"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”.

Not fond of crowds? Then go watch Laois hurl

For those of you who enjoy plenty of elbow room in stadiums, so you can give charade styled advice to players, then following a Laois hurling team will be right up your alley.

Traditionally, we draw poor crowds on the hurling front, it’s a well-known fact.  We travel in especially small packs, but the O’Moore representation in Wexford Park was for this spectator even more distressing than the results from both senior and u21 matches in recent weeks.  

      

For one second, forget about the score line in Wexford Park. Forget about the unfavourable odds against the team going into the game. Forget about the trouncing the Model u-21s gave a minor All Ireland winning Kilkenny the week previous. Cast aside the fact that many still suffered from the Rebel hangover. 

Strip all contexts away from the event, brass tax. This was a Leinster semi-final, and nobody showed up to support the team. 

In a round robin competition where the favourites had been eliminated, we couldn’t muster up any more than 30 blue shirts. This panel were 70minutes away from getting to the county’s first u21 Leinster final in 21 years, yet nobody cared.

You can be sure had the u21 footballers of this county emerged from the Westmeath game victorious, their supporters would have made the trip down the Carlow road to Wexford, yet they had no partisan following either. Was the Thomastown road that leads the hurling side of Laois to the sunny south east to just winding?

   

How can we expect anything more of our inter-county teams with such blatant disregard for them? It must have been near impossible for the Laois players to conjure up any screed of confidence when moments like Brendan Reddin’s brilliant mazing run and point in the first half receive muted applause? Compare that to a Wexford player being greeted with rapturous cheers for a simple challenge and we already have a severe handicap before ever a ball is pucked. The Wexford support was incredible, certainly more than anything that will attend our ‘glorious’ club championship final.

The paltry following has nothing to do with ticket prices, or generic recession jargon. Laois’ hurling problems run far deeper than attendances I know, but by the time this goes to press those in the national media will have magnified our flaws times one hundred, with plans even for a Committee Room special report of the ‘state’ of Laois hurling. For lack of a Limerick issue this year I suppose.

 It’s a simple matter of interest, pride in one’s county and creating atmosphere for whatever 15 players line out in blue and white. Where was everybody?