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Congratulations to all involved on the Joe Mcdonagh success yesterday. Laois were more consistent on the day and it is great to return to the Leinster hurling championship next year after a 5 year gap.

Picky Maher, Cillian Dunne and Jack Kelly when he came on were excellent. We held Carlow to just one goal (after 1 minute) and that was down to sheer workrate.

Lads have a real chance now to celebrate the win with the Link match scrapped this year.

We have division 1b league hurling next year which should be great preparation for Leinster. I feel that Wexford will be the pivotal match to target in Leinster when that comes around.

Excellent start for Laois in the Tailteann Cup. There seems to be huge hunger in the group and training must be buzzing 2 weeks out from a home quater final.

Against Wicklow, there was great energy in the team, organisation, fine scores from various players. Pa Kirwan was impressive as was Kevin Swayne.

Huge scores put up in both matches while also keeping a close eye on defence. We have strong competition for places on the starting team.

Hopefully we can keep up the good form next day out.

Great to be back in a National final in championship for the 3rd year in a row. It is the one day in the Joe Mcdonagh cup where there is proper exposure, TV coverage and over the years has provided fantastic contests.

Since around 2010, we have had a very competitive hurling rivalry with Carlow and this should be a great final.

We have found a goal scoring touch (10 goals in last 3 games) and will need to keep it up to get over the line in what potentially could be a shootout.

Convincing win against Offaly in front of a decent crowd. 3-11 out of the 3-12 total was from play. Laois did the damage early with the 2 goals but in truth, Offaly were dismal on the day with huge gaps in defence.

Credit has to go to our organisation though with a clear plan in place, played with plenty of purpose. Forwards such as Evan O'Carroll, Ronan Coffey and Paul Kingston were very sharp.

Jack Lacey and Alex Mohan had strong displays in defence. A negative point was going 20 minutes without scoring in the second half. That can't happen against Kildare if we are to win.

Newbridge should be a good occasion and we can have a right cut at them. We'll have to be on it right through the game but there should be no fear,the pressure will all be on Kildare on their home patch.

The midfield battle could be pivotal. As a team, I'm sure the lads will leave everything on the pitch and hopefully we can bring a good support like what was in Tullamore.

An encouraging league campaign for Laois. Some really good performances and even with 3 defeats, 2 of them were by only 2 and 3 points with 14 men for the second half of both these matches.

Hopefully next year we can have a real promotion push and try to emulate Wexford's achievement this year. No less than 6 Leinster teams involved next year in division 3.

We now have the potential to have a real go at Offaly in the Leinster championship. It should be a cracker.

One of the best and most complete performances from a Laois team in the league for 6 or 7 years.

From start to finish, the intensity and effort was remarkable. New lads Jake Darcy and Darren Brennan did very well. Great to see Pa Kirwan back.

That is 3 decent performances in a row where we were outsiders in all. Odds of 3/1 against both Sligo and Westmeath in our home pitch.

Fermanagh away next will be a tough assignment. Hopefully we can continue our good form and get a result.

Well done to all involved. Once division 3 status is secured, we can look to Leinster championship and Offaly in Tullamore.

Ultimately the aim has to be a strong challenge in the Tailteann cup in May/June and see where it takes us.

Just to touch on the Laois motion for the GAA congress, in my opinion it was the correct decision to get rid of the link to the Liam McCarthy.

Last year against Tipperary, it was something like 1-5 to 0-0 after 6 minutes to Tipperary. In 2024 against Wexford it was handy enough for them overall.

We have to aim to win the Joe McDonagh cup this year to return to Leinster next year with 5 top class matches. That is our carrot and what this year will be defined on.

Roughly 7 weeks out now from the Carlow game. The whole season hinges on that game and a week later against Antrim.

In terms of the league, good to return to division 1b next year and stronger opposition.

Best of luck to the lads today in Ennis. Clare will be tough opponents but if we can produce the type of performance displayed against Sligo we have a chance.

Was great to see Simon Fingleton return from injury. The Laois defence as a unit were organised and committed last week and only conceded 1-5 from the 7th minute to the end of the game.

The display from the forwards at times was excellent to see. Much more attacking intent, some lovely 2 pointers and scoring options coming from attacking runs from Brian Byrne, Kevin Swayne and Paddy O'Sullivan.

Evan O'Carroll, Daragh Galvin and Rioghan Murphy were on fire. The performance from everyone involved was brilliant.

Good start to the season for the hurlers.

Kerry up next so hopefully we can continue the promotion hunt. Kerry seem to have improved on last year.

Looking a bit further ahead to April and the Mcdonagh. Saw Carlow against Wexford there live on tg4 and they were impressive. They will be stiff oppostion in round 1.

Antrim seem to be in a bit of bother but a good bit of hurling left between now and then. We have them in round 2. Should be interesting.

Massive game v Sligo on Saturday evening. Still 10 points to play for so hopefully we can win. We beat them last year in O'Moore Park.

Looking back on the first 2 rounds - we should have won against Limerick but squandered a few goal chances. Daragh Galvin was very lively that evening and did well against Wexford also.

Limerick gave Down a good run for their money in round 2 so we can take encouragement from that.

While Wexford thoroughly deserved their win, it was an off day for us. Rioghan Murphy did very well for us as did Kevin Swayne. I wonder if Swayne can be moved forward a bit and maybe bring in Alex Mohan to defence.

We need to be more clinical upfront and start delivering a few 2 pointers. Hopefully Evan O'Carroll will be fit to start, he has been decent on his return this year as has Paul Kingston.

Wexford were very impressive on the evening. Hopefully we can respond well on Saturday and put in a strong performance.

Looking at the division 3 fixtures, there are a lot of 50/50 games in my opinion.

Home advantage might get us over the line v Limerick, we have a good record against Wexford in recent years, we beat Sligo in the 2025 league, gave Clare a good contest in 2025 league, Westmeath will be tough but we're at home, can do much better than that game in Mullingar, we ran Fermanagh close enough in 2025 league, Down is probably the toughest game.

I believe we can have a good campaign. 2026 marks the centenary of the national football league,in which we were crowned champions.

Just to follow up on a previous post:

For tier 3 of the national league, there is a really good opportunity to blood new players and strengthen the panel in preparation for the McDonagh. Two teams will get promoted to Division 1B and in all honesty, we should be one of them.

On another note, they are due to vote on the future of the link between the McDonagh and Liam McCarthy cups in February. It looks set to be discontinued so it would be massive to win the Joe McDonagh cup and return to Leinster championship in 2027.

The Joe McDonagh fixtures for 2026 have been announced in the last few days.

We will start our campaign on the weekend of April 18/19 with a trip to Carlow followed a week later with a home game v Antrim.

A tough draw to start with possibly our 2 biggest rivals in the race for a final appearance.

The May fixtures will be against Westmeath away, Down at home and then London away.

Hopefully we can return to a 3rd final in a row and this time be victorious.

Fantastic to get the win v Offaly and finish the group on a high. A first competitive win since 2019 against them.

Damon Larkin, Paddy O'Sullivan and Brian Byrne were outstanding performers with Michael Doran doing very well when he came on for the second half.

The team showed a never say die attitude with some exellent scores and fine defending at times.

Westmeath will be a tough nut on Saturday away. They were competitive throughout division 2 and ran Kildare very close in Leinster.

Ray Connellan and of course Luke Loughlin are key players for them. Luke Loughlin has been on fire for them all season and will take some stopping.

With knock out ball on Saturday, hopefully we can bring a decent following to this crunch tie in Mullingar.

While we certainly got the rub of the green on Saturday, it is great to back in the Joe McDonagh cup final.

Guaranteed at least 2 more games now. There should be a great crowd in Croke Park on the day. Both Kildare and Laois will bring decent support and there is a GAA initiative where no less than 20000 free tickets are to be given out to underage teams to expose them to our final and of course the Leinster final then between Galway and Kilkenny.

It promises to be an absolute cracker and I believe it is on TV as well. Kildare look to be a really decent outfit with quality players all over the field - a lot of big men and forwards who offer a serious goal threat along with fine fitness levels.

Without question, we'll have to significantly improve our performance all over the field to lift the trophy. The management team have that bit of time now to prepare a plan for what should be a great occasion.