Messages

Am I right in saying the top 6 across the two groups progress to the knockout stages?
If so,
First and Second are semis
With third V sixth and fourth V fifth making the quarter finals.
Is the season over for 7th and 8th place?
9th and 10th make the relegation battle.

Someone said to me that 7th and 8th will make a relegation semi finals though...

Monthly County Board meeting on tonight, could not be better timed if used correctly and not just a knocking shop
Should be plenty of energy in the room, but what structure or plans can be put in place to improve across the board.

Don't get tied up or fooled by talk of great work as Kildare underage hurling, their squads are badly organised & run, this victory is based mostly on Naas Gaa club getting their house in order harnessing the massive numbers they have.

Missing all the early chances yesterday cost us dearly, we lacked energy, leading to poor decisions and workrate, turning over huge amount of ball easily,
Going the man marking route left us wid open at the back,
Wrong decisions on picking the team, and too late to change,
I don't agree with this playing / coaching style,

We are still asking for/ looking for a director of hurling in the county, mostly due to the inactivity of our hurling board,

The games development office should not escapee scrutiny either,
What is being done to help secondary schools and streamline academy squads

Anything come of this meeting afterwards? Or was it just the usual hur hur shur.

Saturday 14 June
Laois v Tipperary, Laois Hire O'Moore Park, 1.45pm - GAA+
Roscommon v Cork, Laois Hire O'Moore Park, 4.15pm - GAA+

Seriously. Who in the name of Christ thinks that 1.45pm this Saturday is the perfect time to have Laois V Tipperary on at?
The GAA don't give a continental fook.

Dejected - but the writing was on the wall, particularly after the Carlow game which we were steeped in luck to win. To be honest, another year of JMD is probably just rewards. We are not ready for the LSHC at the current rate and we will have to blood a fair few more players. Let's hope there is an effort to have alot of younger players in the League next year and rest up some of our long-serving warriors. The game today was lost on the line - too late making changes and we made the wrong changes.

I've heard nothing negative about the camp; purely the opposite to be honest.

There will, of course, be disappointed individuals but that's the game.

I would have said the same.
But the whole county seems to know who is in and who was dropped.
That's not a good sign.

It's not but it's a reach to jump straight to issues in the camp. Laois hurling circles are small and these things happen unfortunately.

Laois has always suffered from big fish in a small pond mentality with regards to some players that have commanded an almost sure-start position on the panel down through the ages. Some of them have went on to throw the proverbial toys out of the pram as a result when things went against their way.
Thankfully, the pipeline of younger talent coming through is increasing somewhat in volume. We need this, because when players whose egos are too big to fit through the gates of O'Moore Park, there needs to be a queue of players of equal quality right behind them awaiting their shirt.
The Laois hurling circle is getting bigger and it's not before time either. As a county we need to be able to afford to dismiss the head melters. We have an unfortunate history where some of our finest hurlers were out and out head melts and we had nobody of equal quality to replace them.
It happens in every county across Ireland. Brian Cody turfed out a fair few in his reign - Charlie Carter a fine example. Cody was fortunate he had such a pipeline that Carter's shirt was easily filled.

Whats with all the games and rumors around the team announcement? If we are not concentrating on the game, that Kildare team will gobble us up for breakfast. Time to cop-da-fook on and go out and hurl a winning score in a national final.

Laois: Cathal Dunne; Cody Comerford, Lee Cleere, Diarmaid Conway; Tom Cuddy, Padraig Delaney, Ryan Mullaney; Fiachra C Fennell, David Dooley; Aidan Corby, Tomás Keyes, Paddy Purcell; Mark Dowling, Jer Quinlan, Ben Conroy.

Subs: Eoin Fleming, Padraic Dunne, Donnacha Hartnett, Jordan Walshe, John Lennon, James Keyes, Martin Phelan, Aaron Dunphy, James Duggan, PJ Scully, Colin Byrne.

Laois Team named as above. Spot on Karate Kid.

Looking at Limerick V Clare on The Sunday Game. I love how Limerick hung their flags all around the ground. Would love to see the same in Portlaoise when we welcome either Dublin or Tipperary on June 15th.

Relieved to get to the JMD final. We've made hard work of getting there and to be quite honest, I don't like our current style of play - I don't think it suits us.
Our first touch in the last two games has been very poor overall and we are no aerial ball winners either. At this stage of the tournament we ought to have these glaring deficiencies ironed out. The only aspect of our game that is working is when we can offload the sliothar into a player with space and time to convert a score. We're easily succumbing to pressure in most 50-50s and turning over ball to the opposition.
Today, under the stand in Carlow, we passed off a ball into midfield and there was a free Laois player on the wing - who was begging for the pass. The result was a turnover in midfield and a Carlow point then resulted when we should have taken the obvious option and scored a point instead, a two point swing in the crucial closing part of the game instead of scoring, we went another point behind.
I seriously hope management scrutinise every minute of that game today and learn, learn hard from it. Kildare are a step above Carlow and today it seemed we took very little from the lesson Kildare dished out last week. We have two weeks to prepare for the final - so do Kildare. We need to have our homework done for June 8th.
There are players on that Laois panel that have given great service to Laois over the years and the last two games (incl. Today) I think they have lacked a little bit of leadership. I hope they can resurrect it for the final.
Looking ahead to the final, I think the wider expanses of Croke Park will suit us better than Kildare. If we can play to our strengths, i.e. using the space intelligently we can drive on for the win. 

Very disappointed leaving Portlaoise today and we got a bit of a humbling. Well done to Kildare though on a fine win - they looked well fit, plenty of physicality in that team and while there was a certain amount of luck in some of the goals, they deserved their win today.
Kildare have always had a hurling tradition - albeit without any real notable success. With the explosion in population over the past twenty five years, it's no surprise to see them progress. There is over a quarter of a million people in Kildare!
Some of their underage teams play in the Laois leagues and my own club got a hiding off a Kildare club side recently. They have a structure going and they are doing the right things and have been for a good few years now. They have had recent successes in Leinster minor and U20 campaigns.
With all of the above taken into account - coupled with Kildare's previous wins V Carlow (in Dr. Cullen Park) and V Westmeath who both would be expected to go well in this competition, perhaps some complacency set in around this fixture and Kildare executed a perfect ambush.
The lesson here for Laois is we're not entitled to win this competition and we cannot be complacent. Our final game V Carlow is vital and by God above, Tommy should have the lads fired up to atone for today's loss. It won't be simple - Carlow are a decent side and it's gonna be an almighty battle. However, a draw will suffice.
I also add - looking at Laois today, they looked very heavy on their feet and alot of the first touch was messy. What is happening in training?

Galway saw off Antrim with ease in Salthill today. Mind you, Antrim were rather wasteful. The business end of the Leinster Championship approaches and Offaly have kept it tight with Wexford and Dublin, however got a bit of a hiding from both Galway and Kilkenny. They should account for Antrim at home in Tullamore if they can move the ball around and not get into a physical battle with Antrim.
 

It's an awful pity that Laois will be in Division 2 of the National Hurling League next year.
Games at that level wouldn't be proper preparation for Leinster Championship should Laois win the Joe McDonagh Cup.

Indeed it's a pity we're going to be in Division 2 next year. However, we should use that to blood new players at that stage and be seeking out challenge games against the top teams after the league as preparation.

Laois are well ahead of the playing field at the moment Keep foot on the peddle. All Ireland prelims will tell where they are at with hoping they win Final first to set them up

The big incentive this year in winning JMD is the fact the winners face third place in Leinster. Possibly Wexford again and I know they beat us by 12pts last year - but that was when we had lost the final. If we can cruise the rest of the JMD and win the final, the lads heads will be in a better space for having a cut at Wexford in Portlaoise on June 16th.
Wouldn't it be sweet though if Offaly made it third in Leinster and we got them instead of Wexford! Be some tussle with Offaly.

Finally I believe that at least 11 or 12 of the panel are Minor next year and the current u16s are going well also. Hope and pray.

The U16s were very impressive V Kildare this morning in the COE. Think the final score was 2-28 to 1-10 or thereabouts. Even though, Laois were only 1pt up at half time we came out chomping at the bit in the second half and blitzed Kildare. A few very strong players on this team to supplement next years Minors - good to see.

Looking back at today's minor match - it's one we kinda let slip. Wexford had their homework done on us, knew which playmakers to hound and they executed it perfectly. Laois as a team didn't look composed today, jittery and by God did Lady Luck desert them on almost every 50-50 ball. In addition, the referee didn't pull WX for alot of throwing the ball. Wexford were happy to crowd the back and we didn't retreat out the field and try a few more long-range points which I think if we did, we'd have left Portlaoise today with a semi-final to look forward to. We carried too much ball into cul-de-sacs and with a bit more tactical awareness, could have won this. Alas, it wasn't to be, but that is a decent crop of players and should be encouraged to keep progressing. Our county needs them.

Clubber wrong on this or was the match moved?