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Were our Minors and U21's not competitive this year? Things have been far worse, thats for sure.

Ok you could argue that we were competitive  this year, it's a long way from where we were and the numbers presenting themselves for squads are very disappointing if I'm not mistaking.

We have to get real here, we're not going to get any top manager in at this point .
Any manager doing a small bit of research at all will discover that the back bone of that squad will all be over thirty next year and there's very little coming through despite the optimistic posts above.

I think we'll struggle to get a manager even from within.

Someone above said our underage system need a bet of help. That's understatement if ever I saw one.
It's an absolute f*****g discrace  the way our underage system has being neglected.
Are Longford in the Leinster minor final

Who are all these players who won't commit and if they did would any of them actually make the team. I'm of the opinion  that none would and they know it.
Healy of course the exception to above.

Billy is the only Laois player I have seen abused  regularly both at games and on Internet forums, I cant say I have ever hear'd Ross abused.

Inside manager this time and it won't be easy as we'll probably hit the bottom over the next 2 years.

Jim can stay where he is.

Tongue in cheek

I have every confidence that our County Board will do everything in their power to appoint someone who can "take Laois to the next level", as they did on 2013.
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In fairness to him, he never did say whether that level was lower or higher.

Agree with you there DD the worst is still to come.

If only it was as simple as a poor manager.
The problems with Laois football go much deeper I'm afraid.

My reference to the hurlers was to the current situation where Cheddar is instilling belief into the players directly and indirectly through media interviews etc. O'Flaherta doesn't come across as passionately and maybe he is not instilling the belief in players.

What is the difference between the hurling and football at underage level at the moment? Is it the standard of coaching at club level or the standard of coaches which the county board provide.

I live outside the county so wouldn't be up to date on these issues but the setanta programme had huge numbers attending last week at U11 and U13. What sort of numbers attend the football camps etc? How many ex and current players are involved. Again you had Picky maher a and few others at the hurling camps.

Maybe there is apathy amongst clubs or parents regarding the football. It's a combination of factors. One thing for sure you do need someone to come in and drive it with enthusiasm. I don't see a Critchley or Cheddar type character for the football at the moment. I stand to be corrected though.

The point I was trying to make was we had a structure in in place which was working very well probably second to Tyrone, whereas they pushed on continues to improve and ours has disappeared almost.

Junior
Not sure if the same ideas from 10 years ago would still work, but men like Sean with nothing but the best for Laois football in mind are what's required.
Someone needs to put in place a 5-10 year plan, proper coaching, development squads etc. and drive it especially the last part.

It amuses me a small bit when people say we should take example from the hurlers ok fair enough.
In a 12 year period we won
6 Leinster minor
3 All Ireland minor
3 Leinster under 21
Should have won at least 1 under 21 AI
1 Leinster senior
Should have won at least 1 more.
As regards underage we were there , we had this thing sorted but needed to be pushed on to the next level. Standing still was never going to be good enough, we didn't even stand still we went backwords.
There's 20 thousand more people living in Laois  now than there was in '96 and yet the numbers presenting themselves for underage trials has halved. There's something drastically wrong and the responsibility for this lies with the people at the top of Laois football. We haven't  stopped producing young footballers all of a sudden we have traditionally got very good returns from successful underage teams and this is where we should be looking.
We probably don't have the resources to challenge for AI senior  but we have proved we can challenge for underage and this is the area we have totally neglected in recent years.

Like the hurling it might take a Laois man to solve a Laois problem. Who we get in Laois I'm not so sure. We never evolved with the times after we won many leinsters and paying the price perhaps. I feel we'll be playing catch up for a good while to get even to an AI q final spots again (hope i'm wrong of course).
Can't blame Portlaoise either with all the county titles they've won. Up to the other clubs to step up and haven't done so.

I often thought that Helix  a mad hure  from within like Ger Loughnane is badly needed to drag Laois kicking and screaming into the real world.

Bitterly disappointed after the weekend but worst days lie ahead I'm afraid.
Our underage system once the envy of the country has being left go to rack and ruin  a total lack of leadership at the very top is the problem IMO.

The double-header was never a runner I'm afraid;
Leinster Council control the Gate for Leinster Championship matches; Croke Park control for the Qualifiers.

Not a hope in hell Leinster Council were going to offer up a cut of their gate; they couldn't give a flying f**k about the actual supporters...

Exactly never did never will.
All the GAA are concerned with is bums on seats, counties like Laois who draw only a handful of supporters don't count,having said that they did the same to limerick a few years ago back a football qualifier in Mullingar at 3:00 and then a mad dash to Tullamore for hurling.
Limerick of course although they'd have a big following wouldn't qualify as one of the big boys.

Without a shadow of a doubt they would

Well done to the hurlers on Sunday, delighted for all the hurling supporters.
I wouldn't have seen the hurlers very often down thought the years but I was at the game in '72 when we last beat Offaly.
I was trying to remember some of the team but all I can come up with are below not sure even wear the all playing

Carroll
Mahon
Eugene Moore
Peter and George Conroy
Bates
Frank Keenan
Ger Cuddy
George Lynham ??
Paddy Ging
Anyone got the full team.

I was disappointed with the performance yesterday. I thought we had developed a style of play that suited our players (lot more kick passing, lot less running into contact, feeding small forward players quickly, Robbie Kehoe and Donoher sweeping up a lot of ball in our own half) and I thought there was a really good spirit and confidence in the camp.

Yesterday, I didn't see any of that. I thought the system was ridiculous (almost guaranteeing that we are not using our good forward players properly) and I didn't really see the energy and confidence that I thought was there.

There has been a trend in Laois matches throughout the league to let opponents saunter down the middle of the field unopposed and I don't understand this tactic at all. At the same time, there were dozens of occasions, playing with the wind in the second half, where we had no forward available to run into space for a kick pass. So we have 12 or 13 lads back, none of whom make a tackle and noone available then to launch an attack.

Kildare scored 16 points and really could have scored more. They don't have great forwards. This suggests that there's something wrong with the way we defend. The problem, in my opinion, is our attitude to defence. We have to work harder from the front and we have to put in a lot more tackles way out the field. Unless we do, we are going to end up being hammered by someone along the way.

We should have gone into this match with the same attitude that we had to Carlow. If we had, we would have won handily enough in my opinion.

There was only a handful of players that, in my view, played close to their potential - Brody, O' Connor, Timmons, Strong, JOL and Donie all did well enough. If we play with energy and confidence the next day, I think we have more improvement in ourselves than they do. Whether we win or not, I think we need to see a lot more intensity from our lads, especially when we don't have the ball.

Yes Giovanni
I often wondered why(even under McNulty) with so many bodies behind the ball why we still concede such high scores, I think it's poor tackling and giving away soft frees as a result.
We also need to get faster players nearer to Donie  maybe switch Boyle and OConnor.

Teo that is a decent post but I don't think the players themselves would object to a Meridth or McMahon coming back ..Even Meaney who was there for most of the year...

We need options O'Connor moving out the field is one that needs to be looked at...Maybe a fit again Paul Begley can fill in at corner back?


Looking forward to the year ahead this bunch have shown great heart so far this year and deserve a bigger support I hope there is big numbers at the Carlow game!

If I remember correctly from TOF's interview the door may be open for McMahon not sure about Merdith ..... I'd say Meaney wont be asked back, after that the only other player who I think would actually make a difference is.....dare I say it ... Healy.
Is he home for the summer