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Just listened to the interview - no better man - Ross has done his county proud every time he wore the blue and white.

I'll never forget his performance in the 2nd half of the 2005 Leinster Final where he nearly single handedly got us over the line.

An inspirational guy to have in our dressing room.

Strange with all the games he won but that Dublin game is what sticks in my mind too when I think of Ross Munnelly. I was in the upper Hogan and he was telling his own players to get out of his way and make room for him as he was sprinting from one touch line to the other to win posession. He demanded the ball each time Laois came forward, he must have ran about 15 miles that day. He was incredieble and the Dubs were hitting him hard and often as they recognised he was the danger man but still he came back for more each time. Probably one of the best performances I have seen from any player in a Laois jersey.

Yeah an unbelievable performance that day from him. How he didn't get an all star that year still baffles me.  If ever there is going to be a statue of a Laois player it'll surely be Ross! Maybe when he retires! If he retires!! 

I think we will beat them, shur we are on a roll...11 wins in a row 

Well, someone has to start the optimism 

Great to see Laois jerseys out in force again! Well done to Sugrue and the players theres an awful lot to be said for good attitude and commitment.

The county board see managers as very important people. When the hurling team play poorly they blame the manager, sack him, appoint a committee and eventually announce a new manager. Everyone then moves on and the county board is happy for another year. The role of the manager is therefore to take the fall for the CB. Hurling is secondary.

If you take the above, slightly tongue in cheek argument to it's fruition, you could say that the role of the county board is to take the fall for the clubs. The county board are elected by the clubs to do the bidding of the clubs. When everything is crap, we then put it on the useless ineffective has-beens that we have appointed.

This won't be solved without the clubs having a combined ambition for hurling in the county. The first thing they need to do is put an autonomous hurling board together with capability. Beg Cheddar to chair it and give him complete authority and independent funding. Wouldn't it be great to see the likes of Pat Critchley, Paul Cuddy, Enda Lyons, Joe Dollard and Willie Hyland running hurling development in Laois rather than what we have had to put up with.

The clubs also need to stand up and get top class coaches at all age groups. There are some incredible lads who give great time to their clubs but the don't necessarily have the skills and experience to build skill levels between 8-14 years of age when motor skills are developed. Arguably, if you miss this formative period in the development of a hurler you are done. It has been a constant bug-bear of minor managers over the years that they are getting lads at 16 / 17 and have to coach skills that should be long established with sub-optimal results. I have personally yet to see a lad who was an ok hurler at that age turn into a super one at 23.

Anyway, that's my rant. The clubs and public blame the county board who blame the manager. It all starts and ends with the clubs and always has.

Thumbs up. Well summed.
Just regarding people wondering what cheddars plans was, I don't need to see it to know it was the right plan. No stone should be left unturned in an attempt to get him back. Can't see it happening but by god someone should be trying. It was no surprise our fortunes turned up with him and Zoom in charge of teams. Bite the bullet and go back to them.

A sad sad day for Laois hurling Saturday. An absolute disaster - a 10 point beating by Carlow. Thats down there with the 10 goals Cork scored. In fact id say we are now in a worse position than after that defeat - back then there was talk of dropping to Christy Ring, now there is same talk except this time dropping to Christy Ring is going to tier 3 not tier 2! How have we become so bad? Senior manager clearly has to take some of the blame but not all. I do believe the players are trying hard. Hurling has been in decline again since Cheddar left and the county board have done zilch. They are an absolute disgrace lets call a spade a spade. They are responsible for this - they had their chance with Cheddars plan. They didn't have the ambition to persue it. They wouldn't fund it because that would require work to raise money. A shower of dinosaurs ruining hurling in this county. Where do we go from here? We have no saviour like Cheddar to come in this time. A plan, a vision, a strategy over 5-10 years is whats needed now. Can we honestly see that happening through the Laois county board? No chance. We are in big big trouble now unless Croke Park step in to help us. Watching the teams hurling in the Munster championship would make you jealous - an unbelievable sport that is sadly dying in Laois.

Have to say i really enjoyed the match Saturday. The excitement was amazing it was great to have such a big Laois crowd there id say we outnumbered the locals! Experts (and those not there) will bemoan the first half performance, we were lucky, missed chances ect but i have to say it was great to be there Saturday its a very long time since i came away from a Laois match as happy. It was pure entertainment in the second half. Well done to lads who gave all for Laois in that second half the spirit and pride in jersey was great and thats all we ask for. Just a note on big Donie, for godsake leave him on the edge of the square the next day and kick it in long and fast there isnt a full back in the country that'll keep him quiet!   

How come footballing counties celebrate like mad (and rightly so) after winning a division 2, 3 or 4 league title and yet when a tiered championship system is mentioned they are annoyed.

Post from former Kilkenny keeper David Herity on twitter.

Interesting thought. What would the feeling be here on Laois playing in a second tier comp? What re our aims now in the championship, beat couple of teams our own level and bow out graciously to a higher division team? Isnt that pointless? Why couldn't we be in a competition, div 3 & 4 teams, with a realistic ambitions of winning it? We have no chance, nor do most teams of winning Sam. Not right now anyway.

He shouldn't be dropped for that. He took it down immediately and apologised immediately. It was very poorly worded and not wise to put up so soon after the event, but a large portion of the country were saying the same thing. He basically said, that if the rugby lads were found innocent it means that the girl could be seen as guilty of making things up. He put it up in a bad way but took it down and apologised. I don't agree with what he said but I don't think he should be dropped. Definitely not long term. Drop him for this match maybe and then right back in it for the championship. We might as well forget about it if our top scorer is out for the year.

Would have to agree with you there. It was stupid but not the end of the world he should have known better. As someone said the whole place is gone PC crazy its ridiculous. Cant believe the amount of people attacking the Laois Gaa twitter feed, it was a personal account people trying to make out it represented Laois Gaa. Drop him for final and play away in championship. Luckily twitter will save him just as much as it done him in as some other gobshite is sure to take the heat off him with his own shitstorm soon. Garys tweet will be forgotten and Laois will need him in the summer. PC brigade dont watch Leinster championship they will be busy tweeting about trump ect in June and July and we need Gary simple as that.

Perfect, thanks. No wonder i couldn't find it, first iv ever heard of the Joe McDonagh cup!! Is the final of this still scheduled for Croke Park? A great incentive for teams like Laois to be heading to Croke Park to win a trophy, tier 2 or not! I would love to travel to Croke park to see Laois hurlers playing and a real chance at winning something. Plus with the winners getting entry to prelim Q final i think its an ideal set up for developing counties.

Is there a list of fixtures and dates for the championship matches? I cant seem to find them anywhere.