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It was just that type of game. For all the talent available to Port, they weren't exactly prolific either. Conditions weren't great and defences had the best of it. The standard wouldn't be up to much, but that's been the case for a long time

The only positive this year was Courtwood. A well coached team getting the absolute maximum out of their resources. They can feel exceptionally proud of themselves, and a little bit unlucky not to win a Senior.

I didn't see much in the penalty incident, but there didn't appear to be too much objection from Courtwood either, so hard to know. Overall another disappointing Championship and no real signs that the CB have any sort of plan to drive the thing forward. Portlaoise is the starting point. We just have to get more from a town of that size

The interest isn't there to run one club at the moment, so talk of two clubs is a waste of time. The numbers are there; the town is big enough; and in normal circumstances,it would be desirable and practical. However, the attrition rate in Portlaoise is massive. There is no problem getting numbers in there, as is evidenced by the turnout on most weekends. But for whatever reason,they fall away, and it seems nobody has been tasked with getting them back. It's Portlaoise's problem to fix, but Laois GAA is being run like an above average club team. If we want to improve, we need a lot more bodies on the ground promoting, coaching and retaining. We're a million miles behind those around us

For a club as clever as Portlaoise I was shocked when they brought in Turlough O'Brien as manager. He's the biggest bluffer around as a manager. When he was with Carlow he was carried by Stephan Poacher and would have achieved nothing without him.
He's expert at talking himself up but does nothing for the teams moral and he's very poor tactically. Got hammered with Eire Og last year and the same with Portlaoise this year and had very good players at his disposal both years.
There are some great men in that Portlaoise club and it's disgusting to overlook some of those for this bluffer..

They're bargain basement stuff these days. The lack of investment in Portlaoise is the legacy of this CB. Coincidentally the Laois team is at its lowest possible ebb.

The standard across all grades pathetic at the weekend. Mitigation perhaps because of the weather. There is no mitigation however for the standard of defending. I don't believe it could be any worse

The issue exists because the clubs don't want change. As a result, standards have slipped, interest has waned, and the county team has plummeted through the grades. We have very little going for us and very little in our favour. Along with Cork and Offaly, we are probably the absolute definition of a dual county with a population that can't really support one code alone. The hill is probably too steep to climb anyway, and we do nothing to facilitate the climb

Crazy that in 2025 we're still talking about this stuff. If you go all the way back on this board, you will see the same topics being discussed, even when we were in Divisions 1 and 2. In fairness to him Niall Handy wrote an article in the local press calling on clubs to get serious about amalgamations. It just won't happen and the standard has been allowed to drop to rock bottom. Of course there are more teams than we need in Senior, and that some of these teams are happy to win the one game that keeps them in that grade. Of course the standard of our championships are as low as they have ever been, and are struggling to produce players of county standard. And of course, as a result of these factors, we find ourselves taking regular beatings despite getting as good a coach as we can afford.

How we do things is broken. It has been for a long time. I'm not sure what the solutions are, but I do know we need to talk about all options. I have a feeling we'll keep going as we are and just hope for the best. That's what we have done for years, and have sleepwalked to where we are now

Brought something we never had before or since. Brought us to places we only dreamed of. His contribution to Laois and the GAA in general should never be forgotten. A legend of the game

RIP Micko. There will never be another one like him

I admire what Offaly have done, but looking over the fence in every direction is no good for us. We need to focus on ourselves and kick our own arses into gear. Nobody could be happy with the way things are. It just looks like we put teams out and whatever will be will be. I don't see a development plan, any sort of proper administration and all that entails, or any desire to make things better. We are set up to fail and those who seek re-election year after year have so far not done anything to improve Laois GAA. It's not working and hasn't been working for a long time now

Excellent post LR, and I do agree that Portlaoise is key. I wouldn't worry too much about a second club though, as they don't seem to be getting a lot out of the club they have. It's a travesty really. You go past that club on any given day and it's jam packed full of kids. I suppose the argument is that they can't all play for Portlaoise, but that's no excuse for the overall lack of top quality players you'd expect to get from a town and club of that size. The CB need to invest serious time,effort and funds into Portlaoise, and not just ignore it as they have done for an eternity now. We can't have an asset that size on our doorstep and just let it meander along doing very little at all

It's far from a one man job though Leixman; which is another one of our problems. We don't have the resources to compete, and throwing money at individuals won't help us. The GAA is a numbers game, both financially and in terms of bodies. It sounds obvious, but we will invariably struggle because we have no investment and smaller numbers. There is also zero feelgood in Laois GAA just now. Success breeds success and we have none of that either. We're in a truly rotten state

It is horrible seeing Laois get bad beatings at underage in both codes, do we simply not have the players? do we not have the coaches? are the teams poorly prepared? The county board need to be taken a serious look at what. has gone wrong. Our neighbours in Offaly are a great example of how to turn the ship around, their players are hard gym rats but they are all developing at a rate of knots in recent years as a hell of a lot of work has gone into developing players at underage and school level to get them to this point. The had a chairman who had the whole county pulling in the one direction and they are starting to reap the benefits of that work now.

There's a million reasons for our lack of competitiveness and sadly we are lacking in so many different ways. I don't think we have anything to offer beyond providing a platform for players to play, at whatever level they wish to play at. From this point looking forward, it is very hard to see where the next big moment will come from, because we are and have been in freefall for a number of years now. We don't have the personnel, the players or the investment, and I really don't know where or when we will get it. Support where you can, because that is always important, and do whatever you can for your club, because investment in the future will hopefully yield some results down the line. Beyond that, a lot needs to change in Laois, but that has been the case for as long as I can remember.

This is an extremely difficult and sensitive set of circumstances. On the one hand, RG was never convicted of a crime (assuming through lack of evidence) and also has custody of his children. To the outsider looking in, that would suggest that he has been wrongly accused. On the other hand, there seems to be this local knowledge that suggests that RG did everything that he is accused of, and everybody bar the Police know about it. As David pointed out above, that's not how the Law works, but at this moment in time, and possibly forever more, RG will not be able to outrun these rumours. For that reason, Derry would be making a big mistake by taking him back

Munster isn't much better. Connacht marginally better than that and Ulster the most competitive but depressing to watch. The bigger question is what does the GAA want for counties like Laois and many like us. All suggestions I have seen throw us in with Leitrim and Wicklow and we play each other until we're blue in the face and eventually, somehow, you go up a level, maybe two. Nobody really cares.

We just can't compete. Forget all the scribes and wafflers who tell us to get our house in order. It just can't be done. They know it can't be done either, but they're happy with the status quo. Personally I think it's rubbish, and by the looks of things so do many other people. They can do what they like with it. Re jig, play in September, replace this with that, whatever. In reality, gaelic games will always be dominated by the same counties and that's just that

He will go as an Independent and that will free him up for Laois. His party are in a precarious position, so he holds all the aces, and they may yet be forced to cave in and let him do what he wants. He clearly wants to be a part of Laois, and I'm sure most Laois GAA followers will want that too.

The above is what is likely to happen in the short term. The most unlikely scenario is that he will vacate his MLA seat. Long term, who knows what political future he will have after this. Some will admire him and some will never forgive him. It won't matter to him anyway because he'll be writing his own cheques when we win Sam