Hurler Young: Laois County Board should resign

James Young says that members of the Laois County Board Executive should resign on the back of an inter-county season marred by disastrous results and commitment issues.

Young, who was twice nominated for an All-Star award, has not played for Laois since being suspended for two years by the County Board for a incident that happened after a club match last September.

The Clonaslee clubman has watched the O'Moore men crash out of the Leinster and All-Ireland Championships this summer, and the county's Under-21s suffer an embarrassing defeat to Wexford.

Rumours of player discontent have dogged the current Laois set-up and although senior hurling manager Brendan Fennelly has praised the support given by the County Board, Young insists that hurling is simply not a priority for them.

"We're after enduring two hammerings at senior and Under-21 level in the past two weeks, shipping 17 goals in the process," he told the Sunday Independent.

"But the worst thing is I wasn't even shocked at that. Speaking to some of the players before they played Cork, they were expecting it too.

"I've been playing for Laois since I was 17; I had 12 or 13 years on the trot. Not so long ago, we were competing with and beating Dublin.

"There are still seven or eight of that Dublin team playing under Anthony Daly, but look how far back we've gone and look at what progress they have made in the meantime.

"There's a feelgood factor around Dublin hurling, just like there was with the Laois footballers some years back when they were able to pull managers of the calibre of Mick O'Dwyer. But there's never been any such appointment for the hurlers. We just seem to be second fiddle all the time."

A forum is due to take place tomorrow night, set up by the County Board, to discuss the future of hurling in Laois and all interested parties, including current and former players, have been invited to attend.

Chairman Brian Allen has underlined that the meeting had been planned for some time, but Young feels that the County Board are just reacting to the growing sense of crisis and that heads should roll at boardroom level.

"Maybe people will be shamed into doing something now. We've shipped two serious hammerings but no surprise there. The writing was on the wall.

"Before we played Cork, there were two challenge matches were held but only 14 showed up to play a Waterford selection, while just 16 turned up to play a Kilkenny selection.

"Nothing is being done to rectify it - there always seems to be a problem between players and management and it doesn't take a genius to realise what's wrong. Who is overseeing all of this? The County Board and now I think they should resign."

Pat Critchley, Laois' only hurling All-Star, is a full-time Coaching and Development officer with the County Board and oversees the underage Setanta Hurling and Cuchulainn programmes, which he hopes will bring through the next generation of Laois hurlers.

Young, who admires Critchley's efforts, admitted: "Pat is doing savage work trying to promote the game in the county but there's only so much work one man can do. We're in serious trouble at schools levels.

"There is no hurling presence in certain vocational schools and they are really only fulfilling fixtures."

One remedy being muted for the Laois seniors is a drop down to the Christy Ring Cup. Young is of the view that if Laois cannot get their best players showing the required commitment for the All-Ireland Championship, then what hope do they have asking them to play in a second-tier competition.

"I believe that dropping to the Christy Ring competition would be the death of Laois hurling altogether. It's not in the best interest of the team to go down because no one will ever take us seriously again if we revert to that.

"Who would turn up to train for that? You have to hurl to the highest level possible, that's what I wanted to do when I was playing anyway.

"We have lads in this county that are as good as any other player - we nearly beat Limerick in Thurles two years ago - but look at us now with class hurlers like Tommy Fitzgerald walking away and we're left taking hammerings."

Whether a change of manager is the answer, Laois' current Under-21 boss PJ Peacock feels that it will take time to iron out the various problems.

"What's happening now, I really don't know what's gone wrong. I was involved with (former Laois senior manager) Niall Rigney last year and I thought there was a fantastic set-up," he told the Laois Nationalist.

"And I thought when we stepped out, Brendan Fennelly stepped in, a Kilkenny man, for things to move on another level but...it just hasn't. There is no quick fix solution."

Peacock feels positive that there are players of the calibre of Neil Foyle, James Corrigan, Brendan Reddin and Eoin Reilly coming through, but the problem is that there is not enough of them.

He had a meeting with the County Board before last week's 7-18 to 2-11 hammering by Wexford to discuss the lack of squad depth. Just like the seniors, it seems commitment issues are evident at the U-21 grade.

"The standard of hurlers that we have, aren't inter-county hurlers. There are players here that can't make their own starting club (senior) teams. I knew that...I had a meeting with the County Board about it and I expressed my feelings on it," he added.

"They're not that strong a bunch of hurlers, we were trying to get the best out of them. I've heard lads talking, 'why isn't such a lad in? Or why isn't some other lad playing?’

"I've rang everyone personally. We went to Camross, we went to the Harps and people didn’t come in, maybe for their own reasons. We went to Rathdowney, one or two didn’t want to come in. We just have to get on with what we have."