"The standard of hurlers we have, aren't inter-county hurlers"

In the wake of a truly dark week for Laois hurling, with commitment issues being dragged through conversations at every opportunity, Laois u-21 manager P.J Peacock defended his own panel’s desire to play hurling for their county, while still venting some frustrations after their 23 point defeat to Wexford. 

 “I was delighted with the performance in the second half, they could have thrown in the towel altogether, but they didn’t.  It shows though had they put anything at all into the first half, they would have been there, thereabouts” said Peacock. “The attitude of every single one of those lads is fantastic”. 

Despite his obvious good working relationship with the panel, after four months of preparation for just this one match, it’s easy to sense he seen such a score line occurring, after having a meeting with the county board over the low standard of players at his disposal. 

“The standard of hurlers that we have, aren’t inter-county hurlers. There are players here, that can’t make their own starting club teams. I knew that, I had a meeting with the county board about it, and I expressed my feelings on it. Realistically, their priority should be to try and make their club team, and then come into an inter-county dressing room. But, their attitude is fantastic, all they want to do is put on a Laois jersey”, said the former inter-county hurler.  

“They’re not that strong a bunch of hurlers, we were trying to get the best out of them. I mean I’ve heard lads talking ‘why isn’t such a lad in? Or why isn’t some other lad playing?’ I’ve rang everyone personally. We went to Camross, we went to the Harps and people didn’t come in, maybe for their own reasons. We went to Rathdowney, one or two didn’t want to come in. We just have to get on with what we have” stressed the Abbeyleix man. 

Despite his concerns over their standards, Peacock believes that this group of hurlers are far better than recent score lines have suggested. “You look at Neil Foyle, James Corrigan, and Brendan Reddin, they’re as good as you’ll find. Eoin Reilly in the goal is as good a keeper as anyone in the country, there is good hurlers out there”, insisted Peacock. 

Moving on from his own positive outlook after the game, Peacock believes the current situation in Laois to be very worrying. “What’s happening now, I really don’t know what’s gone wrong. I was involved with Niall (Rigney) last year and I thought there was a fantastic set up. And I thought when we stepped out, Brendan Fennelly stepped in, a Kilkenny man, for things to move on another level but. But it just hasn’t… there is no quick fix solution”.