The future of laois hurling

[blueandwhite1]

History? Jesus H C...! Who wants history....we need forward- looking, future-looking, innovative people involved. Did Mickey Harte have history behind him, or Jim McGuinness? We only need a handful (with the right structures in place) and things can improve quickly. A few like John Kiely would be great. (he had no history behind him), but they are hard to come by for sure.
You cant stop trying - Cavan & Tipp footballers didn't anyway and they are provincial champions this year. We cant settle for the status quo even if many would like to see it preserved.
We have to strive for improvement and to better ourselves at all levels.

I agree. We have to strive to be the best we can be and be positive. We also need to be realistic.

The Galway U20 game was a complete mismatch. 3 all ireland minor teams on board and massive resources - Galway will expect a senior all-Ireland winning team from that team. We scraped past Carlow and had 3 poor / indifferent minor teams making up our U20 side. Last years minor team beat (a very good) Kildare. If we ever want to be competitive in the future the formula is fairly simple in theory but difficult in practice. We need far more competitive hurling areas in Laois, especially Portlaoise and strong development programs at club and county level to provide player pathways to adult hurling. That is what JPs money did in Limerick and what the Gaelfest program is doing in Antrim. Population and especially hurling population is against us so our approach needs to be more effective than other counties to produce 2-3 good enough hurlers per year.

[finbar o tool]

Mike and Jason are doing the best they can with the resources they have. Anybody else see an email today from Mike Henchy looking for coaches/mentors for the development squads? It mentions they asked over 80 people to get involved last year with very little positive responses. Everyone loves coming on here for a whinge but very few want to get involved and help out. 

[clonadmad]

Cabbages 2 Eddie Brennan 0

A result just in from tonight's convention


No motions

No question to the top table

Move on,nothing to see here

[clonadmad]

Mike and Jason are doing the best they can with the resources they have. Anybody else see an email today from Mike Henchy looking for coaches/mentors for the development squads? It mentions they asked over 80 people to get involved last year with very little positive responses. Everyone loves coming on here for a whinge but very few want to get involved and help out.

Both Mike and Jason are doing their best and hopefully in time they will get their rewards

Not one bit surprised at that figure

Other counties there would be killings for lads to get on board and mentor development squads

Not here

Just  another example of apathy

[Blow-in]

Cabbages 2 Eddie Brennan 0

A result just in from tonight's convention


No motions

No question to the top table

Move on,nothing to see here

Clubs of Laois had their chance. Clubs are as bad as anyone.

[High Fielder]

Mike and Jason are doing the best they can with the resources they have. Anybody else see an email today from Mike Henchy looking for coaches/mentors for the development squads? It mentions they asked over 80 people to get involved last year with very little positive responses. Everyone loves coming on here for a whinge but very few want to get involved and help out.

Both Mike and Jason are doing their best and hopefully in time they will get their rewards

Not one bit surprised at that figure

Other counties there would be killings for lads to get on board and mentor development squads

Not here

Just  another example of apathy

People tend to latch on to something credible and worthwhile. If there's no plan at CB level, what's the point in any of us behaving like lemmings and following them over the cliff? Do they not see that? Get a GDA into Portlaoise and let's start the process properly. Get 2 if you can. 1 for Hurling and 1 for Football. f**k this volunteer/mercenary bullshit. Start developing the thing properly. You're awfully fond of those CB positions, so maybe it's time ye put serious plans in place. Then who knows. We might come out and back you. As it is, you have turned people off, or can you not see that either?

[High Fielder]

Good luck with that Chrimtain. Serious counties are investing in trained personnel, and you and the CB think a few water bottle carriers are going to bridge the gap. It's going to take a lot more than that....

For what it's worth, I'd imagine most of us on here are active members in their clubs. There's a difference here between volunteering and adding expertise. A trawl of the personnel involved in most serious counties would let whoever wrote that letter know that he was wasting ink

[Giovanni]

In fairness, I don't see any downside of this.

There is certainly some expertise in the county and there are talented people that might be able to contribute to the Academy in various ways (in coaching and otherwise). Ultimately, they don't have to accept offers to help if they don't think those offers have merit but I'd rather see the circle being widened in this way rather than just waiting for something to happen or throwing up their hands and saying "sure what can we do".

[High Fielder]

As ever in Laois, cart before horse. We need to get our structures to an acceptable level. In a town with 20,000 people, we have no focus whatsoever. We are losing kids left right and centre to other sports and playstations. Be sensible here lads. People will volunteer when there's something worth contributing to. At the minute, it's a rabble, and telling people to thrown their shoulder at the wheel when it's clearly stuck in the mud is a flawed plan

[Giovanni]

I wouldn't see it like that. This is a person who is trying to mobilise resources to help him to do his job (which is the development of the Academy). As far as I know, it's not his job to recruit GDAs in Portlaoise or set up a supporters' club or do any of the many other things that certainly should be done. He's trying to do his own job as well as he can and I think he should be encouraged and applauded for taking some initiative. If everyone else did the same thing, we wouldn't be too badly off.

[High Fielder]

Remember what Eddie said. There it is. Do what you can with it. The foundations are not in place. When they are, let's see what we can build.

[Keyser Söze]

There are huge numbers of kids in Portlaoise that are not being harvested.
To do so will take a lot of time and money.
If we do this properly, Laois will benefit hugely.
Simultaneously, Portlaoise would become unstoppable at juvenile level.

Would it not be the perfect time to set up a second juvenile club in Portlaoise?
Or at least cede certain areas or schools to clubs like Clonad, The Heath, PR etc?
Or try to encourage some level of kids declaring for their parent's home club.

We absolutely need to maximize what we as a county are getting from the town of Portlaoise. To do so properly would lead to a "Dublin footballers in Leinster" type scenario. It would absolutely destroy juvenile competition.
I think both need to be addressed together from the start.

There's 2 options otherwise;
1) Do nothing
2) Create a monster by pumping time, money & resources into maximizing the raw materials available in Portlaoise.
I don't think either are acceptable.

Ultimately, Laois, Portlaoise and other clubs could benefit. Addressing one of these issues in isolation could be very very counterproductive from an internal perspective at juvenile level.

This is all easier said than done. But the promise of coaching hours and a partial GDA might well be the sweetener needed for some sort of boundary redrawing that would equalize catchment areas.

I haven't put much thought into this, and no doubt there are major issues with the above. But that's where strong leadership comes in. You find solutions and you bring the various parties along with you towards agreement.

[High Fielder]

Portlaoise won't dominate anything as long as the Juvenille amalgamations remain intact. After that, there is so much ignorance amongst clubs, that in some cases they would drive it into the ground rather than do what makes sense. That's the sort of mindset that needs a sledgehammer, not a few volunteers

[Keyser Söze]

In my opinion there's nothing short of a "Rest of County" amalgamation could compete with Portlaoise functioning to even 60% of its capacity/potential at juvenile level.

[BallyroanAbu]

Correct Keyser,  I personally think the promotion of the GAA in Portlaoise is key to a revival in Laois.  But we need to be careful of the unintended consequences I.r the creation of a Super Club.  I am not entirely sure the creation of a second club is the answer but maybe the support of the Heath, Ratheniska, Ballyfin & Clonad to create 5 very strong Clubs including Portlaoise.  Laois has 85,000 off of which 22,000 - 25,000 live in Portlaoise.  Also I remember hearing we have a very young population.