"We'll be depending on the crowd to be the 16th player" says Laois Ladies footballer Healy

Park-Ratheniska and Laois ladies footballer Anna Healy was at the launch of the All-Ireland Intermediate Championship in Croke Park as David Gibson's side prepare to host Clare in O'Moore Park tomorrow.

The Laois Ladies are back in action tomorrow after a seven-week break, David Gibson's side hosting Clare in the opening group game of the All-Ireland Intermediate Championship.

Laois have been placed in Group 3 alongside Wexford and Clare. Last weekend, Wexford and Clare went head-to-head in the first group game with Wexford coming out on top on a final score of 3-10 to 0-16. The top two teams from the group advance to the quarter-finals.

Speaking to Will O'Callaghan of Midlands 103 at the launch, Healy said: "We do want to go further than we did last year, and we've kinda had a tough year so far in the sense that we came up against a very strong Meath team in the first round of the Leinster championship. We would be looking to go one step further.

"Last year we were at the quarter-final stage, but I mean this time last year Meath were at the same position as us, and they ended up in the All-Ireland final. We'll definitely be taking motivation from that."

The Intermediate championship is highly competitive this year, so Anna Healy knows how tough it will be for Laois in every game.

"The Intermediate is a very competitive championship. Tipperary have been so competitive in Division 1 this year. They were absolutely in there with the best of them, so it is a very hot group. Meath are very good, Wexford are very good, and that's kind of only really looking at the two Leinster teams as well that were in the final.

"I think it will be a very hot championship, very hard to call."

Laois ladies football has gone through a transitional period in recent years, but Healy believes that the future can be bright for Laois.

"Last year we lost a few more, the likes of Mags McEvoy, Clare Conlon, Maggie Murphy. They've been great servants to Laois ladies football over the years. Some of them were on that team that won the All-Ireland in 2001. 

"You can't blame them, they went out on a high last year. This year we are in a kind of rebuilding phase, but we've got a couple of minors after coming in like Rebecca Balfe, Julia Cahill, and they're fitting right in at training like they've been in it all along.

"Look, it's all going well, but it is a rebuilding phase."

Scoil Chriost Rí are producing more and more talent year on year, and Healy, a former student herself, knows the work being put in at the secondary school.

"I mean that was a phenomenal achievement this year by the Scoil Chriost Rí girls to win that Senior 'A'. It has been a long time coming, and it's a credit to the work that's put in over the years in Scoil Chriost Rí. That is ten years work that has finally come out and came to the fore when they won the All-Ireland"

Laois have some tricky fixtures coming up, but reaching a final is not beyond them.

"We thought that Meath would be our toughest opponent and that battle between us and Meath was going to be a big one. On the day it didn't really go our way, but definitely the plan is to have a good summer.

"We look at our group here, we have Clare and Wexford. They're both two of our most competitive games in the league. They were very small margins that we lost by, like three points with Clare, one point with Wexford. If a few other things had have gone our way, it could've been the other way around.

"We'll definitely be targeting these two games, and I think if we win this group we'll avoid Tipp who, at the minute, are marked as favourites for the All-Ireland. That would be a motivation for us."

It's Clare up next for Laois in O'Moore Park, Portlaioise, tomorrow and Healy hopes to see plenty of blue and white in the stand.

"We're just really hoping that the county will get behind us and support us in this game, but definitely having Clare at home first would be a good start.

"I think the fact that the game is at home should be a huge incentive to everyone. It's bound to be a very close game between us and Clare. 

"It's definitely true that the attendances at these game have gone up massively, but we'll be depending on the home crowd now to come out and get behind us and be the sixteenth player that day."

The profile of the teams who reach the last four of this competition goes up, as TG4 are showing the games live from that stage.

"It's just testament to the work that's gone in to increase the profile of ladies football over the last few years. This year is just another step forward again.

Along with Clare, fellow Leinster side Wexford will be no push overs either.

"It's tough every time we come up against Wexford. The last few times we've played them there's only been a point in it. 

We played them in Timahoe this year in the league and the last ten minutes was an absolute dogfight as to who would come on top. Last year we played them in the Leinster semi-final. We were five points down at half-time and just managed to come back and beat them by a point."

Laois have gone through the rebuilding phase with several different managers, but Healy thinks current manager David Gibson is the right man for the job.

"We had three years there with Kevin Doogue, and the last year he really came good with us. It was tough for him when he came in. There was already that transition of a younger and an older player group, but he definitely did manage to build it up.

This year now we're just hoping to build on that again. David (Gibson) is in, and we have Stephen Duff, Enda Hooban, Ted McCormack, like we've a great crew behind us. We're just really hoping that we'll all push on and do well."

Laois endured a tough time in Division 2 of the league, suffering relegation, but they weren't far off coming out the other side of the result in a lot of their games.

"We were competitive in a lot of the games. We were unlucky that we lost them. Unfortunately we did go down to Division 3, but I wouldn't say we were absolutely blown away by the Division 2 teams.

"Like I mentioned, the Wexford, the Clare game. There was nothing really between us and Waterford on the day either. Kerry, that could've gone either way. We were just unfortunate kinda the way a few of the results went for us, but we took a lot from the league in the sense that we are rebuilding a new team.

"Some of the young girls have never even played for Laois underage and now are in playing at an adult level. We did use it as an opportunity to rebuild the team. We're just hoping now it will all come good."

The local championship in Laois has helped bridge the gap between league and championship at inter-county level.

"We had a massive lay off. We played on the first weekend of June. Now we're out again because we have a bye in the first round until the 21st of July. We had a couple of club weeks in there which I think were really good because after a loss like that it is kind of hard to get the morale back up.

But everyone went away to their clubs, trained for the week and then came back for a new fresh attitude. That really helped us now that we're going well in training and have that morale back up."

Throw-in for Laois and Clare is 2pm tomorrow (Sunday 21 July) in O'Moore Park, Portlaoise.