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... The courage and class that these lads have shown is off the charts.

Well done to all. Eddie Brennan has really shown the best management skills since Brian Cody. Simply outstanding in every way. Well done to all.

Hear, hear!

All respect to Brian Cody, but Eddie has had to do what Cody never had to. Cody has always had fifty plus hurlers looking to beat down his door to get on the panel while Eddie has had to literally beg lads to join the Laois panel and it is a huge testament to his abilities that he has been so successful in doing so. Any player - club or county - will be familiar with the new manager speak: "this year will be different lads", "the past is the past" "we are going to win the All Ireland/Joe McDonagh/Junior B (delete as appropriate) this year", but to actually follow up on this and do what you have promised is rare. It is a testament to Eddies management skills - coupled with the desire and skills deep within this group of lads, that they have progressed so far this year.
   Next year will be tough. This time last year the focus was on Carlow and their progress, but how many times have they been talked about lately with respect to them being ready to join the "elite"? The talk about increasing the Leinster round-robin to six teams has been about allowing laois to develop, but this should have been on the agenda earlier as to how to bridge the gap between first and second tier hurling. If we had lost the Joe McDonagh final and subsequently lost - regardless of the margin - to Cork, and Westmeath had lost to Dublin, would there be the same talk about expanding the Leinster group? I think not. From its first creation, it was obvious that there needed to be six in the group to allow a "weaker" county to establish a foothold in the higher tier.
   Coming back to this year, I can't describe how proud I am to be from Laois at the moment. It has been an incredible summer, and if I could, I would like to thank every man on the whole panel individually for providing this. This years journey has been about so much more than a few star men, and go raibh míle maith agat to everyone involved.

What did he do for the likes of Laois when he was president?

We are certainly in bonus territory and I fancy us to put it up to Dublin big time. We will probably ship a few goals due to lack of inexperience but I wouldn't worry about that. When you look at the age profile of our squad there is time for development. There isn't anyone hanging on for "one more year" which you often get with teams. Matthew as the elder statesman still has a lot of hurling in him. We have the potential in the squad and an excellent manager to realise that potential. Exciting times for Laois at the moment.

I'm ready for bed now after all the excitement. What a performance.

It's only 5:37am and I'm already impatient to get going. So looking forward to today it's like I'm ten again. 

As is obvious from this thread, there are many grey areas in the rules. I believe referees are briefed at the start of the year about changes and interpretation of the rules but this is never rolled out to the players and managers of teams. In our club we have a football team at one juvenile grade only, (this is only because one parent is willing to run it and we are a hurling club) so knowledge of the rules is a bit hazy and we concede a lot of frees for fouls the lads don't even know they are committing. However I see teams who have played for years committing similar fouls - and getting called for it- so it's not just our lads lack of knowledge at fault. I believe there is an onus on all county boards to introduce training to all juvenile players about the rules which might help reduce some of the abuse referees get. It seems that the ref is the only person allowed to make a mistake in a match and players can make as many as they like. All young players should have to do some refereeing to see what it's like. It might stop some of the abuse.

Brilliant story Mossy.

Not that I am even mad about hurling but if MossyBruce will come we should do a GoFundMe.

Mossy?

Extremely thoughtful, lads.
I’ll be getting back there, next year or so. 

As long as you're not a catfish playing us poor innocent Laois people.

I would imagine Meath will win the Christy Ring this year and replace Offaly in the Joe McDonagh, but I wouldn't put my house on it. You would expect Offaly would have enough to come straight back up, but similarly to the Leinster championship/Joe McDonagh there is likely to be a large amount of yo-yoing between the two for certain counties - ourselves included. Whoever wins the Joe McDonagh final will more than likely face the same fate as Carlow did this year. Dublin defeating Galway yesterday probably signals the end of hopes that there was at least one team you might fancy your chances against on any given day. As a Laois supporter, the Joe McDonagh has been very enjoyable this summer but that leap into the top ten is still a big one. The re-structuring of the league format has only made this worse.

Just as regards leadership on the field, this is an U17 team and very few lads will have the emotional maturity to handle the setbacks in the biggest game of their life so far.

I'm looking forward to this. Tralee is always nice to visit. Last year was a big wake-up call with us being favourites and then how easily we were beaten. Hopefully we are better prepared this year.

Maybe Donald can do something while he's over here. Or better still, I'm sure Shane Ross would love to be seen with Paddy Purcell lifting the Joe McDonagh Cup.

All the young lads love Buff. They were sitting around him last year like he was a God, my own lad included. I'll be interested to see if he's grown up in the year. (My lad, not Buff). In fairness to Buff he's probably done more than the GAA, RTE etc. to raise the profile of second tier hurling.

Eight of the Celtic Challenge squad are on the minor panel. These are lads who do not feature in the starting minor team - at least not so far. There are about 34 on the minor panel but only 24 of these get a jersey on matchday. The criteria for the Celtic Challenge is that players are u17 and not doing the Leaving Cert this year. No disrespect to these lads, but you could consider this our minor B team in effect.
Laois had a storming first half last night and led 2:12 to 0:4 at half time from some fantastic teamwork. We could have been even further ahead as at least three goal chances went astray. Offaly fought back strongly in the second half but our lads kept the scoreboard ticking over enough to keep us six points ahead at the end 3:18 to 2:15. There are a lot of talented young hurlers in Laois at the u16/u17 level and I would hope both can do well this year. Cillian Dunne from Clough Ballacolla won the Best and Fairest award for the Laois team.

It's a great hobby. If I win the lotto I might go pro.😁
You're a great man for going to matches

Eight of the Celtic Challenge squad are on the minor panel. These are lads who do not feature in the starting minor team - at least not so far. There are about 34 on the minor panel but only 24 of these get a jersey on matchday. The criteria for the Celtic Challenge is that players are u17 and not doing the Leaving Cert this year. No disrespect to these lads, but you could consider this our minor B team in effect.
Laois had a storming first half last night and led 2:12 to 0:4 at half time from some fantastic teamwork. We could have been even further ahead as at least three goal chances went astray. Offaly fought back strongly in the second half but our lads kept the scoreboard ticking over enough to keep us six points ahead at the end 3:18 to 2:15. There are a lot of talented young hurlers in Laois at the u16/u17 level and I would hope both can do well this year. Cillian Dunne from Clough Ballacolla won the Best and Fairest award for the Laois team.

From the Limerick Leader:

"Just six of All-Ireland team in Limerick line-up for Laois hurling league quarter final"

https://www.limerickleader.ie/news/sport/368578/just-six-of-all-ireland-team-in-limerick-line-up-for-laois-hurling-league-quarter-final.html

That will be their excuse when we beat them.