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O'Flynn looked like he was finally fulfilling the promise he showed as an underage player in this year's club championship. Real pity he is not in with county. Has all the attributes to be a good inter county player. Great to hear O'Carroll is back in training. Definitely need to hit the ground running at beginning of the league. Three winnable games at the beginning need to be targeted. You do not need to be chasing a victory heading to Down in the final game to ensure safety. Get our business done early and see if we can be in the shake up for a promotion spot by the end of the league. 

Ballyboden against Athy should make for a good Leinster. Portarlington got a couple of victories in Leinster and probably achieved as much as could have been expected of them. Down a couple of key players or players playing not at 100%. It was asking too much against a very good Athy team. I don't see this Port team winning a Leinster championship in the next couple of years. They will need to step up another level or two beyond what they have showed in the last few years. Winning a couple more county titles might be the ceiling for what this team can achieve.

We might struggle looking at that fixture list. Two tough away games to finish. If Barry is gone it really impacts on our attacking threats. Any word on when O'Carroll is back form injury.

I made that point here before regarding the jump from u17 to playing adult football. Some lads might make the jump and perhaps due to the size of the club e.g. Arles Kilcruise will get opportunities to play adult football. However some very good and average footballers with potential are almost being thrown on the waste pile once they finish with minor.

THE u20 championship is played off in November in a couple of weeks and as you can see forfeits aplenty. Some clubs just fielded teams with little or no training at all for it. If that is the only football you have for the year or two then its no wonder that so many will drop away or have their development as players stalled. Secondly, giving young players of that age a further year together collectively as a team can have a hugely positive impact on their development as individuals etc. We talk about mental health and achieving the goal of ensuring children have opportunities for life-long participation in Gaelic games. Finishing up at u17 does not achieve this. The GAA a few years back were looking establishing U19 as the new minor grade at club level for the reasons mentioned above.

At club level minor should be u18 simple as. It won't happen but the u19 proposal had huge merits to it. Unfortunately, we in Laois, want to make life easier for the fixture makers and bend to clubs wanting access to their top few 17 year olds to fill out their adult C and D teams. That's the priority. If we actually gave young lads a proper pathway to life long involvement in GAA then in a couple of years time clubs might find they have a more pentiful supply of lads 19 and 20 years of age available to field their teams. Fixtures can be worked around. Nearly every other county in the country has reverted to U18 for minor. Why? Commonsense. That's why.   

Massive effort  from Clough Ballacolla they put it up to the best club team ever  today. They could dominate Laois hurling for a while to come

The Harps with all their underage success will be the team to dominate Laois hurling going into the next decade!!!!!

With the game in Nowlan Park as well this should be a fairly one sided game. I'm predicting a 10-15 point victory here for Ballyhale with the game fizzling out early enough. That's not to discredit C/B. They are not at full strength and Ballyhale have home county advantage and playing very well at the minute. 

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Yes, that's the draw I heard.
Ballyboden are no great shakes and Portarlington are past their best.

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Have you watched any of Ballyboden this year? Best they have been I think ever in a Dublin championship. Performances throughout championship were top class and hugely deserving winners. The weather and heavy pitches will be a leveller and give Tullamore a chance. Still expect Ballyboden to win by 3/4 points. Athy look impressive. However, Meath champions were like every other Meath representative of the last 10-15 years-poor. For a traditional footballing county with the pedigree it has, how is club football there so bad. It's nearly getting to the point where the Meath county championships should be entered into the Leinster Intermediate Club championship to give them a chance. On another note-Barcelona Gaels- a fairytale story that has gone a bit under the radar.

Park being easily defeated in the Leinster Intermediate championship once again reaffirms and highlights that the standard of team representing Laois in these championships is not at the calibre it should be. With Dublin entering their 33rd best club in the competition it gives clubs from other Leinster counties an opportunity to go on a 'fairy tale run' and win a Leinster club title and perhaps make it to Croke Park for an All-Ireland Final (granted the standard of the intermediate champions in Munster, Ulster and Connaught always seems far stronger than that of whoever does win Leinster). I would much rather this to the alternative of surviving as the 14/15 best senior club side in Laois. It will take a couple of years but excited at the prospect of a reduced, more quality focused senior championship and a fair more competitive intermediate championship where the winner's enter into the Leinster Club with genuine ambitions of winning it.     

I would be inclined to agree on the face of it.
Has that been decided already?

I disagree-Crettyard/Spink looks to be a very successful amalgamation and it looks like one that is now firmly embedded. They won a minor title this year and you can see plenty of players coming through and representing Laois on juvenile squads. I think they were in a number of other juvenile finals as well. Were both clubs competing individually in B and C competitions what would the standard of training be like, interest levels for players and definitely some if not many of their talented players would fall by the wayside.

Juvenile teams need to be coached in a competitive environment where there are good numbers training together and playing competitive games at a high level to ensure progression and skill development. This nonsense of clubs should be going alone in the B or C competition is pie in the sky. if the players simply aren't there then how much could you do in training with maybe only 8/9 lads some nights. Look at the huge success in Abbeyleix/Ballyroan with their amalgamation at juvenile level.

If done correctly it brings huge benefits to the clubs involved as they will be a number of well coached, skilled players feeding into their senior teams year on year. It raises the standards of the juvenile competitions and benefits county sides as well. If you want bring in a rule that the amalgamated sides can still field separate teams in the C championship if you like.

I would at county level sit down with the large number of clubs that we know of in the county that struggle for numbers and see what suitable amalgamations (long term) can be created to ensure all clubs have players involved in well coached sides and playing competitive hurling. I honestly hate one-year arrangements. Much rather see meaningful long-term planning and strategies but in place. Some great examples in the county of how they do work. Let's build on this.

What I do not agree with is one year arrangements at specific grades. That is simply putting a sticky plaster on the issue at hand. Clubs where there are challenges with numbers should be suitably paired with another club and then work together over a period of time to ensure that they have a panel of players at each of the age groups going up that are exposed to good competition and high level coaching.

Castletown won by 12 they top the group with a game still to play. Camross gone after Cbolla beating them today. Harps beat Borris. Clan Né Gael Strong in the B. Question should a team with 3 or 4 clubs together be allowed into a B competition??

Well... It was the same arrangement last year, and they weren't up to much. These things are cyclical, I suppose. I would say that more concerning for hurling in Laois is how the traditional clubs ( esp. R/E, B/K) are not really featuring in underage grades, except at the lower levels.

Clough Ballacolla will be with Mountrath in the Minor Championship next year and are operating with small numbers and poor standard at U13 & 15, with a couple of excellent hurlers at each grade also

Rathdowney Errill were U13 C,15 B,17 B, but got to both finals, definitley standard poor there and struggling to recruit quality in the town now

Castletowns biggest fan will admit they massively overachieved U15 this year and Minor, but have a few talented lads coming through and if they win the Prem Inter next year will work out well for them, management appointment important there

Borris Kilcotton competing well in 15 & 17 A last couple of years and again have some quality players at each level, seem to be very active at juvenile
Camross the same always very active at juvenile and have a strong bunch that has won all coming into U17 this year but not strong at U15/13 level
Ballinakill are perhaps overachieving / codding themselves a bit with the extra lads from pickas, St Josephs GRaiguecullen, who will mostly fall away from hurling but are all of age and therefore physically strong

All of our clubs outside of Portlaoise & The Harps, its a numbers game, almost all are working off panels with maybe a max of ten lads to the correct age,
Portlaoise seems to have got to big to manage, but Football side doing well at 13/15,

The Harps were winning underage simply due to the weight of numbers, enough guys of 15, 17 ,20 years of age not top notch coaching or extra work, and that came from the mouth of a Harps man. 17s this year lucky to get to a final and were poor when there

Sooner we go back to even ages like most counties the better, 14/16/18/20 to allow players develop fully
Run an U20 Championship in the spring time
Improve the standards/ efforts in our secondary schools (Mountrath aside)

The gap from being a good minor at 17 to being a fully developed ( interested ) player at 24/25/26 is huge, and allows too many to walk away

A very good synopsis of where juvenile hurling is at. In fairness to the Harps club-they do a fantastic job of getting every young child possible, both boys and girls, involved, enjoy being involved and playing. They must be commended for that as it takes some really committed club people to ensure this happens year on year and not as a one off when you might get a couple of parents at a certain year group who really drive things but only drive it for that year group.

It's also massive for creating a community pride and creating a sense of attachment to a community as well. Obviously, the person who you were talking too Ogie, would like to see more expertise coaching going on. Hopefully our Hurling Games Development Officer is tapping into the potential of the Harps and providing the necessary coach the coaches etc. sessions to ensure that those players are being exposed to the best coaching possible.   

Perhaps a different format for next year's championship is needed or simply run it as a straight knockout competition. It's late in the year and if team's feel they have little or no hope of winning then it is inevitable that walkovers are given. The appetite is no longer there to play.

It is something I do wonder about-with the change of age grades for minor- how many young players when stepping up from minor and find themselves perhaps not breaking into an adult team get little or no football from the age of 17-18/19. Some players will develop later but with virtually no regular football available to them how many end up packing it in, lose interest or have their development stalled due to inactivity.

That is a pessimistic outlook alright! Ballyfin have achieved their primary goal and with Danesfort also in the mix I cannot see them putting in any huge shift to try target this competition. Think their season is done. I never can understand why Dublin have a senior B in hurling that prevents their second tier winners from representing the county in the Intermediate championship. It is the same in football.

If Clough Ballacolla play as they did in the county final you would give them a good chance. Play as they did in the semi-final and they will be well beaten. I do not know what appetite the players have for Leinster this year. They put everything into the county final and it will be hard to replicate that performance again. 

Gillic got away with a nasty elbow to the head on Mick Lawlor I think in that game. was a blatant sending off and the Meath players managed to talk the referee out of sending him off for it. Had he walked like he should have Laois might have had a chance. Fitness killed us that day too. Worked incredibly hard with 14 men but once Meath got a lead in the second half they ran out comfortable winners.

I know that it has been said before but how can a club with passionate clubmen like tommy fitz, Cheddar and Critchley and a history of winning hurling titles in the 80s and 90s show such disregard for the development of hurling. The chickens have come home to roost at underage which has been at a deplorable standard for a number of years now and with the u20 side struggling to compete even at 'B' standard. A club the size of Portlaoise should never find itself playing in B competitions. I would love to see the establishment of a hurling only club in Portlaoise. Even in a hotbed of football like Tralee in Kerry a hurling only club was set up and is beginning to flourish. I think they won the Kerry minor championship and have players filtering into the underage Kerry teams. There is so much untapped potential and a new club that puts a proper emphasis on the development of hurling in the town could only be seen as a plus. I know in reality it's never going to happen but it would be fantastic for the development of hurling in the county.   

Portlaoise losing in the u20 First round yesterday they should have a serious look at themselves.

Do we need to create a 'C' competition in hurling for the likes of Portlaoise. Small club like themselves are really struggling at this level.