Allianz Football League 2017 - Division 3

[Tony]

Massive overreaction here on the forum. If we're as bad as we say we are, when then the shock at the defeat.

The teams we're putting out are really the sort of teams that normally line out at the start of the O'Byrne Cup each year, in terms of experience.

We're missing about 9 to 11 first team starters - that's huge.

The only players that are playing up in Armagh that will be guaranteed a place in summer are Brody, Strong, Begley and Donie. 4 players.

I really wouldn't read too much into these early days of the season as we're really trying to blood new players - the focus IS and always should be on the Championship. It's important to have strength in depth then, hence the experimentation. The League, when it comes down to it, doesn't matter all that much does it.

It looks like we'll have a poor league campaign but we're missing massive starters - let's try to bring the other lads on - the debutants and younger lads - we'll need them long term and we will need their experience come summertime.

Prediction : because an earthquake has hit our team and so many are injured, lets just stay in Div 3, blood lots of new players and focus on building a squad with experience for the Championship. We can't honestly think of promotion with the amount of injuries we have. We probably will lose in Armagh but in the context of our injury list it's Longford in May we should be and are building for.

[Tony]

To put it in context, here's the team that will start VS Armagh. And below that is a rough idea of what will start in May VS Longford. 2 TOTALLY DIFFERENT teams. We're incomparably stronger in every line in Summer.



LAOIS TEAM VS ARMAGH IN FEBUARY

Brody

Strong
Booth
Kelly

Buggie
Kieran Lillis
Stephen Attride

Colm Begley
Danny Luttrell

Cormac Murphy
Doran
Donoher

Ruari O'Connor
Kingston
Meaney



LIKELY TO START VS LONGFORD IN MAY

G BRODY

P MCMAHON
M TIMMONS
D O' CONNOR

STRONG
C BEGLEY
ATTRIDE

O' LOUGHLIN
QUIGLEY

DONAGHER
G WALSH
E O' CARROLL

P KINGSTON
D KINGSTON
D CONWAY

[town1980]

i disagree the age profile is too high,,macmahon 33,,timmons 32,,strong 31,,begly 31,,quigley 31,,donaher 31,,,6 lads at the wrong age for the way the games is gone

[redsetanta]

You are buttering it up quite a bit there Tony. I would be very surprised if that is the team come May.

[No. 5]

Lads, first post, congratulations this site reminds me of Laoistalk, it's great to hear the opinions of people who really care about Laois football.
I'm glad Buggie wasn't dropped, big ask throwing him in centre back but my question is does anyone think he has the ability to claim the centre back position?
I'd also prefer Donie out on the half forward line forcing him to up his work rate. Serious talent but wasting as each year zips by.

[Junior Ex Laoistalk]

Lads, first post, congratulations this site reminds me of Laoistalk, it's great to hear the opinions of people who really care about Laois football.
I'm glad Buggie wasn't dropped, big ask throwing him in centre back but my question is does anyone think he has the ability to claim the centre back position?
I'd also prefer Donie out on the half forward line forcing him to up his work rate. Serious talent but wasting as each year zips by.

Welcome No.5, glad you are comparing us to Laoistalk which was a brilliant forum for mostly knowledable people who loved Laois GAA. That's why we tried to get as many posters as possible to transfer over here when it closed down and I think that worked.
Centre back has been a problem position for us for many years now and it's worth a try giving some young blood a chance there and the league is probably the best place to do that. Donie is playing very well but teams have copped on to him now and double mark him most days. I think he tries to do too much with the ball when he gets it when sometimes the better option would be to pass it on quickly to a better placed teammate. Hopefully he will do a bit more of that in this league.

[Tony]

I'd have Colm Begley at centre half back, to me he'd suit that position perfectly. A spine of Timmons, Begley, O loughlin, quigley, walsh, donie would be ideal come may, in my opinion, with the option of swapping walsh with donie centre to full. But I'm not the man in charge i suppose

[Don Draper]

Lads, Donie is what he is at this stage. He's not for changing. He's not going to turn into Michael Murphy. He'll be a second tier forward, when he could have been one of the greats. But second tier will still be a hell of a lot better than anything we'll see in the next 10 years. Its about propping him up at this point with a few workers around him, to get the best out of him we can.

[High Fielder]

Heading up today but not expecting too much. We are under strength and everyone knows that, but you just want to see a bit of bite from those who go onto the pitch. I don't believe as a county, we have any right to expect victory, but I do believe that we are capable of being competitive with everyone in Leinster bar the Dubs. I want our forwards and half forwards to work their arses off, because I'm not seeing that at all. In short, I just want to se us make Armagh work for it today, and not just hand it to them on a plate. I'd settle for that.

[ILikeStrawberryJam]

Hard to see us get anything today .. cant see where the scores will come from ..

Im presuming we'll be much improved defensively though ..

Is dillon out injured? We could do with his pace ..

Have they the option of rolling clarke off the bench?

Fair play heading up there high fielder .. look forward to hearing your report afterwards ..

[SCFC]

Just seen the team just put us in division 4 already

Good man yourself.

[town1980]

I was the first one to say laois would be beaten today but OMG what a gutsy win today,,, so many lads not available it was a massive performance I didn't see comming,,, well done and again I eat my words,,,a great two points 👍🏻

[Helix]

Great response after last week's shambles. 2 points gained when all looked lost. Sounded like pure robbery up in Armagh. Well done to all.
Roll on Tipp in a forthright!

[Unlaoised]

Some performance and without Begley beore throw in ...

We can't seem to loose in Armagh or to Armagh

[Dugout]

Wow,
The Whingers have will nothing to post!
Well done Laois. Always hard to win in Ulster.
Seems some posters like listening to them selves.
But put no thought or don't what they are talking about.