Messages

I would be inclined to agree on the face of it.
Has that been decided already?

I disagree-Crettyard/Spink looks to be a very successful amalgamation and it looks like one that is now firmly embedded. They won a minor title this year and you can see plenty of players coming through and representing Laois on juvenile squads. I think they were in a number of other juvenile finals as well. Were both clubs competing individually in B and C competitions what would the standard of training be like, interest levels for players and definitely some if not many of their talented players would fall by the wayside.

Juvenile teams need to be coached in a competitive environment where there are good numbers training together and playing competitive games at a high level to ensure progression and skill development. This nonsense of clubs should be going alone in the B or C competition is pie in the sky. if the players simply aren't there then how much could you do in training with maybe only 8/9 lads some nights. Look at the huge success in Abbeyleix/Ballyroan with their amalgamation at juvenile level.

If done correctly it brings huge benefits to the clubs involved as they will be a number of well coached, skilled players feeding into their senior teams year on year. It raises the standards of the juvenile competitions and benefits county sides as well. If you want bring in a rule that the amalgamated sides can still field separate teams in the C championship if you like.

I would at county level sit down with the large number of clubs that we know of in the county that struggle for numbers and see what suitable amalgamations (long term) can be created to ensure all clubs have players involved in well coached sides and playing competitive hurling. I honestly hate one-year arrangements. Much rather see meaningful long-term planning and strategies but in place. Some great examples in the county of how they do work. Let's build on this.

What I do not agree with is one year arrangements at specific grades. That is simply putting a sticky plaster on the issue at hand. Clubs where there are challenges with numbers should be suitably paired with another club and then work together over a period of time to ensure that they have a panel of players at each of the age groups going up that are exposed to good competition and high level coaching.

Castletown won by 12 they top the group with a game still to play. Camross gone after Cbolla beating them today. Harps beat Borris. Clan Né Gael Strong in the B. Question should a team with 3 or 4 clubs together be allowed into a B competition??

Well... It was the same arrangement last year, and they weren't up to much. These things are cyclical, I suppose. I would say that more concerning for hurling in Laois is how the traditional clubs ( esp. R/E, B/K) are not really featuring in underage grades, except at the lower levels.

Clough Ballacolla will be with Mountrath in the Minor Championship next year and are operating with small numbers and poor standard at U13 & 15, with a couple of excellent hurlers at each grade also

Rathdowney Errill were U13 C,15 B,17 B, but got to both finals, definitley standard poor there and struggling to recruit quality in the town now

Castletowns biggest fan will admit they massively overachieved U15 this year and Minor, but have a few talented lads coming through and if they win the Prem Inter next year will work out well for them, management appointment important there

Borris Kilcotton competing well in 15 & 17 A last couple of years and again have some quality players at each level, seem to be very active at juvenile
Camross the same always very active at juvenile and have a strong bunch that has won all coming into U17 this year but not strong at U15/13 level
Ballinakill are perhaps overachieving / codding themselves a bit with the extra lads from pickas, St Josephs GRaiguecullen, who will mostly fall away from hurling but are all of age and therefore physically strong

All of our clubs outside of Portlaoise & The Harps, its a numbers game, almost all are working off panels with maybe a max of ten lads to the correct age,
Portlaoise seems to have got to big to manage, but Football side doing well at 13/15,

The Harps were winning underage simply due to the weight of numbers, enough guys of 15, 17 ,20 years of age not top notch coaching or extra work, and that came from the mouth of a Harps man. 17s this year lucky to get to a final and were poor when there

Sooner we go back to even ages like most counties the better, 14/16/18/20 to allow players develop fully
Run an U20 Championship in the spring time
Improve the standards/ efforts in our secondary schools (Mountrath aside)

The gap from being a good minor at 17 to being a fully developed ( interested ) player at 24/25/26 is huge, and allows too many to walk away

A very good synopsis of where juvenile hurling is at. In fairness to the Harps club-they do a fantastic job of getting every young child possible, both boys and girls, involved, enjoy being involved and playing. They must be commended for that as it takes some really committed club people to ensure this happens year on year and not as a one off when you might get a couple of parents at a certain year group who really drive things but only drive it for that year group.

It's also massive for creating a community pride and creating a sense of attachment to a community as well. Obviously, the person who you were talking too Ogie, would like to see more expertise coaching going on. Hopefully our Hurling Games Development Officer is tapping into the potential of the Harps and providing the necessary coach the coaches etc. sessions to ensure that those players are being exposed to the best coaching possible.   

Perhaps a different format for next year's championship is needed or simply run it as a straight knockout competition. It's late in the year and if team's feel they have little or no hope of winning then it is inevitable that walkovers are given. The appetite is no longer there to play.

It is something I do wonder about-with the change of age grades for minor- how many young players when stepping up from minor and find themselves perhaps not breaking into an adult team get little or no football from the age of 17-18/19. Some players will develop later but with virtually no regular football available to them how many end up packing it in, lose interest or have their development stalled due to inactivity.

That is a pessimistic outlook alright! Ballyfin have achieved their primary goal and with Danesfort also in the mix I cannot see them putting in any huge shift to try target this competition. Think their season is done. I never can understand why Dublin have a senior B in hurling that prevents their second tier winners from representing the county in the Intermediate championship. It is the same in football.

If Clough Ballacolla play as they did in the county final you would give them a good chance. Play as they did in the semi-final and they will be well beaten. I do not know what appetite the players have for Leinster this year. They put everything into the county final and it will be hard to replicate that performance again. 

Gillic got away with a nasty elbow to the head on Mick Lawlor I think in that game. was a blatant sending off and the Meath players managed to talk the referee out of sending him off for it. Had he walked like he should have Laois might have had a chance. Fitness killed us that day too. Worked incredibly hard with 14 men but once Meath got a lead in the second half they ran out comfortable winners.

I know that it has been said before but how can a club with passionate clubmen like tommy fitz, Cheddar and Critchley and a history of winning hurling titles in the 80s and 90s show such disregard for the development of hurling. The chickens have come home to roost at underage which has been at a deplorable standard for a number of years now and with the u20 side struggling to compete even at 'B' standard. A club the size of Portlaoise should never find itself playing in B competitions. I would love to see the establishment of a hurling only club in Portlaoise. Even in a hotbed of football like Tralee in Kerry a hurling only club was set up and is beginning to flourish. I think they won the Kerry minor championship and have players filtering into the underage Kerry teams. There is so much untapped potential and a new club that puts a proper emphasis on the development of hurling in the town could only be seen as a plus. I know in reality it's never going to happen but it would be fantastic for the development of hurling in the county.   

Portlaoise losing in the u20 First round yesterday they should have a serious look at themselves.

Do we need to create a 'C' competition in hurling for the likes of Portlaoise. Small club like themselves are really struggling at this level.

Clough Ballacolla were this age cohort winning minor team in 2022 beating the Harps by a point. Harps though have the benefit of two very strong following minor teams and a composition of the best of those three teams together should see them as the strongest side in this competition. Be a massive surprise to see them beaten. 

The optics of it doesn't look good. However, if he is fulfilling his brief with Laois in this role can the county board stop him from taking the position with Wexford. The Laois GAA Head of Coaching & Games seems to be a 9-5 type gig so his evenings are free to pursue whatever he chooses. I'm sure that he will argue that the experience he gains from being involved with Wexford will only benefit him in his role of with Laois. He is also probably in need for redemption also after Brackens very disappointing exit from the Tipp football championship and premlim quarter final loss in the hurling. 

I wonder how things panned out does McShane regret his decision.

The fact is the standard of Laois football has been poor for a very long time now. The best players in the county hover between division 3 and division 4 of the national league standard wise. The weakness of our championship is laid bare in the fact that Port are the only half decent club side we have at the moment. Joseph's are solid, Portlaoise are clawing their way back, Graige are and will always be Graige while Stradbally seem to only get their act together once in every 6/7 years. We've had Emo, Killeshin make fairytale runs and perform well in county finals but they have proved one off occasions with those teams returning to the pack the following years.

The difference in standard between this Port side and the all conquering Portlaoise side of 10-15 years ago was that when Portlaoise stepped into Leinster they were always there or there abouts. Possibly threw away a couple of Leinster titles. This Port team is not near that standard and have taken some bad beatings in Leinster. A reflection of where Laois football is currently at. 

CB had a proper siege mentality going into the game. Played hugely on the "everyone in the county thinks Camross are going to win this easy" and that certainly helped drive the players to prove a point. Had a chip on shoulder regarding county board too and were determined to stick it to them by winning on Sunday.

Hopefully they can do well in Leinster. Laois hurling could do with a lift entering into the new season. 

On a separate note regarding the minor final, what has happened to football in Killeshin that they have to go in with Crettyard and Spink and have only 4 players on the panel. It was pointed out to be during the game that there were lads from Killeshin playing on that team also which amazed me. Also, should they not be aligned with Graiguecullen as they are from the one parish. That's some geographical size pick when you consider it is all of Ballinakill, Killeshin, Crettyard and Spink combined. Portlaoise showed them far too much respect and got caught for it. Had they gone and played a more attacking brand of football and applied more pressure out the field it might have yielded better results for them.   

After the Heath easily beat Arles in the final a few years back I honestly thought that they would really struggle and go backwards with the likes of Munnelly, Conway and Meaney well into their 30s at that point. In fairness to them they brought through a batch of young players who have grown with every game and as a club continue to defy expectation, digging out some very impressive victories and fightbacks this year.

It in incredible how they develop the number of footballers that they do off of such limited numbers. Like Crettyard this year, I would fear for them if they were to step up to senior next year. Park are favourites but they are not near as strong as the 2021 version of the team. I give them the nod by two points.   

Agree completely with last poster. How does ref get a semi-final, when championship is in limbo over a mistake he made.
Only in Laois would this happen, an example of poor judgement shown by Laois CCC/executive.

Mistakes happen. it was an honest mistake- this is not the premier league where referees are full time professionals. Accountability-if ever there was a Sky Sports pundits term it's that.  Go to every and any county forum page and you have posters with the same gripes etc. regarding referees. It is a thankless job-as you are showing this with your comments. Some referees are better than others. Accept that mistakes happen and at the end of the day it is only sport. No one is intentionally going out to referee these games to purposefully sabotage a club or make bad calls. If you are so passionate about this you can go contact your local Referee Administrator, either Vincent Dowling on (086) 339 7952 or Maurice Deegan on (086) 803 3823 and discuss with them the importance of accountability. I'm sure they would be very appreciative of your thoughts. While you are onto them they will also be able give you details on upcoming GAA Referee Foundation Course in Laois, which you will have to complete before you can referee games. GAA Club Referee Course only take 3 nights to complete and are delivered by GAA Referee Tutors. You'll be good to go for the 2026 season.