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[Colt Shanahoe v Trumera]

Colt Shanahoe v Trumera
You'd imagine that Colt Shanahoe should have too much at the second time of asking. Is Keyes around does anyone know?
Trumera keep surprising us.

Ballyfin v Portlaoise
An interesting one here. Portlaoise like to dictate things and play in a very set manner. Interesting to see if they can get into their groove next Sunday.
They are hard to stop once the scores start rolling. They look well prepared and have an intent in how they wish to go about things.
Ballyfin are quite dogged, look well set up too and will certainly get in amongst Portlaoise.
Finn, Lanham, Lyons, Darragh Connolly all bring a high level of aggression and physicality.

It will come down to whether Portlaoise can get it going moving the ball from line to line with runners and short stick passes. Or can Ballyfin disrupt this.
The weather could play a part in answering this question too.

Good summary. I think ballyfin will be hard to break down. They have a very formidable back line.

Junior A final was pretty poor last night. The Harps never raised a gallop and you'd have to wonder about the standard of the teams they beat to reach the final.
Not that Annanough will mind. They were comfortable winners. Should have won by more.
Good to see them win it. They wanted it more. I was talking to a couple of Harps lads after it and the feeling was "it's only football".

Their right lol

Camross were never going to lose that game, especially after last year's no show.
Abbeyleix were poor. Game was effectively over after 5 mins. Was it nerves or being over hyped. Maybe a bit of both. 

Best wishes to both teams this Sunday and indeed the minor hurlers.
Big day for Abbeyleix. Hopefully we'll get a good exhibition of hurling
Camross by 5 for me

The ref who made a massive error last week in Premier intermediate quarter gets rewarded with doing the senior semi final, only in laois would this happen.

He's a quality ref. Mistakes happen.

How about you go the other way and turn the Laois senior championship in a 6 team championship and the Intermediate into a 6 Team championship. If you want evenly matched and competitive games this might be the way forward. Play the 6 team championships using a league format with top team straight through to the final and 2nd v 3rd in a semi final. I would have the bottom 2 teams meet in a relegation decider. That way it would keep every game competitive. You would have a senior championship of Camross, Castletown, Abbeyleix, Clough-Ballacolla, Rathdowney-Errill, Rosenallis and an intermediate championship of The Harps, Borris-Kilcotton, Ballinakill, Ballyfin, Portlaoise and Slieve Bloom. I think both those championships should provide some evenly contested and competitive games. Upping the number of senior teams to just make intermediate championship more competitive makes little sense to me.

Certainly a better option that what's in place atm

Offaly have 10 senior clubs. Westmeath have 6 and 6 in senior B I believe. 
There's no easy fix for keeping championships competitive. In most championships nationwide you always have 2 to 3 teams ahead of the pack. It evoles over the years . Teams come and go as evidenced by borris kilcotton last week.

What I do know is the premier intermediate competion has been dreadful over the last few years. One or 2 teams totally dominating, winning pulling up. Ballyfin, clonaslee, slieve bloom, colt shanahoe along with camross,  rathdowney Errill and now ballacolla 2nd team have no realistic chance of winning. And it's the manner of defeats which is the problem and totally detrimental to bringing on Laois hurling.
Ballinakill with a full compliment and portlaoise would in my opinion be competitive with The Harps, Castletown, rosenallis , abbeyleix and borris kilcotton. The other 3 are a bit ahead but in a few years with hard work it not unrealistic to think the other teams would make semi finals and finals. They all have solid platforms. 
A 10 team senior championship would then make the intermediate championship very competitive. With the addition of colt/shanahoe, park ratheniska, mountmellick. Mountrath have talent on the horizon too. These teams can't be ignored either. It would be some crack truknb to predict a winner.
It's my take on it and worth trialling for 2 years in my opinion. It's the only show in town for the clubs in offaly and have argued successfully against the offaly County board to keep it in place.

The offaly championship with a similar club count and profile to ours seems to be flying.

I don't think the appetite is in laois for regional senior teams to be competitive.

In Offaly the talk is to reduce it to 8 teams atm with regional teams making the last 2 spots, and have 8 at Premier intermediate too, now the fact that a lot of players off both their all Ireland finalist in hurling and football at u20 are from smaller clubs might be part of it, but that is the talk atm, condensing senior or increasing the standard and player pool, or both
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I suppose there is no perfect formula but seems llike the right time to give it a go. The so called big 4 are no more in laois hurling. I really think that CB, RE and camross will come back into the pack over the next few years with Abbeyleix,  harps and Castletown providing the best of young talent.

Here's an article from offaly at the start of last year. At least their county board officials actually listen

https://www.offalyexpress.ie/news/gaa/745564/offaly-senior-hurling-championship-to-remain-at-10-teams-after-objections-from-clubs.html

A 10 team senior championship for me is definitely worth exploring for a two year trial period. Portlaoise and ballinakill would be very competitive as it stands at senior level. 
In the format the top team in each group would qualify for semi finals.  2nd plays 3rd in quarter finals. While bottom 2 teams enter B competition/ relegation.
I'd like to think much more competitive games than what's currently on offer in 8 team format.
Plus the premier intermediate grade has been absolutely shite over the last few years where one or two teams are streets ahead of the others. Scrap it and revert to good old fashioned intermediate grade as your 2nd competition. I think this would make the grade hugely competitive.
Better games better players. The offaly championship with a similar club count and profile to ours seems to be flying.

I don't think the appetite is in laois for regional senior teams to be competitive. 

The harps were 10 points better but nearly bottled it again.
28 points is some scoring all the same. There the enigma of Laois hurling for sure.
Dark days ahead for BK I fear

He did seemingly with pauric dunne. Shame for them, their on the cusp of making a break through to the top tier but without those two it's a big ask for this year.
You can't blame young lads for travelling either but The Harps seem to have lost more than most down through the year's. 

B/K definitely in decline; not winning a couple more seems to have really knocked the stuffing out of the club. C/B on the other hand have gone from strength to strength.

I assume Podge Delaney went back to America, then?

Unfortunately borris/kilcotton in decline and you'd have to fear for them in the coming years.
Definitely Rathdowney/Errill and camross the two standout teams so far. 
Great to see Mark kavanagh back and scoring trademark points.
Rosenallis to win this evening without The Harps two County men.

Harps u15s thru to Division 2 feile final after beating kilcormac/kiloughey in the semi final. Hopefully they can see it out.

I remember being in rosenallis when that offaly u20 team were u14. Just 6 short years ago.
Laois beat offaly that day by 25 points. And that's no exaggeration. That laois team subsequently took honours at u14 and u15 level. This year at u20 level laois were beaten by an average westmeath side.
One example of how no proper planning or structures were forthcoming to develop a crop of players with serious potential.
Meanwhile offaly got a county legend in michael duignan, to replace their dinosaurs with a meaningful, structured plan and a  blueprint of many committees and sub committees to identify what needed to be done.


quote author=Laois man link=topic=32013.msg2199926#msg2199926 date=1683750088]
Offaly back into a U20 hurling final all from hard work from the top table down massive crowd in Tullamore tonight.
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Valiant effort from the minor hurlers this evening. Couple of turning points that eventually got a useful dublin team over the line.
2nd game in the championship where they didn't make use of the extra man which is a pity because I thought they matched the Dubs in nearly all areas of the game.