Messages

Yes I don't know anyone involved but it did look a bit of a mess to me. I hate watching good players who are making avoidable mistakes due to a lack of coaching. There are some good hurlers but there seems to be an idea that good players don't need coaching, which is complete nonsense. We've seen the same in football over the years.

Westmeath wanted it more, which is also not good.

The substitutions were just farcical to be honest.

As for the no cash policy, it's just stupid and annoying. I've gone to less than half the games I ordinarily would because of this and I'm sure I'm not alone.

I thought  Portlaoise wasn't big enough for Dublin?

Wonder is game today all ticket? They were taking cash at U20 game in plaois Thursday night.

Gave up trying to buy a ticket on line after multiple attempts and insistence by Ticketmaster to change passwords. Centra or SuperValu would be fine if you could plan your time in advance. Just don't understand why they can't sell tickets at the ground. Anyway, I hope they do well.

It's true for you.

Unlucky not to get promoted out of division 4. 10 points would be enough most years. Beat Sligo by 6, Wexford by 5, Carlow by 6, Waterford by 11 and London by 10 points. All convincing wins. So unlucky not to get at least a draw away in Leitrim. Wicklow deserved their win in Portlaoise.

Season not over. A lot of football still to be played. We have Wexford coming to Portlaoise on Easter Sunday and hopefully a chance to play Dublin in Portlaoise 2 weeks later.

Come May we have the Tailteann cup which should be very interesting with 3 group games followed by knockout stages. Lets get a run in this competition and see where it takes us.

A number of new lads have been introduced this year and they are doing well. We have some excellent forwards as well who would get on to most teams in the country. I'm looking forward to supporting them in the weeks ahead.

Our under 20s are doing well this year so I'm optimistic of them progressing through to senior in the coming years. We are through out of our group with a game to spare having beat Carlow and Longford. We also drew with Cork, drew with Roscommon and only lost to Galway by a point earlier this year. Last year, our under 20s ran Kildare to 2 points and they ended up in the All Ireland final. We contested provincial finals in 2019 and 2020.

Good post.

The players themselves need to take ownership.  If they're as good as you think they are, they should go out and show it. Are they putting their shoulders to the wheel individually? Remember a lot of them have walked away and come back again. That hardly sings dedication. And then you have these lads coming in for a fortnight and walking away. How disruptive is that? A lot of harm done before Billy or any other coach could ever have an influence. As well as everything else, there's a culture and attitude problem in Laois

Can't really argue with this point but a good coach will find ways to improve the buy in and create game plans that actually work (which includes some kind of coherent defensive system). But the players also need to be serious about what they're doing - no doubt about that.

I don't want to dismiss the idea that our structures and player development systems are in chaos. I honestly don't know enough about that and the evidence suggests that something is wrong structurally. But we're not talking about getting on the Kildare team (although I think several of them would). We're talking about doing better than Leitrim and Wicklow. This doesn't require a team of David Cliffords. It just requires good preparation, organisation and motivation. Obviously, as you move higher in the Divisions something more is needed but really in Division 4, it's not.

Because ANYONE with a decent management team should be able to rise above the bottom 6 in the country. The bottom 6 in the country don't take football seriously. Their training regimes are not serious. Their motivation levels are on the floor. ANY team that is properly trained and reasonably motivated should rise above that (as Leitrim showed this year with a new competent manager) despite the tiniest of resources. Wicklow also got out of it with a new competent manager. Getting out of the bottom 6 is really not a difficult bar to overcome. If we're in the bottom 6, it means that our group are not being serious and if that is so, we need to change the manager.

I don't know whether your point about poor administration in Laois is right or not but that is certainly not the reason for the change in fortunes in Louth and Derry. The population of Louth and Derry is pretty much the same now as it was when they were in the lower divisions and the club structure in those counties was roughly the same too. The only thing that really changed was the manager. Laois should never be one of the 6 worst teams in the country, even at times when the crop of players is not the very best.

Why is it laughable?

The reality of the situation is that we have a manager who is clueless. A manager who has no plan and no rapport with the players. We have forwards who are well above Division 4 standard. I have no doubt at all that Sugrue would have had us up this year.

That's simply not true. At least 4 of our forward line - O Carroll, Barry, Lowry and Kingston - are very well capable of playing at a high level. Only a few years ago, Derry was languishing in Division 4. Now they're beating Dublin. We also see the difference good management has made in Louth.

Having said that, of course, huge work is needed from the ground up. Maybe someone might go talking to Karl Lacey?

U-20s seem to have done well in Cork

https://www.echolive.ie/corksport/arid-41069384.html

I would also be happy enough with the showing against Waterford (although we probably shouldn't underestimate the importance of the extra man, which Laois used very well). I also thought that the ref was poor. Waterford were given at least 6-8 frees that he wasn't giving to Laois - the Waterford full-back line were persistently fouling all game and they were allowed to get away with it.

Still, I think it has to be said that the defence was opened up quite easily in the second half so that might need some work. I would also say that some of the forwards need to work harder (which would also help the defence). The big name players in particular need to provide a better example for the younger ones coming through.

Was glad to see Martin Phelan getting more into it as the match went on. He had a poor night in Tipp and didn't start well here either. But, fair play to him, he got into the game quite well after the first 20-35 minutes and really made every possession count. Good to see that attitude in the squad.

I haven't seen them for a while but I thought they did well. Defending was good and kick passing was better than it's been for a long time. The main criticism I would have is that they should have managed the game a bit better, especially in the first half against the wind. Having gone into a 5-6 point lead against the wind, it was begging for someone to slow down the game, get injured, just hold onto possession for a while. We didn't and it was a draw match by half time. But generally, I think it was a good performance and the instincts and skills were good.