Underage squads 2024

[Laois Rising]

I 100% agree. When I saw the fixtures I was so frustrated.

A minor and senior hurling double fixture on the Sunday would have been fantastic for the promotion of the game within the county. There is a bit of buzz to the minor team at the moment and the seniors have been on fire the last two games and would be expected to beat Kerry seniors very comfortable. Bit of promotion in the clubs etc. and you could have got a very healthy crowd for a double header in O'Moore Park. Put the U21 semi-final with the Laois football game on the Saturday. It might encourage a few extra bodies to come in for the double header. It's just disappointing that some flexibility could not be shown in the scheduling. It's another missed opportunity to really promote Laois GAA spurned. 

[Laois Rising]

Laois 7-23 Offaly 0-13 is some scoreline alright, are Offaly that poor or does this laois team genuine challengers for silverware? I'd assume the latter but did not see them play.

And this Offaly minor team was developed right through the Duignan reign as chairperson!!! Those shouting for what Duignan achieved need to show perspective. Success in small to middle size counties will always be cyclical. You could even argue the that their minor team and U20 team success was originally built under the reign of the previous chairperson and that is also definitely the case for their U20 All-Ireland football success. 

Things in Laois aren't perfect but what is being done in Laois reflects what is being done in similar sized counties throughout the country. We will have some good years and bad years but with the numbers in Meath, Dublin and Kildare, minor and u20 success in football will be harder achieved achieved than it was in the 90s and 00s as those counties now all have very decent structures in place for at least the last decade. In hurling the gap to the tier 1 counties might not be as great, therefore every 5-10 years a team comes along that should be able to challenge and be competitive and you just hope that Kilkenny and Galway do not have their strongest crop in that same year. 

[Blueforever]

SO Duignan had nothing to do with offaly success the beating the minors took proves this Jeasus wept no wonder we are so far behind so many counties if the last poster is anything to go by

[Laois Rising]

That's not my point. Duignan did an excellent job in Offaly. However, posters here were lauding the upturn in Offaly to messiah like figure coming in as chairperson. Reality is, Laois like Offaly will have a cycle of good and bad teams. Yes, we could certainly do more in the county to improve standards but when a minor team, U20 or senior team takes a bad beaten the onslaught of posts here saying that "these are the worst Laois teams ever" and "the county board are all ~~~~~ must all resign" does not reflect the reality or what is happening in the county.

[The infidel in exile]

Let me try to take a middle ground approach here, as I believe that both Rising and Blue forever, have elements of Validity in both opinions. Firstly rising, I did mention the tremendous amount of work, that Michael Duignan put into his position within Offaly, and I totally stand by the statement, but if it was read in context, I most definitely DID NOT PUT IT ALL DOWN TO HIM, so the Messianic comment has no bearing. I mentioned the term holistic, because of the people he brought into the County from Shane Lowrey and other rich individuals, to psychologists etc. and they won a Leinster minor title and two U20 All Ireland's on the back of everything being put in place for the players.

You are correct that Counties with populations of less than 100.000, that unlike Kilkenny, play both codes.

I personally believe that underage Hurling is improving, and I previously told you about a friend here in Nottingham from Wexford originally, who told me that their minor hurlers are poor this year.

Also I hope that Ricky Bannon will be fit for the U20 semi's as he is a very good forward and scored 0.8 from play against Kildare. Could someone please find out how bad his injury is, because other than leaving the panel, He must have picked up an injury last week.

I am also delighted for the young Portarlington lad on the Minor Hurling panel, it must be a first in Laois Hurling history.

Finally as I was born not far from Abbeyleix, could anyone please tell me about this young goal machine, second name Jones, but 6 goals and 6 points in three matches ( as he was rested for the Kerry game. Good work for a half forward who doesn't take the frees. Onwards and upwards

[georgedoylesrightleg]

holisitc begod. holistic n a golfers millions in one sentence. lets see wat comes o offalty. duignan put in gud plans, brought in gud men, n bought mickey harte with the money. shur grand. we'll see how it goes. his minor hurlers of taken a record bateing, imagine the wingeing over there this week wit the 20s bate too. poor aul tom has tuff week ahead. mind our own bixzness n not be worryin bout offly boys. thers work to be done

[redsetanta]

A 31 point win against Offaly at any grade is a serious performance.

The minors have put up big scores in every game this year.

Hopefully they don't get carried away and focus on Wexford and don't take them lightly. It's big boys hurling now against the top tier teams so hopefully them drive on.

A leinster final appearance and a chance a silverware is some carrot.

It will bring a huge life to the county considering how poorly our underage footballers have performed.

[Hurling123]

The u20 worked really  hard for the win great to see them work so hard. The desserved  the win.
  The lack of thought with the fixtures is a good reflection  of where  our CB is at.

The current  squad  of minor hurlers are a good bunch they have won lots the whole way up,the work that has been put into them is what now stands to them . People  dismissed this group  when they won the celtic challenge last season.  They won the lenister  schools competition  the year before.  The work that was put in with them with the management  team since u14 is what has them here. Credit  has to be given to that group  along with Connor,Jason and Ross and Mike henchy  for putting them all together.
They now face a 50/50 game against  Wexford  . There record is beating Wexford  once lost once by 2 points  so this suggested  not much between  them.
Daniel jones is a player with an appetite  for goals something  all young lads should  be though. A likeable chap.

I wouldn't  be reading to much into the score lines to date.this laois team have been given  teams like kerry ,offaly  massive beating  over the years . Now we face the real tests.
Hopefully people can turn out to support this team Saturday .

[The infidel in exile]

Thanks for the information 123, nice to get feedback from someone with intelligence and knows the team. Most on the platform give honest and respectful feedback. Sadly you always get one Pat Shortt on every platform.would be great to see the lads get the job done the weekend.

[georgedoylesrightleg]

howre the fixture the cbs problem lads for god sake will ye stop whining n just go n support de lads. anyone who has childer knows a triple header is a form of hell. no way you get dem to stay for all o dem. a double header is as good as it gets. only laois cud get worked up over havin to go watch teams play in htre bizness end of the season. some lads just wanna wihnge. wex wont be simple, man sent off last day tho so thats something. drive on ta fook

[The infidel in exile]

I get what you are saying 123, But 6.26 against Kerry ( although they are poor) and a week later, against Offaly, they scored 7.23. They are going into a match against Wexford after scoring in the region of 13.49 in the last two games, whilst Wexford lost their last two games against Kilkenny 13 pts, and Galway 12 pts.

I'm not foolish enough to discount Wexford, but one player has scored 35% of all their scores, and I believe he takes the frees.

I can see the u20s put in a good performance, but I actually expect Laois minor hurlers to have too much for Wexford, we will know at the weekend.

[The infidel in exile]

I apologize as Kilkenny beat Wexford 1.31 to 0.13, and Laois scored 6.16 via Kerry but 13.39 in 120 minutes of Hurling against some good individual opposition hurlers is some tally

[redsetanta]

Was listening to the Louth chairman on Radio 1 this morning after their minor footballers beat Dublin by
2-17 to 1-09 to get to the Leinster final.
Fair enough he praised the club coaches and the committment of players etc but he also said there was great work in the schools alluding to the likes of St MAry's Ardee. He also said they were doing a lot of work in Dundalk and Drogheda as well and that the bigger towns was their focus and it was great to see so many GAA jersey's worn by young lads in these towns which would normally be soccer strongholds. .

That's the key for the likes of Laois as we've mentioned here many times. Focus resources on the likes of the secondary schools in Portlaoise and target the larger urban area's like Mountmellick, Portlaoise and Portarlington. The likes of Mountrath, although doing better at the moment should also be looked at for underage hurling. Mountrath CS is doing very well but Mountrath town itself could be better.

[G@@]

Clubber wrong on this or was the match moved?

[The infidel in exile]

100% right Setanta, Schools is where the real work is done, especially Hurling, as it is unique and intricate, and in Hurling school's the young lads are picking about five days a week, untop of training with the different years.

123 pointed that out when he mentioned our current Minor Hurling team winning the Leinster schools recently.

Other than that, they train probably two nights a week with the club, and hopefully take in a match at the weekend.

The only real problem that Hurling has in Laois, is the urban problem.

Portlaoise, Portarlington, Graigue, and Mountmellick. The four biggest towns in the County are either 100% big ball, or Hurling is a distant second. There are over 5.000 people on the Laois side of Carlow town, and although Graigue have won quite a few underage titles, they can't turn it into Senior success. But Hurling is demographicly smaller than football, although since 2021 the underage Hurling teams have been improving year on year, and I pray that it continues.

Finally I want to wish Derek Delaney, all the best with the u20s in the Leinster semi's. I remember Derek well when he played with the County Minors in the early 2000s.He never missed a training session, and I remember him playing half back against Offaly in the first round, we only lost be 3 or 4 points, but he hurled his heart out, along with Matthew Whelan. We had two lads from Galmoy with us, Jimmy Dunne, and young Hickey, I think his first name was also James.Hickey was a very very good hurler but the manager wouldn't play him, basically on account of the fact that a fella from his Club would have been dropped,it turned out that they brought on Hickey with 10 minutes left and In the final 10 minutes He cleared up and we brought it back from 9 down to a goal. But I hope that the parochialism is long gone. Sadly Galmoy have Laois lads playing with them every year but they either won't come or are not asked to.