2019 All Ireland Football Qualifiers

[High Fielder]

There are issues there. No doubt about that. There are places up for grabs. No doubt about that either. But let us be clear. John Sugrue is the best thing to happen to Laois football in the longest time. With the players he has available to him, I think he's getting as much out of us as there is to get. If there are lads out there who feel they could do better than the players in there, get your arses in there and show it. I personally don't think there is, and that's our biggest problem.

[Giovanni]

There's no doubt he's done a fantastic job overall and deserves all the plaudits he gets. He has managed to build confidence when we were at our lowest point and has brought through a lot of good young lads. I think he has managed Donie Kingston especially well and we have seen the fruits of that in the last two games.

It's easy to be critical tonight. I have to admit that I have been puzzled about why there wasn't a bit more experimentation to try to solve our biggest problem positions but I think they've done themselves proud overall. With some new lads coming through from the u-20s, the future is bright.

[BallyroanAbu]

Decided to leave Denis booth on until 3-4 was kicked off him. You'd really have to question the management on a number of times this year.

f**k off

[BallyroanAbu]

There are issues there. No doubt about that. There are places up for grabs. No doubt about that either. But let us be clear. John Sugrue is the best thing to happen to Laois football in the longest time. With the players he has available to him, I think he's getting as much out of us as there is to get. If there are lads out there who feel they could do better than the players in there, get your arses in there and show it. I personally don't think there is, and that's our biggest problem.

That's fair enough Sugrue must stay best manager to hit Laois in my lifetime,  Micko included.  Simply no arguement

[Don Draper]

Decided to leave Denis booth on until 3-4 was kicked off him. You'd really have to question the management on a number of times this year.

Go f**k yourself

[MasterJ]

We will win this

Great win today Don.

Thanks, the U11s were flying it this morning

Glad to hear! What position did you play in?

[High Fielder]

I think we learned plenty about ourselves against Meath and Cork. First and foremost, at this level, you have to be able to win your own ball. Particularly yesterday, it was maddening to see the long kick to the isolated man. At best it's 50/50 and when you don't commit to the break, the percentages go against you. The better teams won't allow Cork to do that.

Our tackling when run at is as bad as I have seen at this level. Obviously the momentum is with the attacking team, but technically, we have to be better than we are. There was an inevitability that they would score when they ran at us. To a lesser extent, we were well capable of boring holes in their back line, and I thought their coach was codding himself when he said they got sloppy. Their full back got a roasting off  Donie. A proper roasting. The ref allowed their man plenty of rope, but we should have hanged him. He'll get exposed badly in the Super 8's.

We missed Benny Carroll badly. Benny wanders all over the place and has a habit of getting on the ball. He uses it well too, and that's so important to Sugrue's style. In fairness, I have to say that the most improvement has come in this department. When we did have the ball, which wasn't as often as you would like, we used it well. This has been our saving grace. I have heard plenty of talk in the county about players who should be playing and they're better at this or that. I don't agree. Players who don't have the pace or who don't work hard enough have fallen by the wayside. They can be as good as they like at this or that, but others have to carry them and will always have to carry them. They are a luxury you can't afford, and whilst yesterday will fuel this sort of debate, I am happy in my head that this is where we are right now and that Sugrue is doing the best he can with what is available to him. The modern game requires work, work, work. You can get away with stuff against poorer teams, but the better teams will expose all your weaknesses. That doesn't mean that we didn't pick the right team or didn't use the right system. It just means that the other team is better than you, and Cork were better than us yesterday on so many levels.

[on the hop]

looking back on it now, cork had their homework done on us, really went after our strengths and exposed our weaknesses. we stayed with them well for the guts of half an hour, creaking a bit at times before half time but the little spurt of 4 points to stretch the lead before the interval and then the first 10 after half time and the game was over. the rest of the game played out like a challenge match, we had numerous chances but were never going to be caught and the step up in pace killed us all evening, it wasn't helped by some crazy tactical decisions, but I don't want to commit heresy discussing them.

the key to me really looked like the failure to win kickouts when the game was in the mix. the full press saw us having to go long far to often and mostly towards Jol. they swamped the area around him, bringing both their wing forwards in and broke a lot of ball. brody doesn't have the length of kick to go over this so we tried a few short ones but were under a lot of pressure, lillis won a few but often in the corner and any possession we got had to translated into scores, but again we had some poor misses. with deane and McCarthy having a free role across their half forward line they drove down the centre often breaking tackles. we never really handled deane at all and often he laid off ball to looping forwards for handy scores. pressure on the kickers was minimal. the space down the sides allowed both their wing backs to drive at will. they had massive pace, an advantage they had in a number of areas on the field and created numerous overlaps and stretched our defense. it was very like the meath game with Keoghan. with no protection in front of the full back line and a succession of ball coming in along with untracked runners , they were badly exposed. it wasn't helped by some awful defending and 4-20 is a massive score to concede and possibly it could have been more. 7-33 in the two games against opposite that we would hope that we are getting close to or passing has to lead to a re-think of what we are at in terms of a defensive structure. its a pity the year had to end like this after a lot of progress has been made.

[Tony]

Cork are no use Tony,  but still have faith in Sugrue but that was winnable.

You sound very confused Ballyroan. Cork just beat us by 14 points. And still you say they're no use. Bit deluded to be fair. Cork are clearly preparing for the championship, they've got a good manager now with a top record, they've gotten rid of the old dinousaur managers and tactics. The new manager knows power and pace does a lot of damage. Cork wont be a walk over against Dublin either, mark my words. They'll lose to Dublin but not by more than 6. They'll come very close to Tyrone, could go either way. They'll beat Roscommon. We lost to a good side and there's no shame in it. We'll be back stronger for 2020.

I feel bad for Colm and Mark Timmons that they didn't get more of a run of it this year. I really hope nobody retires, even Ross. I didn't see anyone who needs to retire yet. These lads mind themselves well and can go another few years (I'm referring to the Begleys / JOLs etc). Donie was really coming good the last few games and I hope he continues that into next year, he is a class player through and through. His fitness came along well as the year progressed. I hope the lads see the potential for us to be better and stick around. I also hope we see Healy and Merideth for 2020. And we could do with Zach Tuohy if he's feeling like ripping up the championship next year; what a difference he would make. Well done to all involved for the progress we've made this year. Next year it gets a bit more serious.

Brody
Healy Timmons Merideth
Attride Begley Dillon
JOL Lillis
Scully Zach Tuohy Benny Carroll
Paul Kingston  Donie  Evan O' Carroll.

Plenty of the younger lads coming through knocking at the door too, but I still see this as our best 15, strong lines, everybody playing in their best position.

[Silkyskillssunshinee]

.Brody
Healy Timmons Merideth
Attride Begley Dillon
JOL Lillis
Scully Zach Tuohy Benny Carroll
Paul Kingston  Donie  Evan O' Carroll.



Meredith corner back..?

Hopefully a few of the younger lads come on board next year, the likes of Saunders, Whelan, Tyrell etc and they can offer real competition.

Although it would be difficult to see fron that game against Cork, some progress has been made this year again. The league is more important for us than championship in a way, hopefully we can at least maintain our place in Division 2 next year.

[Countyminor]

I somehow doubt Zach Tuohy would walk away from being a professional athlete to slog it out with Laois in a likely battle to stay in Div 2. Healy is over the road as far as intercounty football goes I'd imagine unfortunately, and Meredith has no interest in going back. Time to look to the future as Sugrue has been this year. The likes of Scully, Pigott, Benny Carroll, Saunders, Eoin Dunne, Tyrell, Barry, O'Flynn etc are all hopefully capable of taking over from the old guard.

[Laois fan]

Is that team a pisstake about ten lads 30 or over pace is a must in modern game what we need now is to build for future and back our youngsters while maybe changing our system,dublin as good as they our play with a sweeper we cant afford not 2.saying that would like to see meredith back involved but dont think hes ever played corner back

[SCFC]

There's as much chance of me playing for Laois next year as Zack Touhy. And Conor Meredith has made it 100% clear that a bit of club football is as much as he wants.
Cahir, Mark and Colm are all going to be 34 or 35 next year.
The future is lads like Diarmuid Whelan, O'Flynn, Tyrell, Barry and maybe lads a little older like Hitchcock (who I really like) and maybe Keane of The Heath.

[on the hop]

That's worse on second viewing

[town1980]

I think John has brought massive respectability to Laois the last two years but yesterday was not a great day at the office  but he admitted it so for that massive respect 👍