'Everybody's putting their shoulder to the wheel'- Laois Camogie managers ahead of league opener

This weekend will see a new era in Laois Camogie begin as Camross' Pat Collier and Kilcotton's Robert Jones take charge of their first game since being appointed joint-managers of the Laois Camogie team.

Laois will play their trade in Division 3A of the Very Camogie Leagues where they'll be joined by Armagh, Roscommon and Saturday's opponents Kildare. They'll then compete in the Leinster Intermediate Championship before facing into the Premier Junior All-Ireland Championship.

Joint-managers Pat Collier and Robert Jones spoke to the Leinster Express/ Laois Live to give their thoughts on the season ahead and how the preparations have been going ahead of the season.

"Ah sure, look, everything's good. I mean we were late starting and just the way things worked out. We were just late starting with the county board from last year's management and they came to me around December 22  to know if I'd be interested in doing it or putting a team together. I just told them I'd need two or three weeks to think about it and talk to a few people.

"I went to Robert obviously because he was with me before with the Minors. And then Declan Conroy, I would know him well from hurling myself and we would have played against each other a lot and Bernadette Fitzpatrick. I was lucky to get good people, they're all interested and they know the players," Pat said.

Laois Camogie have had a rough patch over the last two years with them having been relegated in 2022 only to be told that they were staying at the same grade. Collier and Jones say that their main aim at the start was to ensure that they could get a solid panel of players to play for Laois.

No fair play as Laois Camogie team placed at Intermediate grade despite relegation to Junior last year

"Well look we had to go talk to them all, when I got the management together it was my first priority. And then I just said to them, look, we're going to have to go meet these girls and talk to them individually. So we put in three weeks there, the management team, going around to these girls to try and get them on board. But look, they've all handled it very well, 95% of them. And they're putting in a great effort there now even though we've only had maybe nine, I think it's nine or ten sessions done," Pat said.

"Myself, Pat, Declan and Ber sat down before Christmas there and decided to get a list of players together. It took us a few weeks to ring around and try and get them all on board. We had 40 girls at the first meeting. Brian Cody was at the meeting giving them a talk so he kind of inspired them as well to be fair. So ever since then, the mood in the camp has been good.

"As far as I know, the players that were going in probably weren't the players that should have been going in. I don't know what reason there was for girls not going in. That's in the past now, I don't really want to dwell too much on the past. It's the future we want to worry about and we'll just take it match by match," Robert said.

Speaking about Saturday's game against Kildare both men know that it'll be a tough game with Kildare's Minor team showing the strength of Camogie in the county after they defeated Laois last weekend.

"I know that Kildare team fairly well, they're strong and I believe they should have a good few of the St. Lawrence's girls back. They're after playing three practice matches and they're an intermediate team. So it's going to be a tough ask on Saturday and we'll also be down a good few players," Collier said.

"Well, if you look at the likes of Kildare, they're intermediate in the All-Ireland Series so the game will be fairly competitive. As I said, we only started training in late January so this will be our first match. We'll know where we're at after the first game," Jones said.

Collier says that his main aim overall is to build a structure that works going forward which allows Laois Camogie to prosper both on and off the pitch.

"The big thing with me is the structure, we need to get a structure in place for Laois going forward. That's my plan when I go away that there’s a proper structure in place for training these ladies because there's a right good team there. They're well fit to compete with anyone. It's just to get them to believe that. I believe it and so does the rest of my management team and that's the way we're going to be," Pat said.

The Camross man knows that the league can be used as a platform to build momentum for the year ahead but the results aren't important due to them not having much time training so far.

"We’ll probably only use the league as a building block to be honest for the Championship because we're too far behind everyone else like everyone else starts in December, we didn't start until January 28. We haven't won a match for two years, or I think it's over two years. We have roughly 40 players and we're giving every girl a match in the league. So for the league, we're going to use it as practice matches. And if we win, great, and if we lose, it's not an issue. But from the first round of the Leinster Intermediate Championship, we'll be all guns blazing. I expect to be very competitive in that Leinster Championship, I'd be hoping we can get to a final at least and maybe win a final but the Junior All-Ireland Series, that's our big target," Collier said.

Jones isn't looking too much into the future and he feels that it's all about taking one game at a time.

"I'm not going to focus too much on the end result and I’m only focusing on our first match against Kildare, that's all I'll say on that one. It’s all about trying to get a good performance on our first day out and we'll take it from there," Robert said.

Over the last number of years, the Laois Camogie team have been a very young group but Collier wants to make sure that the supply line continues for the girls wanting to step up to the mark and play for their county.

"We have a very young team, the senior team, or whatever they are. We need to build something so that the girls will want to come in and play for the county, sure it's a huge honour. That's what we're drilling home and everybody's doing their best. Look it, we'll make mistakes too but I'd be hoping that we'll put on a good show when the time comes.

"So look it everybody's putting their shoulder to the wheel now. I'm expecting us to be competitive come championship, to be honest. I'd be disappointed if we're not. Hopefully, there’ll be some positives to write about with the help of God," Pat ended.

Laois take on Kildare on Saturday February 24 in Hawkfield  from 2pm in the opening game of Division 3A.