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It's an absolute disgrace that Enda Rowland isn't with Laois anymore. You do all you can to keep men like him, with his leadership and puck out abilities. He's a leader and the young lads would look up to him and he would drive standards. I heard it's not Tommy that Cha and Rowland have beef with but other people on management team who not liked

Isn't it amazing how you heard who one player has a problem with and it happens to be the same as another fella. . Well maybe the problem is the player cos there's probably 35 lads happy enough. If Paddy Purcell is happy enough to go back in along with a few others then that says more about the setup than some anonymous lad on here. Labelling it as a disgrace is just trying to stir up crap. Lads make decisions and you can't force them back in......I seem to remember that ends Roland was made the Laois hire ambassador for the team when he was in there. What more do you suggest that the management do??

The decision to go to a replay for co finals was made by the clubs at a committee meeting last year with replays going to et and pens. The decision to go for a two week break was down to a player being involved in both senior co finals I think it was initially written in the program as being on the Saturday before the hurling

While all the concentration is on the final free that wasn't and Pat Roe was giving out about it there were plenty of decisions that didn't go Courtwoods way too over the course of the game. Refs miss stuff that's the game. It all tends to even out. It was a great final and fair play to Courtwood who went to to toe with the champions and were unlucky not to win and lucky to draw.

Same refs are getting matches cos there aren't enough refs at the hurling end of things. You talk about clubs having an input into it. Perhaps a start would be that clubs start getting people to sign up to ref. I believe the ref in question is well regarded as a ref among the clubs and does a lot of matches at both juvenile and adult levels. He made a mistake and held his hands up to it. Should we ban him from refereeing for two years maybe or is one enough. The clubs in question are going through the various processes open to them according to the rules. At the end of it a decision will be made and life will go on

Opinions on whether Colt Shanahoe could have won the game in the time remaining are all fine, interesting and good pub talk but they don't have any place in this discussion.

The rule 3.2 states that the game must be replayed if the full time is not played. It doesn't say anything about guessing who would have won and awarding them the game.

If we are any kind of an organisation in Laois and we hold the rules in any kind of regard the game must be replayed. More for the integrity of the county board than anything else.

Spot on with this post. Regardless of what was in it there wasn't enough time played. At what stage does it sit well with people to appeal, 3 points in it, 5 points in it? With the match been postponed it now sets a precedence going forward. Co board make a balls of this? Is the match postponed or is it canceled and R/E in the semi next Saturday? Could make a balls for fixtures now

I'd imagine only postponed .......sure the Co Board ruled according to the rules. If R/E appeal the ruling then I presume it'll have to be heard and again decided on. Rightly or wrongly C/S had grounds to appeal as it's accepted that the match was blown up early. R/E can appeal that decision and so it's back in front of some committee who will again rule on it. If either club don't agree with the ruling then I'm sure they can take it further. Fecks up the schedule but it has to be done properly otherwise some club will have a gripe about it

I was talking to a port lad who would know their area to the inch . He reckons that there is no real border that near to port at all and that the people on the likes of corrig or Lea road could play with either club. A lot of parishes are like that . There is a demographics report done by Adrianne McCarthy (I'm almost sure that's her name forgive me if I'm wrong) on behalf of laois co board and it makes very interesting reading particularly for rural clubs about their playing populations over the next number of years. Digging into schools numbers overall population etc

Serious win for Ballylinan who hammered Annanough by 14 points. Have they had players return from travel or what, they have been awful all year but that was some win, Annanough are no mugs. Ballylinan would surely be favs on the back of that display, although Arles also had a very impressive win over a fancied Mountmellick. When do we know the semi final pairings?

Park play Ballylinan and Kilcavan play Arles Kilcruise
I fancy Kilcavan to beat ArlesKilcruise
Can't call the other at all... Park very strong, aggressive and mobile Ballylinan probably have better footballers but blow hot and cold and when bad are shocking. I'll go with Ballylinan

A proposal was put forward by Co Board to all the clubs last year to put 4 teams down this year and not bring anyone up. A bit brutal but made sense. It was voted down by the clubs and not just lower standard senior ones. There was no loopholes just an open vote. There may be a more palatable option coming this year spread over a number of years

I was in at the match and it's not often we see such a result. Laois are a big physical team with the fullback being a particular specimen, but they are great hurlers with their speed and first touch being very good. The fourth goal (I think) was a super example with corner forward skinning his man and then a long hand pass out where the full forward flicked it up and buried it without taking it in the hand. The backs are strong and all good hurlers and the use of the ball was brilliant. Heads up ball to hand or into space for forwards to run onto. I don't know how good Offaly are but that's a great boost for these Laois lads

With regards to Michael Duignan at the healm in Offaly, He took an holistic approach to everything, especially at underage level, He got Shane Lowry on board, and he and a group of very rich people apparently covered ALL ASPECTS regarding finances ( between 1.5 to 2 million) that took pressure off fundraising and allowed Offaly to get EVERYTHING that was needed, in terms of physio's Doctors and Gym costs, travel, hotels etc. It breaks my heart to admit that Offaly are almost always one or two steps ahead of us, especially when it comes to professionalism at inter county level.

I have never been someone who accepts that Offaly produce more Talent than Laois, but Offaly players are less parochial than Laois when it comes to Club before County. As some of you know, I now live in the UK but I was brought up in the Hurling heartland of Laois ( West and south west Laois) But I have a football question that I hope someone could help me with. Portarlington are Currently by far the best Club Team in the County, please tell me why very few seem to be involved with the County at both underage and Senior level?

With regards to Michael Duignan at the healm in Offaly, He took an holistic approach to everything, especially at underage level, He got Shane Lowry on board, and he and a group of very rich people apparently covered ALL ASPECTS regarding finances ( between 1.5 to 2 million) that took pressure off fundraising and allowed Offaly to get EVERYTHING that was needed, in terms of physio's Doctors and Gym costs, travel, hotels etc. It breaks my heart to admit that Offaly are almost always one or two steps ahead of us, especially when it comes to professionalism at inter county level.

I have never been someone who accepts that Offaly produce more Talent than Laois, but Offaly players are less parochial than Laois when it comes to Club before County. As some of you know, I now live in the UK but I was brought up in the Hurling heartland of Laois ( West and south west Laois) But I have a football question that I hope someone could help me with. Portarlington are Currently by far the best Club Team in the County, please tell me why very few seem to be involved with the County at both underage and Senior level?

I'd suggest that the reason is that 4 or 5 of their better players ended up in oz travelling. Young Murphy was meant to go off this year but eventually didn't(was in last year) I think two of their best backs (Bennett and Mohan)suffered cruciate injuries. I hear that all are back or will be back this year so hopefully we'll see them in with the Co in the not to distant future

If I'm wrong , that I'll be delighted to be!

I don't like the man. That definitely clouds my judgement.

Lazy in the sense that once he became available was there any form of a search at all?

So who would you get . He's an experienced intercounty manager who was relatively successful in his last post at a level above where we are at the moment. There was an invitation for applications for the job and I don't think that too many broke down the door of the county board offices. If he wins the Joe MC and consolidates our league position then he's a success. Is he a step above Willie Maher?? I think so and there wasn't a huge clamour to get him out. We're second tier at the moment so I think his appointment is excellent

We were very poor Saturday evening but Leitrim probably wanted it a bit more. You saw the reaction at the end they treated it like an all Against the wind I think our keeper struggled a bit and kept kicking the short ones to the wettest place on the pitch where lads were struggling to hold their feet. A good few turnovers came from that.that kick has to be on the chest. We looked a bit exposed when Leitrim just lorried the ball in long and they probably left a few goals behind them. A poor result but hopefully not too costly

Well there you go. Great answer

Good win on Sunday. Sometimes you just have to grind out a win and I heard only last night that we have never beaten Tipp in semple before. The performance was not good but signs of a well drilled team was that we got a result. Dempsey is a good corner back really aggressive and sticky.two half backs were ok but not really driving forward,but maybe that's what they're told to do Timmons good in tackle and really thundered into the last 15 mins. Midfield hadn't their best day out. Just looke a bit off the pace. Lillis made a noticeable difference when he came in with a bit of cuteness and calmness on the ball. I thought our half forward line all did well considering he workload they had as midfielders struggled. The two outside lads ran themselves in to the ground Swaine in particular was popping up everywhere in the first half and Dunne appears to be growing into his role and is always available for an out ball and used it well (bar one disaster which could have gotten Fitzpatrick killed)
Evan was very good.and Barry is probably playing a role not suited to him as he's popping up on the full back line defending rather than close to goal. Our subs did well with O Flynn really catching the eye. I think he had a hand in the last three scores. Overall it's a more positive result than negative. Great Laois crowd down there too which is great to see and I happened to be talking to a player since and he said that the players noticed it too

Good to see a decent crowd out. The team looked like there was a structure to them and knew their roles. I thought the first half was a difficult watch to be honest with a lot of basic errors but to be expected for the first serious day out. Second half I was impressed by the way they handled being pegged back to one point. A comfortable win to be honest. Great start to the campaign