Laois Senior Football Championship 2020

[oneflewoverthecuckoonest]

It is indeed a complete farce regarding the schedule for the remainder of the senior football championship.
We were in lockdown at the same time as OY and KE, yet they finished their championships in Football this weekend.
Of course, Laois county board instead of opting for a different format, continued with the convoluted system and now in early October, we find ourselves with two rounds remaining.
If memory serves, when  Arles Kilcruise won the championship in Laois, did they not play the following day in the Leinster Club?.

Given the rising Covid numbers, there has to be a possibility of a second national lockdown, and such an occurrence  may kill all gaa action for the rest of the year.
I feel sorry for the 4 clubs, they should play  the semis next weekend, Friday night and Saturday if needs be, and then have the final on Saturday week.

With a likely short lived effort in the Leinster Championship for the county footballers, if you were a current county panellist from one of the four clubs, the temptation must be to drop off the county panel and focus on the club, if the November date for the semi finals is an immovable object(Covid permitting).



Here is a simple question.....if you were told that the virus is spreading too dangerously and a nationwide lockdown is imminent, by the end of this month......if you were from one of the 4 clubs.....would you be happy to play the semi finals and final inside the next 14 days, or opt to wait until next March or April to complete the championship?.

[Keyser Söze]

I don't think there's a huge amount wrong with the structure (except for the number of teams in the championship!!). It's inexplicable that they kept the huge breaks between rounds.
Complications coming!

[Downtheroad]

 
We are a dual county with dual clubs such as Portlaoise who are due to play a Premier intermediate hurling final next week. While their exit today makes it easier to bring the games forward, that could only be decided after the match today.  Kildare don't give a dam about hurling while Offaly have a round less.

[Keyser Söze]

I don't have all of the dates etc to hand and it's a bit late in the evening to go compiling them all from Laoisgaa.ie, but notwithstanding the lockdown there were indeed extended breaks between rounds when there was no need.
I disagreed with Eddie Brennan wanting the hurling championship ran off ASAP (he didn't quite say that), but this is the other end of the extreme!

[Uisce]

Surely the CB will bring it forward now? Extremely unfair on the clubs involved. Obviously a decision needs to be made asap, I really hope they see sense.

Any reason why the draw was not made yesterday?

[Zooming around]

Surely the CB will bring it forward now? Extremely unfair on the clubs involved. Obviously a decision needs to be made asap, I really hope they see sense.

Any reason why the draw was not made yesterday?

Don't ever put those words together.

[redsetanta]

Well it won't be finishing until 2021 with todays decision.

[Laois Rising]

Agree the championship should have been played as a straight knock out from the beginning-madness to have done otherwise, especially when Laois continue to want to have 16 senior teams in the championship for a county as small as we are. Furthermore, we are also a duel county so even crazier to expect to run both championships to completion in the timeline provided.

Teams beaten in first round of championship would still have got a second day out looking to preserve their senior status so minimum of two games for everyone. In the end, none of the teams that came through the backdoor made the semi finals so probably would have ended up with similar last four with a straight knock out. Had we had straight knock out championship the weekend gone could have been county final day in both hurling and football.

[Laoiseabu]

I've looked at all the championship matches on the very good livestream service so far . Been a pretty poor standard championship with portlaoise now well and truly back with the pack . Not too many new players have stood out that deserve a chance but heres my opinion on who maybe deserves a look at that isn't currently involved ,

Will Young , Eoin Dunne, Fiachra C Fennell, Sean Moore, James Finn, David Connolly , James Moore, Padraig Kirwan ,Finbar Crowley, Jack Owens ( the Emo one ) , Adam Ryan , Jason Moore, Ronan Coffey , Danny Lutrell , Garry Comerford, Eoin Buggie , Dylan Doyle , Seamus Lacey , Mark McDermott , David McDermott , Shane Bolger, Michael Doran, Evan Lowry , Ross Hennessy ,Danny Bolger, Gary Saunders , Benny Carroll , Cormac Murphy

Not a whole lot to work with but it is very hard to pick out players up to standard.

[High Fielder]

Great county for player welfare is Laois. Saying it this yonks. Unfortunately, because we love our format so much, we play irrelevant football for four fifths of the year, and unless you're in with the county, you're unfit and incapable of making the step up. Our format is fundamentally flawed and panders to club players too much. Covid has highlighted structural flaws, but our two month Championship is based on Laois never being successful or us playing our Championship in a fortnight because we were. Either way it's a mess.

And for what it's worth, I see no reason why football and hurling can't be played on the same weekend with a bit of planning. Jesus in other counties it's been known to play two matches in one day. Not in Laois though....

[Ballyroan Abbey]

And for what it's worth, I see no reason why football and hurling can't be played on the same weekend with a bit of planning. Jesus in other counties it's been known to play two matches in one day. Not in Laois though....

Maybe lads have a life and interests outside of GAA, you say Laois provide player welfare like its a bad thing, ask the majority of the players and they will tell you they like the system as is

[High Fielder]

And that right there is why Laois will never amount to anything. I couldn't give a monkeys either way. It just seems to me that most counties have a different culture to ours. In successful counties, the GAA is your life and you accept that. It's not for everyone and it certainly isn't for us. But we can't have our cake and eat it. If we want a player friendly championship, we can't also expect club football to be a vibrant breeding ground for good players. Look at Sean Moore. Prime example. Fucked out and left out for years. No development. Just left to waste despite being one of the best forwards in the county. Wasn't he sent back to his club to "develop". FFS come on.

[Ballyroan Abbey]

So your argument is that lads should be treated worse by the fixtures comittees and dedicate their entire lives to Football, an amateur sport and have no social life or experience of the real world to appease the likes of yourself?

I'd rather see lads do what they want to do and enjoy their Football or Hurling while having a life than putting every waking moment and decision to it and hating it, and in the end getting nothing for it

[Keyser Söze]

Major extremes there HF, and while I don't agree with what you are saying, looking back I don't see why we had full one code only weeks given the year that was in it.
Some sort of rolling schedule where teams played every 10 days or so (with at least one midweek fixture) surely should have been looked at.
Maybe it's all easy say in retrospect.
I don't get the connection you are trying to make between the format and player's commitment levels? Surely the football format (where you have no idea who you are facing in the next round and must win to activate a safety net) is better than a group format where you know 3 months in advance which games will be tough & which will be less of a battle?

[Laoiseabu]

I see portarlington haven't conceded a goal yet in the championship . Has a team ever went a full campaign without conceding a goal