Messages

Best of luck to the lads tomorrow.

Important to keep discipline. Carlow will have something up their slieves to test us in that regard.

We will likely be outnumbered 2 or 3 to one in terms of support with the Dubs sure to support Carlow when they arrive.

As mentioned by other folks we need a good start, keep them on the back foot.

With both Westmeath and Wexford bowing out of the qualifiers today and Kildare winning, it could be argued that Carlow have got to the semis in more impressive fashion.

We have had a great season so far undefeated with a much improved collective unit and a fine manager in Sugrue.

Big game tomorrow for Finbarr Crowley, did well against Westmeath and now his first big test in Croke Park. All the best to him, no doubt Colm Begley will provide leadership beside him.

We need to watch Sean Murphys runs and prevent him getting ball. Hopefully the defence will continue their fine form and cut down on frees for Broderick.

Lets do the business tomorrow and advance to a Leinster final. Laois Abu. 

A few thoughts on the league campaign.

Thought we really played as an organised team last Saturday. Super scores in first half. Dillon was outstanding in defence. Pigott is a raw, tough defender with a lot of potential. In Attride's speech,he complimented Sugrue's enthusiasm. Midfield worked well together.

Sugrue is developing a stronger panel. He has blooded a lot of new guys especially in defence- Nerney, Fennell,Holland, Pigott. Trevor Collins was involved last year and is improving this year. Timmons did well in both games against Carlow after returning. Dillon looks good in corner back. Good to see Damien O'Connor and Booth warming up with the team last weekend. Attride is a super captain. For me, Colm Begley has been immense, great experience.

Brody helps organise and instruct the defence.

In terms of midfield, Lillis and Johnno doing great. Anyone know if Brendan Quigley is due back from injury??

Forwards: Alan Farrell is a workhorse. Glynn has done well in last 2 games. Ross turning back the years, what an example to the younger fellas. Big Donie getting back to full fitness. Gary Walsh on fire throughout the league. Hopefully Evan O'Carroll recovers from injurysoon, same with Paul K who had a fine league at centre forward. Good to give Benny Carroll game time.

Daniel O'Reilly has great pace. I wish him a speedy recovery.

Eoin Lowry had a great 2nd half last Saturday. Lots to be optimistic about as we head towards championship. 6 weeks we play Wexford. We need to aim for a Leinster semi final against possibly Kildare.

Hopefully Paul Cahillane will be ready to step in soon. Guys will get back to the clubs and improve durability for championship.

Watched Armagh/Fermanagh and not much difference in standard. Longford almot got promoted from division 3 and we bet them twice last year. In terms of division 3, it would be nice to get home games v Down and Sligo- the rest are Leinster teams anyway!

Bigger crowds going to see Laois this year. LOads of youngsters in Croke Park. Good few former county players in Carlow last week. THe only game I didn't make was London but I understand it was a bit of a festival over there. The opening game against Limerick had a feel good factor about it. New era.

We beat Leitrim easily away bar a blip and showd good character v Waterford after a shaky start. Against Wicklow, it was over at half time.

Laois are on the up I feel and I can't wait for championship. Lets hope we have lots of support in championship. The players deserve it. Laois ABU

Nice to have 6 points after 3 rounds. Puts us in a good position in the promotion hunt. Wicklow in Aughrim next up followed by a massive game at home against Antrim.

Guys can knuckle down in training for the next 2 weeks knowing we are on track.

To sum up the first 3 rounds....  there was a fine crowd in O'Moore Park for round 1 against Limerick. A 9 point victory flattered us but 2 good goals scored and held Limerick to 9 points. Danny O'Reilly impressed in that game with Gary Walsh on top form. Was good to see a lot of new faces been given their chance to impress.

Round 2 away in Carrick on Shannon was quite impressive for the first 55 minutes. Paul Kingston impressed and again Gary Walsh was on fire. Evan O'Carroll had a good performance as well. Trevor Collins got a good goal. Ross Munnelly came off the bench and got 2 points. Have to continue to stay switched on when cruising at 15 points up. Was disappointing to concede the 3 late goals against Leitrim but hopefully it will be a learning curve. We played a good brand of football that day apart from the late blip.

Round 3 against Waterford.... asked us more questions. We were always in control in first 2 rounds. In this game, Waterford made a fine start, 0-2 to 0-0 up and then 1-3 to 0-3 ahead. I was impressed with the increased intensity from then until half time played in horrible conditions. Alan Farrell and Kieran Lillis kicked good scores and Walsh again was a thorn in Waterford's side.

Holland and Collins are doing very well covering a lot of ground. Colm Begley showed great leadership in both halves. Great to see big Donie back and he got 2 nice points. Danny O'Reilly has good pace. Ross encouraged the younger guys throughout the 70 minutes. We grinded out a deserved win. Good patience in the build up play.

Hopefully we can have Attride back for the Wicklow game.

Laois Abu!

Best of luck to Laois.

An extremely young team, we showed great character to fight back with 14 men and nick the win against Carlow.

Dublin are overwhelming favourites for this one.

All that can be asked is that players battle to the end and give it their all.

We are decimated with injuries.

Best of luck to Laois today.

Lets go hell for leather and get revenge for last years narrow defeat in Ennis. Expect this to be another close battle with Laois to win by 2 points.

Probably a small crowd will be in attendance but lets be vocal and get behind our team.

Lets proof that we can mix it with teams in Division two.

Great to see Mark Timmons starting. Hes been a very reliable defender for Laois for many years now and I have no doubt he will deliver another solid performance today. He could have taken the easy option and not committed this year but full credit to him for staying with the panel and making a full recovery. A well deserved start today.

Great to see our captain back today. The defence will strengthen today with Attride. Great pace as well.

In terms of the game, it being in Aughrim is worth 3 points to Wicklow. On a swelthering, hot day energy will be sapped. Expect it to be tight for a while but I fully believe Laois will win. Would like to see Gary Walsh getting some game time.

Laois ABU. Best of luck.

Gutted with another heavy loss to Kildare. Never expected to win but thought we could make them earn the win.

Started ok for first 20 minutes. Sublime goal by Donie Kingston as well. Then we ran out of steam.

I thought we would put up some sort of battle in 2nd half but really Kildare won at a canter.

The big difference was the lack of fitness, strength and conditioning.

Hopefully we can get a home draw now in the qualifiers and try to make amends for the defeat. Try to finish off whats left of the season on a positive note.

Laois Abu.

Lads, very quiet in here with the biggest game of the year coming in 5 days!!

How are we feeling about it? Hopefully a big crowd will head over for it. The hurlers had a big support last Sunday in OMP so be nice if we could match that.

In terms of the game, to win would be massive but at the very least we need to put in a big performance and be competitive.

Midfield needs to get on top. The forwards need to take any chances going. We need a couple of goals.

Hopefully our captain will be fit enough to play. Defense need to work their socks off and be very organised.

Looking forward to a massive battle! Couldn't bear another smashing like in 2015, 2011 and 2009.

Laois Abu

Well done Laois on a fine win today.

Much improved fitness levels, good accuracy and some great goals.

Great to see Eoin Buggie, James Kelly and Sean Moore get their championships debuts.

4-11 from play is pretty impressive. Longford are no pushovers.

Much better discipline as well. A good range of scorers today.

Obviously Kildare will be a big step up but we hopefully will give it a good rattle.

Laois ABU

Best of luck to the guys tomorrow.

If we produce the type of performance shown in the second half against Longford, we will win.

A fine win last night.

Great hunger shown by all players. Donie is a genius. Some lovely scores from play from Donie K, Evan O'Carroll, Alan Farrell and Buggie. Great finish for the goal by Davy Conway.

Great organisation and players playing to a plan. Decent defending.

Lets bring another another good performance to Tullamore.

Best of luck to the guys tonight.

Would be great to get to the Leinster final.

First of all we are missing a lot of big guns. Damien O'Connor, Brendan Quigley, Mark Timmons, Gary Walsh, Kevin Meaney, Evan O'Carroll. 

Second of all Tipperary were in an All Ireland semi final 6 months ago. They are a good team.

Good to see John O'Loughlin back though I doubt he is back at full fitness yet. Good to see Garett Dillion get a run out. Thought Davy Conway took his goal well.

While Tipperary were in control and fully deserved their win, we at least fought back form 6-1 down to level at 7 each early in 2nd half and again got back to one with ten minutes left 0-13 to 1-9.

Tipperarys goal was a lucky one just at the end.

We will have to improve on our shooting though and there were some sloppy passes at times.

Results should improve in March with our big guns starting to return.

Great new topic. Cheers for sharing.

2003 what a year to support Laois football. We were spoilt that year! A national league final appearance, followed up by a powerful Leinster campaign. Thrashed Wexford in Croke Park a week after that national league final defeat to Tyrone.

Snatched a draw off Offaly in O'Moore Park, thank you Mick Lawlor for banging that goal in late on to force a replay. Won the replay in O'Connor Park.

The biggest win was against the Dubs in the semi final. Awesome performance. The hill was closed that day. What about Padraig Clancys scud missile to seal it. One of the great Laois points scored in Croker!

We were hot favourites to win the final against Kildare. And we delivered! 2-13 all scored from play. Beano and Ross Munnelly getting the goals. Credit to Ross that he is still around the Laois panel 14 years later.

Great buzz around the county. Everyone had a Laois flag attached to the car.

Pity we didnt see off Armagh. We were bloody close!

If that wasnt enough we grabbed the All Ireland minor football title as well- boom times

Great to get the points in Armagh. A crucial win and gets us back on track.

Division 3 a very tight division, very little between any of the sides except Antrim.

Antrim look set for relegation and anyone could join them.

In terms of promotion, I wouldn't put any money on it. A number of teams in the hunt.

Clare got promoted last year with only 8 points.

A lot of 50/50 games. Tipperary next, hard to call. Sligo away, tricky. I would fancy a win in Antrim. Then hopefully most of the injured guys will be back for Longford at home and Offaly away in the last round.

All to play for. I like that we are building a good solid panel for the championship.

Longford in the championship the main aim. Give me a win over Longford in the championship instead of the league every day of the year. The acid test would be to play Kildare in the quater final in June. Thats where the questions will be answered.