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Good piece in the Examiner I think this week about the GAA's own staff taking on coaching jobs in other counties, Jack Cooney, Dermot McCabe, Pat O Shea and many more
So it has been done before

But .. Does'nt sit right

Castletown won by 12 they top the group with a game still to play. Camross gone after Cbolla beating them today. Harps beat Borris. Clan Né Gael Strong in the B. Question should a team with 3 or 4 clubs together be allowed into a B competition??

Well... It was the same arrangement last year, and they weren't up to much. These things are cyclical, I suppose. I would say that more concerning for hurling in Laois is how the traditional clubs ( esp. R/E, B/K) are not really featuring in underage grades, except at the lower levels.

Clough Ballacolla will be with Mountrath in the Minor Championship next year and are operating with small numbers and poor standard at U13 & 15, with a couple of excellent hurlers at each grade also

Rathdowney Errill were U13 C,15 B,17 B, but got to both finals, definitley standard poor there and struggling to recruit quality in the town now

Castletowns biggest fan will admit they massively overachieved U15 this year and Minor, but have a few talented lads coming through and if they win the Prem Inter next year will work out well for them, management appointment important there

Borris Kilcotton competing well in 15 & 17 A last couple of years and again have some quality players at each level, seem to be very active at juvenile
Camross the same always very active at juvenile and have a strong bunch that has won all coming into U17 this year but not strong at U15/13 level
Ballinakill are perhaps overachieving / codding themselves a bit with the extra lads from pickas, St Josephs GRaiguecullen, who will mostly fall away from hurling but are all of age and therefore physically strong

All of our clubs outside of Portlaoise & The Harps, its a numbers game, almost all are working off panels with maybe a max of ten lads to the correct age,
Portlaoise seems to have got to big to manage, but Football side doing well at 13/15,

The Harps were winning underage simply due to the weight of numbers, enough guys of 15, 17 ,20 years of age not top notch coaching or extra work, and that came from the mouth of a Harps man. 17s this year lucky to get to a final and were poor when there

Sooner we go back to even ages like most counties the better, 14/16/18/20 to allow players develop fully
Run an U20 Championship in the spring time
Improve the standards/ efforts in our secondary schools (Mountrath aside)

The gap from being a good minor at 17 to being a fully developed ( interested ) player at 24/25/26 is huge, and allows too many to walk away

Excellent Result for Clonad away in Dublin, I do believe they are a club building the last couple of years doing good work, hopefully can stay at Premier level next year at least

Ballyfin well bet by Lusmagh

Clough Ballacolla produced their best display in the County Final and will have to do the same again now at this level, is the hunger still there for this road, and is the quality still there without Picky and more miles on Dunphys clock

Indictment in our game in the county that that referee is allowed anywhere near our top hurling day in the county

I actually think its good to hear whats actually happening at that level, county board, academy squads, schools etc, otherwise were on here speculating and guessing, whos involved, whats happening etc,

I cant understand how the likes of Laois Today and the Leinster Express stay going without covering more sport in detail around the county, juvenile games, junior, inter, senior league games, championships, county squads, behind the scenes county board and coaching

When we were all growing up we could'nt wait til Wednesday to see did our name make it in the Leinster!!

Jesus, & their second team beaten by Errill at Junior B,
Is football really that bad in the county

How many football teams have Portarlington ?

Well I hope the referee that officiated that loves to dish out cards and lectures all year round does so now when it's warranted

Unfortunately the Munster Council have decided to keep the Forristal Tournament to Munster teams only from this year on, big disappointment and break from tradition.

Leinster have set up their own Tournament in response, Finals day this Saturday
We have one team qualified into Division 1 Semi Finals in Portlaoise and one team in Division 3 Semi Finals in Kildare (I think)

Have Camross got themselves a new Manager ?

Laois Gaa did similar with their academy squads at the start of the year, all panels are named on social media pages

An evening was held with players, parents, Shane Keegan , John Murphy Nutritionist, and Aine McNamara a professor in Elite performance and brilliant Laois woman, an excellent evening

Then players and parents met each management team on other dates in the CoE laying out their plans, it's just not all shared with catchy videos on Twitter

Laois Gaels supply them all with gear, breakfast in the CoE on Saturday mornings, hot food after games,
There's a lot good being done too!

Minor hurling managment this year was -
Glen McEvoy, Dermot McGill, Chris Murray and I'm forgetting others S&C Jason Woods 

Celtic Challenge / U16 this year -
Brendan Phelan ( who has also done huge work re starting the Setanta programme, Cathal Brophy, Conor Doran, a teacher from Portlaoise I can't think of his name, and another coach S&C Brian Ging

U15 Hurling - Robbie Delaney, Brendan Lowry, Neil Foyle, Brian Bredin, Matthew Collier, S&C Brian Ging

U14 Hurling - Trevor Moore, Tadgh Doran, Jimmy Hyland, Shane Cahill, David Sheeran, Pat Critchley S&C Jason Woods

U14 Football - Chris Conway, Kevin Fitzpatrick, Paddy Ryan, plus two more, S&C Kevin Swyane 

Others may fill in the 15/16/minor management teams for me

 

Why is that game being played at 11:45am like a kids game ? ?

Again looking at the clubber schedule Offaly give their final the respect and play it at prime time 3pm on a Sunday

 Abbeyleix with maybe a surprise win over Rathdowney Errill on Sunday, who were having a good league, sets up an interesting final next weekend with Borris Kilcotton and Abbeyleix, I'm sure both would appreciate a win

Last years U14 hurling was top class, organised and very well run / coached and I know the manager and some of the management team stayed with the U14s this year and the other half moved on up with the 15s, seems to be a good idea too to bring a good crop together hopefully

U14 Football squad well run also this year too,

I know there's always criticism but a lot of good Laois men involved with all panels, in both codes, just plenty more guidance / support ( expertise & financial ) always helps! 

Its hard to see fixtures / results because its development teams,/ Programmes, Croke Park see it as same and run it as same, to allow for the development of players in all counties without the pressure of 'winning', that's the ethos of it

As I said last year here its actually very hard to know where you are as most teams at 14/15 anyway are split, again a strong directive from Croke Park in recent years
So Laois U14 hurlers and footballers are carrying two teams most days split evenly, U16 narrows down to one team but play the likes of Clare, Tipp, Cork etc with 3 teams, Kilkenny two teams, Waterford two etc

The Laois U15 team that won recently was a predominantly B team, the stronger team are a decent squad with some very good hurlers, same with this years U14 hurlers, next years minors are a decent squad too

U14 hurlers recently beat two Clare teams, Offaly and a Kilkenny team and play in two Cork teams this weekend,
U14 Footballers lost to Meath, beat Westmeath and a Cork team, beat Kildare last Saturday

U15 hurlers beat Clare recently, lost to Limerick and Dublin and beat Wexford
U15 Footballers I cant comment, havent seen any fixtures / results or training

16s continuing after the Celtic Challenge success, but again proper structures from Croke Park / Leinster etc should have seen us in a higher division

Ultimately its a numbers game for most, its the Offaly's and Wexford we need to be level / contesting with, Tipp, Cork, Dublin etc will be picking from 100 good players, we are trying to bring through our top 25 to minor /U20 and maybe get 5/6 through to Senior