The Future for Laois Football

Started by Junior Ex Laoistalk, July 05, 2021, 12:26:01 AM

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Giovanni

Quote from: High Fielder on July 05, 2021, 05:45:30 PM
No rush with a new Coach. No rush at all in fact. We're not going anywhere too soon, so any planning done now will need to be for the long term. We need to allow other voices to be heard and people with a different approach to be let into the room. The CB need to do what's best for Laois GAA and not themselves. The Brennan incident was the perfect time to put egos aside and focus on what was working well. Instead, they blew it, and we lost a good man when I'd personally rather have 1 Eddie Brennan for the whole lot of them. The same with Sugrue. That is why we need to slow down and have a proper discussion around the subject. Everything we have done up to now hasn't worked. Clearly.

I would agree with this. A real conversation is needed now, not just a change of manager.

I honestly don't know if the county board is the essential problem or not but I think we can say for sure that they are not very receptive to new ideas, even from the mangers that they, themselves have hired. If the county is going to be competitive, there simply has to be an openness to new ways of doing things.

town1980

What is the standard we should expect from a manager inside the county?

The PRO

Quote from: High Fielder on July 05, 2021, 05:45:30 PM
No rush with a new Coach. No rush at all in fact. We're not going anywhere too soon, so any planning done now will need to be for the long term.
In one sense I agree on this but I do also think that it is imperative that the next manager is in place by the the time the local championships start. Whoever it is needs to see every potential player in the most natural environment which is with their club.

High Fielder

For fairly obvious reasons, the next appointment will be a local one. Any Coach worth their salt will know the scene well. Also, and I mean this with all due respect, but there aren't many surprises out there. We know what we have and largely speaking, they will be the same names on everyone's list. The point of focus needs to shift to the future if we want to turn the ship around

portlaoisekid

The last thing we need now is another journeyman manager who is in for a short term gig.

The new manager really has to rip up the current panel and start from scratch, see as much championship action at all levels as physically possible and back to the days of having trial matches involving everybody and anybody and see where the panel sits after that.


In an ideal world Sugrue would come back on board ,be given free reign to mould a team and vision for Laois football over the next few years from the ground up, I would certainly trust him with Laois footballs short to medium term future.

Junior Ex Laoistalk

All of the clubs will have to start taking responsibility for this mess too. we have got to make it very clear to our delegates what way we want things to go at county level and really put pressure on the top table to change things around and very soon.

If a meeting could be arranged between a couple of representatives from each club and discuss what needs to be done at both club and county level to improve the overall situation it would be a great start. The reps could then bring back some ideas to their clubs and instruct their county board delegates to bring them to the next board meeting and demand change. These ideas would be coming from all the clubs through agreement and would have to be listened to.

For too long now one club would come up with a progressive change for the better but would be shouted down by the other clubs who have their own agenda therefore taking any pressure off the Co Board top table to carry out any changes. The clubs themselves are facilitating the board to carry on with the status quo and we end up back at square on doing nothing. All this is very frustrating to club delegates and they very soon lose any interest in bringing ideas forward.
Winners are not those who never fail, but those who never quit!

seafoid

This also applies to Laois

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/kevin-mcstay-i-was-surprised-by-roscommon-s-defensive-set-up-1.4612125

Roscommon have had two championship games in two years and lost both. What does that do for the best group the county has produced since 1990? There is no new wave coming up behind them because the underage development has not been at a level to allow for that.
So it becomes a predictable shuffle. A team goes forward for a few years and then slips back dramatically.
I don't see things changing when the pandemic has passed because by then morale will be shot. Roscommon made a huge effort to make it to that next level but they are back at square one now.
I am not sure that crowds will come back in the numbers we take for granted. Why go to watch Leitrim or Sligo or Roscommon get pulverized by Galway and Mayo over the next few years? These teams and counties are lost: they are out of solutions.
If the GAA doesn't step in then we will have two or three counties dominating and the vast majority in retreat. Many counties will look at the cost of participation in terms of finance and time and figure it is not worth it.
The top teams are like a runaway train. Galway and maybe one or two others might catch it. But don't pretend that makes an All-Ireland championship.
"f**k it, just score"- Donaghy   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbxG2WwVRjU

High Fielder

An excellent summation Junior. These are the issues that hold us back. It's been happening for years and too many are cosy and resistant to change. There are too many people with influence whose only qualification is brown nosing. I want the Rigneys, Cheddars Brennan's and Sugrues of this world driving us forward.

Junior Ex Laoistalk

Quote from: High Fielder on July 06, 2021, 11:38:37 AM
An excellent summation Junior. These are the issues that hold us back. It's been happening for years and too many are cosy and resistant to change. There are too many people with influence whose only qualification is brown nosing. I want the Rigneys, Cheddars Brennan's and Sugrues of this world driving us forward.
Thanks High Fielder, but lets not just talk about it. We all know what goes on at board meetings, most of them are held just because they have to have so many in the year to do the local stuff. Its at the AGM that we have to have more influence and we must do it through our delegates.

If we can get delegates from several clubs to go there in agreement to a few genuine proposals then we can really garner change and get things done. It really is up to the clubs now and how much we really want changes or are we like the Co Board, happy to just keep talking about it and in reality sit back and do nothing.

The youth of our clubs and Laois in general are depending on us so lets not let them down. You might want want the Rigneys, Cheddars Brennan's and Sugrues of this world driving us forward but I would rather see our clubs driving us forward. If that happens then the rest will take care of itself.

Winners are not those who never fail, but those who never quit!

Junior Ex Laoistalk

Winners are not those who never fail, but those who never quit!

Silkyskillssunshinee

#25
Quote from: Junior Ex Laoistalk on July 06, 2021, 12:54:23 PM
In the meantime, here are a few possibilities for the role of new Laois football manager:

https://www.laoistoday.ie/2021/07/06/16-potential-internal-candidates-for-the-vacant-laois-football-managers-job/

Sugrue did a very solid job with Laois, in my opinion. Back to back promotions and reached a Leinster final in the first year. I wouldn't mind if we went back to him.

Laois need to focus entirely on their Division 3 campaign next year. Falling down to Division 4 would be a disaster. At the end of the day, championship doesn't really matter when your not competing in Division 1 regularly. No matter how many games you win, you'll eventually face the Dubs and they'll hammer anyone in Leinster. Hard for lads to motivate themselves for that.

town1980

i agree totally he is well equipped to do the job again but you are facing into a few years of getting a new 3 to replace timmons a new 6 to replace begly  8 for o loughlin a new 9 for lilis and a new 14 to replace donie,,all of the above along with the captain he picked that year stephan attride,,all of the above are simply too old and they were the main lads a couple of years ago,,its a daunting job but one i think if he wanted with a good backroom team he could do well again,,were a div 4 team in my opinion at the minute

Chrimtain

Laois are not a Division 4 team. They are Division 3. If we are relegated next year then we are Div 4, but let's not jump the gun.

High Fielder

It doesn't matter what we are now. It's what we want to be that matters. Even the Flourbags tend to bowl us over routinely, and nobody fears them. We are under prepared and not fit enough for the fight in most grades. Let this generation prove us wrong if they can, but let's not flush money away flogging the dead horse. Let's focus on the future and doing things differently

Laois Rising

You put your building blocks in from the ground up. Underage needs to be the priority and increasing both the numbers, competitiveness and coaching at underage needs to be our focus. To do this we need to really invest in GDOs and supporting clubs in coaching and developing players. It is evident that traditional powerhouse clubs like St. Joseph's, Stradbally, Graigue and Portlaoise are capable of producing far, far more than they currently are. Portlaoise should be fielding three teams minimum at each level with the population at its disposal. Towns of a similar size in other counties would have multiple clubs all capable of fielding A and B teams at the different age groups. We need to invest heavily and support these clubs in upping their standards at underage. In doing this, it will raise the standards our our county underage teams and ultimately feed into our senior team. In order to improve, players need to be regularly playing games at a high standard. If we can get 7/8 highly competitive teams facing one another regularly at u13, u15 and minor it is going to have a positive knock on effect. If you look at the minor championship last year in Laois, outside of Ballyroan-Abbey-a lot of teams playing the 'A' championship were way off the required standard to be considered a truly competitive 'A' standard team. 

I feel that our anger at the county board has let some of the players off the hook for what was an abysmal showing in the second half. The county board or the manager is not the fault when players don't have the fight in them when things are going against them on the field. Too often, over the last decade when Laois teams have come under pressure in championship football they have folded. I'm now questioning is it something in our mentality. Antrim 2015 when threw away an eight point lead, Kildare 2017 where Kildare forwards were kicking points for fun in the second half, Clare dismantling us in a qualifier in Portlaoise and Meath 2019 when we failed to put up any real challenge in a Leinster semi final are games that quickly come to mind. I can accept losing but it is the manner in how we lose certain games that is very disheartening. Quirke did as well as he could with the hand that he was dealt is my opinion on things. We have plenty of players in the county who are capable of playing division 3/4 football. We lack those 5/6 marquee players that every  mid rank team with aspirations of playing at a higher level need to drive things forward and make the difference on the field. In fairness to Westmeath in the likes of Heslin and Ger Egan they have those players who can inspire, step up and drive the team forward.