2019 All Ireland Football Qualifiers

[Keyser Söze]

Very distant observer. Laois have rebounded to where they were, no mean feat. Takes organisation and hard work to arrest a slide and put honesty and organisation front and centre.
Taking another step, (being competitive in Div 2 and taking a scalp in the championship), could take years. It may not happen in Sugrue's time. Hopefully he stays for another couple of years. The key is the next appointment. He has steadied the ship, turned it around and started sailing in the right direction. Whether it's 2020 or 2022 don't let another eejit walk in, f**k it all up and walk away counting the dollars.

[Tony]

I'd love if Sugrue stayed around for years. He's not perfect and he's still "learning on the job". He did make errors this year, but who doesn't. He's a fantastic person for the role. I'm sick of seeing new managers every couple of years - there's no continuity then, and inevitably we get journeymen who set the county back for years. There's a great culture of respect and working hard now, in Laois football. Nobody is guaranteed their spot. I hope Sugrue becomes a Boylan / Cody / Harte / Gavin type long - term presence within Laois football. We've made huge strides and things are looking up. I hope he has the desire to keep going with Laois. 

[High Fielder]

Well said Keyser. He has definitely made us more organised. He has changed the culture and the mindset too. There are good players not on the panel and good players on the panel who need to do more. Talent alone should never be enough to guarantee you a place, and in the current climate, your work rate is just as important.

The next step will be interesting. The good work done by Sugrue has brought us to this point. The organisation and hard work that Keyser spoke about. Now we need to address those problem areas. The ones that have caused us problems for a long time. You get away with them against lesser opposition, but the cracks open wide against better teams. Kieran Lillis would be my centre back every day of the week. Johnno would always get a place too, probably at centre half forward. But we need to find two midfielders, and without applying too much pressure, I'd gamble on Dunne and Tyrell. The two others could drop back and push forward on kickouts and ease them in. Clean ball is rare enough, and we need to be hungry around the break. If there are better options out there I'd gladly welcome some names, but these to my eye are the two most natural looking midfielders. Sometimes you have to gamble and it would be a big one. So what if we drop back a Divison? We have to prepare for the next step.

The whole back division needs serious remedial work. Tackling in particular needs urgent attention. I have to be honest and say I'm not convinced that we have players good enough in some key positions. That means we have to develop, and we go right back to what McNulty tried to do with Meaney. That didn't work because it was a hunch and no more, and maybe the next solution might be the same. But hopefully there are lads out there who have the necessary skills to adapt. Failing that, it's back to square pegs in round holes, and if Saturday taught us anything, it's that you can't play that game forever.

I hope that Sugrue stays. I will beg him if I have to. He's a good man and he has us in his heart. You can see that. He could do with the best backs coach we can afford in there to help him. But keep him we must, because the alternatives don't bear thinking about.

[BallyroanAbu]

I think you would be hard pressed to find anyone who wants Sugrue to go, What he has done in Laois Football over the last two years has been immense.  But we do need a sea change in our thinking.  The problem with our backs will not be solved by any manager.  This is a development squad issue, the most talented footballers are continuously coming in as forwards.  I think we have to start going out-side the box and start to put younger players in positions that will benefit Laois Football rather than their ego.   We need to actually create corner backs and full backs at 12-14 rather than at 20-21.  Just my thoughts but hopefully Sugrue stays on and we continue to improve.

[Jd]

Your point about developing players at 12 to 14 is correct I've seen the 14s a lot and they are quite short on backs so the management are putting lads back and sticking with them even if the make a mistake or two in an effort to strengthen that area. John Sugrue has a very good knowledge of players around the county and namechecked a few of my own club men recently who wouldn't be sticking out a mile when I was in with my young lad at his practice. I'd love him to stay on and also take a role in identifying areas where we need players and talk to development mentors about ways to develop them

[High Fielder]

I wouldn't disagree with that BA. We seem to have an abundance of similar type forwards and I'm wondering, apart from Donie, can any of them score heavily? Maybe your own man is the answer. I don't know what the issue with Evan is, but Sugrue doesn't seem to want to play him with Donie. If that is the case, I could understand that, but maybe give him a go in midfield. He can certainly field a ball and he can certainly travel with it. The lad has bundles of ability. Either way, we have to think outside the box now, as someone said earlier. Be inventive. Take chances. It is obvious I think that the current formula has got us as far as we're going to go. 

[BallyroanAbu]

Exactly lads

I think with the better teams that scores are coming from every number on the pitch, as it's much harder to track a corner back coming forward than a corner forward whose in situ.  If you look at Laois there scorers are quite limited and therefore easier to mark against better outfits.  In say a good U-14  Laois team you have 8-9 forwards but most likely only 1 or 2 will play senior for Laois.  I would say the other 6 should be seen as possible for repositioning with a long term view to making them viable County Players.  Marty is a real case in point, would he not be a better half back?  But all his Laois underage career he was a forward.  His 25 now this leaves 11 years till now where his defensive instincts would not have been honed.  Imagine someone had seen this with him early he would be well versed in his play at this stage and a real threat from deep.  There are loads of Club Players like this who would not be contemplated as forwards for Laois but possibly could have made it as backs and possibly have a higher talent level than some of our backs.   Maybe I am wrong are Gareth Dillion and Attride not converted wing forwards I am just saying imagine we had got these two converted earlier i.e in 1 of the underage squads.

[The PRO]

Just on the game itself on Saturday.

It was obviously a disaster. All fell asunder in the ten minutes before half time and the few minutes after the restart.

A lot of our lads struggled in their direct battles. Full back line as a whole (not just Booth) were roasted. Half back line not much better and even Begley misplaced a lot of ball after coming on. Deane for Cork is some classy player.

Lillis tried fierce hard. Great attitude. Similar with Johnno but we were just outclassed but Maguire and the other big fella (name gone on me!).

Donie was excellent throughout but O'Reilly just had one of those woeful days where nothing went right. Was surprised he wasn't taken off at half time.

Scully is a great trier and deserved his goal. Lowry and Paul Kinston never got going and young Murphy did kick a nice point but not much else.

Evan improved things a lot I thought and Barry got on some ball but his shot selection was a bit wayward.

Brody struggled a bit with the Cork press on our kickouts and we got hammered on breaking ball from that.

A very worrying day. Cork are no great shakes as will be seen later on but they made us look like a Division 4 team. I just think we're not that bad and a lot of lads had off days.

Next year's league will be vital. Need to uncover a couple of really sticky backs (corner/full). Need to add another big scoring threat from play to go with Donie.

[recyclebin]

Cork were a lot better than I expected. They were a big step up on Meath. Division 2 football will be a good challenge next year. When you play better teams more often you learn more about yourself and gives much better chance to be ready for championship.

[Keyser Söze]

I'd love if Sugrue stayed around for years. He's not perfect and he's still "learning on the job". He did make errors this year, but who doesn't. He's a fantastic person for the role. I'm sick of seeing new managers every couple of years - there's no continuity then, and inevitably we get journeymen who set the county back for years. There's a great culture of respect and working hard now, in Laois football. Nobody is guaranteed their spot. I hope Sugrue becomes a Boylan / Cody / Harte / Gavin type long - term presence within Laois football. We've made huge strides and things are looking up. I hope he has the desire to keep going with Laois.

Yes, give Sugrue the same time hat Boylan was given in Meath and he can achieve something. I too, hope he has the desire to stay on.

Jaysus you are not asking much of the man!

[Nameless]

I agree with those talking about development, that's the key. What what the difference between us and Cork? They had players with power and pace who could take their men on and kick off both feet. Better teams than Cork have more players with this ability. We had Kingston who could do this and O'Carroll also has it but his shooting is very inconsistent. Players like Scully take on their men but he doesn't have the kicking ability, O'Loughlin can beat his man but doesn't have the pace to burst away. The top teams have the speed and power on every line. That's why we have struggled and will struggle against teams like this. Tyrone, Dublin, Donegal etc. We're not the only ones, of course, not many will be able to compete against that level of opposition and I'd say Cork will struggle as well. So identifying youngsters at an early age who show signs of potential in this regard is important and then get them down to the centre of excellence.
That's all for the future anyway, we can only work with what we have and Sugrue has to be commended for the job he has done. The way he sets up the team also has to be commended I suppose, they give it a go, they push up and take everyone on man v man. This has provided results against teams from division 3 and 4 and brought us up to division 2 and given us runs into the last 12 in the last 2 championships. Unfortunately, when we have come up against counties from division 1 and 2, we have been beaten by 18 points against Dublin, 11 points against Meath, 14 points against Cork and the only single digit defeat was to Monaghan where we lost by 5.
People have talked about our tackling needing to improve but do we also need to tighten things up? Is going 15 v 15 wise against these teams? We learned a lot more playing against Cork than we did the week before against Offaly. That's why it was so important to get up to division 2. We can test ourselves against better teams and I'm sure Sugrue has plenty of ideas on how to deal with the step up. A disappointing end to a good season where we've gained a few players who've shown they can step up and hopefully the u20's go well tomorrow night and we get a few more involved next year.

[vetoldthe]

I agree with those talking about development, that's the key. What what the difference between us and Cork? They had players with power and pace who could take their men on and kick off both feet. Better teams than Cork have more players with this ability. We had Kingston who could do this and O'Carroll also has it but his shooting is very inconsistent. Players like Scully take on their men but he doesn't have the kicking ability, O'Loughlin can beat his man but doesn't have the pace to burst away. The top teams have the speed and power on every line. That's why we have struggled and will struggle against teams like this. Tyrone, Dublin, Donegal etc. We're not the only ones, of course, not many will be able to compete against that level of opposition and I'd say Cork will struggle as well. So identifying youngsters at an early age who show signs of potential in this regard is important and then get them down to the centre of excellence.
That's all for the future anyway, we can only work with what we have and Sugrue has to be commended for the job he has done. The way he sets up the team also has to be commended I suppose, they give it a go, they push up and take everyone on man v man. This has provided results against teams from division 3 and 4 and brought us up to division 2 and given us runs into the last 12 in the last 2 championships. Unfortunately, when we have come up against counties from division 1 and 2, we have been beaten by 18 points against Dublin, 11 points against Meath, 14 points against Cork and the only single digit defeat was to Monaghan where we lost by 5.
People have talked about our tackling needing to improve but do we also need to tighten things up? Is going 15 v 15 wise against these teams? We learned a lot more playing against Cork than we did the week before against Offaly. That's why it was so important to get up to division 2. We can test ourselves against better teams and I'm sure Sugrue has plenty of ideas on how to deal with the step up. A disappointing end to a good season where we've gained a few players who've shown they can step up and hopefully the u20's go well tomorrow night and we get a few more involved next year.

Great Post Nameless, And spot on,

I would like to see Sugrue bring in a defensive coach to add to his backroom team for next season,

[Zooming around]

I agree with those talking about development, that's the key. What what the difference between us and Cork? They had players with power and pace who could take their men on and kick off both feet. Better teams than Cork have more players with this ability. We had Kingston who could do this and O'Carroll also has it but his shooting is very inconsistent. Players like Scully take on their men but he doesn't have the kicking ability, O'Loughlin can beat his man but doesn't have the pace to burst away. The top teams have the speed and power on every line. That's why we have struggled and will struggle against teams like this. Tyrone, Dublin, Donegal etc. We're not the only ones, of course, not many will be able to compete against that level of opposition and I'd say Cork will struggle as well. So identifying youngsters at an early age who show signs of potential in this regard is important and then get them down to the centre of excellence.
That's all for the future anyway, we can only work with what we have and Sugrue has to be commended for the job he has done. The way he sets up the team also has to be commended I suppose, they give it a go, they push up and take everyone on man v man. This has provided results against teams from division 3 and 4 and brought us up to division 2 and given us runs into the last 12 in the last 2 championships. Unfortunately, when we have come up against counties from division 1 and 2, we have been beaten by 18 points against Dublin, 11 points against Meath, 14 points against Cork and the only single digit defeat was to Monaghan where we lost by 5.
People have talked about our tackling needing to improve but do we also need to tighten things up? Is going 15 v 15 wise against these teams? We learned a lot more playing against Cork than we did the week before against Offaly. That's why it was so important to get up to division 2. We can test ourselves against better teams and I'm sure Sugrue has plenty of ideas on how to deal with the step up. A disappointing end to a good season where we've gained a few players who've shown they can step up and hopefully the u20's go well tomorrow night and we get a few more involved next year.

It's amazing how hundreds of young footballers are allowed to progress through the ranks without being taught to kick off both feet.