The excitement is palpable as Laois and their manager, Willie Maher, gear up for Saturday's final in Croke Park. Maher is immensely pleased with his team's journey thus far, particularly highlighting their stress-free progression to the final, with their first-round victory over Offaly proving instrumental.
Maher said, “We’re really excited about where we’re at now, the lads took control of our destiny ultimately here in the first match. It’s been really good since, the performances have been excellent and we’re delighted to be in the final, it’s brilliant.”
Saturday will be the first time that Maher leads Laois to Croke Park, but he was there as a manager before and led his native Tipperary to a minor All-Ireland.
“It’s a long time ago now, yeah I managed a minor team to win the All-Ireland in 2012, it’s the last time I was on the sideline in Croke Park,” he told us. "It’s amazing how time goes and how opportunities slip through your fingers in different teams you’re involved with so I’m delighted to be back and I’m really looking forward to making hay when we’re up there because that’s the only thing you can do in Croke Park."
“Everybody has worked to hard to get to this point and this is the enjoyable bit, summer evenings and the ball is starting to fly, lads are really coming up to it and we’re playing our biggest rivalries in Offaly so that’s brilliant.”
Many members of Maher’s panel have previously seen Joe McDonagh Cup success in 2019, but for others it will be their first time experiencing the big stage of Croke Park.
“Teams are so different in regards to ages and experience levels of the panel, so we have some guys that have experienced it with a positive note of winning the Joe McDonagh in 2019,” shared Maher.
“The younger fellas are just so excited, they’ve never played there or been in the dressing rooms so it’s a whole new experience for them, but it’s an experience every hurler deserves,” he added. “This is an All-Ireland final in our book and we’re playing it against Offaly who are on a high and our lads are itching to get at it.”
Maher says Laois’ success this year so far has been all down to control, and that started way back in the Walsh Cup in January.
“From the start of this year we said we were going to take control of our own destiny and that was very disappointing last year, the first round performance against Offaly where we were beaten by three and then we were caught by Carlow with a last second penalty so that took everything out of our hands.” He followed by saying, “The emphasis this year was to stay in control, we played Offaly here in the Walsh Cup, we wanted to stay in control and we did. We played them here in the championship and we were out of control for a lot of the time but we stuck in and came good in the end.”
Last year was tough for Maher and his players as they exited the Joe McDonagh Cup after the league portion and there’s a huge change in fortunes 12 months later as they now face into the final and Maher spoke on the difference a year makes.
“We’ve changed around the panel with a few new additions, we’ve had seven new starters which is a big change. The momentum of the Division 2A win has springboarded us into this year’s championship as opposed to last year when we had taken heavy defeats against Tipp, Kilkenny and Waterford in three weekends here. It was a really difficult time, I was only getting to know the players.
“We’ve been really focused after a really good league campaign and the first four matches in the Joe McDonagh were excellent, we had a blip last Saturday against Westmeath, but all the time knowing we were in the final. It’s been a good campaign to date, but we want great, we want to win the Joe McDonagh Cup and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Since that first round loss Offaly hurling has been on the crest of a wave as their seniors won all four Joe McDonagh Cup games afterwards and their U-20s raced into an All-Ireland final.
“They’re roaring back into contention as a top ranked hurling team,” stated Maher. Offaly are in a superb place, they had 15 or 20,000 people here for the Leinster final last week, they’re buzzing and the county is flying it. They have new stars in Screeney and Dan Bourke and it’s up to us to come up to that level, it’s not a case of trying to drag anyone down, if Offaly are streaking ahead we need to get back on top. With Offaly being in the media so much and being commented on for moving forward so much, it’s important for Laois to stay into that and to do something about it.”
After a relatively lucky season with injuries Maher has seen four of his big name forwards go down in recent weeks and it’s a race against time to get them back to fitness and to confirm what weapons he has at his disposal.
“We’re waiting on injuries now to make sure we have a full deck to pick from. Picky is still working his way back to fitness, we don’t know how that will be and Mark Dowling dislocated his elbow so there’s a good chance he’s out and Martin Phelan got a bad crack on the head last week. We have an idea of where we want to go and how we’re going to attack this game.”
Maher gave one final rallying cry to the public of Laois to do their best to get to Croke Park on Saturday and give the team all their support.
"I appeal to every man, woman and child in Laois to be there to support these fellas. They have worked incredibly hard over the last eight months to get into this position and we need support, with the huge number of Offaly fans that are going to matches at the moment. I’m sure they will and they’ll get behind us as this team represents a lot of the hard working, skillful, hard, honest teams that Laois have had in the past.
“If it comes down to the last few minutes we’ll need people to help our players to summon that piece of energy to do the right thing at the right time. The players are really hungry for work and are pushing themselves to get back to Liam McCarthy hurling and that’s the prize on the 8th.”
Laois and Offaly go to battle in the Joe McDonagh Cup final on Saturday, June 8 in Croke Park from 3.30pm.
