Laois senior hurlers 2026

[Laois Rising]

Indeed, jump onto the footballers forum and you'll see some of the usual suspects come out of the woodwork to declare management and team worst ever. Tommy proved to be a good choice. He's highly intelligent individual who learned from mistakes and identifying where things were going wrong. Once he had his main men back in the team and fit it made a huge difference too. We aren't blessed with an abundance of top quality hurlers and when you are missing the few you have it doesn't matter who the manager is you are not going to win. Kildare last year were excellent and were largely at full strength for games against Laois.

Whoever is managing Laois next year will probably face a similar scenario to Kildare this year. With Offaly having taken a step up it is going to be a challenge to compete with other teams there. Wexford will regroup under new management and Dublin seem to be up on upward trajectory under the current management.

[G@@]

It's shocking to say that in our last 4 cship matches (2 vs Carlow and 2 vs Kildare) we have managed 1 draw and 3 losses by an average of 10 points (11,10,9 pts).

It's an absolutely shocking statistic. Laois are going the path of Offaly in the latter part of the 2010s decade. We are going to have a stint in the Christy Ring Cup yet.

I don't like criticising anyone, but I think Tommy Fitz is way out of his depth at the helm of Laois. The writing was on the wall last year after taking two bad beatings from Kildare. Tommy was only supposed to fill the gap left by the unfortunate circumstances that prompted Darren Gleeson to withdraw from the role. Laois County Board obviously don't give two hoots about the county hurlers by leaving Tommy in the role - after last year's final loss to Kildare an experienced manager should have been sought.

Barring a miracle, Laois won't be in any JMD final this year and if we continue with the same game plan we brought to Carlow, we will be in a dogfight to survive JMD and not make the drop to Christy Ring for 2027. Well done the so-called brains in Laois, if we put as much effort in to doing things right as we put into absolutely embarrassing ourselves and making ourselves a laughing stock it would be energy far better spent.

Interesting to look back at posts such as this.

Yes, I wrote that - and in particular "Barring a miracle, Laois won't be in any JMD final this year and if we continue with the same game plan we brought to Carlow, we will be in a dogfight to survive JMD and not make the drop to Christy Ring for 2027."

Obviously, the game plan was changed and we regrouped and went on to win it in the end. If the game plan wasn't changed we wouldn't have been in an asses roar of that final let alone loose one for a third year running.

Absolutely fair play to Tommy, yes I felt he was out of his depth in the role - but it takes massive courage to change things up when things are going wrong. I'm delighted for him and Laois he did, it will stand to him. Not many managers change, especially once a championship campaign has started.

Counties like ourselves - there's a fine line between progression and regression. There's no safety net as there is in Munster - where Waterford have won hardly any games there in years. Waterford don't have to worry about going down to the JMD.

We have to worry about relegation, it's a constant worry. Ahead of NHL 1B next year, we will be worried about going back to NHL 2A. Fast forward a few months later and we've to worry about being relegated from the Leinster SHC back to the JMD.

There is a 'Ah well, shure they tried' attitude in Laois GAA County Board circles when we get relegated. That doesn't wash for too long in Offaly - they copped on and got their act together over the past few years and now look at them, All Ireland Quarter Finals.

But unlike ourselves where we achieved that in 2019, Offaly GAA County Board won't think job done after they exit this years AI Championship, they'll keep working to improve further. That's the difference, Laois just hope for a bit of luck now and again and made do with moral victories where we run a big team to 3 or 4 points.