Allianz Hurling League 2016

[finbar o tool]

I did read back! You replied to a one line comment with a paragraph!
Im not contradicting anything, my posts in general are about the defensive team set up and bad management. And you're right, any forward would perform if getting good quality ball, my point exactly, there was no quality ball! 2 man full forward line, lobbing in high ball, that was the tactics today, a must win game, against Kerry, incase anyone needed reminding....
My 'beef' is with cheddar, not you keyser, i wouldnt waste my time.

And this talk about physical size? Bullshit. Tell that to Tommy Walsh or Joe Deane etc. James Hooban terrorised defences in Laois for years! If you're playing good attacking play with good movement off thd ball size doesnt come into it. They're just excuses! There is no excuse for being too spineless to set your team up to take on Kerry head on, on home soil.

[Tony]

Calm down. Cheddar out? Are you serious at all. Bring who in? Someone who doesn't care about the county at all? Just like the bad days? We have a serious, passionate set up in there. Sure, we need improvement in key areas. But it's extremely early in the year. I'd have a Cheddar in there VS a journey man any day.

[Home Boys Home]

The worrying thing is that surely we would have targeted yesterday as a must-win match, with an equally vital clash with Offaly following next week. Training 5 times a week in November, surely we were targeting two wins in these games.

So I don't think we took Kerry for granted. Kerry were better organised, hungrier and hurled with more confidence.

First thing we need to do is pick players in their best positions. Matthew Whelan centre back, Paddy Purcell midfield and Neil Foyle at centre or full forward for a start. We have lost most of our best defenders to retirement in the last 12 months and that is enough upheaval without making changes we don't need to make.   

[Keyser Söze]

Agree with alot of this Home Boys Home.

I thought Foyle has played some great ball inside from centre back in last few games, but we probably started with too much inexperience in key positions yesterday.
The withdrawal of Matthew Whelan and the introduction of Joe Phelan were moves I couldn't make any sense of considering how the game was going.

Huge reaction needed for next weekend, but its a big ask without Cha. I presume we will see the return of Hyland and Keenan rushed forward?

Definites;
Rowland/Reily (But I think he favours Rowland)
Healy
Tom Delaney
Matthew
Paddy Purcell
Cha
Keenan
Hyland
Foyle (somewhere)
King

Presumably he will also include;
Palmer
Maher
Picky
Scully

That makes 14. On yesterday I would give the 15th spot to Ciarán Collier. There doesn't seem to be anybody else going crazy for it, but a long way to go yet.

        Rowland
Healy Maher Palmer
Delaney Foyle Matthew
     Purcell Keenan
Hyland Cha Collier
Scully King Picky

This is probably as good as we are going to come up with? Problem on the half back line/midfield, and unless Mullaney/Bergin/Reddin can step up hugely on yesterday then we cannot afford to release Foyle, Keenan or Purcell to the forward line.

But trying stuff like Reddin and Matthew midfield and Purcell full forward at a time when there is already forced changes has backfired badly.

As an aside, I was not attempting to hang on PJ Scully out to dry for yesterdays result. I have issues with his workrate but I was merely highlighting that "Cheddar Out!" and "Its the stupid gameplan we are playing" do not tell the full story.

[SpeculativeEffort]

It has to be said that Kerry are never a team Laois have routinely put away even with a settled experienced team. Kerry must have been licking their lips when
they realised that Laois were playing debutants at corner back Carroll and both wing backs Bergin and Mullaney. Then we put a full forward Foyle at centre back and a lad coming
back to county hurling after 3/4 years out Maher at full back. Further to this we had a half back and a corner forward playing midfield. One with mobility but little size and the
other with size and little mobility. Then we are missing our main 3 scoring forwards.

The result wasn't that surprising in the end.

[burdizzo]

Keyser, I believe King was injured playing for UCD last week. Is that right? So, he'd be out for the Offaly game, anyway. Cha will also be out for that w/ his red card. A real shame, that,  as himself, Healy and Foyle were the only ones really taking the fight to Kerry.
Not sure Rowland wasn't a bit slow out for the Kerry goal - but then Reilly comes out too much at times...
I don't think there's any use getting rid of the manager now, but there'd need to be a bit of a step up for him to be at the helm next year.

[LOVEGAA]

It amazes me how Laois mostly end up chasing a game. Its like we dont have the confidence to take the game by the neck at the start and go from there. We always seem to end up as a defencive team always following the opponents lead.
Kerry came out and did the simple thing. They got the ball and ran at our goal , if they had a chance of scoring from out field they took it and when we headed for their goal the closed us down.
Its very simple really but Laois always seem to over play the ball, Its like we have to pass it about 5 times before someone has the confidence to take their score.
I feel for the lads because they dont go out to play bad but some of them seem to think they are above having to fight for the ball and wait for handy ball! Its a team sport and they all need to be on board.
I personally think we overdo the fitness training as we certainly didnt look any fitter than kerry yesterday but out hurl/ball handling left a lot to be desired.

[Keyser Söze]

Keyser, I believe King was injured playing for UCD last week. Is that right? So, he'd be out for the Offaly game, anyway. Cha will also be out for that w/ his red card. A real shame, that,  as himself, Healy and Foyle were the only ones really taking the fight to Kerry.
Not sure Rowland wasn't a bit slow out for the Kerry goal - but then Reilly comes out too much at times...
I don't think there's any use getting rid of the manager now, but there'd need to be a bit of a step up for him to be at the helm next year.

Sorry I should have been clearer. I was working along the lines of a championship team!

[blueandwhite1]

Its very simple really but Laois always seem to over play the ball, Its like we have to pass it about 5 times before someone has the confidence to take their score.

Although this might generally be true of Laois we didn't have to worry too much about over playing the ball yesterday because we rarely had it! When we did it was ballooned into the full forward line with about 3 or 4 Kerry lads competing against one Laois lad. We completely failed to win primary posession for pretty much the whole game and when we did our forwards never stood a chance.

[finbar o tool]

Calm down. Cheddar out? Are you serious at all. Bring who in? Someone who doesn't care about the county at all? Just like the bad days? We have a serious, passionate set up in there. Sure, we need improvement in key areas. But it's extremely early in the year. I'd have a Cheddar in there VS a journey man any day.

i am dead serious Tony, as previously stated, i hope this is his last year.
these ARE bad days!! last few years especially, more so than this year, he had a bunch of players who would do anything for him, they were mentally focused and committed. and he brought in a professional set up, and i am grateful for that. but thats it. as far as picking a team, decisions on the sideline and game plans, he is at a thing called nothing. and he is not improving hurling in this county. its his decision to play that way so the hurling coaches in the backroom team must coach accordingly!
so i dont care if its a Donegal man or an English man or from anywhere else! As long as they have guts and they want to improve our hurling and they want to go out and try to win games.
yes, we are short a lot of starters from last year, yes, its not the most talented team weve ever had. but you dont just throw in the towel as manager and go with damage limitation on EVERY game. its sickening. and i do feel for the players, they must go with the managers plans/coaching, even if its bullshit and doesn't work. it must be pretty demoralizing for players to get the feeling from your manager that you're inferior to every team you play! even Kerry. instead of opening up and attacking you stay in the fetal position for the match and hope for the best!   

[LOVEGAA]

Although this might generally be true of Laois we didn't have to worry too much about over playing the ball yesterday because we rarely had it! When we did it was ballooned into the full forward line with about 3 or 4 Kerry lads competing against one Laois lad. We completely failed to win primary posession for pretty much the whole game and when we did our forwards never stood a chance.

True.. At one point we had a free/line ball (sorry not sure) and when I looked in the forward line Kerry had 2 spare men in there waiting to pick up ball and clear which is exactly what they did.  We expect too much from 1 or 2 forwards and to be honest our forwards are not strong enough for this kind of pressure.
I really dont think its fair to give out about the lads in general as they're doing whats instructed but some of them there yesterday seemed to think someone is just going to hand them the ball!!!

[Helix]

Wasn't able to make the game yesterday but was absolutely disgusted with the result yesterday. Hard for the players who in fairness give great commitment to buy that nonsense style Cheddar is working with. You have a young panel of players who at a young age shouldn't carry much baggage with fear when hurling. When you're setting up defensively against the likes of Kerry then how the hell are you meant to progress. The only positive you can take from yesterday that it was in February and not may or June, then we'd really be in sh*ts creek!
No doubt Kerry have some good hurlers and seemed to deserve the win no doubt. Still feel with injuries and some key players to come back come championship we should defeat them if we get the chance.
No doubt the heads are down but hoping for a big response in Tullamore on Sunday.

[Unlaoised]

Wasn't able to make the game yesterday but was absolutely disgusted with the result yesterday. Hard for the players who in fairness give great commitment to buy that nonsense style Cheddar is working with. You have a young panel of players who at a young age shouldn't carry much baggage with fear when hurling. When you're setting up defensively against the likes of Kerry then how the hell are you meant to progress. The only positive you can take from yesterday that it was in February and not may or June, then we'd really be in sh*ts creek!
No doubt Kerry have some good hurlers and seemed to deserve the win no doubt. Still feel with injuries and some key players to come back come championship we should defeat them if we get the chance.
No doubt the heads are down but hoping for a big response in Tullamore on Sunday.

Hard to be critical of Cheddar when he has put so much work/money/time into it...

Kinda have to agree with the tactics thing its sickening to look at....Like to see the stats of how many times Laois have turned over the ball when they have played it forward in the last few years it kind of out weighs the stat of the short puck out ..There is not point in having Primary possession in your own half back line...

I'm sure he has men with him in the set up and is intelligent enough to change things.

Saying that Sunday was always going to be hard with the team we had...Next Sunday is vital now if Zane and Willie are still out and we don't have Cha I'm afraid we won't be coming out of Tullamore with more than maybe 1-15 will that be enough to beat the Biffo's

I very much doubt it ..Hope I'm proved wrong!

[redsetanta]

One of the main problems we have is that lads cannot get primary possession when a ball is pucked into them. The only one who can do it successfully is Willie Hyland. In the modern game you will win nothing if you cannot catch the ball!

[SpeculativeEffort]

The criticism here has been warranted somewhat. Losing to and being completely outplayed by Kerry could not go unnoticed.

But it must be said that Laois had 7/8 under 21's playing and the panel has seen a major overhaul since last year. Hurling is a young mans game but these lads are not men yet.
Judge them when they are 25/26/27 years of age.
When Cheddar had a experienced team tuned into how he wanted them to play, we were hard to beat.

At the moment he has a very inexperienced team who are only learning how he wants them to play. I do agree that we are overly negative but Cheddar will change things.
He is an intelligent man.

On a side note, we have a player Willie Young hurling centre back on a college team that won the league and are in the Fitzgibbon Cup quarter-final yet he is not even on the Laois panel
when we have a shortage of central defenders. I haven't seen him play much but surely he would be an addition to the panel?