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Big step up from Under age to Adult. Camross have 2 or 3minor final won but have 26 seniors won. I know lads who have lots of talent at underage and never played with thee first Adult team in the club after. Best of luck to the Harps i hope it works out for them but it's not easy.

Wouldn't The Harps have been one of the main opposition along with RE to the Clough Ballacolla underage teams that won a lot during the 00's? I maybe wrong but I do have a recollection of a Harps team stopping a Ballacolla 3 in a row in a final at either u16 or minor.

How wrong I was.
Very poor from Rathdowney Errill, who will be disappointed with themselves.
Had a good view of the sending off incident. No arguments. He had to go.

Credit to Ballacolla.  That took serious digging in.

The only thing I found odd about the situation was I don't think he even carded the Rathdowney player for his initial strike in the incidence, I think the card went to the number 7. I thought it was going to be 2 straight reds....I said earlier on the forum that I didn't think RE would win as they haven't impressed me at all this year and it was the case again. So many of their top players seem off it, I know they rallied late and got the 2 goals but if CB had won't it by 7or8 nobody would have complained and that's not a good sign considering they played against 14 for the entire 2nd half.

Senior:
Think Camross will beat Borris/Kil if its a close one. I think Borris have better forwards but this camross team are improving and will fancy the battle.

Ballacolla have never done back-to-back and i dont think they will this year. Rathdowney will be missing Mark Kav but they'll be well up for this and I think if it's a battle; they have more in them and will want it more. They wont give Dunphy or Maher any space. That'll win it for them.

Premier Intermediate:
Very confident Ballyfin will win. Power and pace in the middle and scorers up front. I think this will be the only one-sided game of the weekend.

The other game could be close. Hard to call. I thought Portlaoise would win but I've heard rumours of injuries and maybe that might unsettle things. Ill go with Cha to get Ballnakill over the line.

Hope the two first teams win the junior finals. No offence to the second teams. Think trumera will but pickas could be in trouble if the ballyroan footballers release all their players to hurl with Abbyleix.

God I don't know where that confidence in RE has come from, I though they have been very poor for most of this year. Think CB will win it by 4or5...

I agree on the other game, Camross are slowly getting back into it the last few weeks and I think they will beat BK this weekend and win the final in 2 weeks!! You heard it here first....haha

Depressing to see the negativey  towards Rosenallis today and overall throughout the year in both hurling and football, They are the only senior dual club in the county, and should possibly be in a county semi final if they took their chances. I don't believe the crap RE were only in 1st 2nd gear. If the ref had any balls today ge should of let the last puck out happen instead of blowing up just after Rosenallis get the goal.

This is a club thats putting it up against the likes of the 2nd favourite team in RE in hurling championship and probably 3rd best team in football Championship O'Dempseys and their only training a quarter of what the non dual clubs are training and still there competing at the highest level. Fair play to the club and management of both sectors.

What?? Rosenallis are a credit to the county...what negativity was there here about them today?

Did anyone get to see the u-20s last night? Sounds like they gave a strong account of themselves?

My brother in-law was at it (a Kilkenny man) and was telling me it was an interesting one. He has seen a few encounters down through the years where a Laois underage side came close to taking a scalp off them but this was the only time he remembers a Laois team actually having the better technical players between the 2 sides. Big turning point was in the 4th quarter just after the water break Laois hit a glorious goal chance straight at the keeper which would have put them back 1 up and Kilkenny responded with 3 quick fire points.

I wouldn't know much about this team, but is there many of them underage for next year? I assume there is a decent crop coming up behind which have come from last years good u17 team (even though they didn't go well last year)

Yes, I was thinking that meself. Terrible to say it, but almost as bad as the football!

Looks like both Ryan Mullaney and Podge Delaney will be out of the half-back line for the next couple of games at least. In fairness to Whelan, he did all right on Sunday (except for nearly letting a Dublin lad through for a goal!), but it's an important line and we haven't an awful lot of cover there.

Its been played like football these days, loads of side to side 5 yard hand passes (that barley qualify as hand passes in my eyes) and then find a man in space who is able to launch it over from 100 yards now...absolute no direct ball going inside, the days of the lethal inside men (Kelly, Mullane, Power, Hayes etc) is gone!!

anyway back on topic with Laois...I don't think we can expect much more than what we are getting, the lads are clearly putting in the effort but the injuries are very costly to a team like us!! especially up front, Dunphy and Kavanagh are big losses...

Looked at Laois/Dublin, Cork/Tipp abd Limerick/Galway at the weekend and what a depressing sight all 3 were! Hurling has absolutely nose dived in that last 2 years, its actually becoming unwatchable in my eyes...

I suspect its heading that way alright.
Tom Ryan musing yesterday that the NFL and NHL might have to be dropped.
Add in the lack of protest from HQ about losing "elite" status and comments about being in no rush to resume activity etc.
Also a number of 2020 Club Championships unfinished.
Quite possibly end up with a Calendar of
May - finish 2020 Club Championships
June -August Club Championships
September - November Inter County.

Could be another wave in the autumn so I wouldn't count on it.

Jasus if we don't have a very high number of the population vaccinated by the Autumn we are doing something very wrong!

well that was some finish to an interview by Eddie Brennan on Woolie's podcast!!, what do people thing.

Whats this now. Did Brennan say something bad?

I am as we all are here huge Gaa people, but the only reason the plug was pulled so early by the Gaa was to save more bad press to save the inter county season & the money it brings from tv rights 💰.

On another previous point, Keyzer, agree, I've watched PJ Scullys goal, brilliant goal, brilliant ball from Foyle, most would have knocked it over the bar,
I was watching one of the BK coaches who was outside the barrier telling Scully & Dunphy to keep deep, obviously something they have worked on, as do Ballacolla

Feel it would have been a good final.

I agree, this was the point I was trying to make. Horan made it clear that the games weren't the issue which allows him to go ahead with the inter county scene. I do think something had to be done though as we have all seen some people were starting to take advantage of the allowances and it wasn't looking good for the GAA as a whole. I don't agree with his decision to go with inter county at the expense of the club, what happened to all in this together? What will the scenes be like if Mayo or Wexford win an All Ireland? 

Anyway enough on that. I was really looking forward to this county final. I felt the last few weren't hectic as a spectacle but I had a good feeling about this one! Thought BK would take it by 2/3 points in the end in a high scoring affair.

Can't play County Final on Saturday but the hurlers of The Harps, Portlaoise, Clough Ballacolla & Borris Kilcotton can go to Carlow tonight put on a Laois Jersey & hurl a practice game 🙃🤪🙃🤪

I know but John Horan openly said the games are not the issue, its the scenes that have follow the recent county final wins where the problem lies. And unfortunately some counties also took the biscuit with their allowance of numbers into the ground, especially when most off these games are being televised or stream for all to see! I do agree though that if they were going to pull the plug it should have been for all, this just creates more club v county debate that is not needed now!!!

I know. There was no stopping the Dublin games when they were 'lock-down', was there?

This is a very good point. I know the situation is unprecedented but this kind of thing is very hard to take when there are inconsistencies like the ones you've mentioned above.

The scenes from around the country at the weekend were a disgrace. GAA HQ had to act if they wanted to maintain any semblance of credibility. It looked like there was at least 400 in the stand at one match which showed a blatant disregard for the rules.   

Completely agree. There must have been 500 at the Meath football final. And then the Blackrock parade didn't help at all. Some people just have to take a mile when they're given an inch.

The Meath county final was ridiculous. There was well over 500 people at that and it live for all to see on TV. You could see this coming, scenes were getting worse week by week as the county finals were been played out in each county...

[There is a huge lot of parents who were already concerned for sending their kids back to school as it is under these so called controlled measures.]

I'm actually told the GAA has just said there'll be no schools' matches until after Christmas, at least.

Yes it will be at least after Christmas before there is any form of schools games for any activity, not just GAA. There is a huge lot of parents who were already concerned for sending their kids back to school as it is under these so called controlled measures. There would be absolute uproar ip Kid A complained that he or she had to sit beside Kid B who spent the morning playing/tackling someone in a schools football/hurling/rugby match etc...

Not a huge amount. A recent survey concluded that 33% were somewhat concerned - the other 66% probably threw a party on the morning of September 1st - I heard anecdotal accounts of parents going to the local hotel/cafe/restaurant to order the full Irish breakfast in celebration. Too right, the audacity of the state expecting parents to home-school kids during May/June was a disgrace. They should have been back then. If Kid A's mommy/doddy has an issue with their kid sitting beside Kid B then it's not the right time for Kid A to return to school and mommy/doddy should ensure that they provide the education - one would think they'd be almost experts at this stage considering their stint from mid-March to June.

No need for the aggressive attack. I am only stating my opinion on how I think this will play out. I am no massive supporter of this government but what did you expect them to do in May/June when pretty every country in the world was adopting the same policy regarding home schooling and its precisely whey they wont be rushing kids back to the sports fields in schools because the last thing they want is the schools closed again!

I'm actually told the GAA has just said there'll be no schools' matches until after Christmas, at least.

Yes it will be at least after Christmas before there is any form of schools games for any activity, not just GAA. There is a huge lot of parents who were already concerned for sending their kids back to school as it is under these so called controlled measures. There would be absolute uproar ip Kid A complained that he or she had to sit beside Kid B who spent the morning playing/tackling someone in a schools football/hurling/rugby match etc...

Castletown have put out a good few strong juvenile teams over the last few years so I would expect that they will improve considerably but it won't be quick. Like all clubs with a small catchment area, it is very challenging to rise to the level that Castletown were at when they were completely dominant. They have a handful of good hurlers but far too many that are not at the standard, or too young. Still, I can't see them being a force again unless they fully amalgamate with SB.

Rathdowney Errill hammered them last year too.

I am no longer living at home so I would not be fully up to date on the juvenile scene but good to see that they are doing well at underage again. I was always a firm believer that Laois need 7/8 competitive senior clubs to complete consistently as Liam MacCarthy level. With R/E, Camross, B/K and C/B seemingly miles ahead of the pack, wouldn't it be great to have a strong Portloaise, Abbeyleix, Castletown and Haprs teams to throw in the mix.

On a plus side, great to see Rosenallis coming on. Sounds like there is been great work been done up there.

Yes, the Rosenallis story is very impressive. Whatever about beating Camross in their first year senior in many years, putting them out of the championship so emphatically and probably getting to the semis is a whole different achievement. Their underage structures also suggest they can push on. Nobody will take them lightly in the last four, that's for sure.

Yes hopefully they can sustain it now at underage for the next few years and stay competitive at senior. I remember during the 80's and 90's Clough Ballacolla would have been a junior to intermediate main stay and now they are one of the powerhouses in Laois, successful and competitive at all grades over a number a years. No reason why Rosenallis cant follow a similar trend.