The Future for Laois Football

[Tier2]

Have we anyone to contest the chair  as a new chairman down the line??

billy?

George Doyle's Left leg cause the Rights gone fairly wide

[Spiritof86]

Have we a Michael Duigan to take the chair?

Well clearly we do not .

[clonadmad]

Have we a Michael Duigan to take the chair?

It's one thing looking for a figurehead like Duignan but 1 person on his own won't affect change

Duignan brought in a whole cabinet of well qualified in their fields highly motivated people with him

The likes of Carina Carroll is equally as important as a Duignan even if she wouldn't be anywhere as high profile

Between coaching,development,top table,administration,social media and fundraising Offaly have close on 100 people involved

[marty34]

https://www.laoistoday.ie/2023/06/30/laois-gaa-announce-details-of-the-o-mordha-og-football-program-for-2023/

Good to see this happening. Hopefully it is a big success.

I read the article. It's for 6 weeks.

What's the uptake on a scheme like this over the summer.  I know in the article it states that there's loads of other things happening and training and matches with clubs and hurling and football etc.

Obviously no U11 football games that night but what's commitment level like?

Are these players then graded after the first couple of weeks?

[BallyroanAbbey]

Looking at the Setanta programme on Laois Today, it's something along these signs that Laois are going to have to be put in, even for the football I'd imagine that could be regionalised the first few years between North Mid and South Laois
The days of there being mass areas of no football and hurling can't be let continue there has be a platform for lads from these areas to play at a higher level

You see it with lads Like Rafter in Rathdowney, Tyrell and young Byrne in Camross, Mullaney in Castletown, the Comerfords in The Harps, that there are genuinely good footballers in hurling areas, are they county standard, I don't know probably not but could they play senior club, yes

On the club scene for immediate improvement splitting senior into 8 or 12 clubs and having 4 regional teams with them would reduce the amount of players playing senior while also allowing for a higher standard of player, and giving proper exposure to lads from bad current senior clubs, junior clubs and lads from hurling clubs

I also feel we got to 2 u20 finals in 19 and 20, where are these lads, how many went onto play senior?
Very few I'd say, like that 19 team had a 6"7 two footed full forward with decent pace, who became so uninterested in football that he now occasionally plays junior C football and took up hurling, how was that let happen
Jack Owens, very athletic wing forward loads of promise a lad who you could easily turn into prototype county wing back/forward, never pushed on, why?

I even see it with Diarmuid Whelan I think he played 5-10 minutes of senior championship against Westmeath in 21, a lad that seemed a sure fire senior

Laois have a decade of work to get right underage which a lot of people have pointed out, but there are a lot of immediate things that can be changed to bring quick improvements

Those lads I mentioned above maybe they're chance to be brought to a county level has passed now, but my point is how we're so those lads and more like them let slip away

[The PRO]

Looking at the Setanta programme on Laois Today, it's something along these signs that Laois are going to have to be put in, even for the football I'd imagine that could be regionalised the first few years between North Mid and South Laois
The days of there being mass areas of no football and hurling can't be let continue there has be a platform for lads from these areas to play at a higher level

You see it with lads Like Rafter in Rathdowney, Tyrell and young Byrne in Camross, Mullaney in Castletown, the Comerfords in The Harps, that there are genuinely good footballers in hurling areas, are they county standard, I don't know probably not but could they play senior club, yes

On the club scene for immediate improvement splitting senior into 8 or 12 clubs and having 4 regional teams with them would reduce the amount of players playing senior while also allowing for a higher standard of player, and giving proper exposure to lads from bad current senior clubs, junior clubs and lads from hurling clubs

I also feel we got to 2 u20 finals in 19 and 20, where are these lads, how many went onto play senior?
Very few I'd say, like that 19 team had a 6"7 two footed full forward with decent pace, who became so uninterested in football that he now occasionally plays junior C football and took up hurling, how was that let happen
Jack Owens, very athletic wing forward loads of promise a lad who you could easily turn into prototype county wing back/forward, never pushed on, why?

I even see it with Diarmuid Whelan I think he played 5-10 minutes of senior championship against Westmeath in 21, a lad that seemed a sure fire senior

Laois have a decade of work to get right underage which a lot of people have pointed out, but there are a lot of immediate things that can be changed to bring quick improvements

Those lads I mentioned above maybe they're chance to be brought to a county level has passed now, but my point is how we're so those lads and more like them let slip away

Some great points there. I think a reduced senior football championship with a few regional teams would be brilliant. I'm not sure if we have the number of clubs for four regional teams though. I'd be more thinking three.

If you had a north west team covering from Clonaslee back to around Port, then a mid team covering from Ballybrittas down as far as Abbeyleix and then a south east team covering from Carlow border back up to Stradbally, then the lads from the different hurling clubs who you've mentioned could be allocated to one or more of the teams.

But the senior championship really needs to be reduced in numbers. Without being offensive or naming teams, too many of them are not really senior standard.

[Laois Rising]

I think the leagues have worked very well in how they were restructured. Now, it's time to tackle the championship structures.

I get the argument regarding a regional team allowing some talented hurlers have the opportunity to play football at the highest club level. However, I'm not sure how willing some of the clubs would be to have their players playing football for a regional entity one week and then turn around and play championship hurling a week later and back to football again the week after that. You are risking injury, fatigue and perhaps missing out of key training sessions to play for a side that isn't to the betterment of your "club". I know in Tipperary the Loughmore-Castleiney players found playing championship football one week and hurling the next great and playing and winning championship games week on week really drove them on. However, in that example they are playing for their own club and playing and training together as a collective and could tweak things in training etc. to meet the needs of the players and the club.

You saw a few years ago Ciaran Burke who hurls with Harps also went playing championship football with Crettyard. Both teams went deep into their championship seasons and he broke down with injury due to overplaying. Crettyard lost the intermediate final that year and Burke would have been a big player for them. I think he played the final injured but you couldn't imagine the bigger hurling clubs in Laois risking similar situations occurring.

I personal wouldn't like to see a regional team from the predominantly hurling area in the senior football championship if they were fielding weakened teams that only act as canon fodder and serve no purpose to a restructured Laois football championship. Careful thought would have to go into the composition of the regional teams if we were to go down that route.         

[BallyroanAbbey]

Well the regional teams would be made of more than just hurlers, you would be getting the best from intermediate and junior teams playing too, the whole idea would be you have everyone with an opportunity at playing senior, less number of players while improving the quality

Take someone like James Baldwin from Barrowhouse, probably not a county player but I'd argue he would be a very good senior club player, Simular with

You'd also have the add on of improving your intermediate and junior championships by reducing the senior
There are currently 16 clubs at senior
There are 13 clubs between intermediate and junior A clubs with their first teams
You shouldn't have a higher percentage chance of being a senior club than of not being one
If clubs want to remain senior it will force them to improve their underage systems, and put them under more pressure to ensure that the conveyer belt stays producing players

[Joeythelips]

Player development is key but the county board could be smart with their resources, get the coaching in at school level with the aim to make our secondary school teams in particular competitive. Obviously all the kids go to school so you have bigger picks and standard than majority of clubs so coach them there. Those players will improved and go back to their clubs better players making Laois underage championships more competitive, this in turn improves players going into development squads where you cherry pick and prepare top players for inter county level. Its also vital to encourage players to go to 3rd level education where they will meet coaches and players at the level needed to compete at inter county level.

It is no surprise how successful Laois minors were given the strength of our school sides at the time. Ballyfin and Portlaoise CBS had very strong sides back then.

[BallyroanAbbey]

Completely agree about the schools with exception of Knockbeg there seems to be little to no emphasis on schools football in Laois
We need to have the CBS in Portlaoise and Portarlington either competitive in the A or winning B competitions, Heywood should be consistently in the B too
Clonaslee and Mountmellic have probably too small a pick but again this is where a combined Laois schools team for schools outside the A  is needed to give lads an opportunity to play at the highest level

A lot of Laois GAA is currently centred around geography unfortunately

[SCFC]

I'm hearing Leinster Council are possibly considering not allowing those county colleges teams to be entered next school year. But if it is allowed, it would be a good idea for Laois to pursue.

[Joeythelips]

Completely agree about the schools with exception of Knockbeg there seems to be little to no emphasis on schools football in Laois
We need to have the CBS in Portlaoise and Portarlington either competitive in the A or winning B competitions, Heywood should be consistently in the B too
Clonaslee and Mountmellic have probably too small a pick but again this is where a combined Laois schools team for schools outside the A  is needed to give lads an opportunity to play at the highest level

A lot of Laois GAA is currently centred around geography unfortunately

Even with smaller schools, get a good coaching sessions going. It all helps to develop a proper standard then development squads should be able to identify the top players and bring them to an even higher standard. Select ones that have whats required physically to develop into and inter county player. The modern game needs power which can be developed, stamina and speed. Speed for example can be improved a certain amount but most of it is natural, you either have those fast twitch fibres or you don't.

Laois should keep a database of players, keep stats on etc. When players drop off they might find ways of preventing this in the future.

[BallyroanAbbey]

From what I can see Laois basically left it to the clubs to sort out for a decade and only now are starting to do a bit, it's hard to know weather it's token gestures that will die off or if it's that Offaly who on top of being our neighbours and rivals are actually the closest thing to Laois in terms of clubs, playing numbers, split between hurling and football and they have cleaned themselves up big time, which in itself reflects badly on the Laois county board

Like us they had a 16 team senior football championship, they split it
Invested heavily in underage
Got in major sponsorship to fund these
Sorted out their schools to make them competitive and another player development pathway

The fact that they only scrambled a draw off us this year is proof they were way further down than we were, and that we still have room to drop if it isn't sorted ASAP

But they are also proof that the things being suggested are doable and doable quickly with the right people

[Spiritof86]

Sheehan stepped down last night .

[Laois Rising]

It was an inevitable outcome. On reflection, Billy took a job that no one else wanted. He didn't command an extortionate fee like some other outside managers might demand and treated the role like a full time job. He had a philosophy on how football should be played considering the players at our disposal and tried to incorporate that into the Laois team's style of playing. He had some successes-O'Byrne Cup finalists 2022 and championship wins over Wexford, Fermanagh and Limerick. His commitment could not be faulted or questioned.

Granted relegation from division 3 when there were sides weaker than us (on paper) in the division and failure again to gain promotion from division 4 was disappointing. Some horrendous championship performances to boot over the two years as well and his  side line behaviour left a lot to be desired at times.

I know Billy will hold onto his ambitions to manage at intercounty level- perhaps take the learnings of the last two years and return to club level management for 2024 and beyond. Climb the ladder again so to speak.

On separate note- my previous post wasn't against regional sides. My argument was that they would have to be very carefully drawn. If you had one regional team made up of predominantly hurling first clubs you could see how that might run into trouble. If incorporating regional sides and want to improve championship you need all of the regional sides to be strong and have realistic ambitions of competing.