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As a neutral observer, I was surprised at just how one dimensional Portlaoise were. Once Damon Larkin picked up an injury and they pulled Lillis out deeper to compensate for his presence around the middle, the writing was on the wall.

Lillis being inside is their best weapon. Without it, they looked badly disjointed and insipid in an attacking sense. Cahillane never got going on the day and DJ White, as brilliant as he played today at times, doesn't have that bit of physicality about him that Lillis or a fit Larkin would offer. 

On the whole, I wouldn't necessarily be of the opinion that there is a great deal of difference between the two teams despite today's scoreline. Portlaoise created more than enough to be within a shout of winning but their inefficiency in front of the posts caught up with them badly. Factor in a kamikaze style defending approach and a red hot Colm Murphy and Jake Foster and we arrive at a logical, relatively comfortable, Portarlington win.

Congratulations to a fine Portarlington side. Seems like they will be stunted severely in their Leinster campaign without their star Ozzie trio available, but they have a good bit about them in reserve so I hope they can do themselves and their county proud over the next few weeks.

Some win for the Town last night. That was the best they've played since around 2015 in my book. To go from scoring 6 points in a county final to rattling in 5-15 in a space of 11 months against the same opposition is just incredible. Rewarded handsomely for having a go.


Would personally also love to see Benny Carroll back in a Laois jersey, such a clever player who would make any team click. Presume he hasn't come in off his own accord which I have no issue with but I imagine there's a place for him there if he wants it.

The argument for a slimmed down championship has never been stronger IMO. Some very one sided results so far. Throw into the mix walkovers from the hurling clubs in the Junior and the general poor standard of the Intermediate and I think it's a necessity really at this stage. I'm not sure the likes of Ballyfin or Ballylinan on current viewing would even compete with Crettyard or Mountmellick a drop below them.

On a more optimistic note, while the quality might not be there at times, this nonetheless is possibly the most open championship at the top end we've had in a long time. Graiguecullen, Portlaoise, Portarlington, Ballyroan and St Joseph's must all be fancying their chances. I'd have given Emo a fair chance too if they'd had a full complement including Greene, Kirwan etc available. I find it very tough to call a winner at this stage.

I take it everyone is still en route home from Croker given the lack of discussion here 

Some poor shot selection and execution at times, but a very, very professional and polished performance. Some wonderful direct kick passing, a tight defensive shape and some great scores, particularly one from Mark Barry on the run in the first half caught my eye and a mark by Niall Dunne which was one of the sweetest strikes I've seen in a long time.

Truth be told, it could have been more than five in the end. Hard to single out any individuals given how well everyone played. This was a tireless, hard-working performance from everyone involved. What a difference a year makes, eh?

Kildare forum would make you laugh silly. They were expecting to waltz their way to a handy victory.

Side point but I'll go for it. McNulty deserves credit for how he has integrated younger players. We have a fine nucleus of recent U20 graduates (think Swayne, Heffernan, Rioghan Murphy, Fingleton etc.,) built into the side now and they make a very positive difference to our overall performance and energy levels. We lacked this for a long, long time. 

Carlow would've suited our football base much better and would've lent itself to a better atmosphere, but hey ho, it is what it is.

Reckon it was more a case of New York throwing it away as opposed to us actually winning it. Thought they kicked some outrageously bad wides in the second half and there was one clear goal chance where it was harder to miss the target than slide it past Roche 😅

Mark Timmons saving our bacon yet again. Thought the ball had just snapped past him when it popped off the wet sod but the wily old fox got a claw to it and finished with aplomb. What a player and what a servant to Laois.

We move on, albeit unconvincingly. Main thing was to win. Mission accomplished. Hopefully Sligo next. Kildare always have our number and Down, well...

Watched it on GAA Go, decent enough I thought aside from the fact there was no co-commentary and no analysis done. James Kelly, Brian Byrne, Simon Fingleton, Evan O'Carroll and Rioghan all very good.

There's been a small bit of shite spewed on this forum lately about younger players not being good enough. Compare the team from Sunday to the one that got the shite kicked out of them in Aughrim in 2022 or the one that got us relegated to Division 4 back in 2017. Some far less notable names on the team sheet perhaps, but we've added some great pace and mobility in the likes of Shaun Fitz, Rioghan, Fingleton and Heffernan that the likes of JO'L and Lillis weren't offering us in the not so far away past.

This team is nicely balanced and competitive at Tailteann cup level. I would not be surprised if we beat Fermanagh wherever that may be but we will most likely eventually get caught in the longer grass by more quality opposition like Down or god forbid Kildare if they get their act sorted.

The important thing should be to keep that nucleus of recent u20 graduates together and build their minutes. Right now those lads are doing just fine.

Truth be told, the game was effectively over as a contest once the red was dished out so early on. Once Offaly learned to push up on the Laois kick-out with the benefit of the extra man, they forced the errors and reaped the rewards.

I wouldn't be too critical of anyone involved given we played over 50 mins a man short, but some of our forwards do have a tendency to drift in and out of games in a worrying fashion. Personally, touching on what some other commenters have alluded to, I think Rioghan in particular and Niall Dunne should be in from the start the next day along with Shaun Fitz in the half forward line. I don't think we'd necessarily lose much defensively with that combination either, but you'd have three forwards well capable of scoring who are also used to doing the grunt work. Kevin Swayne could potentially then drop back to midfield with Conor Heffernan or Damon if back fit. Just a hypothesis but something I'd like to see given a chance. We also have Sean O'Flynn not getting minutes which is odd because he's always flying in the club championships and can double as a sticky man marker as well a lad who carries ball mightily well.

In reality, there's no real harm done from losing this so I wouldn't be sounding the panic button or being snide towards any of the players involved. It was a bad day, we take our licks and move on. Offaly will go to Croke Park and ship a 20 point beating from the Dubs. To be honest, given our performance against them last year I think we're doing well avoiding any more psychological damage a beating like that could do to us.

I'll shoot from the hip a bit here, definitely not the right moment but here goes anyways.

I think one of the big reasons behind our demise in recent years is Portlaoise and how we don't take advantage of what we have.

Gaelic football is dead in the town. People are completely apathetic to gaelic football there nowadays. The fact that there is no club actually in the town itself is definitely a contributing factor. A strategic review was carried out in 2017 outlining the requirement for a second juvenile club for Portlaoise. Has this been acted on since? This is an absolute necessity IMO, especially given how the Portlaoise club have not traditionally recruited around the Knockmay/Portlaoise College area of town. Adding a club there in that area alone would increase our footballing population by around 10k I'd say, maybe more given how quickly the town has grown? It's unwise for a small county like Laois not to use fully what we have at our disposal.

Change starts from the bottom up.

As hurtful as the situation is, some of the comments I see under Laois Today Facebook posts and Laois GAA's posts on Twitter are completely counter productive. Can't believe some people would actually put their name to what they're saying. Absolute cretins.

Say what you will about todays performance and the lads involved with that team, but they were the ones that stuck their hands up in January and wanted to play for Laois. Some of them, naturally, won't be involved going forward. If this was Mark Timmons' last game for Laois then that's a real shame - absolute warrior who would've made it on any Laois team.

As for the game itself, well Down did what Limerick probably ought to have done last week and scored a ton of goals. It was clear to anyone watching last week that we were far too open and soft in the centre and we ultimately paid a heavy price for that today.

Head says Down. Heart says Laois. If we're still in it with 20 minutes to go, I'm backing our bench to come in and pull us over the line. Give em hell lads!

Beating Fermanagh and Limerick away is damn good going given that both of those sides were among the favourites for this tournament and given that both have been playing at a much higher level than ourselves this year. I would say that those two performances are better than anything we've produced since our league performance prior to the Covid restrictions in 2020.

I'm curious Green and Gold why you or anyone else would be dismissive of that?

Billy deserves a ton of credit. Got all the big calls right today. I'll hold my hands up and say I was far too reactionary personally after the London game and certainly shared some opinions I'd have been far better off keeping to myself. Fair play to everyone involved, you've done far more for this county than keyboard warriors like myself at times ever could.

Stupid question, probably, but do members of the CB read this forum? Are they aware of the low esteem they are held in? Do they care? Are they worried about the state of the games in the county? Do they have a plan / a vision? What is their motivation for being on the CB?

These are just a few of the questions I'd like someone (e.g. a local journalist) to pose to the CB on our behalf

I dont pay to listen to Laois Today podcasts, but I would happily pay to listen to a podcast where the chairman of the CB was challenged on issues such as the above.

I genuinely believe Laois Today provide a great service, which incidentally we're lucky to have comparative to other small counties, but they rest their whole structure on a friendly relationship with players and officials in this county to the detriment of anything beyond a fairly superficial analysis of events. Every player involved on the club scene is a great lad, every club official is a great official... you'd get very little sense that things are actually cracking behind the scenes listening to Laois Today.

They probably don't see it in their interest to be more critical of the state of affairs in this county because they don't want to upset anyone. And they're probably right to a certain extent. Everyone involved is just an ordinary, decent person. I genuinely believe the people involved within the squad right up to the county board level care do about Laois, I just think they're just falling short on practically every front in terms of delivering a cohesive project.