Messages

Injuries situation is awful.

I've heard picky  dunphy, hartnet and conroy are all out. (Dont think Ben did the cruciate tho so might be back for later games.)
As well as those roddy, Lennon, scully and maka are doubts too.

Hard enough when everyone is fit. Could be a tough day out.

We won a cup with Eddie celebrated like it meant something what cheddar has done is better it's like Laois ballers celebrating div 4 football both laughable been honest

Go away with your indecipherable babble.

It was a relegation 6 pointer I wouldn't run away with Billy O Loughlin doing that good of a job either.

not all based on last game , we find it hard to back our people.

We did - Billy Sheehan.

[The last time we were in Div 4 we had a better group of players imo and a good manager came in and took us up at the first attempt. This will be different I think with no guarantee of an early return.]

I think the general consensus when Billy took over was that we try and stay in Div 3 but it wouldn't be easy. The O'Byrne cup and earlier rounds of the league gave us a greater expectation of how things might play out.
I didn't think we'd survive Div 3 however the initial results were good.
The last time we were in Div 4 we had a better group of players imo and a good manager came in and took us up at the first attempt. This will be different I think with no guarantee of an early return.
Unless we produce a good crop of players over successive years with some emerging talent we will labour.

The team that got relegated to division 4:

LAOIS: Graham Brody; Darren Strong, Denis Booth, James Kelly; Eoin Buggie, Pádraig McMahon, Damien O'Connor; Kevin Meaney, John O'Loughlin; Alan Farrell, David Conway, Ambrose Doran; Donie Kingston, Evan O'Carroll, Paul Kingston. Subs: Gary Walsh for Doran (30mins), Niall Donoher for Kingston (46mins), Danny Luttrell for Walsh (48mins), Seán Moore for Conway (55mins), Gareth Dillon for Farrell (66mins), Danny O'Reilly for O'Carroll

As you say, much stronger than current crop - 100% great footballers and still ended up in division 4. The consensus at the time was that we had a lot of big players with very little pace and mobility on the team. A team of athletes who are ok footballers are likely to do better than a team of footballers with no pace in the modern game.

[Danny Bolger]

LAOIS: Danny Bolger; Mark Timmons, Trevor Collins, Alex Mohan; James Finn, John O'Loughlin, Gareth Dillon; Kieran Lillis, Sean O'Flynn; Brian Byrne, Ross Munnelly, Danny O'Reilly; Mark Barry, Evan O'Carroll, Gary Walsh. 

Patient for new team? Above is the 15 that finished the match on Saturday. Other than the 2 bolded, looks like the same team we have been putting out for a few years now. Yes, there are a few new players that came off (Bennett and Kavanagh) and one or two missing but I think we have possibly the worst situation here - heading for division 4 with very little new blood on board.

havent seen the table, but if wicklow and longford win next week are all three of us on the same points?

Wicklow are home to Louth. Stranger things have happened but you would expect Louth to win.

Anyway, if we lose, we deserve the drop.

1. I really cant understand why we were getting such hammerings. I suggested before that these lads are a lot better than that. Other lads on here said that we were below Antrims level. I totally disagree with that. Antrim were hugely competitive against dublin, kk and waterford so why were we not? I think this needs to be really looked at and collectively the team and management need to identify why it happened and make sure that it doesnt happen again. We put in a savage performance against a far stronger waterford team in the championship last year.

Just offering an opinion on this. We just have to be near our best to be competitive with the bigger teams. Despite the close result, we were poor against Tipp. None of the forwards could score from very scorable positions - lads that would normally do much better. Tipp were poor too and the conditions were horrendous so we didn't get a hammering. Against Waterford, we also really struggled to get scores, and couldn't win a ball in the air or on the ground. The backs and midfield were chasing shadows and really suffering from winning no primary possession against arguably the best team in the country at the moment. Our half back line - as has been pointed out here a number of times, lacks the mobility for tracking players when we are cut open. KK was the same story. Couldn't score in the first half when we had the ball and couldn't win the ball in the second half.

I think that when we play well we are better than Antrim and can be competitive. I don't think we were better than them on Sunday, we simply got the scores when it mattered. For long spells, they won every puck out. Antrim regularly cut us open and had a huge number of wides. The sending off didn't help but we are going to lose a lot of games badly if we can't win possession. Our half forward line has been weak in the air for years. You can't 'create' players to fix this but you can change how you play (KK and Wexford for example crowd the middle on puck outs). For sure, pucking it to the corner back and trying to solo past a corner forward is not the answer. The positive thing for me is that more Laois players played well than in previous matches this year, especially in the forwards. There is also a bit more bite than we have seen. However, to be successful we need everyone playing to 100% of their capability, a better defensive balance and a better shape for winning possession. IMHO.

[because it's a laois player then refs are more inclined to give a red. Take Jack Kelly's pull..... If a tipp or kk or limerick player did it would it be a straight red??]

While we talk about indiscipline I think that because it's a laois player then refs are more inclined to give a red. Take Jack Kelly's pull..... If a tipp or kk or limerick player did it would it be a straight red?? Gearoid Heagarty pulled twice across a clare man's head and still only got a second yellow. Smaller teams get harsher punishments I feel. As a further point how many times did laois players get shoulders to the head yesterday with no sanction. I counted at least 3 which were worthy of reds in my opinion

Not sure I would agree to be honest. If you are caught pulling across a players chest with a hurley at any level, club or county, it is probably going to be a deserved red card. Especially when the match is on telly, and especially in the league. Limerick have got their fair share of reds this year for pulling on lads. Completely accept that it is not always punished consistently but if you pull across someone, but it is highly likely that you are going to the line no matter what county you are from. Jack Kelly seemed to know himself yesterday that he was in trouble. 

Took great character to win that match. Although we have huge room to improve and quite a few players are hurling well within their ability, it was a super result with 14-men.

Rowland and the full back line hurled well. Still not convinced about the mix in the half back line but at times did well to turn the ball over. Struggled when Antrim ran at them. When Hartnett comes back into the corner it gives us more options on the wings. Fiachra did well in the middle. Paddy Purcell, Cha and Picky were excellent. James Keyes certainly showing more and more that he can add a lot and will learn from that sort of a cauldron. Good to see PJ back and contributing. I hope we can improve now for the Dublin match. 

Interesting to see Westmeath beaten by Down and Carlow held by Kildare. The ranks of the second tier (of which I would still count us) are busier than they used to be.

I wouldnt have any expectation of a Laois win Antrim tbh

basing it on form lines alone

KK bet us by 17,they bet Antrim by 4 and Antrim fought them all the way

Antrim had a penalty to beat Waterford with the last puck of the ball and McManus drove it over the bar

Our Performance v Waterford

I dont think anyone needs to be reminded about

It was always going to come down to beating Offaly in a relegation final.

Yep. A great year for us is that we win one league match (like beating Antrim next Sunday) and avoid relegation play-off. But a good year is to win the league and championship relegation play-offs and a creditable championship performance. Might be a low ambition but it is where we are. I agree that we have the players but the performances this year have been poorer than last year so far. Antrim are definitely a step up but then again they were at their best last year in the league but we were much better than them in the Championship. They could give us at trimming on Sunday based on how we are going so far and we could still manage to beat Offaly and hold onto our Liam McCarthy status.

There is certainly a stale-ness about the team and performances at the moment. It will need to improve if we want to stay in Division 1.

Not much evidence of development in how we are hurling. Determined to copy the same mistakes week in / week out.

The Antrim / Waterford result will be a sobering one for us.

Conroy out with cruciate,I don't think cheddar will change fonsey out of centre back which is shame,jack Kelly does need go wing back,tracking runners is not his strong suit.we need few more doggers in forwards,all like it nice and handy up there bar Willie dunphy in my opinion.

In fairness Roddy and Picky well able to win their own ball too but I agree with you in general, need more fighters on the half forward line in general.

Any word on Cha?

For years you would hear of Laois beating KK in practice matches at minor level only to find out later that it was an experimental KK south or something which bore zero resemblance to their championship team that would beat us by 30 points. Hopefully this isn't the case this year but sounds like it is not. We don't need a strong minor team every year but would be good to have one every 2-3 years. 

We had two jerseys v Tipp - one each half.

I liked the first half one.

Jaysus I never even noticed!

Shocking. All the main damage done within 5 minutes in the first half.

Half back line, except Podge, too immobile. Someone said it last week that we cant afford 3 natural slowish centre backs on the same line. Maybe stick Fonzy into centre forward where he can win a few balls, Mullaney centre back where he is at his best with Jack Kelly and Podge on the wings. Wouldn't have been enough today as we were wide open everywhere.

Forwards missing easy chances again. Good to see PJ back.