Laois U20s and Minors 2024 Season

[G@@]

Three great results this weekend for Seniors, Minors and U20s. Watched the U20s on Clubber last night and was quite impressed with the team who have rebounded from the disastrous Kilkenny result. We drew with Wexford (who also lost heavily to KK) and beat Kildare last night who are making great strides at Minor and U20.

Next up our U20 lads face Offaly which will be an interesting tussle. A fair few of our lads hurled this Offaly team in the Leinster Final a couple of years ago, so hopefully some revenge factor comes into the game on May 8th.

The minors also face Offaly in their next game following wins over Kerry and Carlow (lost badly to Kildare). This game is on May 4th.

[redsetanta]

Meath too strong for Louth in the end last night. Again it was Meath's ability to get goals that was the real difference.

It shows that Laois weren't too far away this year.

[G@@]

Gutted for the minors this evening, played decent hurling throughout, and unlucky not to have two more goals on the scoreboard which would have put Offaly to the sword. So close.

[redsetanta]

A real sickener for them.

[redsetanta]

Offaly game this evening in U20's.

Are they capable of beating them? Be hard to keep Screeney under wraps.

[burdizzo]

It's being billed as a repeat of the Leinster final two years ago, so - unlikely. Sadly.

[Laois Rising]

We have a fine U20 team this year but Offaly look to be a couple of steps ahead of us and have plenty of the U20 team that won Leinster last year available to them. I'd still expect Laois to be competitive tonight-defensively the team have improved considerably on the Kilkenny game when we conceded far too many goal chances. Offaly by 5/6 points but Laois to give them a good challenge. Hopefully I'm wrong with the prediction and the U20s can replicate the performance of the seniors from a few weeks ago. 

[Laois Rising]

How wrong I was-that Offaly team is more than a few steps ahead of us. The pace and skill of their forward line is a joy to watch. We went man on man and they absolutely blitzed us with every forward getting out ahead of their man and having the accuracy in their shooting. I think their first seven shots all within the first 5/6 minutes sailed straight between the posts. They were determined to set down a marker from the very off while our players seemed like they were trying to warm into the game in the first few minutes. We were never at the pitch of Offaly and the game was already a foregone conclusion after 10 minutes.

At least half a dozen of that team in years to come will form the backbone of an Offaly senior side which I fear will reach a level that Laois may not be able to get to.   

[georgedoylesrightleg]

what happend on sideline sendin off?

[G@@]

what happend on sideline sendin off?

Two Offaly players sandwiched T Cuddy. One of the Offaly players came off bad and hit the deck, ref gave Offaly a free. Carter very unhappy, given a yellow first, then a red around 10 seconds later. I imagine choice language was used between the two cards!

[The infidel in exile]

I wouldn't be too deflated by that result as Offaly or kilkenny will not only win Leinster, but probably get to an all ireland final. Laois are on a par with wexford and Dublin and that is a major improvement on previous years. A bigger concern is young Cuddy getting sent off, it shouldn't effect the seniors too much, but we are not blessed with 15 or 20 top quality underage hurlers annually, unlike kilkenny, Galway, Tipperary and recently Limerick. The likes of Cuddy, Quintana, Keynes, don't come around regularly. Mark kavanagh is a prime example of a brilliant intelligent hurler that was so prone to injury that he never reached the heights that neither he nor Laois had the privilege to witness.

On the other end of the scale ( NO names mentioned) we have produced more than a couple of hurlers, who for reasons only known to them, have ignored the honour of representing their County in order to give all to their Club. I am in no position to judge anyone as I myself have made multiple mistakes in my life, but when you see Counties like Down, Carlow and Kildare who are of a lesser standard to Laois, giving everything for their Counties, it beggars belief. Down have three hurlers who are from protestant backgrounds and play, inspire of their general communities feeling's regarding the game, gives me a greater understanding about why we will never become strong enough to at least challenge the so called bigger Counties