This year, Laois' All Ireland campaign ended rather early after a 2-18 to 0-14 loss to Clare in Round 2 of the All Ireland qualifiers.
As the county sifted through the end of a difficult 2017, which had also seen relegation to Division 4 of the National Football League, what followed was a county board meeting in mid-July which saw then manager Peter Creedon come under vociferous criticism from some delegates.
Some of the criticism was aimed at the players that night, with one delegated quoted as saying by The Leinster Express: "I'd just like to make the point, and I'll ask the question here; is it the manager's fault that at least four of our senior football players congregate for drinking sessions? Everyone in the street is talking about that, is that the senior manager's fault? Or is it the players fault? Four of our starting team were involved in that."
Laois footballer Ross Munnelly was in studio with Off The Ball today and he touched on what occurred.
"As a player, I'm disappointed that some details of the county board meeting were aired so publicly because it was incredibly unfair to Peter Creedon and he is a very honest man that came to our county to do the best job that he could and because the details of that meeting got out and were aired, it made it very hard for him to stay in the job and that's what he said in his statement," he said.
"And I think of all the things that have been said in the last week, nobody has actually come out and thanked Peter and his backroom team for putting so much effort and time into trying to repair Laois and progress us as a team.
"I want to go on air just to say thanks to Peter and his backroom team for everything that they've done because Peter's a principal and he's working huge hours as are his backroom team and I don't believe anyone deserves to have their name taken in a meeting like that."
And from a player's, Munnelly admitted "we didn't do enough" and added that he hasn't made a decision about his own inter-county future.
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