LAOIS SENIOR FOOTBALL 2016

[Junior Ex Laoistalk]

What really got to me was the fitness of our lads, they were huffing and puffing after 20 mins and out on their feet for the whole second half.
Agree with the comments about Gary Walsh, he played well whereas Kingston spent the whole day running into cover and losing possession, then throwing his hands up in the air and blaming the ref for everything instead of chasing to win back the ball. When he did run after his man his lack of fitness was plain to be seen, same with O'loughlin who looked incredibly unfit.

These guys have become leaders for us over the past few years yet when we needed leadership they were awful, running into blind alleys and kicking impossible shots which mostly went wide.
This was at times when we needed to settle things down and give the momentum back to us by scoring a few points but we really had no-one to do it. Donagher was blocked down on three occasions yet never learned from it. I could go on and on .......

Hoping Wicklow beat us is not being very helpful and I think we will win that one but beating Dublin for anyone in Leinster is almost impossible at the present time.
Hopefully we get a decent run in the qualifiers and most of these lads come back next year to get us straight back up to Div.2. A few good wins can do a lot for a team but I'm afraid management will have to do something drastic to achieve that.

[Stad]

Just to comment on the game and not go on a rant against the joke of a manager. I'll direct my anger at a certain Marty Duffy instead. So Evan O'Carroll was on a yellow card that was harsh in my opinion. In the second half he tracks back and tackles a Meath player on our 45. Maybe it was a free but it was an innocuous challenge, the ref thought the same and just awarded a free. The Meath manager Dowd goes mad knowing that O'Carroll was on a yellow, the Meatn crowd (who vastly outnumbered ours) followed Dowds lead and went mad. The linesman in front of the stand happened to be Marty Duffy. He decides he wants to get involved so he calls the ref over. After a short conversation O'Carroll is called back and given a second yellow card and sent off.
We were 2 points up at the time. It would have made no difference to our survival in division 2 and we probably would have lost the match anyway but you know the saying 'the ref never changes his mind'? Well if you have a manager run onto the field complaining, a noisy bunch of Meath people screaming and Marty Duffy for assistance then it is possible for the ref to change his mind. I hate Marty Duffy. And his brother.

[Unlaoised]

Just to comment on the game and not go on a rant against the joke of a manager. I'll direct my anger at a certain Marty Duffy instead. So Evan O'Carroll was on a yellow card that was harsh in my opinion. In the second half he tracks back and tackles a Meath player on our 45. Maybe it was a free but it was an innocuous challenge, the ref thought the same and just awarded a free. The Meath manager Dowd goes mad knowing that O'Carroll was on a yellow, the Meatn crowd (who vastly outnumbered ours) followed Dowds lead and went mad. The linesman in front of the stand happened to be Marty Duffy. He decides he wants to get involved so he calls the ref over. After a short conversation O'Carroll is called back and given a second yellow card and sent off.
We were 2 points up at the time. It would have made no difference to our survival in division 2 and we probably would have lost the match anyway but you know the saying 'the ref never changes his mind'? Well if you have a manager run onto the field complaining, a noisy bunch of Meath people screaming and Marty Duffy for assistance then it is possible for the ref to change his mind. I hate Marty Duffy. And his brother.

Evan O'Carroll kicked out after he fouled him I was right in front of it thats why the Meath crowd were going mad...



God hard to know what to make of this set up now I was all on for giving the management team a chance but from what i have seen and what I'm hearing it looks as if they need some sort of help...

I think there is a training in castlebar this thursday it will be interesting to see how many make the trip!!!

[Junior Ex Laoistalk]

I think there is a training in castlebar this thursday it will be interesting to see how many make the trip!!!

At least he's finally found a pitch to train on ...

[Stad]

Just to comment on the game and not go on a rant against the joke of a manager. I'll direct my anger at a certain Marty Duffy instead. So Evan O'Carroll was on a yellow card that was harsh in my opinion. In the second half he tracks back and tackles a Meath player on our 45. Maybe it was a free but it was an innocuous challenge, the ref thought the same and just awarded a free. The Meath manager Dowd goes mad knowing that O'Carroll was on a yellow, the Meatn crowd (who vastly outnumbered ours) followed Dowds lead and went mad. The linesman in front of the stand happened to be Marty Duffy. He decides he wants to get involved so he calls the ref over. After a short conversation O'Carroll is called back and given a second yellow card and sent off.
We were 2 points up at the time. It would have made no difference to our survival in division 2 and we probably would have lost the match anyway but you know the saying 'the ref never changes his mind'? Well if you have a manager run onto the field complaining, a noisy bunch of Meath people screaming and Marty Duffy for assistance then it is possible for the ref to change his mind. I hate Marty Duffy. And his brother.

Evan O'Carroll kicked out after he fouled him I was right in front of it thats why the Meath crowd were going mad...



God hard to know what to make of this set up now I was all on for giving the management team a chance but from what i have seen and what I'm hearing it looks as if they need some sort of help...

I think there is a training in castlebar this thursday it will be interesting to see how many make the trip!!!

May focus my anger back to Lillis so!

Warm weather training is it? In Castlebar!!!!

[les Antiques]

A few keys lads not going due to work commitments by all accounts .

[Stad]

It's been run like a club team. Heading off to Castlebar for some team bonding and some boozing I presume. Lillis has had all league to at least try to shore things up and he's refused to do so. Couldn't sort out a training pitch and training is meant to be fairly basic anyway. Players seem to be getting worse under his stewardship! It's not just in defence he has no tactics at all. Just go out and give your all is not enough.
He has a history of giving referees abuse from the sideline and he's continuing to behave like this. This is more harmful than anything as referees turn against us. If he's refused to tighten the defence up to this and in fact think he's right to leave things open, then we can only assume he'll continue this way. I've said it before be we have Dublin to play in two months (Wicklow are division 4 strugglers), I won't be going to Kilkenny if he's still in charge.

[Tony]

To be honest, the woeful setup would be funny if it wasn't Laois and we didn't travel all over the country to see the team. We care a lot about Laois football and how we do. The reality is though, that it appears we might as well have Basil Faulty in charge.

It's horrific to see the team, not only bereft of any decent tactics, BUT ALSO, lacking hugely in fitness AS WELL as sharpness and skill due to "no pitch being available in the whole county of Laois!". Players in their prime are looking far worse under this man. It's unacceptable.

I feel bad for us as fans, but more importantly, i feel bad for the players. If Lillis is to stay for his 1 year stewardship, he may get some help, he clearly needs it. I was all for giving the man a chance as well, but his performance has been very poor at best.

Apart from that, it's time for the county board to waken up and realise it's 2016. Time to put measures in place to improve the state of GAA in Laois. It does not have to take huge sums of money to implement a lot of common sense. We're a proud county and this type of freefall is unacceptable. I'm not saying we're all-ireland contenders, but we should be in the top 2 divisions and playing football in mid-late July at least.

In Lillis' last interview he implied that Div 3 is a very hard division, too! That's the exact same attitude he had at start of div 2 - "such a difficult division and we'll do well to stay up". This - from the manager - the guy we expect to give the players belief!!! We need that kind of attitude like a hole in the head.

In short, and this will be my last comment on it for now : it's been a very disappointing league. Still, we can turn it around if the set up realises they need to implement some drastic changes and that it's not 1982 anymore. I won't hold my breath but stranger things have happened.

[beano]

I agree Evan O Carroll deserved that second yellow. It was a lack of discipline. In fairness its the first time I have seen him lash out like that. As the league is now over and I have been to six out of the seven games,

A few things clearly stand out:

1) Warm ups in early rounds were poor. 10 v 10 possession games at least sunday was an improvement.

2) The Galway and Fermanagh games cost us in the end and them games should have been treated like an All-Ireland final. if we had off showed the same passion and hunger as we did in first twenty mins against meath we would have stayed up. Team selection cost us against Galway. Preperation against Fermanagh. I'm still so angry how the county board insisted on traveling up on the morning of such an important game. Kerry even stay in Cork the night before league games in Cork!! The same thing was repeated for the Cavan Game.

3) County board need to up their game and treat the players as elite intercounty players not as an inconvience.  My examples of not staying in Cavan and fermanagh are shocking but seeing players yesterday in a filling station buying drinks (Minerals and sandwiches ) twenty mins after the game doesnt give the impression that they are well looked after. I was under the impression that all teams would get a meal after training. In Micko's time that was in a hotel. I saw Derry, Tyrone  and Armagh  all using tracking devises on players thats the level they are at.
Even the panal were not all in the same gear. I dont know the panel but would love to talk to Ross Munnelly about the differences in set up and county board attitude between now and 2003 or even the set up under mcnulty! Id say you could write a book about the differences.

4) "The Supporters"- Its official we have the worst support in the county. Yesterday the Laois crowd was a joke. Outnumbered for such an important game. We are well able to get 3-4000 people at county finals should be the same for yesterday. Again back to 03-06 20,000+ at leinster finals!! cant even get 10% of that now. We can blame the set up for the apthy but its been like this since the 2009 leinster semi against Kildare. Even when we won promotion to Division one in 2011 there was no buzz around the team only doom and gloom with the supporters about style. Campare that to the Joy in Cavan or Roscommon with their promotions. In 2012 we must have brought only 1,000 to the All-Ireland 1/4 against Dublin a record low.

5) Management- Dissapointed is an understatement- Before the league I expected a passionate laois man would inspire the panel during the league. I had high hopes due to his record in Kildare and Carlow and even with Laois minors last year. Glad he got players to play but we need to bring in a defence coach and even a strength and conditioning coach.


Ps. What was the story with Begley, cotter and seale not playing. Injured?

[Ballyroan Abbey]

With regards lillis club record, his championship wins with palatine in carlow and st laurences in kildare were with mark kavanagh as co manager, who was a coach with westmeath last year when they got to the leinster final so you could argue who the brains behind those victories, particularly considering how hot headed an individual lillis appears to be

[Keyser Söze]

What in gods name is he on about.  Its like someone playing fantasy football. 15 on 15 has long since sailed.  It's laudable he wants to play 15 -15 but christ its dreaming.

It's not in the slightest bit laudable. It's laughable.
We are all entitled to our opinions on how a team should set up......but we are certainly not all entitled to a position as an IC manager.

To paraphrase a famous Tipp putdown; "I don't blame him at all, it's the fellas who gave him the job I blame!"


People here talking about John Sugrue being brought in? Was Sugrue not in contention for the job but didn't get it?!! Hard to know how you ask him in to pick the pieces up in April!

Keyser
I just read your post on the Hurling  am I correct in assuming that the hurlers have a fairly impressive backroom team ie. Cummins, Cunningham, AN OTHER from Waterford a S+C guy... all of the above are getting expenses for their contributions I assume.

Now on the other hand ML we are told  is a volunteer  and theres  no money to spare   bla bla bla. and the whole thing by all accounts is shambles.

Ok I don't want to be jumping to conclusions here but can someone that knows please clarify, is it the case of "the squeaky wheel getting greased" or WTF is going on.

Well, I'm not 100% sure on this, but one man in the hurling set up is definitely not being paid.
Also, many believe that this man, whom many want to step aside, is actually financing much of the backroom team personally.

[redsetanta]

I heard that the liikes of video analysis of opposing teams etc which is commonplace nowadays with all intercounty set ups is non existent under the current management. Apparantley the management and panel never sat down once to have a look at Fermanagh before they travelled to play them.

Now most players will tell you that they get very bored with too much video analysis but when players are surprised by the fact there was none at all tells a story about the preparation being done.

[Helix]

I heard that the liikes of video analysis of opposing teams etc which is commonplace nowadays with all intercounty set ups is non existent under the current management. Apparantley the management and panel never sat down once to have a look at Fermanagh before they travelled to play them.

Now most players will tell you that they get very bored with too much video analysis but when players are surprised by the fact there was none at all tells a story about the preparation being done.

This is been done at club level in some parts of the county. Begs belief why an intercounty setup not doing something similar. It's a case for Laois of 'Evolve or become extinct'. Sums up the setup in both codes as a whole. We desperately cling onto the glory days instead of trying to make more in this county. Mentality needs to change big time. I hate being pessimistic on this but it's very frustrating to see potential going down the drain.

[les Antiques]

Very disheartening to hear among other things players eating sandwiches at a service station an hour after playing with there county .

[south Laois]

I've never been so disheartened about the state of Laois football. It's nothing short of disgraceful that players have to eat out of a service station after a match or even training. For that the buck stops with the county board. As for the playing side of things, it looks like Wooly was right. Lillis has been a shambles!!! Trying to play 15 on 15. This isn't the80s. There seems to be no plan or system of play. Plus fitness levels seem to be pretty low. It seems another year wasted.