'St Joseph's are fully entitled to their favourites tag on Sunday'- Portlaoise boss Kevin Fitzpatrick

Portlaoise manager Kevin Fitzpatrick has been in and around the GAA scene for almost 30 years and this Sunday, he’ll face off against St Joseph’s looking to win his first county medal as a manager having won countless medals as a player n the green and white of Portlaoise.

While Fitzpatrick says it’s great to be in the final, it’s all about getting over the next obstacle that stands in front of them, St Joseph’s on Sunday.

“I’m lucky that I’ve been here before and done it and gone through the scenario. We just have to park the last day and move on. That’s what I said to the lads straight after, that the game is done and dusted. We got over the line, that’s what semi-finals are all about. Then, you just have to focus on the next hurdle that comes in front of you and that’s the way we looked at it straight after the win.”

This will be the Portlaoise man’s second county final watching from the sidelines with Portarlington securing their second successive county championship against them in 2021.

“I think this will be my 21st final in 26 years and look, not every day is going to go according to plan and that was one day where we didn’t show up. They showed up and played to their highest potential. We know they’re an outstanding outfit when they do get going and we just didn’t perform. It was one of those days where everything went wrong for us and they played well. Unfortunately, it was a bad day and a bad result but it’s in the past now. We’re just focusing on Sunday and getting the right result.”

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The Town have introduced a lot of youngsters throughout the season with Fitzpatrick using the league as a platform for those young lads to get their hands on the ball.

“We’ve loads of lads that have been in county finals before and got over the line and have plenty of medals behind them. Then, we’ve a lot of youth, who’ve never experienced it before. They got a lot of experience playing football during the league and that was down to injuries as well to a certain degree so they got plenty of football throughout the year. They’re starting to peak at the right time and performing to the highest level. They’ve got us over the line in the last two games without the experience of Kieran Lillis, Paul Cahillane and Conor Boyle. The young lads have really driven on the squad this year.”

Every club picks up injuries and Portlaoise are no different but Fitzpatrick feels although it’s never nice to see someone get injured, it offers a chance for someone else to throw their hat in the ring and stake their claim.

“It just seems to be the one of those things this year that every week someone picks up a knock and they’re out for 10-14 days and missing a vitally important game. I’ve said to the lads from day one, that’s why we have a squad and that someone else steps in. Circumstances like that happen, it’s not nice for the guy who’s injured but it’s an opportunity for someone else.”

All good teams need a squad and that’s exactly what Portlaoise have with their bench full of experience and lads that know how to get the result. Fitzpatrick says that it’s all part of the game that he can call on the lads on the bench if and when they are needed.

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“It’s something that I’ve tried to instil in the squad, 15 players are lucky to start, those 15 players aren’t going to finish the game. It’s the same with the Rugby World Cup, every team knows come the 50th minute that they’ll be letting the bench on and that they’ve lads there to finish the game. Some lads will be there to start it, to put you in a winning position and then you'll have the lads coming on that will hopefully bring a good performance for the last 15/20 minutes when they’re given the opportunity.”

The Portlaoise manager is hoping that his side can continue The Town’s championship exploits with the Ladies Senior team having won the county title last weekend and the hurling team into a county final against Ballyfin.

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“I don’t feel the pressure myself, I can’t speak for every player because everyone is different in the way they take it. We try to keep calm coming up to the game, we’ll treat it as any normal game. Last weekend was a great one for our Ladies and our hurlers are hopefully on the right track to get back up to Senior, which would be massive for the club. Hopefully, we’ll be the third cog in that wheel to get over the line. It would be fantastic if the three of us could come out with titles at the end of the year.”

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Fitzpatrick goes on to discuss how he got into managing the side as well as praising all his selectors and backroom team for all they’ve done during his tenure to date.

“When I stepped into this role, it was during COVID and it’s not something I expected to happen. The first two years were really difficult because of various circumstances with training and stuff. Pat Critchley has been with us since then and he’s just an amazing man. I’ve never heard anyone have a bad word to say about him. He’d put you in good form when he’s talking to you because he always has a joke to say or a story to tell. His knowledge and the way he conducts himself with the lads is just on a different level. “

“For me, stepping into the role of being the manager of the Portlaoise Senior Football team and having him here with me has been amazing and I couldn’t thank him enough for it. The other guys that are involved, selectors wise, do everything for us, in terms of background work, stats and video work. It makes it a lot easier on me. Ronan Molloy, who we brought in last year as our training coach, has been fantastic. All the lads enjoy the training which is a massive thing, there’s a bit of craic at the start and then it’s down to business, he has them working really hard when it comes down to it.”

It’s not often that a club like Portlaoise go into any game as underdogs and especially not a county final but Fitzpatrick feels it’s justified that St Joseph’s go into Sunday’s game as favourites.

“Two years ago, it was probably the first final I went into that we weren’t favourites with this being the second one. That’s the way the tables have turned and teams have come up a level, that’s what you want in Laois football to drive Laois football to a different level inter-county wise. We know they are the favourites going into it because they’ve beaten us already and they’ve beaten the three-in-a-row county champions. St Joseph's are fully entitled to their favourites tag on Sunday.”

Sunday will be the second time in the championship that the sides have met with them clashing in the second game of the championship on a Thursday night. St Joseph’s came out of that game with a victory and Fitzpatrick feels that it opened Portlaoise’s eyes as to where they needed to be for the remainder of the championship.

“We knew it was going to be a tough game. They beat us in the league and then we drew in the second part of the league, in a game where they came back at us and fought on their backs to earn the draw. We were a point ahead close to the end and they came back to pull out the win. In fairness to them, on the day looking back on it, they totally deserved the win. It gave us a bit of a kick because we knew the next round was going to be do-or-die and that we’d either be in the championship or we’d be out of it. We have improved game-on-game but we have to improve on Sunday because they’ve done the same. They’ve got better each and every game they’ve played over the course of the championship as well.”

Graiguecullen were Portlaoise’s semi-final opponents with The Town putting in a strong performance to get the win. However, Graiguecullen got goals at crucial points in the contest and with a minute to play, a goal would have taken it to extra-time even though Portlaoise had bossed the game. The manager knows that they’ll have to work on not giving St Joseph’s the same goal opportunities that they gave away in the last game.

“We’ve prided ourselves on not conceding goals, last year we didn’t concede a goal in the championship and until the Graigue game, we hadn’t done so in this championship either. Look, maybe it’s a wake up call that the lads need to tighten up at the back and that we don’t give away those scores again. Graigue have some very good forwards to be fair to them and we knew that they’d go for goals if they got the opportunities. We created a lot of good scoring opportunities ourselves, I think it was an open game for a semi-final and it was a good game of football. The goal chances they got, they were able to put them away and it’s just something we have to work on now to ensure it doesn’t happen again the next day.”