LAOIS FOOTBALL IN CRISIS
Without a win in 2015, Ó Flatharta’s team is staring at a crisis
THIS WEEKEND a year ago, Tomás Ó Flatharta welcomed many of the Galway players he once managed to O’Moore Park. Ó Flatharta’s Laois team overwhelmed the Tribesmen with powerful running and some impressive score-taking, eventually winning by 15 points.
At that point, everything looked rosy in the midlands garden. After three years of ultra-defensive, Ulster-influenced football under Justin McNulty, Laois appeared to be playing with more freedom. Their game was no longer strangulated in a tactical strait-jacket. There was even the hint of optimism in the Portlaoise air.
Twelve months on, Ó Flatharta will again reacquaint himself with some of his former players, but the outlook is gloomier. Rather than Galway, this time it is Laois that are the team in crisis. They have yet to win a game in 2015 – three straight defeats in the O’Byrne Cup were followed by disappointing displays against Westmeath and Cavan in their opening League games with the team fading badly in the final 15 minutes of both matches.
Kevin Meaney, who scored a goal against Galway last March, became the latest player to opt off the county panel last month. He joined Peter O’Leary, so impressive at wing-back in the same fixture a year ago, and a raft of others who many feel would help stop the rot.
‘There are probably half a dozen players not there who would make a difference to the team,’ says former Laois forward Mick Lawlor.
‘But you can’t force lads to play county football. Nobody knows anyone’s personal circumstances. The commitment is so huge these days, it takes over your whole life.’
In Laois, though, the problem seems more pronounced than in other midtier counties. ties. Portlaoise have dominated the he local landscape to a worrying degree over the past decade. They have won the last eight county titles – some at a canter. And yet, only two of their players start in Tuam today – Conor Boyle and Graham Brody, who is sub goalkeeper per for his club.
Paul Cullinane was the club’s most impressive player in the Laois SFC last year (he won the Laois GAA senior footballer of the year award) but the former Celtic FC trainee is not playing inter-county, preferring instead to devote his energies to playing soccer with local side Portlaoise AFC.
His clubmate Craig Rogers has also opted out of the county scene. But it’s not just the Portlaoise contingent. Talented forward MJ Tierney is unavailable while former Aussie Rules recruit Conor Meredith won a Sigerson Cup medal with DCU last week, but withdrew from the county panel at the start of the year because of his academic commitments.
Lawlor, who worked with Laois under-21s last year, has an interesting perspective on why players may be lukewarm about giving full commitment to the county.
‘A lot of Laois lads are up in college in Dublin or working in Dublin, a few are playing with Dublin clubs. So they are playing with the Dublin guys and they might see, first-hand, how far ahead Dublin are of everyone else in Leinster Lawlor surmises.
‘It can have a de demoralising effect. Dublin are light years ahead and when you see that up close, it might make you question why you are doing it, at all.’
Between 2003 an and 2007, Laois contes tested four of the five Leinster SFC finals finals, but haven’t been back ther there since coming within two scoressc of Dublin in 2007. More worryingly for the county, they haven’t reached a Leinster minor final since 2007 – having reached eight of the previous 10.
The manner in which their underage production line has dried up is the area of gravest concern.
For over a decade, the county’s under-age football development model was the envy of every similarsized county – and many larger ones.
Between 2003 and 2008, they won an All-Ireland minor title, three Leinster minor titles and two Leinster under-21 titles. The work done within the county fed into the schools with both Knockbeg and Coláiste Íosagáin winning All-Ireland titles.
HOWEVER, last year was the first time that their minors made the Leinster semi-final in seven years (and were well beaten by Kildare at that stage). While their under-21s had a good win over Wexford during last week, a much bigger challenge lies ahead when they face Dublin this coming Wednesday.
Seán Dempsey is often called the ‘Brian Kerr’ of Laois football for the way he constructed the underage programme. Dempsey was rewarded for his hard work by getting the senior job in 2009, but that didn’t end well and now the conveyor belt he engineered seems to have come to a halt.
That Laois is one of the few genuine dual counties creates its own problems also. Given the size of the county, it will be hard for both codes to be competitive at the same time and Cheddar Plunkett has re-energised the entire hurling scene in Laois – Cahir Healy (pictured below) is a talented dual player who opted for hurling. At underage level in hurling, Laois are beginning to punch above their weight, in the same way that the footballers did.
After two decades of being in the top half of the National League, however, Laois are staring relegation in the face. Dropping down to Division 3 will be bad enough but Mick Lawlor is more concerned about the consequences for the summer ahead. He believes that form simply can’t be switched on by teams like the O’Moore county footballers.
‘Being relegated will have a serious effect on the morale of the team,’ Lawlor says. ‘For counties like Laois, League form tends to continue into the summer. Bigger teams, the likes of Kerry and Dublin, can bring players back for the Championship, but with smaller counties, the way you start the year tends to be the way you finish it.
‘What Laois need at this point is a win. Just a win, it doesn’t matter how it happens. Even if it is only by 0-5 to 0-4, that will do.
‘Nobody will be complaining about the football if we get a win at this point,’ Lawlor insists.
Twelve months on from watching his team overwhelm his former players with an impressive running style, Tomás Ó Flatharta needs them to dig deep within themselves to quell the growing sense of crisis in the midlands.