Laois manager Tommy Fitzgerald demands more despite 17-point win over Meath

Despite five wins in succession and securing a league final with a game to spare, Laois boss Tommy Fitzgerald still reckons his side have a lot of work to do in the coming weeks.

Sunday’s win over Meath guaranteed immediate promotion back to Division 1B, and though it was a healthy 17-point winning margin, Fitzgerald wasn’t overly enamoured by the performance.

After the game, Fitzgerald said he was, “Happy in the sense that our target at the start of the year was to get out of Division 2 and that’s achieved now, but we’re still not happy where we’re at performance-wise. You can only beat what’s in front of you, but six weeks out (from the championship), we’re going to have to be a lot better, and we know that. We had to get out of this division; we’ve done it. You can only beat what’s in front of you, but we’re not naïve to think that performance will win too many Joe Mc games.”

Laois led by four points at half-time, but with some improvement in shooting, they could have been out of sight, and that’s something that irked Fitzgerald in particular about the game.

“We had 17 shots from play in the first half and we only had seven points from play. There was a tricky wind, but at the same time, it’s not good enough at this level, 41% efficiency isn’t good enough. It’s a huge work on for this team; it was last year, too. We got the win, and we’re back in Division 1B, so I suppose it’s job done in that regard,” he remarked.

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Laois have no game this coming weekend before heading to Ruislip to take on London in what’s effectively a dead rubber, which may be no harm after both Aidan Corby and Tomas Keyes were forced off with injuries on Sunday.

“Both seemed quite sore coming off, but I haven’t spoken to the physio or doctor yet. Hopefully, it’s nothing too bad. Mark Dowling looked like he pulled something towards the end, but he stayed on. There’s a lot of competition there, but we just need to be better.

We’re six weeks out now, and we’re going to have to go through the gears in the next six weeks to be ready for Carlow (in the Joe McDonagh),” Fitzgerald said.

With promotion now in the bag, Fitzgerald is now fixed on the Joe McDonagh Cup, and the next six weeks will be all about preparing for the huge first game against Carlow.

“The first three games are going to be massive. We saw that when the draw was made. We know we have to be ready for April 18, so nothing has changed in that regard. We have the next six weeks mapped out, and there are two league games left in the meantime, but full focus now is on the Joe Mc,” the Laois manager said.

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While there is a league final to come at the end of the month, Laois still have to fulfil the fixture against London, and it seems that Fitzgerald will be going with an experimental side across the water.

“We’re going to give lads opportunities, simple as that. There are a lot of lads training hard in there every week putting their hand up, and we’ve used a lot of players in the league. Some lads haven’t got a chance yet, and we’ll have to give them that chance,” Fitzgerald concluded.