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O'Dempseys to beat Killieshin by 3 despite being down Mark Barry and Fionn Holland

Portlaoise to beat Emo reasonably comfortably although Emo always produce on the championship day

Joseph's should have too much for Ballylinan

Portarlington to beat Arles Killeen.

Graigue to beat Clonaslee well.

Ballyroan Abbey to beat Rosenallis by 7 or 8.

Ballyfin v Stradbally is the one I think could be a draw

Courtwood v Park Ratheniska could also be tight. Courtwood by 2 or 3.

Hope I'm wrong but I can't envisage a huge take up in subscribers. A lot of people would be casual enough readers of match reports, interviews etc. The biggest problem I'd foresee would be that "hurling people" wouldn't be hugely interested in much to with football and vice versa.
As someone else said, the county board website and social media accounts are very badly run. We deserve a bit better than that.

v Louth Jan 30 at 2pm in Ardee
v Westmeath Feb 6 at 2pm in Portlaoise
v Fermanagh Feb 19 at 6pm in Enniskillen
v Antrim Feb 26 at 6pm in Portlaoise
v Wicklow Mar 13 at 2pm in Aughrim
v Limerick Mar 19 at 7pm in Portlaoise
v Longford Mar 27 at 2pm in Portlaoise

Paul Lawlor back for a second spell with Emo.

Let's not run away with yereselves Wicklow are scutter so we are still learning ,, acid test I think we will win

No one is running away with themselves. it's the O'Byrne Cup for Jaysus sake! I think Kildare will be a bit too strong for us on Wednesday night.

Laois (football)

Hope - Promoted back to Division 2  and at least three decent championship games.

Expectation - Barely survive in Division 3, beat Wicklow and lose Leinster quarter final.

No harm taking a look at a few lads who never played county minor or under 20. Possibly shows that playing well for your club is taken into account rather than maybe a reputation.

I know there's little or no interest in the Leinster championship but that's as good a draw as Laois could have got. If they can't beat Wicklow, it's a very poor year and if they do it's Meath which is obviously better than Dublin, Kildare, who I'm sick of beating us and Westmeath who handed us our arses this year.

Brilliant for Port to be heading to Croke Park. What a buzz there is around the town this week!

There used to be a lot more soccer teams. A lot of them have disappeared. Ballybrittas, Emo, Killenard all had teams. There also used to be two or three clubs in Port.

U20 "B" Semi-final Wednesday night Na Fianna Og against Rosenallis, for the future of Laois football how the hell can that team be allowed entry into a B competition against the likes of Rosenallis, Killeshin, Ballylinan, O'Dempseys, The Heath proper clubs doing it on there own, I don't mind two clubs possibly joined up and competing in the B competition BUT 4 CLUBS ABSOLUTE JOKE... That team would surely challenge for the A never mind the B and what good is it for them to be winning that competition absolutely none. They only played the u17 A Minor final from 2020 a couple of months ago and put it up to Graiguecullen so play an A minor final and then compete and they will walk that u20 B Competition. County Board or whoever allows this to happen are an absolute joke.

I kinda thought that meself.

To be fair, they have been in the B for a few years now and not exactly won anything yet. It's an amalgamation that seems to be working well for the 4 clubs involved and it would be good if they stuck together and start competing in A competitions going forward.

The whole amalgamations thing (on the football side anyway) seems to have settled down after a few years of chopping and changing. The Rock seem to permanently gone away from the Emo Courtwood set up. Park Ratheniska have settled down well with Spink. Killeshin, The Heath, Rosenallis and Ballylinan seem to be happy enough to work away on their own.

Well done Port. That was a really impressive display. Hopefully, there's a decent run Leinster to follow. Can see three in a row being achieved relatively easily and no reason that a few more titles can't be added. Only Squirty to be  replaced in the short term and he's still in great nick. Also, I'm praying that we'll see a good few of these lads in with Laois next year. We need to add some good young lads to the squad and these chaps are the pick of the bunch.

Hard luck to Portlaoise. I think if they had brought their semi final game to the table, it could have been more of a contest. But Cahillane going off was a disaster. They lacked his ability to finish moves with scores. Boyle, Dillon and Carroll aren't natural finishers and young Larkin and McEvoy simply didn't turn up.

Not that Port would have been beaten. It just might have kept it closer for a bit longer.

On a sour note, I was sitting between a group of Portlaoise and Portarlington supporters and I know every club has its "asshole" followers but some of the abuse one particular Port guy was dishing out to the Town crowd was just way over the top. And to make it worse, one of Laois's best ever footballers (and an out and out gentleman) turned around to remonstrate politely enough only to be met with a tirade of abuse from some clown who probably didn't even recognize him. Whoever he was, he could learn a lot from the gracious people like Martin Murphy, Brendan McCann and Eamonn Murphy to name just three who know how to win (and lose) with a bit of manners.

Rant over. Sorry!

Taking nothing away from Park they absolutely deserved to win that game last night, but not chance of competing at senior level sorry now even against mediocre teams they have 3 or 4 good players but not senior level, Put it this way they wouldn't beat a Clonaslee or Rosenallis or Courtwood the last 3 intermediate champions. i enjoyed the way they had a plan but were talking a different level. At the end of the day this time last year they were still junior and just about scrapped through the semi final and final.

Lets not dress this up mountmelick a town team loads of chimney pots yee are a disgrace but to rathineska well done yee wanted it yee got it I don't think yee will last senior but a great story again mountmelick hang the head in shame

No shortage of mediocre senior teams that park could possibly beat next year if they get the luck of the draw

All they need is a year or two to acclimatise at senior and they will be grand.

They are pulling big numbers out from the town of portlaoise at juvenile which will bolster them further

I think they will be able to stay up. They certainly seem to me to be at the level of Rosenallis or Clonaslee and I couldn't see how they'd be a whole lot worse than the likes of Ballylinan or Killeshin. Anyway, I'm sure it's the least of their worries this week as they have a Leinster campaign to look forward to with a nice favourable draw. I just hope their old poaching neighbours don't come sniffing again

Wasn't much quality for the new manager who was in the stand today. Worryingly some of the possibles don't seem to be progressing and a few of the older players look way off form.

Yeah, you'd have to agree. Diarmuid Whelan only came into it in the second half. O'Flynn did well defensively but couldn't get forward enough. Barry did well but he doesn't play to this level enough.
Didn't see any potential new players really.

S & C is a snake oil game, you never hear top Soccer Teams or Rugby Teams talk of S &C

No, you never hear strength and conditioning mentioned in rugby circles. Holy Jaysus...