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A very poor evening of football today Emo were so bad it was unreal ODs didn't even have to work overly hard for their scores, a lot of the time Emo just turned over ball under no pressure at all. Will do very well to stay up based on that performance. ODs will be better with Barry back (next day??). Second match was shocking. Graigue the authors of their own downfall ridiculous goal given away and couldn't hit a barn door at the other end. Josephs a fine big strong team but I think lack the real top end pace needed to trouble Port or Portlaoise

I was in at two matches this evening Portlaoise looked decent enough. They are blending in a few younger fellas and the older lads keep things steady Arleskileento be fair had a decent first half and hung in there, but once portlaoise got going there was only one winner. Didn't see the red card but linesmans actions suggested a punch of some description. Don't think it changed the result but maybe the margin. Portlaoise motoring nicely and are a threat to anyone else bar Port. Arles might struggle to avoid the drop especially if Donie gets more than one match
I was talking to a Courtwood man on the way in and he was a bit downbeat about their chances of beating Ballyroan. Apparently they have a lot of injuries to big players. Well they fronted up and easily accounted for Ballyroan. They have a great way of playing with a mix of boot and carrying. They have a young fella playing corner forward but he does a sweeper role. He's brilliant and as for the two boys left up they couldn't be handled at all and then a sub comes on and kicks 1-01. Are they contenders?? Ballyroan were admittedly poor and never got going. Dee Whelan was a huge loss but they didn't really seem to have a structure to their game. Staying out of snr B has to be a priority for them now

I've heard Shaun Fitzpatrick and Sean Greene are back from injury. 4 or 5 Port lads will be joining now that their campaign is over. A few from Courtwood too but not O'Flynn.

Don't believe Greene is with the panel, he wasn't in with them when he injured his knee either I don't think if memory serves me correctly.

Could be Sean O Neill you saw. I was in there a few nights and he's definitely in but I didn't see Sean Greene

Unavailable due to taking something else on? Or just stepping down?

Like the rest of the port lads....... Gone travelling.
Heard port were making approaches to managers already

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