Messages

David Conway's inclusion in the starting 15 sums up this set up. Happy that he is involved and hope he does well but what does it tell you about game planning for this team? If the team were structured and had a plan, everyone would know their roles. How could you possibly fit into any system within a week? Cheddar wouldn't do it with the hurlers that's for sure.

Time for a new thread so

We could have started this thread when the draw was made last year......

I too applaud the bravery of our players on Saturday but am not at all surprised.

The problem was the ridiculous levels of disorganization. Again it was a case of working it out as they went along. When to shoot, when and where to run, when to pass, who to pass to, when to track back, how to tackle were all made up during the game. We got our blanket defence going in the second half (although still gave WAY too much space) once Dublin were out of sight. Anyone, including Mick Lillis, that thinks the second half is a good reflection of where we really are and that 'only for the 2 early goals there was nothing between the sides' is completely delusional. Did anyone notice how easily Dublin tagged on a few points once we closed the gap? I still think that we are a complete shambles but I don't blame the players one bit. Not one of them gave less than 100%.

Pretty much the same team we have named all year. No surprises and hard to argue with. All about whether they can hit the ground running and are fresh.

Supposedly Dublin have had a training session and a trail match down in nowlan park and are about to
go into a 4 day training camps somewhere ..

Just goes to show that it really is amateurs against professionals. Not just Laois but all counties except Dublin. 4 day training camp - they must all have very understanding employers.....

Redsetanta mentioned playing as a team, underage structures aren't responsible for a player not off loading a pass to a player through on goal.  That's just selfish play, and it cost us big time again.

Not to be overly pedantic but it could be argued that coaching actually has a big role in developing instinctive decision making and teamwork.

I don't think anyone here is being disrespectful to Carlow. They beat us fair and square and had some lovely hurlers. The frustration is that we are not improving relative to other counties. We are not moving up the food chain. I believe we are moving forward but so is everyone else and it is frustrating that we are not boxing clever and getting ahead of the competition.

Just noticed this result from last night in the Celtic challenge U-15 competition:

Laois 0-11  2-17 North Wexford

How an U-15 county team can be beaten by 13 points in a short game by half of a county speaks volumes.

These aren't short games, full 60 minutes. I went over to this and Laois were short as many players as they had for different reasons. Wexford had 11 starters from the team that did so well in the Arrabawn. Wexford were by far the better team but scored 1-3 in the last 3 minutes to give the scoreline an unflattering look.

State exams around corner has to be acknowledged for loss of lads too.

Was waiting for this type of response. How is it always that Laois have 'many missing'? The game was in Rathdowney, not New Ross.

Is there no junior cert in North Wexford? Fact remains that, regardless of excuses, we continue to get hammered at these levels which translates directly to minor, U21 and senior. Yet we seem surprised. It isn't a coincidence that North Wexford could get it together and find enough lads to give us a good beating and we couldn't. Same old story.

If only the few lads that we were missing were there then it would of been a different story - it never is.

Just noticed this result from last night in the Celtic challenge U-15 competition:

Laois 0-11  2-17 North Wexford

How an U-15 county team can be beaten by 13 points in a short game by half of a county speaks volumes.

Blue and White what great structures & programmes are in place? What's the current & future plan for Laois hurling?

? Never mentioned anything about great structures and programmes, just said that there is a level of effort. There is definitely more going on with development squads etc. but I am in complete agreement that it is not good enough. I think that the coaching in the clubs is inadequate and focused on winning local battles rather than developing top class hurlers. Pat Critchley said it last year after watching his minor team lose that he needed to go back down the years to get the skill levels right much earlier. I think if there was more effort and structure around developing lads from U10 to U14 we would get the right level of player going in to U15, U16 and minor level squads. And it should be all about skills development with matches and physical development secondary. We have NEVER got this right over the years. One or two lads emerge who will keep the county team ticking over but the average ability levels of hurlers especially when it comes to intense fast hurling is not acceptable. Because of our small pick we need an exceptional underage programme to be competitive.

We can't blame hurling population this time - surely Carlow and Westmeath have a smaller pick than us.

Fair play to both counties, they, like us are putting the effort in at underage. Westmeath's performances in the senior round robin show that and they only beat Carlow narrowly. We are improving but so are other counties. My concern is that we are not getting hurlers to the same standard as other counties - notably Waterford, Clare and Limerick who have put similar efforts into underage development. We probably have the structures and support now but are still not getting the basic skill levels to the required standard. The minors for example had the best of facilities, coaches, nutritionists etc. but couldn't rise a ball of the ground at speed or put the ball over the bar under pressure. Too much fluff and not enough high intensity drills.

It is not enough that Laois improve, we have to improve more than the other counties if we want to rise up the pecking order.

Strong team even with the few that are missing.

Build up is perfect. Anyone able to hazard a guess at the team?

Don't suppose Jim is looking for a job next year?

Hopefully it will be a nice day and we play to our potential - at least we should be competitive. Kerry are a good side and were hard beaten, more than we could manage this year on 2 occasions. All that being said, this should be a 50:50 game.

Rathdowney and Errill GAA are separate clubs - football clubs. Rathdowney/Errill is a single hurling club - not technically an amalgamation. It was felt that allowing the 2 football clubs to combine would not be fair to the other clubs 

I don't know Giovanni.

Look at most modern defences including the Dubs - they work on blocking and smothering runners and forcing turnovers using 2-3 players. It isn't really about the individual tackle which is often defined by the referee of the day as it was on Saturday. Although I do agree that our attempts at tackling on Saturday was fairly brutal, particularly on the half back line. I do think it is laughable that Mick is saying in his interview that our defence will not be good enough against Dublin when he has done nothing except resist the development of a defensive system all year (it doesn't suit us he said). Now we have 3 weeks to put something together - like we are surprised. The biggest criticism I would have of Lillis is that nobody seems to know what their job is. We put a tonne of hit and hope balls into the forwards yesterday, many which were easily dealt with. Players look isolated too often and too often there are no runners in support.

We still have the players to beat division 3 and 4 teams, you can get away without having a plan and a well drilled team. Beyond that is where this setup is still in the 80s. They could be so much further along with an intelligent setup.