Laois Senior Football Championship 2016

[Uisce]

The most defining lesson we learned at the weekend is that there is nobody going to come within an asses roar of troubling Portlaoise. They are a credit, they show some hunger year after year. Relegation is fairly tasty, Clonaslee will be favourites, but with Will Young and a few others to come back they won't go down without a fight.. A real capitulation from The Heath, really thought they could give it a good go this year..

[Jimmy P]

Ballyfin were not the outstanding favs for relegation as long as they have players like Moore, Finn, Connolly etc however whats the point in having a senior team if avoiding relegation is the most you aspire to ? Portlaoise are an outstanding team not that the rest are all that bad just Portlaoise are exceptional.

What a result for Ballyfin yesterday! all the keyboard warriors choking on their lattes this morning!!Few points in relation to you BallyroanAbu as you have had enough to say about Ballyfin over the past couple of months.

Championship is where it matters and league performance or participation does not have much bearing on football in August / September just ask the Heath that. I'm sure they would swap a league cup for a relegation semi final at this stage.

And I think in only our 2nd year ever at senior level, consolidating our  status and avoiding relegation is ambitious enough considering over half that team also hurl at a very high level similar to only 2 other clubs in the county , Clonaslee and Portlaoise. 

Finally I also disagree with your comment on Portlaoise being an outstanding team. To think Emo could have won a county final last year kind of sums up the standard of football in Laois. The structure is shocking and really needs to follow the hurling model of a senior and senior B championship. To have 16 "senior" teams is a joke. Portlaoise miles ahead of everyone but always get found put against any sort of quality in Leinster. There are at least 8-10 teams in Laois not at senior level our own club included. A competitive senior B and Intermediate championsjip could only improve the standard?

[Laoiseabu]

Jimmy P  delighted to see Ballyfin stay up knew they wouldn't go down have a good chance against a poor crettyard the next day aswell . League means nothing it's all about what happens on the day and ballyfin blew emo away in the second half yesterday

[oneflewoverthecuckoonest]

jimmy you are dead right in your assessment of the senior football scene.
if portlaoise are tuned in, then nobody, barring biased referees will stop them.
after that about ten of the other senior teams may at the start of every year fancy their prospects of getting to the final, in fact without portlaoise, it would be a wide open affair.

in truth, the hurling model of 8 senior a, 8 senior b, is needed in football.......trouble here is that you would have to try convincing 8 that they would have to lose their "a" status, and how would you get there....if you were to base it on the 2017 championship....first round losers, being relegated to senior "b", then whoever would draw portlaoise in round 1 would get the wrong end of the stick.

I think it will be a portlaoise, Killeen final, heavier defeat for latter in the final than last Saturday night.

[BallyroanAbu]

Ballyfin decided not to play the league is where my issue starts and stops.  I don't agree with it and I don't think I can be persuaded that this is a good thing.  Ballyfin have some great footballers in Moore, Finn & Connolly plus others I am not aware of.  If all they are going to get each year is 2-3 games of football how can this be a good thing for Ballyfin football or Laois football.  Good Luck to you against Crettyard, however maybe you should be asking the question how far can this team go with the right structures around them. 

Personally I think any team that has been in 2 out of the last 3 Leinster club  finals only to be beaten by the All Ireland Club champions each time is a pretty exceptional club team to have in any championship.  I may be wrong.

I don't think there is anything wrong with Laois Senior Football Club Championship.  My comparison is Ballyroan and Abbeyleix both are in similar stages in development.  I just feel the Football Senior Championship gives teams abit more time to find form and themselves.  Whereas the Hurling is too tough too early.  Some teams take 3-5 games before they are hitting peak and I feel in hurling you don't get this chance but in football you do. If the hurling championship structure  is so strong why has no Laois Club had any success in Leinster Club Championship while even if Portlaoise are not so good, does a Laois Club Football team regularly qualify for Leinster Finals.

[Laoischat]

Very disappointed with Kileen on Saturday, sat with 14/14 players behind the ball and hoped that hoofing it from deep up to Donie would win them the game. They got a favourable enough draw, if it was a few other teams they might be a bit worried.

Ballyfin were a joy to behold in the second half. Were very much in the game int he first half, bar two sloppy goals from mistakes from defenders. But once they came on the field for the second half there was a real sense of determination about them. With the older Moore and the centre back Duff due back from the US this week, along with Finn Moore Connolly, they should feel rightly confident going into the Crettyard game. All Depends on whether O'Carroll is back from the US, from all reports Crettyard were disappointing against Stradbally.

Clonaslee should go down, but it will be a scrap. Going to be interesting to see how it unfolds.

Still cant see past Portlaoise for ten in a row.

[High Fielder]

The Heath took the league seriously and won it. It done them no good whatsoever in the Championship, and it proves how poor and irrelevant the league is. Ballyfin made a good decision in my opinion. There are 4 clubs who would love to be in their position right now. If you don't like what they did, and don't believe it serves Laois football well, then you should petition your club to get an early couple of rounds going in the Championship. The structure as it stands aided and abetted Ballyfin's progression. There are good footballers there and some with the potential to maybe play at a higher level. Their participation or non participation in a phoney league doesn't change that, and they proved as much.

Killeen were short a couple of their better players in Paul Kingston and Donie Brennan. They had little choice but to park the bus because defensively they are ordinary. Most clubs are carrying at least 3 players well below Senior standard, and for that reason sacrifices have to be made against Portlaoise, who don't have such issues.

It is very easy to get caught up in the excitement of Championship and start to look at lads in a different light. There's a gulf between inter county and club and not many can bridge the gap. I'm not seeing much new fresh talent. There are some with potential, but that is all

[Uisce]

Does anyone have the full draw for the next round? Have missed it somehow..

I agree with high fielder in that there isn't a whole lot of fresh talent there to bridge that gap.. However I won't be convinced that the decision they made out in Ballyfin regarding the league was a good one, pretty sure the Ballyfin lads don't even think so.. Wasn't at the game but you have to hand it to them, it was some win.

[Keyser Söze]

I also disagree with Ballyfin's decision to pull out of the league- but I presume it was done partly because of their Gaels set up?

They would have been without the Slieve Bloom players in the league, plus their county seniors & minors for some rounds. I'm only presuming, but I'd have thought this was the reasoning.

[Laoischat]

There seems to only be Ben Conroy from Slieve Bloom involved at all.

Majority of the club would be involved in both hurling and football, perhaps it was to combat injury and burn out, an issue Ballyfin have suffered with many years previously with many involved in 4 or 6 teams in the club. Whatever it was Ballyfin looked very fresh on Sunday, and played a free flowing brand of football throughout the match

[Don Draper]

and played a free flowing brand of football throughout the match

That free flowing brand of football didn't seem to be doing them much good in the opening half?

To the winners the spoils, and Emo didn't quite hand the game to them, but they did assist in their own downfall to quite a large extent. Good luck to Ballyfin, they're a fine Club working hard at two codes, not an easy thing, but I think this one is being overanalysed somewhat.

[High Fielder]

Many so called superior football clubs are no better for their participating in the league. It shows how backward our system is that a team can just rock up and advance. As a club they did not lose out by avoiding the league. That is my point. Some may not like it, but it is what it is.

[Unlaoised]

Wouldn't agree with Ballyfin's reasoning to pull out of the league but if it served their Dual players to be fresher and hungry for the challange then it paid off.

They had an unreal win in the hurling against Shanahoe and then produced what they produced Sunday.

It was a joy to be there I'm glad I made the effort to go to the two early games.Neutrals from everywhere applauded them off the field it's not often you see that in O'Moore Park!

In truth they were very unlucky to be 8 points down at half time they kicked 10 wides in the first half and only for two Sloppy goals right on the half time whistle they were giving as good as they were getting all over the field.

What happened in the second half was something I've not seen up in O'Moore park for a long long time.

They brand of open attacking footbal they played had neutrals on their feet in the stand it was amazing!

Sean Moore was just pure class his movement even while double marked is something you'd pay to see every week.

James Finn gave an exibition of Fielding and running with the ball (how he wasn't in with the county again last year I don't know)He powered past 5 players for his goal two being county men and buried it into the roof of the net its as good a goal as you'll see up there.

They were missing last years Laois u21 centre forward James Moore and Ciaran Duff also a Laois u21 panelist so maybe they can improve.

As a dual club who have competed at the top level or very near the top in both codes for the past four or five years you have to give them great credit.

They are operating from a very small pool of players and you have about 11 playing both hurling and football.

Apart from Portlaoise and Clonaslee(to a certain degree)their isn't too many clubs that can say that.


The second game up there got it hard to live up to the first but Mountmellick were impressive and seemed hungrier than the Heath...I still think the Heath will beat Graigue


Portlaoise will win ten have no doubt it will be an Arles in the final but there will be 6-8 points in it.


Clonaslee will go down but not with out a fight they got the draw they wanted in emo and remember only 3 years ago they beat them in the relegation final.

[Jimmy P]

Ballyfin decided not to play the league is where my issue starts and stops.  I don't agree with it and I don't think I can be persuaded that this is a good thing.  Ballyfin have some great footballers in Moore, Finn & Connolly plus others I am not aware of.  If all they are going to get each year is 2-3 games of football how can this be a good thing for Ballyfin football or Laois football.  Good Luck to you against Crettyard, however maybe you should be asking the question how far can this team go with the right structures around them. 

Personally I think any team that has been in 2 out of the last 3 Leinster club  finals only to be beaten by the All Ireland Club champions each time is a pretty exceptional club team to have in any championship.  I may be wrong.

I don't think there is anything wrong with Laois Senior Football Club Championship.  My comparison is Ballyroan and Abbeyleix both are in similar stages in development.  I just feel the Football Senior Championship gives teams abit more time to find form and themselves.  Whereas the Hurling is too tough too early.  Some teams take 3-5 games before they are hitting peak and I feel in hurling you don't get this chance but in football you do. If the hurling championship structure  is so strong why has no Laois Club had any success in Leinster Club Championship while even if Portlaoise are not so good, does a Laois Club Football team regularly qualify for Leinster Finals.

I think the standard of club football in Leinster is quite poor to be honest. Lets not forget here that Portlaoise, outside of the Dublin superpowers are probably the biggest club population wise in Leinster and as such are well equipped to swat away the majority of what the province has to offer until they ultimately meet the Dublin champs. There arnt many county towns which have only one club but alas that story has been told more than once at this stage!

Too tough too early?? I think the football layout in its current format encourages mediocrity of which we are witnessing constantly. We need a competitive championship to improve standards to in turn improve the county setup.

[BallyroanAbbey]

The championships should be reduced down to 8 or 12 and gales teams should be encouraged, if you had emo with donoher and o'halrahan etc, josephs with daly e malone etc, and other gales teams the competitiveness in laois would increase immediately, imagine stradbally with a few of the timahoe players. Its a good way of allowing the best players play at the highest level while allowing areas/clubs keep their identity if amalgamations is something they do not want to entertain.
If you look at the teams that went with the gales concept this year you could argue that the 3 of them would of been regarded as been in the relegation mix this year