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I have been in contact with my local school as I was unhappy with the way football teams were going. The biggest problem was getting players to be involved. They had some really good footballers and just could not get them to train or play. I saw it in teams being sent out and there were lads on it who were middling at best. This is in a 1200 pupil school too

A proper defensive plan cuts out 5 of them goals straight away. They were long balls in to lads being marked 1 on 1 cos we pushed up on the kickouts. Not possible to defend like that in the modern age and not fair to expose players like that either. One goal came from a kickouts that almost rolled from midfield to the half forward line ffs. I'm not saying we'd have won but at least keep it tight till half time and reassess then.... we only kicked 4 points anyways so we might as well have 14 behind the ball and be as nasty and cynical as we could get away with. Would Offaly or carlow turn up with a plan like that. To say that the players are not capable of competing at this level is pure bull. Port would do better than that. It's about a plan and how they train. We were here before john sugrue took over saying the same stuff and suddenly we were div 2. I could name 5 or 6 players capable of playing Co football  who were not in there. Some declined which I'd be annoyed about and some were not asked. That's down to management not asking or making it attractive for them. This comes down to asking x why he won't come in and if x says its cos of work then we tell him that it'll be sorted out if x says its to do with finance then we get that sorted. Transport?? No problem it's sorted. Same for hurlers get the best people in and take away any excuse they might have for declining. I heard of a player being locked out of a meeting for being seconds late after travelling a long distance  for training. That auld stuff has to stop. Put the players first give them the best training the best plan and tactics and I bet a pound to a penny we'd fly div 4 and be strong in Tailteann Cup next year

I'd be quietly hopeful against Down. Longford actually cut them to shreds early in the group gameand should have been out of sight by half time. They gave up a few ridiculous scores and Down clawed out a win. Defensively they aren't wonderful so I'd be hopeful we could outscore them. Our fadeout after halftime seem to be an issue but we always seem to finish strongly. So hopeful but not confident

We have a good few here calling for a complete change of county board. I'll play devil's advocate and ask who do these people suggest take over. A full executive top to bottom. Not too many legends sticking their heads above the parapet to take on any jobs in there. The chairman's position for instance requires them to be in OMP 6 days a week and that's with trying to hold down a job too. That's just one position. Have a scout around and see how many people you can get to do the various jobs. And before anyone says it I am not nor never have been on the Co board I've helped out with a few thins and see what a struggle it is to get people in

If I was a betting man I'd go for Annanough for the junior. They have three or 4 good lads at 21/22mark and about 5 minors 3 of which were possibly Co minor standard  coming through. Good manager in Paul Lalor who has a good buy in
From players.

I'd say fair play to them. It'll require a huge amount of volunteers to run it anyway long term but there will have to be a paid fella or lady put in there full time to oversee the thing cos as you say people will get tired after a few years of it

Ive heard decent reports of the Setanta programme with regards to numbers and effort being put in by both mentors and Players. Seems to be a very clear and well setup pathway to Co development squads. The goodwill is there if there's a proper plan in place. Apparently every player is being assessed over a number of skills and this recorded and dealt with over a 3/ 4 year period till they're ready for development squads. Credit to whoever is driving it

There are times when I think that some lads on here would almost prefer Laois to lose. If someone had offered me a draw on Saturday morning then I'd have taken their hand off but now that they have achieved a very creditable result there are people who still haven't a positive thing to say. Maybe they lost the lead due to the incredible amount of hard work they put in for the first 65 mins cos they definitely outran and outworked Offaly during that period. Every team gets a run at some stage and offaly got theirs very late. Now no one is suggesting that all is brilliant but at least give the whole setup some credit for a decent result.

I agree Of course they do but they are somewhat invested in Laois now. A television of newspaper article of "Mr X signing a ten year deal to sponsor all Laois juvenile development" might appeal to them. Of course a ten year plan has to be in place but it is doable. And to be honest it might not cost them a huge amount as other sponsors would come on board. We refer to Offaly but it's not the amount that Lowry is giving to them but it's his profile and the fact that they have a strong backer in place that's dragging them along

We have one of the wealthiest men in the world living in laois. Now I'm not sure if he is Gaa orientated but surely he could be approached. We also have a laois multi billionaire who while based abroad has a house not 10 miles from O Moore pk surely these people could be approached and told that any money donated would be ring fenced for juvenile development then get a juvenile director of hurling and 1for football and run the setup independent of Co board. Not without oversight obviously but with budgets that will get the best young fellas in and look after them properly RE gear and food and gyms etc

Tipp played only u16's against us,after 20 odd minutes, the scoreboard was putting up Tipp goals as points and at half time they turned off the scoreboard completely in Cashel, the scoreline was way worse than what was officially given

I heard that last week and genuinely couldn't believe it . Demoralising to hear .

So the 12-29 or whatever it was, was actually a lot more?? Holy Christ.

Was it 29 goals and 12 points plus whatever they didn't chalk up on the scoreboard?

This is a horrendous state of affairs. To be honest though not surprising. Was in at the Setanta first night back the other night and my God, there are alot of chaps 10 to 11 years old that can barely strike a ball.
Now, some of these could be down to picking up the game only recently - but if it's not then it's very worrying to see how far back chaps are when compared to those in other counties at similar ages. Alot of work to do there.

So when you saw these young lads struggling did you go over to whoever was in charge and offer to help out?? Maybe it's easier for people to give out about what they see on forums like this than actually try to get involved to improve things. And forgive me if you think I'm having a personal go at you cos I'm not. It goes for everyone. People talk about Offaly here the whole time but what Duignan got over there was a huge buy in from people who wanted to help out. Can we say that about Laois?. I know that our main teams are struggling to get people in to help yet a man who (1)obviously knows about hurling (2) Is in the COE for Setanta possibly with his own child and (3) Cares enough to comment online, isn't confident enough in his own abilities to go over and say that he'll help to get some of the kids striking properly. It may be a small thing but it everyone did a small bit the things would improve

To be fair to de management would de likes of dineen, Emerson, daragh farrell be huge losses? R there others tat weren't available 2?
Dineen was in but injured all year one of the others was in but was let go for whatever  reason. The other lad was strongly approached I heard but was involved in rugby in a big way. Three big players I reckon but would they have made that much difference  I don't know. There was a big trials process at the start of the year  but maybe you and I would see something in a fella that the management missed so there's always a few possibles not on a panel I suppose

Didn't Laois appoint a person full time to oversee S&C?

Do all clubs have gyms now? What's the uptake on it from u16s up?

I think there's a fella appointed to oversee all the Co S+C but I cannot think of his name. I'd imagine that most clubs have a gym now but I suppose they cannot let u18s in unattended due to child safety/insurance concerns this means a group session and clubs might not have the personnel or equipment to have 22 or more lads at it together

Genuine question, is there anyone employed by the county board with respect to strength and conditioning at underage teams? Or is it at the whim of whatever manager we bring in each year?
There should be something put in place from a very early stage, perhaps 14/15 years to get these lads started on the required level because at the moment we seem to be miles behind most teams in this area.
Managers and their coaches (and any related fitness coaches) come and go on a bi-yearly basis to be replaced it seems by yet another journeyman and his backroom staff. Something like fitness, strength and conditioning shouldn't change with a manager and is something that should be handled by the county board.

The development panels are out on an s+C course whwn they go in at 13 years of age. I think it wasJasonCoffey who ran it across the panels or if he wasn't over a team then he supervised it. He was headhunted by UL as head of their setup. I don't know who's taking over from him now

I was in and they put in a very good first half turned over at 7 points all. Second half kildare dominated and won easily. Kildare ability to kick long range points killed the laois defensive structure. I think their keeper kicked 4 frees from 45 mtrs and then they got a few from play from that distance too. Once they got ahead the laois lads struggled to get the ball up the field and then when they did the support just couldn't get there quick enough. Laois probably left 4 or 5 simple points behind them too. Some fine footballers there despite the loss