Abbeyleix St Lazarian's manager PJ Peacock primed for county final battle with Camross

Abbeyleix St Lazarian’s manager PJ Peacock will take his team into this Sunday’s county final against Camross gunning for glory as they look to win back-to-back championships having won the Premier Intermediate title in 2022. It’s Abbeyleix’s first time to play in a Senior final since 1949 and Peacock feels that the achievement in itself is one to be proud of.

“It was 74 years of emotion built up, it was fabulous for the club. There have been so many good Abbeyleix players over the last 74 years who never got to hurl in a senior county final. I expected that group of players to be competing in a county final in a few years time. Five or six of the panel played in the Junior final last year as well as a Division 2 league final. We lost a few lads to Australia and America as well as the lads who stopped hurling. We had to fast track those lads onto the senior panel and they’ve competed all year. To even be in the county final is a phenomenal achievement by the group.”

In terms of their semi-final win over Rathdowney-Errill, they held a nine-point lead before Rathdowney-Errill brought it to extra-time with a goal before Abbeyleix finally got over the line.

“I thought the game was actually gone when Rathdowney-Errill got the late goal as you can imagine. When we went back inside before extra-time, the lads were bouncing in the dressing room. I gave them two or three minutes to themselves and they were ready to go again. That to me would have been a typical Abbeyleix performance, to lead by nine points to get caught with the last puck of the game and get beaten in extra-time. It was my job to drill it into them that they’re not a typical Abbeyleix team. These lads are special, these lads are different and to a man, they stood up and they went at it. The first-half of extra-time won us that game. From the word go, they were on it for the first score then they got the second score and that set the foundations for an excellent second-half of extra-time too.”

A quarter-final would have been seen as a success in PJ’s eyes and the thought of relegation had to be dismissed immediately.

“The relegation side of things had to be cut out of their heads straight away, we were going for a quarter-final, which would have been beneficial to me. That would have been a goal, the following year a semi-final and as I said already, to be competing in a county final in the next three years. We’ve a very young group, at least seven or eight of them were waiting for their Leaving Cert results in August, now they’re playing in a senior county final.”

This will be the fourth time that Camross and Abbeyleix have met this year with extra-time needed to separate them in the league semi-final and Peacock feels it was the game which showed him that this side are ready to compete at the top-level.

“Our best hurling performance of the year was in that league semi-final against Camross. We went in ahead by five points at the break and Camross came back at us as you’d expect with them. We had to get a point to level it up to bring it to extra-time and then one or two refereeing decisions went against us. I think that was the game that showed the lads that they can compete at the top table in Laois hurling. After that, we were looking at a top four in the championship after we had gotten it in the league.”

There’s a great sense of occasion for the club as the Minor final also involves Abbeyleix, who’ll face The Harps as the curtain-raiser. Peacock says that the players can’t get too caught up in the occasion.

“The Minor final can work both ways, it can be a side-track as well for players. We have to be focused on the job we have, we’ll all go in together and watch the first-half but then the focus has to be back to ourselves. The result of the minor final can’t affect what mentality we have going into a senior final. Of course, we’re hoping that the Minors win but we can’t let that mindset get in on a Senior team. We’ve to go out and do our job.”

“The town is buzzing here with it being the first time both sides have been in a county final. I’m sure Camross have done it on many occasions as well as Portlaoise but nothing like this has ever happened in Abbeyleix. A massive job has been done by Lorcan Mahony, Robbie Quinn, Anthony Coffey, Stephen Reilly and even Enda Rowland bringing through that group of players that I have now. There’s been huge work going inside the club and now the rewards are there for them, they’ll have a right crack at the U-20 championship too. The club is definitely in a good place.”

Camross are the most successful club in Laois club hurling and Peacock knows that any county final win would be sweet but for it to be against Camross would make it even sweeter. Camross are aiming to win their first county championship since 2018.

“I’ve said to this group that if you want to win a county final, you want to be beating Camross. They’re the team that everyone wants to beat in a county final. When you mention Laois hurling outside of Laois, Camross is the first team mentioned. For us, to be able to beat Camross in a county final, that’s the ones we want and that’s the one we’ll be gunning for. They deserve to be hot favourites, they’ve won a Leinster League and a Division 1 this year. They’ve also turned us over three times this year, let’s see, can they do it a fourth time?”