DEMPSEY & MAKE PEACE; TROUBLE ERUPTS IN O'MOORE COUNTY.

Byline: PAT NOLAN 

LAOIS footballers and management have been publicly grilled after the team's shambolic performance in this year's Championship.

A special meeting of the county board has been called for next Monday night to debate the state of football in the county, though there was plenty of discussion at last Monday's scheduled gettogether when delegates tore strips off manager Sean Dempsey and his players.

The commitment of the players was questioned amid claims that they were "acting like a gobs***e".

It places huge question marks over Dempsey's future in charge of the team after Laois suffered a number of embarrassing results in the National League before shipping a 15-point hammering from Kildare in the Leinster semi-final.

They bowed out of the Championship having been comfortably beaten by Down in the qualifiers last Saturday week.

However the St Joseph's man was keen to stay in the job after the Down defeat, saying: "I think I can contribute and I won't be leaving this job ever. I'll get sacked from it."

Dempsey also criticised young attacker Donie Kingston for not travelling to Newry for the Down game, but this was challenged by Kingston's clubmate, Arles Killeen delegate Danny Brennan.

He said: "After the match in Newry the manager laid the blame at the feet of a Leaving Cert student, and he was only trying to take the blame from himself.

"He wasn't at the match because he was not on the panel, he had been told he was dropped, and how he was expected to go on the bus is a mystery. The county board should take it up with him, and I think the chap (Kingston) is due a public apology."

Paddy Delaney of The Rock echoed those sentiments, saying: "I would have major issues with washing our dirty linen in public. I think it's disgraceful.

"We were one of the worst teams in the Championship, but we're the only ones still getting coverage after we have been knocked out, and it's not from the players, it's from a lad who couldn't do his job and is trying to shift the blame.

"I have no agenda with anyone, my only concern is about lads mouthing off to the press."

The players weren't spared either though with football board chairman Larry Doone saying that too much emphasis was placed on the All-Ireland minor wins of 1996, '97 and 2003.

"I am not pointing the finger, we are all culpable," said Doone. "We put the management in place and we are all responsible.

"The players need to look at themselves and we need to look at ourselves.

"It appeared everything possible was been done at training but the performances were still disappointing."

"Other counties perceive minors as a stepping stone. Maybe we perceived it as the ultimate and celebrated too much.

"If you pull on the jersey you have the responsibility not to be going out and acting like a gobs***e."

Stradbally's Gerry Kavanagh also questioned he nocturnal habits of certain players.

He said: "We'd turn a blind eye when we shouldn't have, when a lad was in the pub when he should have been in bed or wouldn't go training."

Meanwhile, the news doesn't get any better for Laois as the county board is on the lookout for new team sponsors following the withdrawal of The Heritage.

CAPTION(S):

FEEL THE HEAT Sean Dempsey, above, criticised Donal Kingston for his application