Laois Senior Footballers 2026

[Joeythelips]

McNulty and his team are there 3 years, and its usually time enough to put a clear style of play, build the squad they want,and show progress, now it's time to deliver, no more excuses.

McNulty and his team have clearly done a great job with Laois and consistently gets the best out of the players at his disposal. Very tough game today obviously but better to get them on home turf than at Croke Park in a final I would say. It should be close so hoping home advantage gives us that edge.

Best of luck to all players and management involved.

[Andy06]

Its so easy for Down at the moment, there is zero pressure on their forwards who are just able to coast right through our defence.

[Joeythelips]

Laois actually playing well enough going forward but having to work much harder than Down for their scores. They need to be able to work some two pointers to get back into this.

[Blueforever]

Worst 6 backs i have ever seen in blue and white goalkeeper kick out terrible forwards bar the full forward doing OK full forward physically weak

[Joeythelips]

An awful finish to the season, men against boys which the scoreboard basically reflects.

[Andy06]

Another year, another absolute kicking to finish it out. There is zero to be hopeful or positive about Laois football at the moment. Minors and U20s way off it yet again also

[Andy06]

Pathetic defending again for their second goal. Its like they are allergic to actually closing down or tackling the Down forwards

[bluespower]

We may buy 15 robots powered by AI for next next years championship, its the only way forward. With the way the GAA is going i would not put it past them to allow this if the money is there, as they seem to allow everything else these days.

[SCFC]

That was desperately disappointing today. Down really seem to have a hex over us. Never got going at all. Don't know if would have settled us a bit but that opening free for us looked a definite penalty?
Hard to pick out lads who impressed today. Kirwan was good in first half but not second. Heffernan and Tyrrell worked hard.
Is McNulty's time up? I think he's done a decent job but wouldn't object to a new man coming in.

[Smallballbigballs]

Worst 6 backs i have ever seen in blue and white goalkeeper kick out terrible forwards bar the full forward doing OK full forward physically weak

Thoroughly uncalled for behaviour and patently not true. Usual internet rubbish.

[The Boy Wonder]

Some snippets from Justin McNulty's interview with LaoisToday:
"It was an enormous effort from the players, the whole management team and the coaching team all season long. Everybody stuck together and fought together.
"Ultimately, we fell a bit flat today and didn't deliver a performance that we can be any way proud of."
"We didn't lay a glove on them. That's how I'd describe the performance"
"If you were to do it again, you'd almost go through the back door way and then go through the front door way.
"It seems to be an advantage. I think that definitely suited them. They were able to try things out and test things where we didn't get as many opportunities to do that.
"Certainly, that was an advantage, but not the only reason either."

Whether Justin goes or stays I think he has given us his best.

[Laois Rising]

Justin has done a fantastic job with a limited squad. The Laois team is predominantly players of division 3 and 4 standard. Perhaps Barry and Carroll a cut above this but outside of that we have hugely limited. A very committed group of players who have given their all. No disgrace losing to Down. Didn't get the performance we would have hoped for but Down are a very good side. They have found their groove again and we weren't at that standard. The modern game is all about winning the midfield battle-we do not have any really top level midfielders in the county that can mix it with the top teams. In second half against Kildare they won control of that centre and that was the winning of the game. Down are good around the middle as they showed against Donegal. Justin is right in his analysis- Wicklow have come through the backdoor to make a semi-final. We are a better team to Wicklow. Laois would definitely be competitive with every other team in the competition.

[Butch Cassidy]

Saturday was very disappointing. Down a level ahead re pace, power, defensive setup and looked a better coached team to be frank.

Laois tried their best but are limited. Add in the fact that Larkin, Barry, Murphy and a few more arent available for whatever reasons and you are up against it. Portlaoise for the size and footballing tradition should have more starting and involved but thats for another day.

Hopefully the green shoots that we are seeing in the schools starts to bear fruition and the local championship unearths some new players.

[redsetanta]

We don't seem to be producing any marquee players through the system. Exciting players that would bring people in the gates. Most decent counties have one or two players that can do something to change a game.

We haven't had a Michael Lawlor, Emerson, Beano, Munnelly, Kingston etc breaking on to the scene for a while. Where is the Laois Kobe?

Will we be waiting a few more years or have we talent coming through the underage set up.

[SpeculativeEffort]

I think we have suffered from the decoupling of minor and adult football. When we were competitive and dominating underage football our best players were all top players with senior and intermediate teams at 16, 17, 18. This gave them an edge.

Now all these players are playing more games (at own age group) but they are not being challenged.

Previously the best players were aiming to play adult at 16. They wanted to be the players brought up first. Now all these players are just lolling along and arriving out of minor largely not ready for adult club football.