'They died with their shirts on'- Laois Ladies manager Stephen Duff

There was disappointment for Laois in Croke Park on Sunday as their hopes of landing the TG4 All-Ireland Intermediate title came to an end at the hands of Tyrone, who finished six points clear by the final whistle.

Stephen Duff’s side had battled bravely throughout but found themselves on the wrong side of the result after a late Tyrone surge. Reflecting on the contest afterwards, Duff admitted that despite staying in touch for large spells, Laois never truly hit their stride.

“We were more relieved. We could have been an awful lot further behind. We didn't perform well in the game and it was just frustrating. We knew the power that they had up front. Whether the occasion got to some of us or whether it was just a bad day at the office, it just wasn't a great performance. We felt we were coming out in the second half with a point to prove. We kept in that game during the third quarter, there was no more than a score in it and then until the end, when they got the extra score and they pulled away. Definitely relieved at that stage, probably the overwhelming emotion, but felt we should have been further in that game and disappointed really with how we performed,” he said.

The match turned decisively in Tyrone’s favour after Ciara Crowley was sin-binned late on, giving their opponents a numerical advantage. They made it count, finding the net for a second time to finally put daylight between the sides.

“We probably needed another goal. There were goals there for us, I think, but we played shockingly narrow. The message at half-time was that we had to try and get a bit more lateral running from our inside forwards and get the ball out in front of them into space. We felt Tyrone were defending narrow, similar to ourselves, but we kind of played into that, kicking the ball straight at our forwards rather than putting it on the sideline side. We tried even putting Fiona to centre-forward to see if that would pull players back towards their goal because they were pressing us very high and our backs probably were a little bit hesitant on the ball at times. We probably could have done with a goal and we were fighting for a goal. Usually, Lauren Kearney coming into a game gives you that spark with 20 minutes to go, and she did and then Katie Donoghue as well,” Duff explained.

The Laois boss also revealed that key forward Mo Nerney picked up a hamstring injury early in the match, but still contributed five points, all in the second half, in a valiant effort.

“Mo pulled her hamstring in the first 10 minutes. She was struggling the whole way through that game. We got a call that she pulled her hamstring; she felt it pop and it was gone. It was about managing Mo and trying to get her through the game as best we could because we felt there was a chance in Mo and I think she proved that with the points she scored. We're savagely proud of everyone," he noted.

Having impressed with their control in the semi-final win over Monaghan, Duff felt his team weren’t as tidy in possession this time around.

“It was a tricky situation coming into the game because we only had nine turnovers against Monaghan. Our usual conversation would be that that’s probably maybe too few. We could probably afford to take a few more chances. 16, 8 in each half has kind of been our target. We don't want to be an ultra-safe team or an ultra-conservative one, but we knew with Tyrone's ability on the transition that we couldn't give him cheap ball and we did give him cheap ball in that first half. That was the disappointing part of it. There were individual errors at times that cost us, but that happens in high-level sport. Tyrone didn't have their day last year; we were having one of them days today. We take it on the chin and you can't win every day,” he remarked.

Sorcha Gormley played a starring role for Tyrone and was named Player of the Match. Duff said it was no surprise given her impact.

“Sorcha Gormley is some footballer; her future is phenomenal. She's going to be one of the best players we've seen in a long time. She's a little terrier and I mean that in the best way possible. She's so hard to stop. We had to put Ciara Crowley back on her to try and free up Anna Moore, who may be able to double up on her, Clodagh at times as well. It was so hard for any of them. Crowley ended up getting a yellow card for it and you can't hold it against her because Gormley's put her under so much pressure,” he commented.

Despite the loss, Duff took encouragement from the commitment shown by his players, particularly in the forward line.

“I think our forwards caused them problems at times. Eva Galvin's running, we got her out wide in the second quarter of the game to try and free up the middle of the pitch and try to get her running. Her running ability is phenomenal. They all died with their shirts on. The hardest part was going down to that corner and meeting the Laois people; you feel like you nearly let them down. But anyway, it's high-level sport and we just have to try and focus on what's next and that's keeping this group happy for the rest of the day and making sure they're together as a group and looked after. Hopefully, the Laois people can put their arms around them tonight,” Duff added.

From the outset of the year, Duff had targeted an All-Ireland final. And while falling just short, he hopes they can emulate Tyrone by going one better next season.

“I said it at the start of the year that we should be in a final. I said to the county board when I started, semi-final minimum. Anything beyond that is a bonus. When you get to a final, you want to win it and I think we could have won it. Tyrone were the best team in the competition, there's no two ways about it. They are the best team in the competition. We were the second-best team in the competition. I'm sure when I say that, Cavan and Westmeath will be on my case and Monaghan too. I'm confident we were second second-best team in the competition. I was confident we could pull off a shock today. I think it was probably a one-score game. I think just the way the game opened up in the last five or ten minutes, they pulled away from us. There's so much to build on in Laois. It's just a hard day for us, but overall, bigger picture, we're going in the right direction again. They say you have to lose a final to win a final and if that's the lesson you need to learn, so be it. Louth also did it in the game before us. So look, that's sport. I've been lucky enough to win an awful lot of finals in the last couple of years, so I have to take it on the chin when you lose one too,” he reflected.

Duff also spoke about the difficulties of relaying tactical instructions in a venue the size of Croke Park, particularly when it came to dealing with Tyrone’s pressing on Laois kick-outs.

“It's probably the difference of playing in Croke Park. It's so hard to get a change of message on mid-game. We were trying to get a message onto Eimear because there were pockets of space on the Cusack stand side of the field, a bit longer. We were trying to get Fiona and Jane into that pocket and kind of overload it, and it's just hard to get that message on. She kept coming over to Niamh O’Neill’s side. But look, Eimear’s been super for us all year, and we wouldn't have been in the game without her in that first-half. They did have their homework done on us. We thought we had our homework done on their kick-out, which was Coyle going long. She didn't go long as often and we probably were happy enough with that. When we did push up on her, she started to go extremely long, and they got scores because she has a really long kick-out. It is what it is. They had their homework done on us, and we had our homework done on them at times too, but the way it played out, they were ahead of us,” he concluded.

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