Messages

Robbo, your point shows how in reality little separates a lot of clubs in Laois. Emo went from county finalists to being relegated twelve months later not that many years ago. O'Dempseys, Ballyliaian, Killeshin have followed up making county finals with hugely disappointing seasons to follow.

Those who have been involved with Laois minor hurling panels have all been complimentary of the work that McGrath has done. He was not the manager of this side so for lads to come on here and blame him for results is unfair to say the least. I'd be interested to see how those players progress after his coaching input at minor level. Certainly the U20 side gave an excellent account of themselves in Nowlan Park this year.

I actually think getting relegated will stand to Abbeyleix in the long run. They have plenty of good young hurlers coming through who would benefit from learning their trade for a year (possibly two) in the intermediate premier ranks. 

Nothing beats going on a winning championship run for generating interest and helping to develop a side, especially a predominately young team. Abbeyleix can look to filter and integrate their successful minor players into their side and come back stronger to the senior ranks in 2023 or 2024. I wouldn't be surprised if they were there or thereabouts at winning a leinster intermediate championship along the way as well.

The successful counties promote from within and would never even consider bringing in an outsider

Secondly their managers don't get parachuted into the big job

They have a body of coaching work often done from u14 upwards and it's a progression,be successful at 14,get moved up to 15 and so on.

There's a mentors pathway in place in these counties with ex players heavily involved.

I know of a man who was asked to take a u14 divisional team here,in the past month

He went away and came back with a proposal

They were going to train as a club team twice a week,central to the clubs location so they wouldn't be trucking in and out from the CoE

Had a 6 man back room team assembled to include 3 coaches,an athletic development person a physio and a stats video person

He was in the process of getting gear for them as he has access to funds and was looking to feed them afterwards so that they could get home to study etc after training.

Everything he suggested was shot down

One by one

He didn't have a son on this particular team,he was doing it to improve standards as that's his approach in his professional life.

Jaysus it's demoralising to hear stories like that 😔

And only you heard of this on the grapevine and shared it, most of us here would not have been aware of this. Again, the county board not challenged on this and to present their justifications for shooting this approach now. Sounded very logical what was being proposed. Look at improvements in Offaly last 3/4 years at underage level in both hurling and football. Doing the right things at the level is the only thing that's going to revive Laois GAA. If younger players are treated properly, respected and provided with a professional set up they are going to buy into it, commit and hopefully develop as footballers. You reap what you sow. 

On a side note I hope the Tailteann Cup does go ahead next year. I think playing in a competition where Laois could go well in and pick up a number of championship wins in the summer might help with re-establishing an interest with intercounty football in the county. Nothing beats success-would be nice for younger supporters going to Croker for a potential Tailteann Cup quarter or semi final with a realistic chance of winning these game. It could be the starting point needed to regain an interest with the wider Laois public in Laois GAA football.

Billy Sheehan is the frontrunner for this job. He won't prove as expensive to bring in as other options either. No harm in trying a young, ambitious and hungry for success manager. I have no interest in seeing a journeyman intercounty manager get the gig-Cribbin, Flanagan etc. are not progressive appointments.

A left  of field appointment if looking for a young and ambitious manager could be Killian FitzPatrick at Ballyfin. Incredible consistently over the last three/four years competing with and beating clubs that they would not be expected to beat in championship football. Are a very well organised side who play a nice brand of football.

From the first two rounds of championship games how many players in the 20-25 years of age category have really stood out as capable of stepping up and making an impact at intercounty level. For me, Sean Moore did very well in both games against Port and PLaoise. I would like to see him get a proper run in 2022 with the county.

I like the justifications for each of your predictions town1980. It is surprising to hear that the wind has been so badly taken out of Emo's sails for this year's championship. They had great momentum at the end of 2020 and it is a pity the championship was halted when it was for them. They have a number of good young players coming through as well. Perhaps its a case of playing out 2021 and re-setting again for 2022. Once they don't repeat their party trick of having a great year (2015 county finalists) to be embarrassingly relegated they year after (2016).

Stradbally could be bit of surprise package this year. Once every 4/5 years manage to get everyone available to them fit and playing. When they do, they have a panel of players that can compete with anyone. After weekend's performance, and with players still to return, they look like that they are in that cohort of 3 or 4 clubs that could possibly topple Portarlington.

The failure at underage for a decade or so is really starting to filter into the Portlaoise senior team now. Courtwood have had better players coming through these last few years and in reality this result should not be seen as a shock.

Looking the the strength and depth of players some of those clubs have just highlights again the madness of a 16 team senior championship in Laois. Half the clubs in the championship sole ambition is to remain senior. The intermediate championship has been a farce last couple of years with teams regularly on the end of 20 plus point drubbings with some below strength second teams propping it up. If you were to ship 4/6 teams back intermediate from the senior ranks you would have an excellent and competitive senior and intermediate club championship with a lot more clubs having a realistic chance of targeting championship success.

In Limerick, they managed to revert their senior hurling championship about 5 years ago from a 16 to 12 team championship in one year. Championship played off with four groups of four with clubs seeded accordingly. Bottom team in each group after the group games relegated. For one year only the intermediate champions do not get promoted. Alternatively if you want the intermediate champions promoted to senior then you have the clubs who finished third in their groups go into semi final relegation play-offs.

Perhaps I'm being extreme but after watching Park's game with Timahoe during week and watching Timahoe in last year's intermediate championship being massacred by other clubs strongly feel something needs to change-for supporters and players.

I'm really looking forward to when Port and Portlaoise meet in the 2021 championship. Hopefully they will be kept on opposite sides of the draw and not meet until the final. It could be a great rivalry over the next few years and with Port currently top dog in county it will surely drive Portlaoise' efforts for rest of year to regain their crown. Unlike when Stradbally won title few years back, this Portarlington team is going to be around for next 5/6 years.

It's going to be very hard for Graigue to regain the enthusiasm and drive for the 2021 championship. After shipping a comprehensive loss like that it surely will take the wind out of their sails. 

Timmons has arguably been the best club player and county player in Laois for the last decade. If Graigue were to win the county final I don't think anyone would begrudge seeing him lift the trophy. Least he deserves for his contribution to both club and county for the last 15 years. However, in sport you don't always get what you deserve.

How will Spink fare in Junior A when all the Ballinakill players are back hurling? You'd imagine Ballinkill will go far in the intermediate championship so you would imagine Cha and co. won't be available to Spink for the Junior A.

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.

We are clearly struggling from numbers 5-12. Our midfield pairing struggles at this level against stronger counties while we do not have any really outstanding half-backs or half-forward at our disposal- the fact that any one of 7/8 lads could start in the half back line the next day proves this point.

Westmeath have got their house in order this season and last. The team that they have now has developed nicely in that time and have proved themselves capable of putting it up to the tops teams e.g. competed well with Meath, Cork and Mayo in the league this year and challenged Dublin as well as any team in the championship last year. They were very unfortunate to lose to Cork and get relegated to division 3 because they were better team for large parts of that game. I see Westmeath running out comfortable 5-6 point winners.

On the flip side, all going well we can then look forward to two potentially exciting county semi-finals (hopefully none of the remaining teams have gone off the boil since last year).