Joe McDonagh Cup 2025

[Joeythelips]

A great start to the campaign, all going well we should have a Carlow v Laois final (fingers crossed) which should be a belter of a final and set the winners in good stead for a crack at 3rd placed team in Leinster.

[Voice of tReason]

Pity the game wasn't on Clubber but that strikes me as an exceptional performance; a statement win away from home.

Tommy deserves serious credit for the way he has the team playing and hopefully they  can continue this form right through until the second weekend in June. There's a long road to go and Carlow will still take a lot of beating (not to rule out Kildare or Kerry completely) but we have the firepower to match any team in the Joe McD.

Well done to everyone involved.

[Laois man]

Good day at the office laois beating down and the minors winning I believe they have offaly next sat at home ó  qfinal.

[The infidel in exile]

On Wednesday night I decided that I would travel to Down via Belfast to watch the Senior team for a second time this year, and they didn't disappoint, on the contrary they game was basically over after 15 minutes. I wrote during the week that I felt that Down's mauling at the hands of Carlow, along with the history of Laois putting seven past them a couple of years ago would be somewhat a bridge too far, but I really didn't expect what I witnessed from a team that won division 2A. We were 2.05 up inside 10 minutes, but the difference in attitude is one thing, but skill levels fitness tactics and desire were so vast that very little can be learned from this for Laois.

Regarding individual performances, Mosey again shone and Jer Quinlan is becoming the player that many expected, He is very intelligent. Conroy is a confidence hurler and he has it in abundance, Cha and young Dooley were excellent. Podge Delaney was my man of the match, and I'll finish by saying that I was very excited about young Duggan of the harps, the young man has a hatful of skill but it is his reading of the game that I was impressed with. He knew where to be when an attack was beginning.
Other than that I have to say that the Ards peninsula is a beautiful part of the country. A week off, but Kerry will probably come to portlaoise after a bad beating from Carlow next week. We can probably mortgage that we will play Carlow twice, one in the last round of matches and second in the final. 9.61 in two matches, I checked my history and no Laois Hurling team EVER SCORED 88 PIONTS IN GAA HISTORY IN TWO GAMES. Finally great news for the Minor Hurlers who made five changes and annihilated Kerry, next up a poor Offaly minor team for a change the these lads beat at u 14,15 level handsomely. My friend from Wexford and an English friend came across for the day, and Jim the Wexford guy said that the present Wexford minor hurlers are VERY POOR. If we put the buffo's away there is a great chance of getting Dublin in a Leinster Minor Hurling semi final
M

[redsetanta]

It was always going to come down to Carlow in Croke Park. I think both counties will be out of site of the other teams and the game in the league stages won't count for much aside from momentum or bragging rights.

Both teams motoring well so should be a great contest.

[oneshot]

On Wednesday night I decided that I would travel to Down via Belfast to watch the Senior team for a second time this year, and they didn't disappoint, on the contrary they game was basically over after 15 minutes. I wrote during the week that I felt that Down's mauling at the hands of Carlow, along with the history of Laois putting seven past them a couple of years ago would be somewhat a bridge too far, but I really didn't expect what I witnessed from a team that won division 2A. We were 2.05 up inside 10 minutes, but the difference in attitude is one thing, but skill levels fitness tactics and desire were so vast that very little can be learned from this for Laois.

Regarding individual performances, Mosey again shone and Jer Quinlan is becoming the player that many expected, He is very intelligent. Conroy is a confidence hurler and he has it in abundance, Cha and young Dooley were excellent. Podge Delaney was my man of the match, and I'll finish by saying that I was very excited about young Duggan of the harps, the young man has a hatful of skill but it is his reading of the game that I was impressed with. He knew where to be when an attack was beginning.
Other than that I have to say that the Ards peninsula is a beautiful part of the country. A week off, but Kerry will probably come to portlaoise after a bad beating from Carlow next week. We can probably mortgage that we will play Carlow twice, one in the last round of matches and second in the final. 9.61 in two matches, I checked my history and no Laois Hurling team EVER SCORED 88 PIONTS IN GAA HISTORY IN TWO GAMES. Finally great news for the Minor Hurlers who made five changes and annihilated Kerry, next up a poor Offaly minor team for a change the these lads beat at u 14,15 level handsomely. My friend from Wexford and an English friend came across for the day, and Jim the Wexford guy said that the present Wexford minor hurlers are VERY POOR. If we put the buffo's away there is a great chance of getting Dublin in a Leinster Minor Hurling semi final
M

laois are a good strong team there aim should be to win the fecking thing not just hope to beat offaly go and win it out.

[The infidel in exile]

Well done men on another massive win against Kerry, yes we all know that Laois are better than Kerry hurlers but I listened to it on Midlands and Well done to young Duggan, I don't think that he is even 23 yet and scored 5 goals in the first half of a Senior intercounty Hurling match.

People have been waiting a while for James to show how good he is and they got it in spades today.

Finally I have a strange feeling that Carlow Kildare and Westmeath will all end up on 6 points, and I may be wrong, but with Kildare after beating both of them, they could well be in a final against Laois, We will put them away quite easily but they have Down to play and should they win, they go onto six points, finally Carlow have both Westmeath and ourselves to play and could lose both. Just a thought

[John1]

Laois got to be hot favorite's to win Joe Mcdonagh with the standard of teams they are playing at the moment, Kerry were awful yesterday. Down will go straight back down in the League next year.
Laois are well ahead of the playing field at the moment Keep foot on the peddle. All Ireland prelims will tell where they are at with hoping they win Final first to set them up

[The Boy Wonder]

It's an awful pity that Laois will be in Division 2 of the National Hurling League next year.
Games at that level wouldn't be proper preparation for Leinster Championship should Laois win the Joe McDonagh Cup.

[redsetanta]

Laois are ahead but they can't take their eye of the main goal because that will come down to a one off knockout game in Croke Park. Those games can have a life of their own sometimes.

[G@@]

It's an awful pity that Laois will be in Division 2 of the National Hurling League next year.
Games at that level wouldn't be proper preparation for Leinster Championship should Laois win the Joe McDonagh Cup.

Indeed it's a pity we're going to be in Division 2 next year. However, we should use that to blood new players at that stage and be seeking out challenge games against the top teams after the league as preparation.

Laois are well ahead of the playing field at the moment Keep foot on the peddle. All Ireland prelims will tell where they are at with hoping they win Final first to set them up

The big incentive this year in winning JMD is the fact the winners face third place in Leinster. Possibly Wexford again and I know they beat us by 12pts last year - but that was when we had lost the final. If we can cruise the rest of the JMD and win the final, the lads heads will be in a better space for having a cut at Wexford in Portlaoise on June 16th.
Wouldn't it be sweet though if Offaly made it third in Leinster and we got them instead of Wexford! Be some tussle with Offaly.

[The infidel in exile]

Firstly I want to put it out there that I got the Tommy Fitz appointment wrong,as I previously stated that I felt that he wouldn't get the best out of the team, thus not giving the man time of relate his ideas and skills that he picked up in Galway to the player's.

In my defense, what I witnessed in Corrigan park against Antrim was terrible, but he is certainly turning things around. That being said we haven't come up against any team with real substance so far in the Joe Mc so they can only play what's before then.

Carlow either blew it big time against Kildare, or the latter have improved beyond all logic, since Kerry beat them by one point a few weeks ago.

Infact there is a real chance that two teams could end up on six points.

We should beat Kildare by over 10 points, as we are averaging 21 point wins thus far in the Cup. Kildare will beat Down which will put them finishing in Six points, and Carlow, who are on four points, have to travel to Mullingar before playing us in Dr Cullen.

Westmeath could end up on Six points as well, as if they overcome Carlow at home, they will beat Kerry. That means that if Westmeath beat Carlow, We will go hell for leather in Carlow because if we beat them, then they are gone and it will be a Laois Kildare final, because they will go through as they have beaten Westmeath already. I know that their are conetations but when we beat Kildare we are automatically in the final on at least eight points as only Carlow are the only other team that could have eight points, but they have their hardest two games left in Mullingar and ourselves in Carlow.

I really would love the lads to win the Joe Mc, and I don't believe that Wexford are a good team, as the average age is 30, and we certainly give them a good run for it at underage level for the last five years.

[Laois Rising]

Unlikely to be Wexford. They have now lost to Dublin and Galway so realistically it will be either Dublin or Galway who finish third. Wexford will need Dublin to beat Kilkenny and then beat Kilkenny themselves. They would then need Galway to beat Dublin in the final game to avoid three teams finishing with three wins and two losses as their score difference will in likely be inferior to Kilkenny and Galway. If that sequence of results plays out they will finish third on head to head rule. Dublin look to be building some momentum under new management this year. Their clash with Kilkenny should be one to watch. They need to atone for the disaster that was last year's Leinster Final.

[John1]

Can't see wexford progressing really after scraping a home win v Offaly
Dublin look livelier again than last year .Kilkenny blitzed them early stages of Leinster Final and heads dropped. hoping they can test Kilkenny tomorrow without showing full hand and getting a crack in the Leinster Final.

[G@@]

Galway saw off Antrim with ease in Salthill today. Mind you, Antrim were rather wasteful. The business end of the Leinster Championship approaches and Offaly have kept it tight with Wexford and Dublin, however got a bit of a hiding from both Galway and Kilkenny. They should account for Antrim at home in Tullamore if they can move the ball around and not get into a physical battle with Antrim.