Messages

Laois hammering Clare. A great outside bet with our lads having to play Kildare and then Clare away.

I don't know what game you were looking at

Dreadful performance by Port against a team that their manager said had to be pulled out from the Pubs the Tuesday before the match Club football in the  county is at a all time low.With 16 senior teams in the county some of the teams must be dreadful if the best team in it cannot beat the Wicklow champs at home

I know Port were down a few but to be honest that Tinahely side might be the poorest team I've seen win a senior club championship game in Leinster. Port with that performance were lucky it was only Tinahely they were playing
Cuala , Naas , Lomans and Tullamore ( who I'm not fully sold on ) are all a cut above what was on show in Portlaoise last Sunday
We definitely need to cut down to 12 senior teams in Laois anyway . The Wicklow man beside me said they have 12 senior teams in Wicklow and run two groups of 6 teams , mind you Tinahely finished 4th in their group and just scrapped into the quarter final so they wouldn't be considered any great shakes even in Wicklow club football
Port from 2/3 years ago would of easily put that Tinahely team to the sword but that's all history now unfortunately

Anyone know why Dillon and Makka were absent against Joseph's over the weekend ? That's two big additions to be able to bring back in

I know the opposition was questionable but I can't see anyone stopping Portlaoise this year . Aidan Fennelly has them flying and they still have a couple of lads like Swayne to return . Mahoney the Tipp lad is a nice addition . Maka and Larkin is a very strong midfield and Lillis in at full forward is giving them a focal point which they haven't had in a while . Pace wise and physically they look a level above the rest

People talking about patience ? If we sit and be patient we will only continue to regress even further . It's clearly obvious that we are getting worse and worse every year and every game that passes.
Our team at the start of the year was weaker than last seasons team . Our team at the moment is even weaker than the start of the year . Our team for next season will be weaker again .
 We are progressively getting worse in my opinion year on year . We haven't actually even hit rock bottom yet either ( when Timmo , Lillis , P Kingston , OCarroll all eventually go )
What's coming in is worse than what's going out . There is certain names creeping into the team sheet now regularly that I wouldn't even class as anything more than average club players
On yesterdays game we threw it away badly at the end but tbh over the course of the game Carlow could of easily scored about 6-22 instead of the 2-17 they got . That's a Carlow team that lost 4-19 to 0-8 to a division 4 Wexford team a few weeks ago in the Leinster championship . Carlow have lost the likes of Jordan Morrissey , Shane Clarke and Josh Moore since too to weaken them even further
It's honestly very hard to be positive when all I see in front of me is a constant battle for us to try and keep our heads above water . Division 3 next year could be tough if we aren't careful

We were lucky that we weren't beaten by more today because if Offaly won by 10-15 points it wouldn't of flattered them at all . They easily could of had at least 5 goals pulling up too .
That's a very average Offaly team and you could say they were missing arguably their entire first choice full forward line in Cian Farrell , Anton Sullivan and Nigel Dunne today due to injury/suspension .
In a way it could be a blessing in disguise that we don't have to face into playing Dublin in the wide open spaces of croke park . We could honestly be hit for 10 goals if Dublin really wanted to

[areas]

Re. Football & Hurling areas in Carlow, Laois & Offaly

At a guess I'd say the area split would be two-thirds football and one-third hurling - I'm open to contradiction.

Most clubs across these counties would be dual - football clubs fielding at minimum junior hurling teams and vice-versa.

Carlow - hurling strongest in areas bordering Kilkenny & Wexford
Laois - hurling strongest in areas bordering Kilkenny, Offaly & Tipperary
Offaly - hurling strongest in areas bordering Galway, Tipperary & Laois

There was a good programme on TV some time ago about Bord na Mona and how the employment it provided was a big factor in the rise of Offaly football in the 1960s through to 1980s.

Westmeath is another county similar to Carlow, Laois & Offaly with a proud football & hurling tradition.
Of course Offaly's record as a dual county is the envy of all the smaller dual counties.

Always found it very interesting to see the split in counties.

As someone once said the Hurling areas in Ireland is Tipperary and every county it borders.

With the exception of Wexford pockets of North Kerry and the Glens of Antrim.

That looks about right.

Laois the only county which has swayed since that I would imagine.

Be 60 40 in favour of football now I would think?

It's 50/50 in Laois . Parts of the county to the north and the east of Portlaoise is all football. Parts of the county to the south and the west of Portlaoise is all hurling . Portlaoise town itself plays both sports. The football side of Laois would have a bigger population than the hurling side as it is situated closer to Dublin .
The hurling side of Laois would be geographically a bigger area though

Any update on players not committing? I know Pigott , OSullivan and Murphy from Port are all going to Australia. I heard Collins is going travelling too . Any update on retirements either ?

I didn't see Matthew Campion or Josh OBrien playing for Joseph's the last day , any word if they will be available for Sunday

I've heard about Robbie Piggott , Colm Murphy and Paddy OSullivan going travelling . Any more names that are not committing?

Anyone know why Flanagan and Saunders weren't involved with Portlaoise today ? Both made appearances the last day against Rosenallis

Donald Trump is the man that would make Laois great again. 

Judging by the standard of the senior championship matches last weekend not even God almighty can save us let alone Trump , Mary , Joseph , Jesus , Kinsella , Martin Murphy and whoever else's name gets linked to the managerial vacancy

It doesn't for me, because I start from a fundamentally different viewpoint as you and JD. The real crime for me is the lack of preparation at underage. The way we treat our best footballers and hurlers who we hope one day will represent us at Senior level. It seemed obvious to me that Down were more athletic in every sense of the word. The sort of athleticism that is nurtured over many years

100% agree HF

Would Burren in the coming years have a team that will be capable of challenging Kilcoo ? Looking through the Down Senior and U20 panels there seems to be a decent contingent of Burren representatives

Freak results can happen and Longford have had many a pasting over the years.
Small county and limited resources etc etc

But Laois should not be in this position. Should be as good as Kildare and Westmeath.

Yesterday Laois were a disgrace. Longford went toe-to-toe with Down a few weeks ago in Newry and were there challenging until the last 10 mins.

But why should we be as good as Kildare ? Kildares trajectory is a lot closer to Dublins level than Laois level . Kildare have a much higher ceiling than Laois .Kildare are a big predominantly footballing county on the outskirts of Dublin with over 3 times the population of county Laois . We here in Laois are a small county split 50/50 between both hurling and football . The county is split with the south and the west all hurling and the north and the east is all football . We then have Portlaoise right in the centre with almost 30,000 people ( which is one third of the entire population of county Laois ) . We have just ONE dual club in Portlaoise catering for the entire population of the town. Parts of the town have no exposure to Gaelic games at all . Interest in GAA in the town is at an all time low and Portlaoise are not winning anything at underage anymore in both football and hurling despite the massive pick they have compared to other Laois clubs . It's actually so laughable that there is only one club in Portlaoise and then there is two clubs in the village Arles. Underage football in Laois at the moment is mostly being dominated by Portarlington and two rural clubs called St Joseph's and Ballyroan Abbey