Tailteann Cup 2023

[Blow-in]

"They've a game in seven days. Nobody is dead. Granted the abuse will come but that will comes with the job anyway – we'll take the abuse and move on."

Taken from Laois Today. What's he on about?

[High Fielder]

Who said that? Sheehan or the LT reporter?

[georgedoylesrightleg]

reckon we best offaly, no great shake n look to be startin to gas.

[on the hop]

In many ways it turned out as expected, well beaten by a better team but none of the trauma of the Dublin game. With our heavily defensive approach we weren't going to give up as many goal chances as the last day, we did give three with one converted (recurring theme all year) , the penalty was the refs gift to them. The rumoured changes came to pass and the keeper did ok and joins the  ever increasing keepers to have played in the last few years. Lacey unfortunately was hooked early but is he really a corner back?, paddy o Sullivan was back in his normal position but doesn't seem to be going well at the moment. Finn in allowed Larkin to wing forward where he worked hard. The Doyle situation is hard to figure out , was he full forward? , was he a distraction tactic on kickouts ? Was he there to contest long ball ? It's hard to know because bar one cross ball nothing went near him and at the end we were ballooning balls in that might have actually suited him if he had come on than started. Once I saw him running back into the defensive screen there was no reason to believe that he had the mobility to get back to full forward for any ball in to help Evan , go what was his selection for then ?

With such a defensive screen we unfortunately ran into a Cavan team that could kick points outside the zone. 20/26 is good shooting but at times there was no pressure. The gift of the penalty and not using the wind enough in the first half was going to make the second half a slog. The period from the 3rd minute of injury time when Evan scored to the 58th minute when Lillis popped a point we were hammered. The legs seemed gone and a very heavy defeat looked on the cards but in fairness they battled back and got it into single digits. The concession rate is still a huge issue, even taking out the Dublin record score , we still have conceded 4-33 in the Wexford/Cavan games.  Lose to Offaly at home then we don't really deserve to go any further.

[Spiritof86]

Pretty typical of our year so far overall . The of use of Doyle was very confusing. Timmons pumped numerous balls into the full forward line in which O'Carroll generally won . Doyle wasn't used apart from maybe one occasion.

I thought that Roche in goals was an improvement. His kick out accuracy was definitely an improvement and made a couple of good saves in the second half .
Forwards blow too hot and cold as has been the way for a good while now .

It's clear to see our fitness and stamina is at a division 4 level . We were out on our feet after 40 mins again. Got a second wind with 5 mins left when the match was over .

Dismal crowd from Laois in attendance . Saying that probably only about 800 present after the exodus of Kildare and Sligo fans .

[Tier2]

After all the doom and gloom, I think Laois deserve credit for a good performance tonight.

Are we that stuck we celebrate losing a 6 point lead at home 😳

[The Boy Wonder]

Who said anything about celebrating? No one, particularly Laois people, gave us any chance tonight. Fitness cost us in the end, but I still think it was a creditable performance.

It certainly wasn't error free, but the Laois team and management deserve some credit.

Although we threw away a big lead, I saw a Laois team play with great spirit tonight.

I hope they can build on it.

Well said

[georgedoylesrightleg]

reckon we best offaly, no great shake n look to be startin to gas.

Listen

[Spiritof86]

Who said anything about celebrating? No one, particularly Laois people, gave us any chance tonight. Fitness cost us in the end, but I still think it was a creditable performance.

It certainly wasn't error free, but the Laois team and management deserve some credit.

Although we threw away a big lead, I saw a Laois team play with great spirit tonight.

I hope they can build on it.

The spirit levels of the team have never been in question. Whether it was against Waterford in the league to last evening in Portlaoise the team have always shown great spirit .

That was an offaly team there for the taking . They are poor enough . They've been through a lot this year in fairness .
The fact we are still struggling with our fitness is baffling though .

Last night was completely replicant of the past 2/3 years and it's clear to see we are making zero progress .

[on the hop]

That felt like a defeat, you would be fooling yourself if you thought any other way. The players walked off very dissappointed and even Sheehan said "we are on the floor" afterwards in his interview. Offaly stood on the pitch surrounded by their supporters celebrating a victory of sorts. It was an awful game at times, real poor quality stuff where neither side seemed to know what they were at and only got entertaining near the end both on the field and the terrace where a few hold me back merchants half squared up to each other. 6 points up with 2 minutes on the clock but once the 5 minutes extra was signalled we seemed to take the few steps back defensively and retreated from the 40 back towards the 30 and at times even closer. It made it much easier for them to shoot from there. The shape went out the window and we were praying for a draw. We committed so many self inflicted wounds, the wild shooting in the first half and at the end from players who should no better, the two turnovers in injury time and the 1-1 we conceded from nothing balls into the square where we outnumbered them and still managed to mess it up. Two weeks to London and it's hard to know where it goes after that.

[Laois Rising]

At least we now won't suffer the embarrassment of finishing in the bottom 5 sides in the country (once we don't mess up to London) and not reach the knock out stages of the Tailteann Cup. Scoring difference could come into play if Cavan beat Offaly. We may still finish second in the group giving us another home game against most likely Wexford/Leitrim, Carlow or New York. If we do finish third we will be away to possibly Antrim/Fermanagh, Longford or Meath/Down. I wouldn't fancy our chances in two of those ties so lets home results go favorably for us in round three of the group stages. If we do not make a quarter final then the county board will have to consider if the Billy Sheehan project is worth committing to for a third year.   

[Spiritof86]

At least we now won't suffer the embarrassment of finishing in the bottom 5 sides in the country (once we don't mess up to London) and not reach the knock out stages of the Tailteann Cup. Scoring difference could come into play if Cavan beat Offaly. We may still finish second in the group giving us another home game against most likely Wexford/Leitrim, Carlow or New York. If we do finish third we will be away to possibly Antrim/Fermanagh, Longford or Meath/Down. I wouldn't fancy our chances in two of those ties so lets home results go favorably for us in round three of the group stages. If we do not make a quarter final then the county board will have to consider if the Billy Sheehan project is worth committing to for a third year.   

Sheehan won't be involved next year regardless of upcoming results .

[Joeythelips]

Who said anything about celebrating? No one, particularly Laois people, gave us any chance tonight. Fitness cost us in the end, but I still think it was a creditable performance.

It certainly wasn't error free, but the Laois team and management deserve some credit.

Although we threw away a big lead, I saw a Laois team play with great spirit tonight.

I hope they can build on it.

I don't think we should patronise the players, they are the ones putting in the commitment to represent their county so anyone who does that deserves credit without a doubt. But they know that result was not good enough given the position they were in. Fair enough it was an improvement on what we have seen this year but we could not get it over the line and the fact that you and others have mentioned fitness as being one of the main differences between the teams in the last 10 minutes or so tells its own story in terms how well prepared the team is.

[County Man]

Going into Saturday evenings game, few would have given Laois a chance of getting a result, myself included. Offaly had a decent division 3 campaign and followed up in Leinster by beating Longford away, division 2 Meath at home and took 3rd place in division 2 Louth to extra time.

Having said that, we should have won. We owned the first half and should have been more than 6 up at the break. Fine scores kicked by a number of our lads but unfortunately a number of wides as well. Defence was excellent, well organised and 4 or 5 important turnovers in that first half.

We stemmed the tide then after Offaly kicked 2 early scores in the second half. At 1-9 to 0-7 up, we had a super opportunity to wrap things up with a second goal as we had a 3 v 2 overlap, but that chance was spurned.

Roche, who again was excellent in goals, made a great save to stop Offaly and his kickouts were excellent. We had a winning look when Corbet put over our last point to make it 1-11 to 0-8.

The sheer effort and committment caught up with us at the end. We ran out of gas and Offaly picked off late scores to level. Mark Barry was unlucky right at the end to snatch it for us, just narrowly wide.

Paddy O'Sullivan was excellent with 2 great points, Padraig Kirwan was excellent, Damon Larkin was brilliant in the middle and 2 fine scores. Defence overall was tigerish as a unit. Great to see Colm Murphy back in from the start. A good spread of scores in the forwards. Finn worked his socks off. There were more options to come in from the bench.

Plenty to build on. The players deserve more support. About 2000 at the game, Offaly outnumbered us about 3 to 1. We have London next in a neutral venue on June 3 and see where it takes us. A win gets us out of the group. Depending on score difference, we may do enough to nick 2nd place which would give us a home preliminary quater final.

[Jd]

There are times when I think that some lads on here would almost prefer Laois to lose. If someone had offered me a draw on Saturday morning then I'd have taken their hand off but now that they have achieved a very creditable result there are people who still haven't a positive thing to say. Maybe they lost the lead due to the incredible amount of hard work they put in for the first 65 mins cos they definitely outran and outworked Offaly during that period. Every team gets a run at some stage and offaly got theirs very late. Now no one is suggesting that all is brilliant but at least give the whole setup some credit for a decent result.