Laois's charismatic outgoing manager, Mr. Seamus 'Cheddar' Plunkett has taken the trouble to address the Laois players in his farewell letter to the county board.
After years of general progression under Plunkett's guidance, Laois regressed this year, having lost a few important players at the start of the season.
They lost every match in Division 1B and had to beat Westmeath in a relegation playoff to avoid slipping into Division 2. Their championship form dipped alarmingly this year. They were well beaten by Offaly and shipped a horrifying beating against Clare in Ennis.
Cheddar felt he had come to the end of the road.
Tonight, Plunkett wrote a stirring letter to the county board, in which he addressed the Laois senior team. He is adamant they have a bright future.
You are an exceptional group of players and, notwithstanding that CLG Laois has much immediate work to do at development level, I predict a bright future for the present Laois senior hurling team.
I believe that the incoming management has a very dedicated and skilful young panel to work with, who will be coming into their peak performance years, and the job now comes with attractions.
I would like to wish the new manager and his management team the very best.
I also realise there is some ongoing conversation about the matter but I would prefer that we all move on and instead quickly get on with the work to put in place a new senior management team to lead the team forward in 2017.
How will Cheddar's reign be regarded? Laois achieved a prominence they hadn't enjoyed since the 1980s. In the two years before his arrival, they suffered defeats against Antrim (a team they outstripped in Cheddar's time) and went down very heavily against the likes of Dublin and Limerick.
In both 2013 and 2014, they lost very narrowly to Galway. The culmination of their positive run was the seminal victory over Offaly in the 2015 Leinster championship.
