2015 Laois Senior Hurling

[burdizzo]

Can't you be in the square now, once the ball is struck?
Oh, after that first goal, it was like the bad old days again. Up to that - for the first 15 mins - they'd been doing really well, Galway had a something like 8 or 9 wides, there was good intelligent running off the ball, and they were managing to keep it tight. Once the goal went in, Galway couldn't miss, and Leix couldn't get a sniff at it. Soft mentally?
Was very impressed with Paddy Purcell in midfield, and Tommy Fitz did well in the first quarter.
I must say, though, Galway are some outfit, and will be hard stopped this year.

[Thewildcat]

theirs a 2 group in leinster kilkenny,Galway, Dublin, wexford, next group laois, offaly, westmeath, carlow, antrim.  offaly westmeath would have got the same beating yesterday. i have seen laois hurl since the early 80's and them teams were miles ahead of todays side, they beat a poor offaly side well don't get me wrong its not that laois are getting better its just offaly have slipped down to the bottom now, a good offaly team would never lose to laois, 1972-2015 even doe offaly have been very bad this 5 years.  the result in todays minor game will back my point, you have to be beating kilkenny in leinsters in underage if you are to do anything in senior.

[Thewildcat]

The Wild Cat has gone missing too. Aparantly Offaly had far more than just Dooley.

Anyway, no matter what happens for the rest of the year the step we've been waiting for has happened. We've moved up the ladder. Let's not forget that we haven't beaten any team of note in the championship since the 80's. We used to beat Dublin when they were at the same level as us.
It will be difficult against Galway, all our really good performances have come at home. As I said this win was vital for the progress of the county. Let's hope we see some more excellent performances for the rest of the year.

do you think beating a piss poor offaly side is progress, and then go out and get beaten by 20 points, yes they were far better than offaly on the day, lets not forget laois did lose to Antrim also so this result is no shock, Cheddar has brough this team as far as he can. 

[Teo Lurley]

Where were you for the last few weeks? Just come back after Laois lose.

[SCFC]

The Wild Cat has gone missing too. Aparantly Offaly had far more than just Dooley.

Anyway, no matter what happens for the rest of the year the step we've been waiting for has happened. We've moved up the ladder. Let's not forget that we haven't beaten any team of note in the championship since the 80's. We used to beat Dublin when they were at the same level as us.
It will be difficult against Galway, all our really good performances have come at home. As I said this win was vital for the progress of the county. Let's hope we see some more excellent performances for the rest of the year.

do you think beating a piss poor offaly side is progress, and then go out and get beaten by 20 points, yes they were far better than offaly on the day, lets not forget laois did lose to Antrim also so this result is no shock, Cheddar has brough this team as far as he can.

Are you still pretending to be from Laois? Idiot....

[Don Draper]

theirs a 2 group in leinster kilkenny,Galway, Dublin, wexford, next group laois, offaly, westmeath, carlow, antrim.  offaly westmeath would have got the same beating yesterday. i have seen laois hurl since the early 80's and them teams were miles ahead of todays side, they beat a poor offaly side well don't get me wrong its not that laois are getting better its just offaly have slipped down to the bottom now, a good offaly team would never lose to laois, 1972-2015 even doe offaly have been very bad this 5 years.  the result in todays minor game will back my point, you have to be beating kilkenny in leinsters in underage if you are to do anything in senior.

f**k off and die.

[G@@]

So it's Dublin at home on July 4th. Both teams go into this following a drubbing at the hands of Galway. The home advantage will be massive for us and I feel that we could win this. Interestingly, this for me is a bench-mark game because if Galway were not in Leinster this would be our semi-final. Thoughts?

[Jimmy P]

Home draw is massive however the manner of defeat of both teams by Galway could be telling. Looking at form lines realistically Dublin were within a score able free of defeating Galway the first day and Galway tanked us by 20. Dublin were completely off the pace as we were in the replay.In all honesty we are not 20 points worse than Galway but on the other hand I don't think we are 2 points off them as last years result. Galway will be in the shake up for the All Ireland come September.

Dublin will have had ample time to reflect on what happened and rectify it and will see us as a perfect place to launch their season. They are probably 6 or 7Th in the Liam McCarthy pecking order and will pose a formidable challenge however we have shown before that we perform at our very best in O Moore park and as said this is a huge advantage to us.

The players reaction from Saturdays thumping will be vital. Unfortunately personnel wise we haven't many changes to make. Our first 15 minutes was encouraging but the wheels came off after the fluke of a goal. Only one or two lads came out of it with any sort of happiness with their individual performance. Deploying 2 sweepers is not unheard by us but the use of the ball by Campion and Maher was poor and you would wonder why Maher was deployed in this role.Whelan on Canning never worked and one wonders why such a physically imposing player like Whelan is so often times  seemingly bullied and never shows massive aggression towards his direct opponent. A lot of calls for us to go the traditional route of 15 on 15 but unfortunately against the real quality we do not have enough in the tank to win these 1 on 1 battles and that's where problems start.

Possibly we got swept away with the emotion of the fantastic victory against Offaly but in hindsight how poor were Offaly? As Cheddar has always said though there will be bumps in the road and we must learn from these experiences.

[G@@]

I think we got the match-ups wrong Saturday, I would have told Tom Delaney to stick to Canning and play "close-to-the-edge" 
Cha in FF and Willie Hyland in CF also. I think Cha would have tested that Galway no.3. Hyland was clearly cut out of the game Saturday night and he should have been used to break down the ball in the CF position for runners instead.

[Joeythelips]

I think the big thing against galway was the physical size of them, some of the laois lads looked like minors against them. Dublin gave Galway a decent game in first match but as we know thats the time to catch Galway cold, and this year they were up and running. I think we also stuck to the defensive side of things for too long, we were 7/8 points down and playing with two lads back in the first half, have to be able to adapt better. Hopefully the players can lift themselves once more and give the Dubs a good rattle

[Junior Ex Laoistalk]

Laois manager Cheddar Plunkett spoke to Jack Nolan after their loss to Galway
https://soundcloud.com/midlandssport/cheddar-plunkett-post-galway-1

[finbar o tool]

i cant believe the lack of conversation about the tactics used last saturday...its been touched on in a couple of posts above but 1 mention is almost defending the tactics!
i personally was sickened by them. the lads never had a chance, they were beat before they set foot on the pitch. and i feel sorry for the players, who are giving their all to the set up. Cheddar was obviously that afraid of Galway that he thought only of defense, nothing about actually winning the game. the players heads must have been full of negativity after that "plan" was explained to them. i would love to ask him what the actual plan for winning the match was?! im not a fool, i know Galway are a stronger side than us, however, we, or any other team for that matter, will NEVER win anything with 2 sweepers and only 4 forwards! every time the backs cleared the ball it was coming back to them just as quick. if the forwards managed to win a ball they had to get past their own man plus the spare Galway men, then its have a pressured wild go at goal or try and find a team mate which is hard when you're lacking in bodies at that end of the pitch! if you are afraid of getting beat by a better side then go out and hurl them man to man, 15 on 15, and if you are beat, so be it, the best team won etc, but have a go!!
anyone who thinks that is progressive hurling needs their head examined. what is wrong with playing man to man, with good intelligent hurling, low balls to the forwards, cross field balls, moving off the ball, support play. these basics will work if tried and tested and worked on. galway knew we would use a sweeper, they would have planned accordingly. thats why we should have had a go, 15 on 15 at least for the first 10 minutes and see what happens. then if needs be bring back ONE sweeper. and whats more - it was 1-18 to 2pts at half time. i think by the time it got to 1-9 or 1-10 to 2pts it was evident the plan wasn't working but management did nothing only look on?
we shouldnt have even used a sweeper against Offaly! we payed them too much respect, we are good enough to beat that Offaly side man to man. brilliant long range efforts from Zane Cha and Willie kept us going that day.
im sure there is some folk here who will disagree but all this negative hurling is not helping and im venting here!
people are nearly afraid to speak ill of Cheddar after all he has done. he has changed the face of hurling in laois for the better, forever. he is a great man manager. but on the sideline or tactically i dont think he is doing a great job.
i just hope to god he goes 15 on 15 against Dublin and lets our forwards have a proper go, they must be itching for it, and the backs for that matter! but i doubt he will....
Rant over, for now!

[Jimmy P]

When it goes as badly on the scoreboard as it did Saturday there will always be venting!! Its only natural.

However us playing sweepers in the past 3 years has been nothing new. We had 2 huge championship performances against Galway before playing the sweeper/sweepers nothing change Saturday only Galway were wiser to it and punished us accordingly as did Clare in '13 and Waterford in '14. After defeats like that the 15 on 15 brigade come out. However we went 15 on 15 in the Fox, Rigney, Fennelly and McCarthy days and received some unbelievable trimmings.

We do not have 15 players to match the Dublin's and Galway's of this world. The players are used to this system now and it has given them real stability in which to compete with the better teams.

I am not defending it just stating facts. Of course i would love to see us compete man for man but even our minors Sunday went toe to toe with Kilkenny and were blown out of the water.

Time to get real in fairness

[finbar o tool]

i kind of understand the want from Cheddar to play a sweeper, i just don't like it personally, never did. i think the 15 on 15 option needs to be worked on more and developed, we will eventually need to look at it. that's how we will progress as a team.
but using 2 sweepers was only a death sentence, we never had a chance with that system. its like Cheddar decided we wern't going to win this game so lets try keep their scoring to a minimum. that's whats frustrating me the most. because that's straight up bullshit and not fair on the players. i think Cheddar actually feels like a father figure to this group of players and in doing so is going OTT to try and protect them instead of letting them hurl.
the Tipp vs Limerick match Sunday wasnt a classic but Tipp were a joy to watch. nothing too fancy, just great intelligent hurling, working well as a team, moving off the ball, support play, good delivery of ball to their forwards. this is what we should be working on and having a sweeper as a back up plan. that, IMO is being real.

[G@@]

Both points are valid. We used the sweeper system against Carlow and nearly got caught yet against Galway and Clare we gave them both a right game of it last year. I think we need to be adaptable and be able to switch our style of play for teams and then get to a point where we are confident to switch the system of play within a game.

Watching Kilkenny on Sunday and they are masters at switching play according to whether or not they have the ball. This is where the game of hurling has evolved to and teams need to catch up in learning the style and adapting to it within their games. Watching the Cats in the second game on Sunday one could be forgiven for saying that Kilkenny have a collective sub-conscience that they can all communicate through!