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 Christ the names being mentioned here dont look too inspiring. Ryan O Dwyer they can't be serious. I wouldn't even be happy with Tommy dunne. He's not that highly regarded in tipp.
We need to be ambitious here. Anthony Daly, Derek McGrath, Eamonn O Shea, Liam Sheedy, Derek Lyng, Davy Fitz, Get Eddie back. Lads with pedigree at management, not just taking a chance on a lad that could play a bit. This appointment is important. Id like good laois selectors in then too such as Tommy fitz, Eamonn Jack man, Niall Rigney

Can the clubs be collectively trusted to nominate the right candidates. Some of the lads mentioned there wouldn't train a dog.
Better off they selected a committee to do it similar to the last few times. Can the Co Board be trusted to pick the right candidate from the clubs selection?
Id prefer to get someone with some level of County management experience. Going for a big name former player with no experience would be a disaster.

Desperate to see the disastrous set ups in the development squads. Very disappointing after the minors doing so well this year.
I do believe that there is massive appetite for hurling in Laois. The 18 odd thousand that turned up for the leinster minor final just shows how willing the ppl of laois are to turn out to support their county. The effort those minor lads put in is further evidence that in a proper set up the players will put their shoulder to the wheel for their county. 160 signed up for the setanta programme is also hugely encouraging. Cumann na mbunscoil is another great success. So we are doing some things right but in a county like laois we need so much more.
So why cant all these valuable components not be moulded together into a masterplan for laois hurling? PJ Kelly is a newly elected Co board Chairman. What will his legacy be at the end of his tenure?? Will he continue on the same amateur organisation that preceded him for years or will he gather some strong minded people with vision for the future.
Where will we be in 10 years time and how are we going to get there? They are the questions that needs to be asked.
We cannot keep going the way we are from year to year hoping that something miraculous will happen.
I believe cheddar is sitting down with the co board this week to discuss next year. The best thing they could do is ask cheddar to move away from the senior team management and start working on the plan for 10 years time.
Finance is always an issue but its one that can be tackled and improved on. Cheddar is an ambitious and intelligent man im sure he would find a way to make it all work with some help from others.
I honestly believe if the county board approached the clubs with a long term plan for laois hurling it would get backing. The clubs need to be brought along in a combined effort to drive everything forward.

Offaly are doing it...why cant we?

We can talk all we like about our senior team but until we put proper structures and effort into underage we are not going to improve. We cant dismiss our senior team but to make tangible progress in hurling "we need to invest hugely in underage". As long as i am following laois GAA these words have been mentioned so many times "invest in underage"!! Nothing has ever been donein this regard in hurling or football.
We need a change of approach some joined up progressive thinking. We need to ask ourselves "where ill we be in 10 or 20 years" and where do we want to be. After that...how are we going to get there. Put together an ambitious  PLAN with realistic and achievable targets and put in a huge effort to ensure we get there. Ive said it so many times before we need to look at the bigger picture, think outside the box and stop doing the same things that are failing all the time.
I heard Michael Duignan speaking after the minor leinster final. I was impressed. They realize where they are at senior level so they have gone back to the drawing board and are working to a strategic plan. He spoke about where their finances were and where they are now and he spoke about the initiatives they have put in place at all levels of Offaly GAA to drive things on with particular focus on underage. They are already starting to see rewards for their work and its stronger they will get.
WE HAVE NO PLAN BUT WE REALLY NEED ONE!
There are some good things going on in laois the COE is seriously impressive and credit must go to the co board for that but otherwise the co board must ask themselves what are they actually doing for the development of games in the county. IF we dont wake up soon other counties like kildare will overtake us in hurling.
Laois gaels and the setanta programme are positive but they are driven by people that are not involved in the co board. They are groups of people that have got off of their arse to do something off their own bat. Fair play to them and their are plenty of people out their that would do the same with some encouagement. Perhaps if we had a plan worth investing time into??
FFinally there is huge apetite for hurling in Laois. !6 or 17 thousand at a minor game on a

While we can admire these young men and hope they will become senior co hurlers some day, NOW is the time to start driving all other areas of hurling development in the county. Development squads need more, setanta programme must be supported, financed and expanded, secondary schools need assistance, a new juvenile hurling club in portlaoise is needed, more GPO's in clubs, portarlington hurling progress must continue etc etc etc

Generally, I don't like the county board battering that often takes place after a bad result. The county board isn't responsible for bad performances of individual county teams. But the county board is responsible for longer-term patterns and I'm afraid these patterns have been pretty grim over the last 4 or 5 years. We are losing/dismissing/not supporting good managers. We are ignoring good ideas being put forward by some of the more enlightened people like Sugrue or Cheddar who took the time to make very concrete suggestions about how to improve things. We have been slow to put youth coaching structures in place. We have been poor in fundraising. We've done little or nothing to encourage greater participation (either as players or supporters). These are the things that eventually lead to a pattern of poor performances on the pitch and the county board has to take responsibility for that.

[Totally agree with this. There is no plan and never was one]

I would be a Cheddar fan in so far as the passion he has for laois hurling cannot be matched. He is also willing to do something about it unlike plenty who do nothing only post negative comments online. However, for the good of our senior team I hope he steps down. Something just isn't working, injuries aside we seem devoid of any confidence and the effort in games is even questionable. Its like as if the players just dont have any hope and just want it over asap.

I would share the views of others on here that we have players to compete at the top level if everything is going right for us. But we need everyone and when you are missing the likes of picky, Roddy, Collier, Podge Delany, Aaron Dunphy, Lee Cleere, Joe Campion, Eanna Lyons etc, it makes things a lot more difficult. I know some lads didnt commit under Brennan but I wonder if someone else was in charge would the likes of Dunphy & Cleere be there? Also we had 4 lads leave the panel a couple of weeks before the first championship match tells us that its not a very happy camp. Its more difficult to keep everyone happy in laois than other counties for some reason. I think there needs to be an investigation into why this is the case. The drop out level in other counties like Carlow, Kerry, Westmeath is not near as bad. Why? For the players that left the panel You would have to question their attitude and ambition throwing in the towel before championship even started.

I would love to see Cheddar given a hurling director role within the county. He has the passion and drive to turn our fortunes around but he would need help

A lot of talk on the football forum after the humiliation yesterday in Aughrim. It will be interesting to see will there be any action from the co board. Lots of calls for overhaul of co board and underage structures. They better not forget hurling in any actions given the fact that its been neglected for the past 30 years.

 Bit of hope for the u20s. Look to be missing a few key players though that they will need. Fionan Mahony, Mossy Keyes, Ciaran Burke and Cathal Murphy are important players all of which started in last years championship. They are physical players too, we look a bit lightweight without them and we will need that against the bigger challenges to come. Keyes was an unused sub so hopefully he is working his way back in. None of the other 3 were on the 26. Anyone know of their progress?

Portlaoise have the population to have up to 70 kids at each under age group. I think the GPO will improve things in time. What will be needed then is another juvenile club in the town.

Heard an interview with cheddar after the Antrim game. The passion in his words and his voice is infectious and heart warming. He hit the drum yet again regarding support for weaker counties. He said we are getting no help so we are going to have to do it ourselves. The leinster councils move to assist with payment for clubs to put in place GPOs is a hugely positive step. All clubs in laois should be looking to get on board with this asap.

Ive mentioned it on here numerous times that we need a plan for laois hurling. The concept is simple and obvious what needs to be done but I feel we've been talking about this in laois for 30 years. Even back in Liam O Neills time (20 odd years ago) he had a plan for laois hurling, that wasn't followed through. Cheddar had a plan a couple of years ago, when he brought it to the co board he ending up leaving as senior manager in frustration.

Money is an obvious stumbling block but that can be worked on too and there are investors out there that would commit if a proper plan was in place. We have plenty of intelligent and passionate laois hurling people. We need them all sitting around a table trashing this out. Cheddar is our senior manager but id love to see himself and Shane Keegan heading up a plan for laois hurling. One that covers all bases and one that would over come any obstacles including financial. They would need help to delegate out jobs but there are people there can can carry out expertise specific tasks.

The clubs and crucially the schools need backing and help first and foremost.
Following that a major emphasis need to be put on our development squads. I wont be popular for suggesting this but i believe we need to take an elitist approach with our development squads! They need to be provided with the best possible coaching, athletic development(s&c), nutrition, sports psychology etc.
All of this must be done in a FUN manner. While the best should be provided for these young lads there should be little to no pressure put on them, at the ages of
12-17 it it can be serious to an extent but with a fun element, it can never get too serious. The is a balance there that should allow them to excel without getting fed up of the whole thing. I think we could learn a lot for soccer academies overseas who have kids from a very young age(a cohort from laois GAA should travel over and pick up ideas on how to do it). All of this should be coordinated and monitored by a Laois GDO. The idea would be that every kid in laois that has a hurl in his hand would want to be part of these academy squads. That's how it is in kilkenny, tipp etc, Its such an honour for them.
As i said the elitist approach probably wouldn't be popular but what do we do? We cant keep doing the same things, i.e NOTHING!

WE NEED A PLAN

Some clubs really leave a lot to be desired. You look at Rosenallis who historically rarely put a team out on their own and are now putting out a team on their own at every grade. Great credit due to them for the hard work they are putting in. They are reaping the rewards at senior level in both codes as a result. While clubs on both sides of them (with much bigger numbers, but cant seem to retain them) have to join with two other clubs to make a team is a really poor reflection on them.

Laois Juvenile Hurling amalgamations 2022

Under 11 Hurling –

o Ballinakill & Ballypickas (plus 2 St Joseph's players & 2 Crettyard players)
o Park Ratheniska Timahoe (plus 1 Ballylinan player ; 1 Arles Killeen player  & 2 Arles Kilcruise players)

Under 13 Hurling –

o Ballinakill & Ballypickas (plus 2 St Joseph's players & 3 Crettyard players)
o Clonad & Trumera
o Mountmellick & Clonaslee St Manmans (plus Kilcavan & The Rock)
o Park Ratheniska Timahoe (plus 2 St Joseph's players & 1 Arles Killeen player)
o St Pauls (Courtwood & Emo)

Under 15 Hurling –

o Ballinakill & Ballypickas (plus 2 St Joseph's players; and 2 Crettyard players )
o Clonad & Trumera
o Mountmellick & Clonaslee St Manmans
o Park Ratheniska Timahoe (plus 3 St Joseph's players & 1 Arles Killeen player)
o Raheen Parish Gaels (Colt-Shanahoe & St Pauls (Courtwood & Emo))
o Rosenallis (plus 1 Kilcavan player)

Under 17 Hurling –

o Ballinakill & Ballypickas
o Na Fianna (Ballyfin, Clonaslee St Manmans, Mountmellick & Slieve Bloom)
o Park Ratheniska Timahoe (plus 3 St Joseph's players)
o Raheen Parish Gaels (Clonad, Colt-Shanahoe, Trumera, Emo & Courtwood)
o Rosenallis (plus 3 Kilcavan players)

Good interesting post @clonadmad. Are ballyfin stand alone all the way up to minor and then joined with 3 other clubs? Looks like there is an obvious issue
with player drop out in certain areas
Would you have the full list of teams entered in each competition or is that too much to ask?

This was some win. Massive credit has to go to the players and management here. Morale must have been on the floor after the waterford and kilkenny games and to put in that performance with a man down for 50 minutes is really impressive. It  shows the commitment these lads have for laois hurling and the resolve they have when all seems lost.
A few points to note.
1. I really cant understand why we were getting such hammerings. I suggested before that these lads are a lot better than that. Other lads on here said that we were below Antrims level. I totally disagree with that. Antrim were hugely competitive against dublin, kk and waterford so why were we not? I think this needs to be really looked at and collectively the team and management need to identify why it happened and make sure that it doesnt happen again. We put in a savage performance against a far stronger waterford team in the championship last year.
2. The sending offs obviously are not helping. This needs to be addressed asap. We simply cannot afford it and got away with it on Sunday. Any minor thing off the ball now is a red and we need to wise up this, there is no excuse for it. We must get into the mind set of ball ball ball all the time.
3. Antrim were poor, really poor but for a change we appeared to be better set up that our opponents and used the ball far better. We need to hone in on this and be sure that we are giving ourselves a chance of winning games.
4. More Antrim support than laois. Really disappointed that we cant get some bit of a crowd at our home games. When we are going well the laois people will turn out but after the last couple of matches have turned people off going. There should be a drive now to get a big crowd for the first round of the championship. Hurling clubs should be taking buses of kids to play challenge games and then going on to the laois match afterwards. The Co board along with laois gaels need to reach out to the clubs and pull in their support for this. The players are putting in massive efforts its the least they deserve

So thats our first team against tipps 3rd?? I thought our minor team were handy enough?