Messages

https://www.laoistoday.ie/2019/01/25/croke-park-deem-all-proposed-gaels-teams-in-laois-for-2019-illegal/

Let's call a spade a spade: the reality is any team that was relying on a 'Gaels' amalgamation to prop them up at senior in the first place is pathetic. Either accept you're going to struggle or accept a championship reformat which regrades you at intermediate, holding onto the senior tag just for the sake of it is watering down the SFC standard to conserve your pride, and in turn keeping county priorities below your own. Killeen looking to get into bed with Barrowhouse, given their history of picking off some of their best players, is embarrassing. They're a perfect example of a dying club, no youth coming through, virtually the same players every year and in the meanwhile they're getting that bit older. Themselves and Kilcruise need to have a serious look at themselves, they are doing a serious disservice to their players and to themselves. Ending this Gaels nonsense is only half the battle: the next step needs to be cutting down championship numbers to at least 12 as was proposed several years back before divisional teams are even considered.

I'm a long-time reader of this forum so I've decided to jump from off the fence and get involved in the discussion for once. Really looking forward to this year but I feel we might have to bide our time a little in Div 3. We lack physicality fom the half back line right up to our half forward line. Teams found it too easy last year to cut right through us, and if it wasn't for Brody's heroics we'd have been at the end of cricket scores vs Dublin and Monaghan in all honesty.

Midfield is, in my opinion at least, our biggest issue. We lack a fetcher and mobility, we've no midfielder who is capable of breaking opposition lines during transitions and we don't win enough primary possession from kickouts. This crippled us at times last year, particularly against Carlow in the league final and Dublin. We also seem to be very wasteful when it comes to taking scores which doesn't fix itself overnight.

Nevertheless John's building something great here. Given recent county board f**kups in appointing, at the very minimum, competent managers, bringing John in was the best thing to happen to us in years. The level of interest in our county team from players and supporters alike is unprecedented by our recent standards; maybe not all down to John, but a significant chunk regardless. We can really push for promotion but it'll be a tough ask.