Offaly v Laios - Hurling - 2pm Sunday 25th - Portlaiose

[scalder]

Disaster of a game and very sad to watch as I felt for Laois hurling people and the lads on the pitch. The Leinster council need to step in and look at what is going on in Laois, what are they doing that they've slipped back so much, what can be done to arrest this decline, maybe its too late already but I hope not. We all know that we need more teams competing at the top level and so can't just let Laois slip out the back door.

[bottlethrower7]

the most depressing outing I can ever remember. Sitting in the stand in Portlaoise with that howling gale making it feel more like february than May. The fare out on the field was dire, absolutely dire. Laois have approximately 3 players that might make the Offaly team - Coonan, one of the midfielders, and the full-forward, who I'd like to see hurling with better players around him because he certainly didn't lack for effort.

Offaly were pretty poor too. The worst thing I can say about them is that, when 3 goals up in the first half, they were probably only value for one of them - the other 2 coming from howlers by the Laois defence. The wing-back, Horan looks tidy. Helion caused problems too but he looks less than fit and will likely struggle against better backs. Its hard to know if they're making progress or not. We'll reserve judgement for later.

Dublin looked ok at times. They strung some nice moves together at times. The performance of O'Callaghan was the highlight of the whole day. He was excellent throughout. Lambert showed nicely at times in midfield, but he seems to run out of steam. Dublin will need him at his best for 70 mins if they're to do anything of note this year. I still can't figure out what management see in John Kelly. He is game, but thats not enough at this level. Fallon and Hiney were solid down the spine of the defense. Brady looked assured, but then again I don't recall anyone running at him. The other corner back, Corcoran looks alright too. Maguire was busier than you'd like against Westmeath, and showed hes still up there with the best of keepers in the province.

I was impressed enough with Westmeath at times. They lost to a better team and did make a good go of it for a time. I think the gulf on the scoreboard didn't do their performance justice, and I suppose their inability to hold O'Callaghan was probably the telling factor.

Dublin's season will be an interesting one. It was as good as I've seen them at this time of year in a while. Still though, looking at some of the names on the teamsheet wouldn't inspire confidence.