While I'm disappointed with the decision, I'm not disappointed with Donie himself as he's given a lot to Laois and has put up with a lot, too, with poor setups etc. It's just a pity that this year it looks like we will have our best setup since McNulty, but our best player wont be playing. We can perhaps handle not having Donie for the League campaign as we might still have enough for promotion. But we'll badly need him for championship if we've any hopes of a leinster semi final, so I hope he does come back in the new year at some point. Having Paul Kingston there is a bonus. Let's just hope the setup is as good as we're hoping it will be, and that somehow our top performers will opt in. Having said all that, you can't be disappointed with the players themselves if they decide not to commit. It really is like a full-time job to be an inter county player these days and players have lives, families and jobs too. In my opinion, the commitment the inter county players give across the country without any payment is unsustainable, especially for counties like us that don't see much success. That's a matter for another day though.