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Enjoyed the Senior game at the weekend, i'm sure Camross will be disappointed they were leading the whole game but C/B fought hard and just had that bit extra in the end. Picky and Darren Maher were the standout players from C/M with Zane doing well for Camross. He started off like he was going to beat them on his own!! Good atmosphere at the game I felt, especially in the last 10 mins when things got frantic! Would love to see C/B win a Leinster championship game or two.. Would be a real sign of improvement for Laois hurling.

Thought the first game was a dour enough affair. Portlaoise just doing enough, the difference in quality was very evident in the two games. But well done to Portlaoise, they'll need to improve but with very few dual players, only 1 starting I believe? They will give it a good go..

Pretty sure he is over Palatine in Carlow who are in a county final. Surprised he got it to be honest, but he did so we may just move on, support him and hope he can do a job with them. I'm sure he was at some of the championship games this year so at least he will have seen players.

Agreed, was massively impressed with Portlaoise. Not sure about the dates. Hurling final this weekend.. Which would mean football semi finals the weekend after, and final 2 weeks later.. 18th October? Strange that the football final is 3 weeks after the hurling alright.. Not sure though!

True, Mountmellick were never in the game. Expended a lot of energy getting over Crettyard so maybe they just didn't have the legs. Though Portlaoise looked excellent however, played some very nice football and kicked some great scores. There was a few times they could have went for goal and took the point, would expect them to be far more ruthless later. Rodgers, Glynn, Cotter not starting and Zach possible to come back. Looking good for them again!

Yeah the Portlaoise game is on Monday.

[Mountmellick]

This weeks Fixtures, anyone fancy to call:

Thursday: Crettyard v Mountmellick Mountmellick to finally close out this fixture!
Friday: Arles-Killeen V Graigue Killeen to beat a resurgent Graigue. Could be tight. Timmons/Kingston battle will be good!!
Saturday: Josephs V Emo Josephs, this will be tight I think, Joseph's to get over the line in the end.
                 Ballylinan V Ballyfin Ballylinan to win this dogfight!
                 Stradbally V O'Dempseys O'Dempseys to win this dogfight!!
                 Portlaoise V Crettyard/Mountmellick Portlaoise at  a canter.
                 The Heath V Arles Kilcruise The Heath Game of the weekend with the Heath to come out on top.
     

[Portlaoise]

Predictions for the weekend?

Portlaoise vs Mountrath -- Hard to see anything but a Portlaoise victory here, look to be going very well and will be hard stopped to win the entire thing. Portlaoise
Clonaslee St. Manmans vs Ballyfin -- Harder to call, Ballyfin had a comprehensive win last time out v Shanhoe, Clonaslee are stronger with Rooney back though. Draw

Camross vs Ballinakill -- Ballinakill are probably in bonus territory now but won't give up without a fight. Camross should have too much class for them however. Camross
Borris in Ossory Kilcotton vs Clough-Ballacolla -- Difficult to predict a winner in this one. As I said previously If C/B and curtail Scully they will go a long way to winning. B/K definitely stronger this year  but going to go with a C/B win. Clough Ballacolla

Agree that the two games were fairly dead last night. There was no real atmosphere in the stand. C/B and R.E had potential to be an excellent game but petered out with very little action. R/E were poor and relied on Kavanagh's frees for most of the game. The game probably needed a goal earlier to get it going, much like the second game. Second game was a dour enough affair too except for Cha's point taking. He scored some fantastic points and Abbeyleix had nobody to mark him. Hard to see them troubling Camross too much though. Second semi is hard to call however, though knowing the scoring stats at Borris, if C/B can keep PJ out of the game they will go a fair distance to beating Borris.

That's a very long wait at this time of the year. Why is it so long?

Because its Laois

That explains it!!  Absolute madness, really not fair on those teams. They will have to go looking for challenge games now to keep momentum up! Not sure what is the justification in that at all!

Is it correct in saying that the group winners now have a 6 week break before a semi final?

A relatively poor round of games at the weekend. Well, the ones I saw anyway. The Heath really look good and now look like the team that could challenge Portlaoise over Kileen. They haven't had any real challenge as of yet so it will be interesting to see how they fair, their tails will be up though and will fancy their chances against anyone. Portlaoise beat Killeshin with relative ease and its possible they will face no real challenge prior to a county semi final at least! A poor enough championship so far though i'm afraid!

On the relegation side of things, shocked to see O'Dempseys down there, as I would have fancied them to do well this year! It doesn't look great for Ballyfin in their first year senior and will struggle to beat any of those teams in the relegation side.

That is serious scoring.. I don't think he missed a free all night except the 65 at the end.. There was another play so he was lucky!!  It was a good game which R/E came back into well. Surprised they left Paddy Purcell in full forward almost the entire game. He did look dangerous when the ball went in but I wonder was he carrying some injury that they didn't bring him out.

Glad to see B/K get the win. Rely a lot on PJ though and that could be worry for them. Quarters should be interesting the way the draw worked out. Hard to pick a winner in either game but if they swapped around you would be confident enough of C/B and R/E getting through.As it is I will go for R/E and Ballinakil to progress.

Hard to know how to deal with this issue. I'm sure the SeniorA was introduced as there was an evident gulf in class between senior and intermediate teams and teams were going up and down. I agree that 8 teams is very few in a senior championship. The best way for teams like Colt and Rosenallis to improve is to expose them to senior hurling. Obviously that could go one way or the other, these teams could take a hammering and that would help nobody but the possibility of taking a scalp should be enough motivation to improve.

I really think the CB should look to increase the number of teams from 8 anyway. I suppose it depends on teams, would they prefer to be fighting to stay in the senior division or winning seniorA? I know its not the same thing but it is comparable to Laois in a way.. First aim is to remain in the Liam McCarthy, then see what happens after that.

Arles killeen vs Arles Kilcruise ... Killeen look to be going well. Kilcruise will be boosted by the win the last day but Killeen should have too much.
Ballyroan vs The Heath... The Heath to win this with relative ease.
MountMellick vs St. Josephs... Mountmellick. Suspensions will weaken Josephs and will be happy to just have avoided relegation.
Portlaoise vs Killeshin... Portlaoise. Town will only improve as championship moves on.

Graigue vs O'Dempseys ... Very hard to call so will go for a draw.
Ballyfin vs Cretty ... Crettyard, Ballyfin much weaker with suspensions.
Emo vs Ballylinan ... Ballylinan looked good enough the first day whereas Emo got a nice trimming. Ballylinan.
Stradbally vs Port ... Port, too strong to be facing relegation!

Borris Kilcotton will beat Rathdowney Errill Thursday night

What will be the lotto numbers be tomorrow night?