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Think that is a very fair assessment High Fielder. Expected it to be a close game but Kildare were a much more physically superior team and they made it count on the day. Once things got away from Laois, players heads dropped and Kildare were able to put up a big score easily. Potential for one or two of those lads to step up to senior panel. With Tailteann Cup chance to be involved with Laois seniors for a couple months at least and perhaps gain some game time. Such an experience will hopefully build up their experience for the future.

With Sligo/New York, Westmeath and Limerick/Clare already guaranteed spots in the All-Ireland series and Cavan holding genuine prospects of making an Ulster final it shows how important it is to finish in the top 3/4 places of division 2 for Leinster teams in that division. With the potential to land on the same side of the draw as Dublin in Leinster, it effectively ends your participation in the All-Ireland series if you have a bottom half finish in the league and draw Dublin prior to the Leinster final.

Kildare and Meath may both end up competing for the Tailteann Cup as opposed to for Sam. What the Tailteann Cup doesn't need are teams playing in and winning this competition who see themselves as "too good" or "above it". Westmeath's genuine delight and celebration in winning the competition added great value to it in it's first year. This is what the Tailteann Cup needs. If we have a couple of years of counties winning the Tailteann Cup who don't really embrace that success then it's going to devalue the competition a little. The Tailteann Cup is to give the Leitrim's, Laois' and Wickow's a genuine shot at an All-Ireland title not the likes of Kildare or Meath an opprtunity to get their hands on a trophy that they may show the proper appreciation for.   

Kildare have improved from their opening day defeat to Westmeath. However, this is not one of the stronger Kildare U20 teams of recent years and Laois will be a match for them. This is very much a 50/50 game. Hopefully the lads can prevail. Football in the county needs some success stories at intercounty level to try restore some interest in Laois football within the county. It was awful to see the stand in Portlaoise so empty last Sunday. Thankfully a few hundred supporters from Wexford travelled or the place would have been like a morgue on the day. 

What I find particularly interesting about the make up of the starting minor team is the return of our traditional powers such as Portlaoise, Joseph's, Graigue and Stradbally back-boning the team. It's good to see as these clubs getting their underage development structures right. On the flip side no players from O'Dempsey's, Portarlington or Ballyroan-Abbey in the starting team or subs. Have the other clubs caught up with them in terms of underage development? or has underage standards slipped in these clubs and too much priority put on successful sides to detriment of those following after?

If you want an example of how we regressed- you could argue that Lillis and Finn at their peak were unable to break into our starting 15 circa 2016/2017. Now we have never been more reliant on them and they both well into their 30s. Timmons who has been a brilliant servant to Laois but now closer to 40 than 30 and there is still no defensive player in the county to equal him. Sean O'Flynn could yet kick on to be our marquee defensive player in the next 12 months but he is yet to truly reach the potential he showed that made him stand out at U20 level a few years back. A huge loss defensively is Attrite who is a genuine intercounty standard player and would strengthen our defense if he was still there. Sugrue, Quirke and Billy all tried but couldn't solve our defensive frailties-reality is that the players at our disposal are division 3 standard max on a good day. That's not a criticism-it's the reality of the situation. 

The 16 team senior championship is a farce but that's an argument for another thread and one that has been repeated several times on this forum-but turkeys will never vote for Christmas and clubs won't vote to reduce our championship in numbers. I still cannot for the life of me understand why clubs won't meander for years simply avoiding relegation than be competitive at intermediate level and target county and potentially Leinster and All-Ireland glory. Look what winning an intermediate title did for Laois Ladies football. Park winning intermediate title last year brought huge joy to the community there. Endless examples.

Laois being opened up defensively is a problem that has been there long before Billy arrived. Even Sugru struggled to keep us defensively sound and only for Graham Brody in a couple of games could have conceded a higher number of goals. In championship games against Meath, Monaghan and Cork we could easily have been taken for a half dozen goals. Things have regressed further since then.

Like it or not, Michael Quirke called it correctly after the championship exist to Westmeath when he said there is simple not enough players of a proper intercounty standard within the county. It doesn't matter what game plan you put in place if you don't have the players to pull it off. Laois are performing to the calibre of players available at the moment. We are not under performing.

Unfortunately, if you are going to make changes at underage level you need plenty of willing people to invest and sacrifice time, energy and expertise. Sadly, we don't have that within the county at present. Therefore, things will not change too much in the immediate, medium or dare I say long term. 

 

The most important foul in Gaelic football is the one where the opposing team is coming out of their defence with the ball, especially after they have executed a turn over, and you commit a foul to break their momentum and to buy your team a couple of seconds to get back in their defensive shape. Kerry probably the best team in the country at executing this foul. As it is usually a simple tug of the jersey or leaving the arm in challenge it will rarely or ever punished with a yellow card. It really does suck the energy out of a game and stops a game building up any real  flow or momentum.   

Another year of Division 4 football to look forward to next year. In the modern game of football you need to be able to bring on 4/5 players from about 20 minutes to go to add legs and impetus to a team. Last year Billy was criticized for not using/trusting his bench more. We ended up losing points in tight games to Limerick and Antrim where we were perhaps slow to make changes. Again, yesterday we saw Laois slow to bring on subs even though conditions weren't great and players were clearly fatigued. It can't be hugely motivating for those on the panel but outside the starting 15 to stay positive and keep giving the required commitment knowing that the management team doesn't have a whole lot of faith in you.

Wicklow backed up their impressive victory over Laois with another good victory yesterday. Two very winnable league games left for them as well. They may rue the two farcical goals they conceded to Carlow yet if they miss out on promotion by a point.

I'm expecting Laois v Leitrim will be a close enough game. From a Laois perspective, you would hope that we have the slightly more dangerous scoring threat that will get us over the line.

Hopefully Murphy's injury won't keep him out too long. He's not had a run of games with Laois due to the recurring nature of his injury. A forward line composing of players of the calibre of O'Carroll, Murphy, Barry, Kingston and Lowry should be be capable of kicking enough scores to challenge any county in the Tailteann Cup. I also think Niall Corbet, if given a run of games, has the potential to claim a starting position. The more natural scoring threats we can put out on the field the better we will be.

I'd also like to see Burke of Crettyard given the opportunity from the start against Waterford. This game provides Laois with an opportunity to make 2/3 changes and give younger players a chance to impress and gain experience. We need to find some solutions to our problems in the middle third of the field.

Luckily Laois are not facing Leitrim this weekend. Playing a poor Waterford team this weekend should give Laois a chance to regroup and hopefully revive their promotion challenge. With Donie Kingston not available, Laois are heavily reliant on Evan O'Carroll and with him being suspended for the Waterford game there was no focal point to our attack.

Wheels came off the wagon last night big time. Last night's performance shows up the severe lack in depth in the Laois panel. The majority of lads in with laois are decent,committed club footballers but are not really at the level of a decent intercounty side. With Evan suspended this was a game we needed Murphy to take on the mantel of the main ball winner in close to goal. Unfortunately an early injury deprived us of that option and we really struggled to put together any semblance of a plan B to counteract Wicklow once they claimed dominance in the middle third.

Once Wicklow figured out the limitations of this Laois team there was only going to be only one winner. Long kick outs to an area of the pitch where they physically and athletically dominated Laois. I'm afraid it probably won't be the last time this year we see a similar outcome to a game. 

In some ways I am happy with what I saw on Saturday. Laois have serious ambitions of winning the Joe McDonagh and progressing to have a crack off of top tier team in the preliminary quarter final. With both Antrim and Westmeath in the championship proper we would definitely be the highest ranked team in the Joe McDonagh. Therefore, I am happy to see Laois were competitive for 55 minutes against Waterford. It was an improvement on the week before. Also have watched Tipp blow Kilkenny away with another fast start in Nowlan Park at the weekend it would suggest that Tipp are much further down the line with where they are at in comparison to a lot of other counties at the moment. It's all about timing and if Laois continue to progress and the fitness and physicality develop week on week, we should be in good stead come start of the championship. No point, peaking for a league that we are never going to win and then go stale come championship time. From listening to couple of players involved they seem happy with set up and how things are progressing. If they players are happy then I think we as supporters should be happy. After last couple of years we need some positivity.

In relation to Mullaney I think we should stick with him at centre forward. He was probaly the stand out club player in Laois last year. He will cause problems for any of the Joe mcDonagh defences. I would like to see our players 5-9 set more in stone. While flexibility is great, I do think we now need to give them a run of games in a set position. By doing that, identify to each player specifically what their roles are and what is expected of them and let them work on that over a number of games. Changing positions week on week doesn't help with embedding in what the management might want of them exactly.

There should be a big promotional push by Laois GAA to get supporters into O'Moore Park for a local derby with Kilkenny in two weeks time. It is our last home league fixture. Teams and players feed off of energy and having that support come out in two weeks time and hopefully the players put in a performance could help the team continue on an upward trajectory.

I don't have any insight into why this didn't happen.... But I can't imagine the GAA wouldn't have been reasonable in this matter.
Nothing to be gained from being otherwise.

The LGFA nationally have a reputation for being difficult & unreasonable. I have no idea if that extends to this situation, but I wouldn't be jumping to dump the blame at the feet of Laois GAA.

A very disappointing comment made here by Keyser Soze. From stating "I don't have any insight" but still well able to label an organisation making great strides as "difficult and unreasonable".     

An agreement could have been made regarding the gate split if that was the issue. It's a really poor decision, especially after the success of the women's team last year. If the county board rejected the request from the Laois LGFA they should have the decency to give a reason to the public for turning down this request. Paying Lip service to promoting women's football is no good to anyone. Show initiative is what is needed. 

Having at least one double header game in O'Moore Park, where the Laois LGFA could do a big promotional push on the game, bringing in juveniles from the different clubs should be supported. Laois LGFA need to build on the momentum and excitement gained from last year's All-ireland success. After last weekend's result it is evident to see we are a long way of the pace at senior level. We may not get to experience the success of 2022 again for the foreseeable future so it is important to strike now while the iron is out so to speak and keep promoting the women's game within the county. We were once a powerhouse of women's football. It is important that Laois LGFA are supported in trying to climb the ladder again to the top table of women's football.