Laois v Offaly – Leinster Hurling Quarter Final 7th June

A forum to air your views on Offaly GAA matters and beyond.
suckindiesel
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Re: Laois v Offaly – Leinster Hurling Quarter Final 7th Ju

Post by suckindiesel »

i will fill in a few blanks for you all star...and as always I will call it as it is.

on the leinster quarter final on sunday week, if offaly apply themselves, you will win comfortably by maybe 5 points or more.

my read for what it is worth, is that laois played ok for one half of the entire league campaign(2nd half against offaly when mostly with 14 men), save for that laois were poor. the laois antrim game was a bottom of the barrel encounter, and it was obvious that something was amiss with antrim and their subsequent fall from grace no surprise.

since that league game (the win saving laois' bacon), the laois squad had a week on the continent in the sun(first ever for a hurling squad, pre championship), and from there, laois were bad against antrim, conjuring a defeat from victory, should have hammered Carlow and ended up clinging on, and played for 20 minutes against Westmeath and it got them across the line...........there is no nice way of putting this, but, the standard in this qualifying group is very poor, and does nothing for improving hurling in laois, scrambling against Westmeath and Carlow has negative mental outcomes, because the players then see themselves as no hopers against the big guns. a secondary effect of this group system is that club teams are denied their county panellists for up to 6 to 8 weeks, and with the laois league stages coming to a conclusion and knockout and relegation looming, there are plenty of discontented clubs about in laois.

now I know some of you may not accept this, anyway, I believe due to a decent recent conveyor belt of underage talent coming through in laois,we are now assembling a better quality squad than at offalys disposal. when cheddar took over the senior set up, it was flat as a pancake on the rim, and I suppose the only way was up.

Cheddar for all his sound bites, is a theory and organisational expert, he put together a good set up, Cunningham and br damian originally, and assembled the extra personnel expected to attend to an intercounty squad. laois have improved from a point of zero 3 years ago, rattling galway twice and enjoying a decent league in 2014. alas in 2015, despite having a full squad, and getting the foreign holiday, the results and performances have been bad.....in the league....fair v offaly, collapsed v Waterford...defensively all over the shop v wexford, the limerick game was a glorified challenge match as limerick had thrown in the league towel after their defeat in wexford, and against antrim, an ugly win....the hair raising element of the antrim game, was when they had a man sent off, the laois sideline failed to react to the situation, a bad sign.

in 2013 laois upset the odds to reach a provincial under 21 final with a modest side. cheddar sought out and was given the management of the under 21 side in 2014 and again this year...both squads were above average by historic laois standards......lack of pinpoint preparation for the under 21s resulted last year in defeat at parnell park to Dublin, and last nights defeat to Carlow was hard to stomach....Carlow worked harder and on that basis deserved the win, but this squad exiting to a moderate side was the definition of under achievement. Cheddar, the "manager" of this under 21 squad, was not present on the sideline last night, because the rumour mill whispered last night, he had resigned in a strop over county squad players, playing with their clubs. if the rumours are true, and he did indeed abandon this u21 side pre match, then the manager must take a large proportion of the blame for the defeat, as the pre match dressing room must of stank of a bad attitude.

in conclusion, cheddar has laid some solid foundations, his time is up(the players are now fed up of the same voice and ideas), a more expert brickie is now required to continue the building process. whether cheddar returns to take charge for the offaly game or not, it will have little material difference on the outcome, as offaly will win the game.

and to all star, the laois under 21 team would be a long way better than the offaly one, and I expect you to come up short versus the McDonald led wexford in the semi.

SearingDrive
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Re: Laois v Offaly – Leinster Hurling Quarter Final 7th Ju

Post by SearingDrive »

Cheddar off the menu in Laois GAA.

hopper82
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Re: Laois v Offaly – Leinster Hurling Quarter Final 7th Ju

Post by hopper82 »

Crazy mutterings crossing the border this morning , Hard to believe Seamus Plunkett will not be on the sideline Sunday week .

He has done so much for Laois hurling they improved dramatically under his command.

Its Hard to know what to believe in regards to the rumours going around, it seems one of the senior members of the panel played in a challenge game on Monday night for his club and this provoked the resignation ?

I would imagine there is a lot more behind the story than this? Has he felt he hasn't got full cooperation of the group for a while ?would it not make sense to punish the player rather than the group 2 weeks before such a crucial game ? is he making a stand to prove how serious he is about the whole thing?

Offaly (hopefully) will not read into this to much and continue with preparations as normal, however this can go one of two ways,
Laois will completely lose there way before the game and fail to bring there A game or they will stage an enormous rebellion out of respect for themselves and show Cheddar they are worth sticking with .

Interesting times .

Toxicity234
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Re: Laois v Offaly – Leinster Hurling Quarter Final 7th Ju

Post by Toxicity234 »

I was at the U21 Last night. Its was a poor game. with both side's employing a sweeper system. Which meant that the forward had little or no space.
Westmeath goal in the 1st few mins was just a long ball in and the Offaly goalkeeper came off the line and the Westmeath full forward got a touch to take it passed him.
Nolan Goal was excellent. the Offaly corner forward was held up by the corner back but he got a the ball away and Nolan had made a great run off the ball. he still had a lot of work to do but finished it expertly.
The Offaly Second goal came at the start of the second half. it was a long ball that the Westmeath goalkeeper let slip by him.

The two sending off. Connor Doughan was for two booking. The second tackle was late and just a yellow card.
The westmeath send off. was a slap on the Offaly Midfielder when he was running down the middle. It was a straight red. my the letter of the law it was a red but if Doughan wasn't off maybe a yellow would have been enough.

The Offaly defence was well set up and control the game very well.
The midfield got through a lot of work with Dunne picking of a nice scores.
The forwards work hard but some were slow off the mark. there was very little aggression in the tackle with Johnny O'Toole Greene the only one willing to use the shoulder challenge to slow the westmeath player.
Offaly best players were Nolan, Doughlan was doing ok up till the sending off. Paddy Rigney and Guinan when he had ball in hand.

If we are to beat Wexford which i think we can. the Forward need to up there tackling and aggression to slow the ball coming out of defence. If the wexford backs begin landing ball in on top of there full forward line we be in big trouble.
The normal rule apply's when playing wexford put there half backs under pressure and they give up enough chance's for you to win the game.

As for Laois and Cheddar parting company. Cheddar owes Laois nothing. he took them for a team that would spend half the time beating themselves to a hard team to beat.
Laois are in a much better place than they were when Cheddar took over and this year the progress may have slowed, He still deserved credit for the progress made in there game plan and discipline show over his time.

Laois on the 7 June is going to be a huge challenge. Laois have some excellent hurlers but to me Offaly have much more excellent hurler than Laois. The problem lies in the fact that we don't have the structure to get the best of them. Laois want to put out there best team, Offaly want to put out its best hurlers.
Last edited by Toxicity234 on Thu May 28, 2015 8:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
“Common sense is not so common.”

substandard
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Re: Laois v Offaly – Leinster Hurling Quarter Final 7th Ju

Post by substandard »

I expect there'll be a lot of cheesey puns after this news.
I'd say they'll grate...

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Bord na Mona man
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Re: Laois v Offaly – Leinster Hurling Quarter Final 7th Ju

Post by Bord na Mona man »

substandard wrote:I expect there'll be a lot of cheesey puns after this news.
I'd say they'll grate...
I always knew Plunkett would melt when the heat came on him!

Kevin
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Re: Laois v Offaly – Leinster Hurling Quarter Final 7th Ju

Post by Kevin »

Hearing rumors that he felt they weren't sharp enough.
Kevin Clancey. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

Buttons
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Re: Laois v Offaly – Leinster Hurling Quarter Final 7th Ju

Post by Buttons »

Offaly shouldnt give edam about Laois, play to their potential and they will beat them.

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Bord na Mona man
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Re: Laois v Offaly – Leinster Hurling Quarter Final 7th Ju

Post by Bord na Mona man »

Buttons wrote:Offaly shouldnt give edam about Laois, play to their potential and they will beat them.
By doing the bread and butter stuff right of course!

fifitrixiebelle
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Re: Laois v Offaly – Leinster Hurling Quarter Final 7th Ju

Post by fifitrixiebelle »

cheddar was a good manager but id say he has left sum de brie after him. the co board are awful blue over it

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joe bloggs
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Re: Laois v Offaly – Leinster Hurling Quarter Final 7th Ju

Post by joe bloggs »

I heard cheddar was really cheesed off with commitment shown!
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Plain of the Herbs
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Re: Laois v Offaly – Leinster Hurling Quarter Final 7th Ju

Post by Plain of the Herbs »

You are indeed correct. Happy to acknowledge.
bracknaghboy wrote:
Plain of the Herbs wrote: Ten years since they were in a Leinster semi-final. They are on the threshold of a great breakthrough.
Not so. They were in the Leinster semi final two years ago but were eventually overrun by Galway in Portlaoise. They beat Antrim and Carlow to get there.
Pat Donegan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

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Re: Laois v Offaly – Leinster Hurling Quarter Final 7th Ju

Post by Plain of the Herbs »

Hard to know what to make of it all, so these are some random thoughts rather than an essay with a beginning, a middle and an end.

For whatever reason, Laois seem to have been badly shook by loosing that NHL match to Offaly back in February. A bit of a mirror image of Offaly losing to Laois last year.

Trying to make a breakthrough is a tough business. The reality is that there are many bumps and setbacks along the way. The overlying trend of the graph might be rising steadily but within that trend there are falls and rises.

A misty-eyed nostalgist might think Offaly came to the fore all of a sudden in 1980. The reality is anything but, for that breakthrough was 15 years in the making. After winning NHL Div 2 in 1966 Offaly ran Kilkenny close in the Leinster championship in Birr. Promoted to NHL Div 1, they beat Waterford and Tipperary before losing in the Leinster championship to Westmeath in the ‘Battle of Birr’. Time ran out on that team, who had been together almost the entire 1960s and many had retired by 1971. The next dawn was a 1977 NHL promotion and a quarter-final win over Wexford. That year their Leinster campaign fell at the first hurdle to Dublin. A year later, Offaly twice beat All-Ireland champions Cork in the league (the second a playoff win at Thurles, where Offaly had never won before) but they were beaten up by Kilkenny (something like 2-17 to 1-4).

A Laois breakthrough may be some way off, but they need to keep hurling. Reading between the lines of suckindiesel’s post, it appears Plunkett managed the team while Cunningham did the coaching. Once there are boundaries and everyone is comfortable in their roles, that arrangement should work. Will Cunningham be as comfortable combining both roles?

For many years Laois lined out without some of their leading players who were unwilling to commit. This year they picked from a fairly full panel. The other angle is, are they better off without a few who (good hurlers and all as they are) may have a negative attitude, or whose commitment wavers at the first sign of trouble. Item: pre 1994 Limerick had a number of hurlers who were trouble. By degrees Tom Ryan got rid of them and they reached an All-Ireland for the first time in ages. Lazy observers, particularly Raymond Smith in the Sunday Independent were in no doubt Limerick would have won the All-Ireland with a full panel. I beg to differ – it’s quite possible they wouldn’t have got as far as they did with a full hand to pick from. Johnny Giles has a dictum for soccer management: “you don’t buy in trouble”. Now, Laois can’t sign in (or out) hurlers, but sometimes a hurler might be more trouble than he is worth and should be cast aside for the good of the team.

I am of the opinion that this isn’t a spur of the moment decision on Plunkett’s part; rather it is a ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’ scenario where trouble was brewing for some time. And i wonder were the Laois players expecting miracles without putting in the work. It's quite possible that this Laois team will not be the one to reach a Leinster Final and that they are paving the way for a winning team, that Plunkett is to Laois as Brother Denis (and not Andy Gallagher) was to Offaly. In time they will look back on Plunkett's time with fondness and on the circumstances of his departure with regret. He has done Laois hurling some service.
Pat Donegan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

Plain of the Herbs
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Re: Laois v Offaly – Leinster Hurling Quarter Final 7th Ju

Post by Plain of the Herbs »

A very good point. Offaly were often at their best after a good disagreement, like thunder, cleared a muggy air. Sometimes I long for a good row in the Offaly camp. It's 2003 years since we had one of those.
hopper82 wrote:Offaly (hopefully) will not read into this to much and continue with preparations as normal, however this can go one of two ways,
Laois will completely lose there way before the game and fail to bring there A game or they will stage an enormous rebellion out of respect for themselves and show Cheddar they are worth sticking with .
Pat Donegan. Signed out of respect for players and all involved with Offaly.

kingscounty
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Re: Laois v Offaly – Leinster Hurling Quarter Final 7th Ju

Post by kingscounty »

I for one am a big admirer of Chedder and Laois hurling, but they always seem to fall out with a manager or have trouble in the camp when things are just going right. They are always fit and conditioned and can hurl with the best of teams on any given day. Their underage is in a better place than ours and I hope this won't upset all the work that has been done . As someone said already it can go either way when we play them , they will rise to prove a point or just go through the motions.

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