Messages

We lacked a lot in physicality against Waterford. They won every 50-50 challenge and always seemed to be first to the ball. When we got possession we were swarmed by two or three Waterford players while we couldn't lay a glove on them. Some very silly yellow cards conceded from what seemed to be petulant slapping with the hurl when beaten by the Waterford lads. As for Lee Cleere's red card, I think Eddie was being a bit generous describing it as "tough luck". I hope Lee learns from it and cuts out the unnecessary macho posturing when coming on. To get sent off without touching the ball doesn't look good.

To give the lads credit, they played to the very end, and coped well with being a man down, but that extra power and poise from Waterford meant they were able to tack on scores at ease towards the end - when it looked like we might get the lead down to single digits. They were able to play heads-up hurling while we continually ran into blind alleys and coughed up possession.

I thought our half-back line was our best with both Jack Kelly and Sean Downey showing well, but otherwise we struggled everywhere.
With Carlow drawing with Galway, it's a shootout between ourselves and Offaly. Regardless of who wins the match next week, we will meet in the relegation final and we have in the past struggled to beat teams twice in succession.

It's all down to size really. Fergal's is only a small school with about three hundred pupils and really only draws from three clubs - R/E, B/K and C/B. Occasionally they would have a player from Galmoy or The Harps but not at the moment. Rochfortbridge is a school with over eight hundred and fifty, and even Mountrath by comparison has over seven hundred and fifty pupils and are representing Laois well in the higher divisions. Fergal's always competed well in the old Vocational Schools competition where they would have been up against schools of similar size. Since every school was lumped in to the same competition they can't compete against the big boys hence the div C. It's Laois hurling in a nutshell.

Comprehensive win for St. Fergal's today in the North Leinster C Junior hurling semi-final. They defeated St. Joseph's of Rochfortbridge 2-18 to 1-2 in Rathdowney. A good mix of R/E, B/K and C/B hurlers on the team. Eight of them are on the County minor panel.

Seems like the Rathdowney Errill lads have more love for Laois hurling than the county board.

The R/E, B/K and C/B lads generally play soccer with Clover United in the Kilkenny league and it's the soccer that's suffering at the moment. Struggling to find mentors and get lads to commit. A few lads have opted for rugby instead. Hurling is still the first love of most kids down this way. The Kilkenny league in general seems to be struggling going by the fixtures so far. I was always in favour of the summer hurling, winter soccer set up but the last few years the soccer season has run on into hurling time and has lost out accordingly.

If Ciaran Collier or Zane Keenan been taken out of the game so cynically at the same point of the game would Camross be champions? I seriously doubt it. Shane Dollard was also stood on while on the ground which probably contributed to him having to leave the field. I'm sure it won't bother some of the Camross support, but there must be many who feel a bad taste in their mouth afterwards.
As regards the referee, if you fail to use the officials on the day with you, you have to accept the criticism you will inevitably get. It is a tough job, but in this instance there was support from his linesman and fourth official to assist his decision and for whatever reason he chose to ignore them.
Eddie Brennan must be wondering what he has let himself in for.

Am I being churlish to feel sorry for the Harps minors who lost to a three club amalgamation today? This alliance is just for this age group and they are not together at any other age.

On paper it would appear to be a straight forward win for RE, but Ballinakill have managed in the past to pull big performances out of the bag. Our county hurlers are coming back into form again and Ray Bowe has been excellent since breaking into the team so I would hope to see us get through. Winning the final would be a whole different ball game as who ever wins the second game will probably be favourites for the title.
Again on paper BK look the better team, but Camross always seem to be better than the sum of their parts. Camross were very physical and focussed in the group match against us, but lacked the same intensity against CB. I tip Camross to win on a tight margin.

Ultimately the fault lies with every "hurling supporter" in the county. People don't bother to get involved and go to their clubs AGM. The same people get elected each year with very little change within any club. This apathy feeds upward into the county board which is merely a reflection of the clubs. Talk of setting up "structures" at underage to get more kids in and get them better coached falls down on the simple fact that it is very difficult to get people to take on coaching roles in clubs. The job usually falls to a couple of dads who take it on reluctantly as their own kids are involved and they may as well do it or no one will. These lads will typically spend two years at each age group and move up to the next age group as their kids get older, just as they were getting the hang of that age group. They now have to learn the ropes at the new age groups.
The same process happens at county "development" squad level.

The GDA's - who get heavily criticised - are willing to help any club upskill their coaches, but again the apathy from the clubs is palpable. There is a series of player pathway workshops on the go at the moment, but the buy-in and attendance from some clubs (including my own) is poor. Getting enough people each year to manage all the groups from u7 to u17 is a serious challenge to most clubs each year and the rate of burnout among underage coaches is high. It's a tough role these days.

The ideal in each club and at county level would be for each age group to have three to four experienced coaches who stay at that age group getting more experienced each year, and passing the young hurlers up the conveyor belt improving them all the way. The GDAs have tried to support this, but generally people (coaches) are only interested in the age group their own child is in. You may get a few current or ex hurlers wanting to get involved at u15 or u17 level, but not generally before.

I don't know if Cheddars plan has answers on how you get more people involved in club coaching, but unless it does, it's difficult to see how the county can improve. Laois being a small county means every club has to supply several county quality players whereas the likes of Kilkenny or Tipperary clubs have to supply a lot less.


It all comes back to the clubs. Get more people involved. More current players getting involved with younger teams. Pushing the county board to be better. But who are the clubs? The self same "hurling supporters who stand on the ditch and criticise or take to the keyboards on forums like this. I am heavily involved with my club and coaching. How many posters on this forum can say the same?


On a final note, although I have great respect for Cheddar and the work he put in, I recall a general feeling that he had taken the squad at the time as far as he was able. Unfortunately, we had no one to build on the solid foundations he had laid.

we're trying to be a dual county, when we don't have the resources. We should pick one and essentially drop the other code.

Simply not viable.

You can't tell the people of Portarlington that we're dropping football no more than you tell the people of Ballacolla that we're dropping hurling.

Anything is possible. We're too small for two, especially given the work on the players coming through.

Agreed, though when we drop the football it's going to take years to re-train the footballers to play hurling. County board will need a twenty year plan at least.

We can't stand on both sides of the fence. We can't argue that we need more money to be successful because Dublin got more, while at the same time denying that counties that got less than us are more successful.
I'm not looking to blame anyone individually, but it would seem our county development model is not working. I have had some experience of the hurling development squads over the last five or six years and I have to say hand on heart it hasn't been great. Similarly our Setanta programme has been poor in terms of the coaching delivered. Some of our intercounty players have been involved and while I thank them for their effort, their coaching skills leave a lot to be desired. It takes years to become an effective coach and some of the greatest hurlers make the worst coaches.
Development squads can only be as good as the players coming from the clubs and as anyone involved in underage coaching will tell you, that is a very mixed bag.
Forget about the development squads, put more resources into up-skilling club coaches and you will see better county teams.

Interesting to see Laois in fifth place in the list. What have we done with the money?

Report from Laois Today:
https://www.laoistoday.ie/2018/03/10/brilliant-st-fergals-book-ireland-final-place/

I've got to say they are great for following Laois teams.

St Fergals have made it to the All Ireland final. In a rollercoaster of a game they overcame Seamount of Kinvara by three points 3-13 to 3-10. Seamount went on a scoring spree in the first half to run up a nine point lead but in the last ten minutes Fergals blitzed them with 1-4 to leave two points in it at the break. It took Fergals twenty minutes of the second half to close the gap and then another scoring spree put them nine points up. Two Seamount goals in quick succession in the last five minutes brought them right back into it but Fergals held out for the win. Several brilliant saves from Cathal Dunne in goal plus his booming puckouts landing on the 20metre line made him my man of the match, but Mark Hennessey, Thep Fitzpatrick and Ben Delaney were also very much to the fore. It was a great all-round team display and a deserved victory. Fergals do seem to like giving their supporters value for their money by letting teams get decent leads against them but so far they have been able to turn them around with ease. Hopefully they see off Scariff in a fortnights time to claim the title.

St Fergals face Seamount College of Galway in the All Ireland Colleges senior C hurling semi-final on Saturday. The match is at 2:30 in Kilmallock, Limerick. Best of luck to the lads and their coaches. Scariff Community College await the winners in the final set for the 24th.