Laois Senior Football Championship 2018

[Laoiseabu]

Portlaoise seem to be slicing teams apart with way more ease than I've ever seen before in Laois . Anyone else think this ? This is the most one sided championship I can remember in Laois .

[BallyroanAbu]

I would say this is the best conditioned Portlaoise team ever,  they are a different level to anything else in this County and the levels of commitment are mind blowing.  Malachy has created a culture with them that is simply different level to anything else, as I have said before their football in my opinion is their weakest aspect.  They will destroy O Dempsey's too,  I really think they are working harder than the rest of by a factor of two and it's showing.   It does help you have somewhere between 20-40 lads with the same mentality but the advantage is not raw talent more competition for places.  The fact is that everybody is under pressure for their spot.  The scary thing is if they can keep this mentality up they only need 1 or 2 new bodies every year to keep the system flowing.  I would be disappointed if they don't have a right go at the All Ireland Club.

[Laoiseabu]

Any chance of Bruno being back for the final ?

[High Fielder]

Josephs never really fancied it in my opinion. They haven't got many quality players these days, but they succumbed easily. Their backs were left horribly exposed to Portlaoise runners. No more than a training game for Portlaoise and I'm sure they won't be reading too deeply into it.

[BallyroanAbbey]

The reality is that Portlaoise are so far ahead of the rest that it could be reasonably argued that if you had a match between laois (minus portlaoise players) and portlaoise it would be at the very least competitive. after portlaoise every other team bar perhaps ballyfin and crettyard could make a final and i include courtwood in that next year too. At the end of the day the pick compared to the rest of the clubs is too big to catch and the wasted potential is too great for 1 club to support regardless of portlaoises best efforts, a second club (possibly a 3rd) in portlaoise who help solve these issues. On top of that the likes of mountmellick and it could be argued stradbally must produce more

[SCFC]

Zilch sympathy for Joseph's and Brian Daly. Delighted for them.
Well done O'Dempseys. Great weekend for that end of the county. Port minors, Courtwood inters, Annanough juniors all winning too.

[Jd]

Still a slight possibility of the top three championships held in an area of about 5 miles across. Good work going on in them 3 clubs. I fear for ODs in the final but am delighted for them getting there

[High Fielder]

I would say this is the best conditioned Portlaoise team ever,  they are a different level to anything else in this County and the levels of commitment are mind blowing.  Malachy has created a culture with them that is simply different level to anything else, as I have said before their football in my opinion is their weakest aspect.  They will destroy O Dempsey's too,  I really think they are working harder than the rest of by a factor of two and it's showing.   It does help you have somewhere between 20-40 lads with the same mentality but the advantage is not raw talent more competition for places.  The fact is that everybody is under pressure for their spot.  The scary thing is if they can keep this mentality up they only need 1 or 2 new bodies every year to keep the system flowing.  I would be disappointed if they don't have a right go at the All Ireland Club.

There are too many clubs in Laois for the size of the population we have. Portlaoise are only dominant in Laois. Outside of it, their record isn't great. Maybe instead of looking to weaken Portlaoise, clubs should concentrate on pooling their obviously thin resources and making themselves stronger. Case in point. Arles. Farcical situation. Joined at underage but flogging the dead horse at Senior. No benefit to Laois and no benefit to themselves.

[welcomehome]

I have followed portlaoise for years,they are only getting out of football ,what dey put in to it.They are such a commited bunch of players,the training they put in is unreal.The hunger they have year after year is unreal..and they have to be admired for that...

[Leixlad]

I would say this is the best conditioned Portlaoise team ever,  they are a different level to anything else in this County and the levels of commitment are mind blowing.  Malachy has created a culture with them that is simply different level to anything else, as I have said before their football in my opinion is their weakest aspect.  They will destroy O Dempsey's too,  I really think they are working harder than the rest of by a factor of two and it's showing.   It does help you have somewhere between 20-40 lads with the same mentality but the advantage is not raw talent more competition for places.  The fact is that everybody is under pressure for their spot.  The scary thing is if they can keep this mentality up they only need 1 or 2 new bodies every year to keep the system flowing.  I would be disappointed if they don't have a right go at the All Ireland Club.

There are too many clubs in Laois for the size of the population we have. Portlaoise are only dominant in Laois. Outside of it, their record isn't great. Maybe instead of looking to weaken Portlaoise, clubs should concentrate on pooling their obviously thin resources and making themselves stronger. Case in point. Arles. Farcical situation. Joined at underage but flogging the dead horse at Senior. No benefit to Laois and no benefit to themselves.

Joint winning-most club in Leinster football championship history.

[Don Draper]

I would say this is the best conditioned Portlaoise team ever,  they are a different level to anything else in this County and the levels of commitment are mind blowing.  Malachy has created a culture with them that is simply different level to anything else, as I have said before their football in my opinion is their weakest aspect.  They will destroy O Dempsey's too,  I really think they are working harder than the rest of by a factor of two and it's showing.   It does help you have somewhere between 20-40 lads with the same mentality but the advantage is not raw talent more competition for places.  The fact is that everybody is under pressure for their spot.  The scary thing is if they can keep this mentality up they only need 1 or 2 new bodies every year to keep the system flowing.  I would be disappointed if they don't have a right go at the All Ireland Club.

There are too many clubs in Laois for the size of the population we have. Portlaoise are only dominant in Laois. Outside of it, their record isn't great. Maybe instead of looking to weaken Portlaoise, clubs should concentrate on pooling their obviously thin resources and making themselves stronger. Case in point. Arles. Farcical situation. Joined at underage but flogging the dead horse at Senior. No benefit to Laois and no benefit to themselves.

Joint winning-most club in Leinster football championship history.

All well and good, but their return over the past 10-15 years is very underwhelming.

[Jd]

I would never advocate a weakening of Portlaoise but it needs two clubs to make sure that all possible players are playing they have a population of 30k or thereabouts but only one club. I would suggest that even with one team at every level jnrC to senior that's only 80 to 90 players being catered for  that's less than .33% of the population ......even 1%of total population playing would make huge strides towards a new club at the northern end of towns. Allow for half males and say half under 40 years there are still huge numbers available. It's not up to Portlaoise to come back to the others but for other large clubs to step up a bit. Stradbally did so why can't Port Joseph's mountmellick step up too. To say we have too many clubs I'd have to disagree with. People who identify strongly with locality will go that extra bit to tog out for a local  first team but may not for an amalgamations second team. Perhaps the competition structures are wrong as I feel we have too many senior team's and not enough intermediate . Maybe 3 levels of 12 teams split in two groups would work for snr to jnr and similar smaller  groups at lower grades. Attach your placing in championship to your league status without exception eg div 1 senior div 2 intermediate and so on. Leagues would mean something and less clubs would give walkovers if relegation meant a drop in status  matches played on a set day  for a set grade every week or fortnight. We'd have a defined season and club players would be improved by playing meaningful matches instead of practice matches all over the place

[High Fielder]

I would say this is the best conditioned Portlaoise team ever,  they are a different level to anything else in this County and the levels of commitment are mind blowing.  Malachy has created a culture with them that is simply different level to anything else, as I have said before their football in my opinion is their weakest aspect.  They will destroy O Dempsey's too,  I really think they are working harder than the rest of by a factor of two and it's showing.   It does help you have somewhere between 20-40 lads with the same mentality but the advantage is not raw talent more competition for places.  The fact is that everybody is under pressure for their spot.  The scary thing is if they can keep this mentality up they only need 1 or 2 new bodies every year to keep the system flowing.  I would be disappointed if they don't have a right go at the All Ireland Club.

There are too many clubs in Laois for the size of the population we have. Portlaoise are only dominant in Laois. Outside of it, their record isn't great. Maybe instead of looking to weaken Portlaoise, clubs should concentrate on pooling their obviously thin resources and making themselves stronger. Case in point. Arles. Farcical situation. Joined at underage but flogging the dead horse at Senior. No benefit to Laois and no benefit to themselves.

Joint winning-most club in Leinster football championship history.

It was obvious enough that I meant in recent times. Jesus.

[High Fielder]

I would never advocate a weakening of Portlaoise but it needs two clubs to make sure that all possible players are playing they have a population of 30k or thereabouts but only one club. I would suggest that even with one team at every level jnrC to senior that's only 80 to 90 players being catered for  that's less than .33% of the population ......even 1%of total population playing would make huge strides towards a new club at the northern end of towns. Allow for half males and say half under 40 years there are still huge numbers available. It's not up to Portlaoise to come back to the others but for other large clubs to step up a bit. Stradbally did so why can't Port Joseph's mountmellick step up too. To say we have too many clubs I'd have to disagree with. People who identify strongly with locality will go that extra bit to tog out for a local  first team but may not for an amalgamations second team. Perhaps the competition structures are wrong as I feel we have too many senior team's and not enough intermediate . Maybe 3 levels of 12 teams split in two groups would work for snr to jnr and similar smaller  groups at lower grades. Attach your placing in championship to your league status without exception eg div 1 senior div 2 intermediate and so on. Leagues would mean something and less clubs would give walkovers if relegation meant a drop in status  matches played on a set day  for a set grade every week or fortnight. We'd have a defined season and club players would be improved by playing meaningful matches instead of practice matches all over the place

Shifting deck chairs in my opinion. You can't just "step up" if you don't have the resources. I doubt the clubs you mentioned have "stepped down". They just can't compete with the numbers, and nobody can. You get this stuff every summer from commentators asking for counties like Laois to "step up". It's a load of bollix. How can Laois compete with a county as numerically and financially rich as Dublin? How can clubs in Laois, some of which are playing lads in their 40's, possibly compete with Portlaoise's numbers? Proportionately, numbers will always win as the likelihood of getting good players is greater. Portlaoise should never be split and nor should it be. They have a hard enough time of it at underage and there's a good reason for that

[Leixlad]

I would say this is the best conditioned Portlaoise team ever,  they are a different level to anything else in this County and the levels of commitment are mind blowing.  Malachy has created a culture with them that is simply different level to anything else, as I have said before their football in my opinion is their weakest aspect.  They will destroy O Dempsey's too,  I really think they are working harder than the rest of by a factor of two and it's showing.   It does help you have somewhere between 20-40 lads with the same mentality but the advantage is not raw talent more competition for places.  The fact is that everybody is under pressure for their spot.  The scary thing is if they can keep this mentality up they only need 1 or 2 new bodies every year to keep the system flowing.  I would be disappointed if they don't have a right go at the All Ireland Club.

There are too many clubs in Laois for the size of the population we have. Portlaoise are only dominant in Laois. Outside of it, their record isn't great. Maybe instead of looking to weaken Portlaoise, clubs should concentrate on pooling their obviously thin resources and making themselves stronger. Case in point. Arles. Farcical situation. Joined at underage but flogging the dead horse at Senior. No benefit to Laois and no benefit to themselves.

Joint winning-most club in Leinster football championship history.

It was obvious enough that I meant in recent times. Jesus.

My apologies so