The Laois minor football team and panel who will face Dublin in Round 1 of the Leinster championship this evening has been named.
Manager Ger Slevin has confirmed a 37-player panel who will represent Laois in the competition this year.
Laois have a decent bit of experience from last year to call upon too with seven of that panel available again.
Liam Conroy (Portlaoise), Ben O’Connor (Portlaoise), Robbie Murphy (St Joseph’s), Darren Brennan (Portlaoise), Ennae Byrne (Arles-Killeen), Fionn O’Sullivan (Crettyard) and Jack Julian (Ballylinan) all featured last year.
All seven are named to start against Dublin this evening with throw in at 7.30pm in the Centre of Excellence.
In terms of representation on the panel, Portlaoise and Portarlington have the most.
Portlaoise have nine while Portarlington have eight – making up 17 players between them.
After that, Crettyard, Mountmellick, St Joseph’s, Ballylinan, Ballyroan-Abbey, Arles-Killeen, Annanough, O’Dempsey’s, Arles-Kilcruise, Emo, Courtwood and Stradbally all feature.
Laois are in Group 1 of the Leinster championship and after Dublin tonight, they will host Offaly next Wednesday.
The group concludes on April 13 with an away trip to Longford and where Laois finish determines what happens next.
If Laois finish bottom of the group, they will be out of the Leinster championship and play in the new All-Ireland Tier 3 competition which will include the sides who finish bottom of Groups 2 and 3 plus the sides who lose preliminary quarter finals.
If Laois finish third in their group, they will play the winners of Group 3 (Carlow, Wicklow and Wexford), in a preliminary quarter final.
If they lose that, they head for All-Ireland Tier 3 but if they win they will face a quarter final against the runners up of Group 2 (Kildare, Louth, Meath and Westmeath).
If they are beaten here, they will head for All-Ireland Tier 2 along with the other defeated quarter finalists and two defeated semi finalists.
If Laois finish second in the group, they advance to the quarter finals against the winner of preliminary quarter final involving the runner up from Group 3 and the third placed team from Group 2.
While if Laois win their group, they advance straight to the semi finals. If they win that, they will contest the Leinster final and play in the All-Ireland Tier 1 competition.
Before all of that, Laois will face Dublin tonight and you will be able to follow all of the action on our Live Blog.
LAOIS: Liam Conroy (Portlaoise); Conor Moran (Portarlington), Jack Murphy (Portarlington), Fionn O’Sullivan (Crettyard); David Whelan (Portlaoise), Ben O’Connor (Portlaoise), Aidan Byrne (Mountmellick); Robbie Murphy (St Joseph’s), Jack Julian (Ballylinan); Jack O’Dea (Ballyroan-Abbey), Ennae Byrne (Arles-Killeen), Darren Brennan (Portlaoise); Conor O’Callaghan (Portlaoise), Oran Darcy (Annanough), Ultan Dunne (O’Dempsey’s)
SUBS: Ed Slevin (Ballyroan-Abbey), Callum McElroy (Arles-Kilcruise), Finn Dawson (Portlaoise), Hugh Connolly (Portarlington), Josh Finn (Portlaoise), Kyle O’Reilly (Crettyard), Paddy Murray (Portarlington), Ruairi Burke (Emo), Sean Moran (Portarlington)
EXTENDED PANEL: Niall Hickey (Ballylinan), Sean Michael Ward (Portarlington), John Cooney (Portarlington), Mark O’Connor (Portlaoise), Dylan Quick (O’Dempsey’s), Eoin Mulhall (Arles-Kilcruise), Tadhg Slattery (Courtwood), Tom Corcoran (Portarlington), Sean Powders (Portlaoise), Sean Rowan (St Joseph’s), Joe Larkin (Stradbally), Bobby Rowan (St Joseph’s), Jack Doyle (Crettyard)
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