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Do we really believe Cavan and Fermanagh have better players than us? They do in their holes. We have plenty of footballers in all positions but we play like a team from the 80s. Top class game plans used to be what 3 or 4 teams excelled at, now everyone does it except us. Plenty of division 3 teams have adapted too. The most worrying statement from Lillis yesterday was 'there was nothing between the teams'. There was a proverbial mile between them in terms of preparation and game planning. I agree also with those who say that Jack Nolan has played a part in this idiotic idea that open, attacking football suits Laois. Let's see how it suits us in Division 4. Either Lillis becomes a fast learner and starts putting some serious structure around that team, or we need to find someone who can.

The prognosis on Kieran Lillis is better than first thought. Out for 5-6 weeks with a fracture. No break luckily.

Isn't a fracture a break?

The Dublin thing is a huge worry. Yes, we need to catch up in terms of our coaching setups and player development but we need to look at this in context. Dublin were barren between 1995 and 2011 which created a response from the Dublin clubs, Dublin GAA and central GAA which has completely overcompensated for any deficiencies. Some of the clubs in Dublin are richer than many county boards and have the facilities and set ups to match professional teams. They have won 3 of the last 5 All Irelands and only been beaten once in 10 years inside Leinster. Not to mention their minor, U21 and club dominance. Our minor and U21 teams both were very competitive this year with everyone except Dublin. With a population of 1.2 million people and the setup they have now, they are likely to be the dominant force in football for the foreseeable future. The best of the rest are even struggling to come to terms, with much larger footballing populations and resources. Laois won't solve this - we would need to be churning out 20 near professional atheletes a year with a huge professional coaching staff looking at playing systems. A Dublin senior player is essentially a full time professional at this point with an army of lads who can step in and take his place - how do we catch up with that?

Some good stuff today with loads to work on. Positives were how we never gave up on a ball and how we actually dominated possession for long periods of the second half. Cheddar made plenty of changes to shift the balance of power around the middle and we seemed to get sharper as the game wore on. The more conventional we were, the better we competed. Lost a lot of ball in the first half by being too clever with the short puck outs and passing, and by leaving nobody around the Wexford half back line. Healy, Maher, Mullaney were prominent throughout with Matthew improving in the second half. Oh to have Joe Fitz in that half back line. Purcell and Picky grew into the game although neither are still as good as they can be. I thought Scully, Cha and both Willies really showed great leadership all through. Strong, won their own ball and took on the shots. All 3 of Chas wides were inches and I hope he doesn't stop doing what he is doing, he shoots with no space and it usually works. I think if Laois can train at the same pace and intensity that they played today they will sharpen up some more and be truly competitive. Starting to get a bit of shape and experience. We lost most of the possession tussles in the last 3 minutes. In rugby parlance, we still don't win enough at the breakdown. Big game coming up against Kerry.

Why do we always talk about bringing different personnel when we are struggling defensively? It is 90% a problem with shape, planning and drilling. With Brody, Attride, Seale, Timmons, Keogh, Dillon, Lillis, Strong, Cotter and Begley, we have enough defenders and plenty of pace, athleticism and power. Also plenty of pace for lads covering back with O'Carroll, Donoher, O'Connor etc. All the top teams have a plan and some manage to punch way above their weight because of it. The plan ensures that if ball is played through the hands that you will be surrounded by 2-3 players before you get past the 45. There will always be 2 blockers and disruptive runner to stop lads walking into the scoring zone and the rest of the players filter back to prevent easy shots in the scoring zone. All division 1 teams and most division 2 teams have this worked out. Tyrone will always be competitive because they work to this process. Everyone knows their job. The only man to come close to addressing this has been McNulty. All the other managers including Micko, Kearns, Dempsey and O'Flaharta didn't get this right and I would worry about Lillis. He should already be developing this system given that we are so far into the league. Tom Cribben is putting it in place over in Westmeath. In a nutshell, Laois are a mile behind again in tactical planning

God almighty. Despair. 6-29 to 1-12. How can we be so far behind the curve?

Anyone at the match got a good report of how they played? Certainly was exciting to watch on Twitter!

Obviously took a lot of courage to come back from the two early goals and did well to be 5 points to the good in the end before the goal.

What individuals stood out and do they have the potential to drive on against the Dubs?

Dublin put out their B team, all u17. As a result, I believe it was a no contest. We won handily. Hard to get an honest challenge at this level as many counties hide their hand.

Minor challenge games can be very deceiving with teams putting out second strings. The likes of Tipp would probably be looking at up to 40 players up to this stage. I know laois had huge numbers training but they prob have the panel trimmed at this stage. We have had what we consider good minor teams over the past few years but at the same time we have struggled when pitied against the cats. This year might be our best chance of taking them down.

Will learn more about this team over coming weeks as they compete in the Leinster minor hurling league which doesn't include KK or WX.

Draws made last night for the 2016 Championship

Rathdowney Errill v Camross
Abbeyleix v Borris Kilcotton
Ballinakill v The Harps
Portlaoise v Clough Ballacolla

The thing that stands out about our senior championship these days is that there really is nowhere to hide. All 8 teams will see themselves as having a tough game, whether they are fighting for survival or to go on to contest a final. Great that 4 out of 7 league games will include county players, will make things even more competitive. Already looking forward to an exciting year of hurling.

Evan O'Carroll won't play his done the hammy last week ...Lillis didn't want him to play the u21 game as he was feeling it after the Armagh game looks like he will be out for a few weeks now!

So that's what Lillis meant by his 'I don't really want to get into it' comment on Evan on Mid Radio 3! Real pity, we could do with him on both teams.

Interesting game yesterday. Good and bad.

I thought Mick Lillis was very consistent with his views by resisting the temptation to introduce U-21s. We did look a lot stronger with some of the stalwarts back even though they all need game time for fitness and sharpness. Considering that we are still missing quite a few it does appear that we have much more strength and depth than in  previous years. Defensively we were very good for most of the game, very impressive in periods. Allowed them to run at us for 10 minutes after the break which is where we lost the game. We also competed well at midfield when required. If we are going to play blanket defence, we also need to learn to play against blanket defences. We didn't seem to have any idea what to do with the ball when faced with a wall of defenders which means that our conversion rate for chances was way too low. If they can learn from this and continue to improve the transition from defence into attack then this team has real prospects. Tyrone in contrast use pace and patience to break down defences. They either run around the rim at pace looking for an opening or they hit to a pacy runner who finds a yard or two to strike. We on the other hand tended to either play the ball in too early or just stop running making it easy to defend against. In short, we struggle to play in a crowd.

Individually, I thought there were plenty of stand out performances. David Seale had a fine game and is really growing. When he attacks the ball he is very effective and didn't look at all out place. Cotter slotted in well for Timmons (injured?). Robbie Keogh was again hugely influential in the high turnover rate. Lillis neutralized Cavanagh for the first half. Begley was excellent in general. Quigley won lots of ball but also made some awful passes. O'Loughlin was very dominant in the first half but seemed to run out of steam early. Donie did well in parts and won some great ball but he, Cahillane and Gary Walsh struggle with well organized defences. Donoher ran all day but again didn't seem to know what to do when he got beyond the 45. Conor Meredith struggled but will get better.

The big plus for me was the character and spirit of the team throughout. From how they defended in the first half to how they tore into Tyrone for the last 10 minutes and almost salvaged a draw. Didn't see who missed the goal chance but it was a real opportunity. We also were physically strong and becoming a very fit team. Considering we will have Timmons, Attride, Meaney, Evan O'Carroll, Ross and a few more U21s available later in the year, things are not so bad.

Not much hurling done on that pitch I'd say....

Any reports from the game? Good win and seem to have plenty of goal scoring threat.

I see the minor hurlers were beaten by Offaly yesterday. Strange score something like 7-08 to 5-08. Anyone any details? Given the trimmings we have handed out to Offaly from U-14 to U-16 for many years now and the fact that we should have a full panel with the Mountrath CC lads coming back, sounds a little surprising.

I agree, it is a great testament to the work going at underage in the Heywood area. It is a fairly significant power shift though as Fergals who draw from Rathdowney Errill / Clough Ballacolla and to a lesser extent these days from Borris / Kilcotton would traditionally have been the dominant hurling school in Laois. Also it would be great to see more Portlaoise involvement.