LAOIS SENIOR FOOTBALL 2016

[blueandwhite1]

Why do we always talk about bringing different personnel when we are struggling defensively? It is 90% a problem with shape, planning and drilling. With Brody, Attride, Seale, Timmons, Keogh, Dillon, Lillis, Strong, Cotter and Begley, we have enough defenders and plenty of pace, athleticism and power. Also plenty of pace for lads covering back with O'Carroll, Donoher, O'Connor etc. All the top teams have a plan and some manage to punch way above their weight because of it. The plan ensures that if ball is played through the hands that you will be surrounded by 2-3 players before you get past the 45. There will always be 2 blockers and disruptive runner to stop lads walking into the scoring zone and the rest of the players filter back to prevent easy shots in the scoring zone. All division 1 teams and most division 2 teams have this worked out. Tyrone will always be competitive because they work to this process. Everyone knows their job. The only man to come close to addressing this has been McNulty. All the other managers including Micko, Kearns, Dempsey and O'Flaharta didn't get this right and I would worry about Lillis. He should already be developing this system given that we are so far into the league. Tom Cribben is putting it in place over in Westmeath. In a nutshell, Laois are a mile behind again in tactical planning

[Tony]

With respect Junior, a spell in Div 3 would not be good for Laois. Roscommon are an exception. The only reason they're excelling is because of proper planning, a good set up and excellent tactics. If we had that, we should be looking at being promoted to Div 1 next year, not playing in a poor Div 3. I strongly believe that we have the talent and should be challenging for promotion to Div 1. We need good setup and tactics. Strongest panel in years and we better NOT have the worst setup and management in years. Enough messing, let's cop on and set ourselves up properly.

[Stad]

McNulty would have made hay with this squad. We have nearly everyone available, young players coming through that are adding a lot, competition for places, problem is we have an amateur set up. We could be wasting our best opportunity in years.

[redsetanta]

There's no guarantee that McNulty would have had the same level of committment. Alot of lads were fed up of his tactics the same as the supporters.

We are where we are so there isn't much point lamenting about McNulty. I for one am not sorry to see his style of play gone. Is he even managing now?

Personally I would rather have the unpredictable Laois we have now than go back to the McNulty days.

[Stad]

There's no guarantee that McNulty would have had the same level of committment. Alot of lads were fed up of his tactics the same as the supporters.

We are where we are so there isn't much point lamenting about McNulty. I for one am not sorry to see his style of play gone. Is he even managing now?

Personally I would rather have the unpredictable Laois we have now than go back to the McNulty days.

It wasn't always perfect under McNulty but people have short memories. It wasn't always ultra defensive and we had some great victories. We got promoted to division 1 in 2011, scoring 6-98 and getting notable wins against Meath, Derry (away by 14 points) and Donegal. In 2012 we got relegated from division one but we competed well, could anyone see that happening now? In 2013 we beat Armagh scoring 20 points, Galway by 8, we finished on 9 points.
In the championship we had great wins such as against Monaghan by 2 goals, beating Meath in Tullamore, Wexford away and giving Dublin and Donegal really good games. We were also banging in massive scores against lesser opposition. Before and after McNulty we got knocked out by Tipperary! Last year it was Antrim. We actually got to a quarter final under McNulty, when will that happen again?

[beano]

Well said stad! about time someone on this site started talking sense!!!  I have always said it, We were too quick to let McNulty go. It was people not going to games that wanted him gone. Anyone who knew anything about football knew he was getting the best out of what he had. An 1/4 final and a defeat to donegal wasnt bad. Kicking football into late July early august is alot better than going out in early june to Antrim!!

[goal 10]

In a nutshell, Laois are a mile behind again in tactical planning
YOU CAN SAY THAT AGAIN.

[OTF]

The players like to attack the supported like it Jack Nolan likes it, judging by the reaction here and on the old Laoistalk forum all hate defensive foorball it seems to be somehow beneath us,it's a culture thing.
There's no doubt it has being an awfull week defensively fo Laois football, maybe now the penny will finally drop, if it doesn't I dread to think what the summer might bring.
All is not lost, its evident from Wednesday and yesterday we now have serious attacking talent and I would argu it's a hell of a lot easier to set up a defensive system than turn defenders into attackers,
ask Mayo.

[OTF]

Derry and Tyrone have big parts to play in the relegation stakes , Tyrone will want to keep winning but may not have their best team in action against Armagh and Fermanagh.We need Armagh to be beaten next next round and hope we can beat Meath

[From the Terrace]

I think lillis deserves credit for assembling this squad, He should be only judged after the season obviously would be great to stay in division 2, talks of mcnulty is pointless the football we played was depressing.

[Unlaoised]

I think lillis deserves credit for assembling this squad, He should be only judged after the season obviously would be great to stay in division 2, talks of mcnulty is pointless the football we played was depressing.

This is a good point...

Mcnulty was got rid of too quickly but lets concentrate on the future...

Lillis is a good man and getting great commitment from nearly all our top players ...

If we just got someone else on board and maybe an outsider to t**ker with defensive tactics there has to be men out there that would be interested in coming on board....

I think a slight change like this to the backroom staff and a little bit more professionalism and we could have a good year as we defo have the talent there to work with.

[ILikeStrawberryJam]

I agree that McNulty did bring some success early on  but the football we played during his last year was depressing and the supporters turned away in droves. I have to admit I stopped going to some of the matches as there was just no enjoyment watching 14 lads in your own half. There has to be some enjoyment in it.
This is the best bunch of attacking players we've had for a while. Defensively we need a lot of work and the jury is out on whether Lillis has the smarts to develop a proper defensive plan.  If we develop a decent defensive plan we are capable of beating most teams. O Carroll is a revelation and a lot of good u21 coming thru ..
We are a bit green at the moment .. Tyrone would have taken the heads of those Derry lads when it became obvious they were gonna try run thru for goals at every opportunity.

[Stad]

The crowds have come back in their thousands since McNulty left! The stand was crowded against Derry.
If people prefer to get beaten by Antrim and Tipperary then fair enough but I prefererred watching us get to an All Ireland quarter final and putting it up to the bigger teams in late July.
Anyway, as has been said, we have to move on. We have our most talented squad in a good few years. Let's hope Lillis can learn and tighten things up. If Fermanagh and Derry are walking through us then what will Dublin do? Cavan are a team on the up. A real good challenge to see if we're trying to get things right.

[The Boy Wonder]

All this chatter about Justin McNulty now is utterly pointless (for what's it's worth I think he did a good job and probably got the best out of the squad available to him).

We owe these Cavan boys - they came to O'Moore Park last year and embarrassed us.

[Junior Ex Laoistalk]

Just saw this on the Derry forum, looks like they have the same worries as we have...

Just back in the hotel after the Laois game and I am absolutely at a loose end trying to work out what is going on with this current Derry set-up. In the last 3 games we have conceded a total of 4-55 and add in the fact that we have been totally outplayed.

Make no mistake about it, we were very fortunate to come out of Laois today with a point. We had a referee which gave us nearly all the soft decisions. Laois out thought us, out worked us and to be honest they made us look a very ordinary side that is heading backwards at a rate of noughts.

SL McGoldrick was deployed as sweeper and It was a total ineffective move by Derry, had no influence whatsoever, Quigley single handedly wiped out our midfield.

Our defensive system is clearly not working, we are inviting the opposition on and hoping to turn the ball over and play the counter attacking game, if this is our plan going into the championship then we are in bother. We continue to concede soft frees with indiscipline in the tackle.

One positive, when we run with the ball in hand we look a threat but we have to marry our attacking play with a solid defensive plan.

We need to play Rodgers at fullback, that is his natural position, would try Chrissy McKaigue at midfield with Holly, play Mark Lynch at CHF and Gerard O'Kane at CHB, that would give us a good experienced spine to the team.

We still have time to implement changes but it's going to take a lot of hard word and my personal opinion after watching these last 3 matches that maybe it's down to attitude like previous years. I understand it's an amateur sport but you have to put in the effort, commitment and sacrifices to reap the rewards.

OakGael (Derry) - Posts:238 - 13/03/2016 16:12:01   1834107


Scoring 5 goals is definitely a positive, but conceding 1 goal and 22 points is definitely a negative.

Serious analysis is needed on how Laois managed to score 22 points, essentially they achieved a score on average every 3 minutes. I wasn't down at the game, but that scoring return would suggest Laois cleaned Derry out in midfield, and found little resistance from the Derry defence.

Now while Laois are a strong side, they are not widely known for their attacking style. That makes me worry........alot

GaryMc82 (Derry) - Posts:2195 - 14/03/2016 18:36:47   1834822