Messages

1

Laois / Re: Leinster Senior Hurling Championship 2020

« on: November 24, 2020, 04:22:04 PM »

I'm not sure what management organisation would get away with a situation where one of its prized assets is allowed to/forced to walk away. The view of supporters is clear (although no-one really cares what they think). The view of the players seems to be also fairly clear. I can't imagine that sponsors would be over the moon about losing someone like Eddie Brennan who brought some profile to the county. So who benefits? Maybe the Country Board itself, who have one less irritation to deal with and definitely some other county who will pick him up and certainly prosper. It really is a shambles.

2

Laois / Re: Leinster Senior Hurling Championship 2020

« on: November 19, 2020, 08:01:15 AM »

Early reports that the meeting went fairly positively?
Green&Gold didn’t make it to show Eddie who’s who & what’s what obviously!

If so, kudos to the county board and, in particular, to those people who had a right to be most offended.

I hope the general public will support them now in trying to get to the next level.

3

Laois / Re: Leinster Senior Hurling Championship 2020

« on: November 17, 2020, 12:15:05 PM »

To be fair to the country board, I think they've generally done a good job in selecting hurling managers.

Jeepers, I'm no "bash the county board" merchant but we've had some terrible managers too. Teddy McCarthy, Peter Creedon, O Fatharta, Eamonn Kelly.
Different boards of course.

This is for sure! But I think you are always guaranteed a fair sprinkling of duds, especially when you are one of the smaller fish. I think they have done pretty well in this context. But it's even more the reason to make sure that when you do find the right person, you have to work to hold on to him. There really aren't too many of his calibre around so the chances of striking it lucky a second time are fairly limited.

4

Laois / Re: Leinster Senior Hurling Championship 2020

« on: November 16, 2020, 08:23:57 PM »

To be fair to the country board, I think they've generally done a good job in selecting hurling managers. Cheddar's appointment was clever (even if it kinda happened by accident) and Eddie Brennan's appointment was inspired. There is always an element of luck in every recruitment effort (especially for the small fish) but here I think they've done pretty well in both codes but especially hurling, at least in recent years. It would be a real shame to undo those good decisions now.

5

Laois / Re: Leinster Senior Hurling Championship 2020

« on: November 16, 2020, 02:26:45 PM »

This would be the smart way to approach it.

They should be using the moral high ground to extract a longer term commitment from him rather than looking to get rid of him.

6

Laois / Re: Leinster Senior Hurling Championship 2020

« on: November 16, 2020, 09:12:42 AM »

Eddie cares about eddie...best interests of laois hurling aren't really his concern.  good manger hopefully we keep him, outside managers who come with a "fee"in general dont care about best interests of county (this is obvious)

I suppose there's not much point in this post but, in truth, nothing could be further from being obvious. Almost all management theory and practice shows that external people are often good for the operation. That's why top people from large companies are regularly poached and put into senior positions in competitor firms. The board of Miscrosoft are not going to look at someone from Paypal and say, "He's from Paypal. What the hell does he care about Microsoft"? Liverpool don't seem to be harmed by the fact that Klopp is a German. Ireland didn't seem seem to be harmed by Joe Schmidt or Jack Charlton. The idea that you can only be invested in the job if you're from the area, is a faulty one I would say

7

Laois / Re: Leinster Senior Hurling Championship 2020

« on: November 15, 2020, 09:24:20 PM »

Can’t wait to see what the next Messiah does, We are some county to worship at the feet of false prophets.  No substitute for patience and hard work which we seldom want or like in Laois.

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head here. It is about hard work. Cheddar was putting in the work. Eddie Brennan is putting in the work. The players are putting in the work. The missing link seems to be the hard work of the county board, especially when it comes to the more difficult tasks like raising funds or building the kind of structures that Clonad was talking about.

I had some sympathy for the county board in this whole affair before I got a sense of their attitude through your posts.

8

Laois / Re: Leinster Senior Hurling Championship 2020

« on: November 15, 2020, 10:17:57 AM »

I think this is exactly the point he was making. He tried to make this point at one stage during the interview but Parkinson decided that they were “separate issues”. In fact they are not. If you don’t look after players properly, you’re less likely to get them to commit. It doesn’t sound to me like a huge extra step to make - a few more physios, better video analysis and the like. I’d imagine there are clubs in Dublin with this kind of support.

The specific suggestions on youth development that Clonad put forward attracted no comment for some reason but those suggestions are no less important (and no less feasible) than looking after the senior team properly.

9

Laois / Re: Leinster Senior Hurling Championship 2020

« on: November 11, 2020, 11:49:46 AM »

Yes, it is absolutely realistic. You have to work at it of course - as Laoisred says it won't fall into your lap - but it is possible.

By the way, I would also say that having one sugar daddy type sponsor is not the only way to increase available funds (although it is a realistic ambition). I would say that a bit of mobilisation of the Laois diaspora at home and abroad could yield good returns on an ongoing basis. Again, this requires time and effort but this is hardly an idea from the lunatic bin.

10

Laois / Re: Leinster Senior Hurling Championship 2020

« on: November 10, 2020, 07:30:18 PM »

I haven't heard the actual recording of the bit at the end but it's very unfortunate. I'm a huge fan of the work that Eddie Brennan has done and clearly he is a bit frutrated (particularly seeing the fine margins that were involved in the Clare game) but I do think it was an error of judgement to vent like that, even if it was off the record.

Giovanni, would recommend you listen to it. It is going around on Whatsapp. It is about 3-4 minutes long. I don't think it was an error of judgement at all. He was dead right. His job is not to placate the county board it is to contrast their support of the senior hurling team setup from what is acceptable, and what is normal in more successful counties. It might be a one sided perspective but it also points to a culture that is not likely to bring success in the future. We really need to do something like what Michael Duignan has done and parachute in someone who cares more about the development of the game than anything else.

Yes, the CB are volunteers that do a lot of good work. Grand, let them look after lights and such things but they should not have the purse strings or decisions on how competitions or run, coaching or on how to develop the games more broadly in the county. Their mediocre performance would suggest they are not up to the job.

I feel that the error of judgement wasn't really about whether he was right or wrong (the evidence of history suggests that he might be right). The error of judgement was venting like this to someone who was outside of the system (and who has his own record of going on solo runs when it suits him). Keeping what's said in the dressing room internal to the group is a basic rule and I don't think that rule should be broken no matter how frustrated you are. I'm sure he knows that and accepts that.

Having said that, I do hope that this isn't considered a hanging offence. It's clear it wasn't meant for public consumption. I hope that fences can be mended and that Eddie Brennan can be supported in staying on. I still think that it shouldn't be that complicated to get a decent supporters club going and with good people like Eddie Brennan involved, there would be something to build fundraising efforts on. There's great support for Laois hurling especially when there is hope of being competitive. We shouldn't waste the opportunity.

11

Laois / Re: Leinster Senior Hurling Championship 2020

« on: November 10, 2020, 12:13:46 PM »

I haven't heard the actual recording of the bit at the end but it's very unfortunate. I'm a huge fan of the work that Eddie Brennan has done and clearly he is a bit frutrated (particularly seeing the fine margins that were involved in the Clare game) but I do think it was an error of judgement to vent like that, even if it was off the record.

I would also feel that maybe the work done by the Country Board is not always appreciated properly (including by me). It was, after all, the County Board that was responsible for selecting the same Eddie Brennan in the first place and as Ballyroan points out are doing a lot of work for free. It's not a great reward to be denigrated like that in such a public way by a leading figure in GAA circles.

At the same time, I really hope that they can get together and resolve these issues in a way that respects all points of view (and also the financial realities that we're living in at the moment). I do hope the County Board will really consider the essence of the point - raising more resources - rather than taking personal offence (which I could easily understand in the circumstances). With Eddie Brennan in charge, I think fundraising would be an easier task than might have been the case in the past.

12

Laois / Re: Leinster Senior Hurling Championship 2020

« on: November 09, 2020, 10:15:28 PM »

Are there two versions of this out there? ‘If the county board came to my door I wouldn’t give them a fuckin fiver’ ... ‘X hasn’t got a fuckin scoobydoo’... ‘X didn’t even fuckin know Derek Mcgrath, had to be tipped on the shoulder to stop calling him Ken McGrath’.... ‘they got Derek McGrath for free and almost fucked that up too, very nearly messed it up completely in March’. Might not be exactly 100% word for word but it’s very close if it’s not. If I was on the receiving end of it I’d be fairly certain I got a slating 😂

Definitely not on the version I heard. I’d be surprised and disappointed if something like that was published by a media outlet

13

Laois / Re: Leinster Senior Hurling Championship 2020

« on: November 09, 2020, 09:44:03 PM »

There’s no way that conversation was intended for the public domain. He even started the conversation by saying ‘obviously, this is off the record’. With that said, he shouldn’t have pulled the footballers and Quirke into it. His position is untenable now, not a hope he can stay after slating left, right and centre around him. Not too much wrong with what he said, but he’s left it in a way that himself and the county board couldn’t possibly work together again. And that’s a great shame.. you really felt the hurlers could do something big if they’d complete but in from everyone

What slating?

14

Laois / Re: Leinster Senior Hurling Championship 2020

« on: November 09, 2020, 09:42:26 PM »

Nobody could deny the work that has been done with the CoE etc. No one could argue that the County Board shouldn’t be financially prudent. Of course they should. But financial prudence is about investing wisely and ensuring that expenditure matches income. If you want to improve, you need to find ways to generate more income. That’s not an unreasonable position and doesn’t imply that the achievements of the county board are in any way diminished.

15

Laois / Re: Leinster Senior Hurling Championship 2020

« on: November 09, 2020, 09:01:48 PM »

I don't see anything at all explosive in what he said and honestly if county board members are going to be offended by this interview, then maybe they should consider their positions. We remember that Cheddar walked away for similar reasons so there is clearly an issue there and it's not one that's invented by Eddie Brennan.

Surely to God, it shouldn't be beyond the Laois GAA community to create a decent supporters club, with a proper fundraising capability in the UK, US and Australia? This is not so difficult any more. There are also eminent Laois people in large multi-national organisations and have shown a willingness to help and advise. I don't know how much would be needed but I can't imagine that it should be beyond the wit of the GAA community in Laois to generate sufficient funds to improve the environment for the players and the management team. Does the County Board have to sanction a supporters club or can it be done independently?