Final drubbling not a true reflection on Clough Ballacolla as Laffan hails charges

Clough Ballacolla manager Declan Laffan isn't one for talking waffle. He is always straight to the point and honest and when he spoke to the media after the Leinster final loss to Ballyhale on Sunday, he was as honest as they come.

“What can you say about them. Ballyhale are a serious, serious outfit. We started well and we had it back to a point at 22-23 minutes then they hit us for two goals in a minute and the momentum all went their way.

“I think after that the harder we tried the less came off for us. You have to take your hats off to them, they are an exceptional outfit. We probably set out to stay in the game, try get to the second water break was our target and see where it took us.

“We felt if we could get there a couple of points either way we might have some chance but look they are an exceptional outfit and they punished us big time before the break. We had no way of coming back after that. I don’t think we deserved to lose the way we lost. We’re not that poor a team, things just didn’t go for us after that.”

“We didn’t look like getting a goal. We set up with a third midfielder to try and limit the possession going inside and turn it into a battle zone. But we didn’t really look like make a goal chance inside but once they hit us with the goals we had to open up and change our system a little bit and they exposed us. There’s no point in saying otherwise.

“You go through their forwards and one of them is scarier than the other. We felt we marshalled them pretty well for 20 minutes but unfortunately that’s what class does, it comes to the fore eventually.”

End of the road for Clough Ballacolla as Ballyhale cruise to Leinster success

LEINSTER CLUB SENIOR HURLING CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL

Looking back on the year, the Loughmore-Castlehiney man is extremely proud of what the club has achieved. Two Laois senior hurling titles, a first win in Leinster, another win over Kilmacud Crokes and a Leinster final appearance in Croke Park.

“But what a great year it has been. It’s been fantastic. To win two county finals in the space of 12 weeks was fantastic. I’m only down there since the start of 2020. I think we had three training sessions done and we got shut down until some time in June and then we kicked on from there and we got shut down before the county final last October.

“Anything has been asked of them guys, they are as committed and as honest a bunch of guys as you’d get anywhere and I really feel for them today because I don’t think they deserve that.

"It’s been a huge journey for a Laois team to go on, people like to go for the underdog and we actually have been the underdog most of the year. We like to prove them wrong but we ran out of gas today.”