Underage squads 2024

[Laois man]

And imagine these lads won't be allowed hurl in the morning with there clubs in the senior league 😭😭

[Blow-in]

Lads I absolutely agree our county board is a massive problem. There is no forward thinking. We need leaders rather than followers. But I hate saying but the standard of club hurling in Laois is shocking so how do we expect these players to preform at high levels considering the low levels they are exposed too. There is a massive difference between good work going on in clubs and quality work.

Also I know two members of the Galway panel who have physically turned into machines cause they privately sourced additional S&C cause they wanted to play senior eventually for Galway. How many of our players have this mindset or willingness to go make it happen cause Laois GAA won't do it for them. How many of the players are living an inter county lifestyle when you see some of the shape of our players. They are only with Laois probably 10hours a week max. Its what they do in the other 158 hours a week is massive and make the difference. Extra gym, running, hurling, rehab, Diet etc.

Although, a physical development opportunity was supposedly offered to these players though the clubs last winter. How many players took it up, zero. Someone might confirm this.

Everyone in Laois is nearly an underage intercounty player, it's too easy get picked. We have to start doing something quick. At least clubs getting a GPO will help but must demand quality.

[Leixman]

A very sad time in Laois GAA history. Anyone in Portlaoise on Saturday will tell you there was a very sombre feeling leaving the grounds on Saturday. We also have a pitch which is struggling. Where does it all come down too? What's the answers to recovery?

[Joeythelips]

It is horrible seeing Laois get bad beatings at underage in both codes, do we simply not have the players? do we not have the coaches? are the teams poorly prepared? The county board need to be taken a serious look at what. has gone wrong. Our neighbours in Offaly are a great example of how to turn the ship around, their players are hard gym rats but they are all developing at a rate of knots in recent years as a hell of a lot of work has gone into developing players at underage and school level to get them to this point. The had a chairman who had the whole county pulling in the one direction and they are starting to reap the benefits of that work now.

[Saffrongael]

Offaly minors in the second tier in Leinster at present ?

[High Fielder]

It is horrible seeing Laois get bad beatings at underage in both codes, do we simply not have the players? do we not have the coaches? are the teams poorly prepared? The county board need to be taken a serious look at what. has gone wrong. Our neighbours in Offaly are a great example of how to turn the ship around, their players are hard gym rats but they are all developing at a rate of knots in recent years as a hell of a lot of work has gone into developing players at underage and school level to get them to this point. The had a chairman who had the whole county pulling in the one direction and they are starting to reap the benefits of that work now.

There's a million reasons for our lack of competitiveness and sadly we are lacking in so many different ways. I don't think we have anything to offer beyond providing a platform for players to play, at whatever level they wish to play at. From this point looking forward, it is very hard to see where the next big moment will come from, because we are and have been in freefall for a number of years now. We don't have the personnel, the players or the investment, and I really don't know where or when we will get it. Support where you can, because that is always important, and do whatever you can for your club, because investment in the future will hopefully yield some results down the line. Beyond that, a lot needs to change in Laois, but that has been the case for as long as I can remember.

[Leixman]

I do believe our Games Development Manager needs to step up. Maybe I'm harsh but spending weekends listening to him on Off The Ball promoting League of Ireland and JK Brackens is not going to help Laois GAA at any stage.

[High Fielder]

It's far from a one man job though Leixman; which is another one of our problems. We don't have the resources to compete, and throwing money at individuals won't help us. The GAA is a numbers game, both financially and in terms of bodies. It sounds obvious, but we will invariably struggle because we have no investment and smaller numbers. There is also zero feelgood in Laois GAA just now. Success breeds success and we have none of that either. We're in a truly rotten state

[oneshot]

Offaly minors in the second tier in Leinster at present ?

they got to two leinster final's winning one from second tier the last few year's.

[redsetanta]

All the talk of Laois underage coaching etc being the envy of the country in the mid to late nineties and early 2000's was is really down to exceptional coaching and management or was it cyclical and we were blessed to get so many talented players at the same time.

You can't coach talent and we had plenty of it back then. Even our senior team in the late nineties had the likes of Hughie, Mick Lawlor, Goggy and more. Exceptional players that would get into most county team.

Are we overplaying the underage developement side of it? Lots of coaching now but very little natural talent or spark. Maybe we got lucky!

Just putting it out there.

[Laois Rising]

I would not say we were doing anything to different to what other counties were doing in the late 90s and into the 00s. We had a serious crop of players in the 80s who inspire a generation into the 90s and this generation inspired many of the 00s cohort. Laois teams consistently challenged at minor and U21 level and were always a match for anyone in Leinster.

However, we have not kept pace with the advancements in coaching of the last 15 years and we also struggle in the numbers game. Kildare, Meath and Dublin have put huge time into investing in their underage and growing their playing numbers in football. It is impossible really for us to compete with these counties as our playing numbers do not stack up. We also cannot get enough top coaches to invest time and commit to coaching and bringing teams all of the way up through the underage ranks. I'm not sure what the county board can do about that though-they cannot force people to give up their time freely to coach and train teams.

You see in Dublin, they have a panel of 30 minor players and could easily field another 30 of similar standard. With the manager and coaches all mostly northsiders the vast majority of squad comes from the northside of the county. My point being that these lads are being exposed to a very competitive level of club football and obtaining a squad place is very hard got. A lot of very talented players missed out completely on making the panel, especially a couple of Cuala and Kilmacud lads. It's the same for Meath and Kildare. In Laois, we certainly do not have that luxury. Our best bet is when a good group of players come through e.g. the 2019 u20 team who lost to Dublin in the final and to ensure that the right people are involved with the team and can get the maximum from them.

Until such time as we tap into and grow our playing numbers we are not going to be able to compete as we once did between the 80s and 00s where we won six Leinster u21 titles. Portlaoise holds the key to this but it requires huge number of people and resources to shift the dynamic in the town and the reality is a second club is needed there to make this happen.

[Blueforever]

In response to Laois rising all we have to do is look across at our neighbours in Offaly smaller population but have won All Ireland in both hurling and Football at underage level in the last five years when the got in a man that cared about football and hurling in his county as chairperson he put the personnel in place we have nobody in County board that gives a fiddler ,a typical example is I emailed the County Board last Monday to ask were they having a meeting to even discuss the state of underage football and hurling in the County after last week's debacle ,no one had the manners to reply

[High Fielder]

Excellent post LR, and I do agree that Portlaoise is key. I wouldn't worry too much about a second club though, as they don't seem to be getting a lot out of the club they have. It's a travesty really. You go past that club on any given day and it's jam packed full of kids. I suppose the argument is that they can't all play for Portlaoise, but that's no excuse for the overall lack of top quality players you'd expect to get from a town and club of that size. The CB need to invest serious time,effort and funds into Portlaoise, and not just ignore it as they have done for an eternity now. We can't have an asset that size on our doorstep and just let it meander along doing very little at all

[Voice of tReason]

If Michael Duignan moved to Laois in the morning and became Chairman in December; what could he achieve in 5 years?

I'm intrigued to hear what people think. I don't doubt for a second he did incredible work there and I've nothing but respect for that but surely the groundwork for that underage success was laid in the years beforehand?

And I'm not saying this to absolve the current administration of their failings, just to suggest that we have a long long road ahead if we want to get back to the middle of the pack even.

[Blueforever]

Is say Duignan would achieve a dam sight more than the clowns that at the helm of our County Board when Duignan went in Gaa in Offaly was at a all time low .Kilkenny did not win a Leinster minor finals for a few years in the eighties and a emergency county board meeting was called and all clubs were asked to attend to rectify the problems, The only business that do well are those with me good men and women at the top of it's wrong at the top it will never succeed same in Gaa soccer RUgby