years) then the interest in football goes. Enthusiasm is lost amongst clubs and even within these development squads.
Hence the drop in the number of players within clubs being mentioned.
How many guys on these squads really want to go play for Laois? Or even young clubmen on the county panel fringes? Not just to be a county star, but I mean have a real passion for Laois.

Optimism is low and no Senior team to inspire. When a group isn't winning, whether it's an U14 or senior, the interest begins to fizzle away. Guys won't put in the work required to develop themselves. Once every few years we will get a Kingston, a Brody or an O'Carroll, but we need teams to be successful, not players

Everyone talking about the successful underage teams of past. Those panels were apart of something special. They pushed themselves to become better footballers for the rest of the team, for the good of Laois, not just themselves. That's why Davy Conway, O'Loughlin etc are still showing the desire like they did yesterday.

Anyway, onto yesterday's shambles of a game.
Many key guys not at 100% fitness, but playing anyway cos of a lack of talent to replace them. (Walsh, Donoher, O'Carroll, O'Connor)
Others shown up.
Lads can't think on their feet. Too one dimensional. No ideas. Wrong team selected. Too many passengers, not only because they don't have the ability, but have an unwillingness to get involved in the play and take responsibility.

[Keyser Söze]

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.

Idiotic in the extreme.

[OTF]

With regard to population the opposite is true

The population soared from less than 59,000 in 2002, to almost 85k in 2016. By 2023 it is predicted to reach almost 90,000.

In 2011 figures, Laois had the highest population in the country of 0-18 year olds. Nearly 39 percent are aged under 25, compared to 34 percent nationally.

Portlaoise will pass 25k when the next census results are released,how many of the blow ins or the new Irish are being enticed into playing or mentoring with laois club gaa?.

We need a root and branch overhaul of how we conduct our gaa business,a lot of it will be painful and the results may not be seen in the next 7/10 years but it needs to be done now.

As the old saying goes,never waste a good crisis to implement change

Exactly, I made this point earlier.