Castletown's Shane Phelan prepares his side for championship opener against Portlaoise

Castletown come into this year’s Senior Championship full of confidence having waltzed their way to the Division 2 league title without losing a game. They’re set to face the returning Portlaoise in their championship opener.

Castletown captain Shane Phelan was speaking at the launch of the Laois Shopping Centre Club Championships ahead of their first game.

“We're coming off the back of an undefeated league campaign there, so things are going quite well. The last day, obviously, we played Camross’ second team in the league. It took us a while to get going, but the last two weeks have been good in training. We have a few lads that had niggly injuries back and lads who are on holidays that are back now as well, so things are looking good anyway for the match next week,” Phelan said.

Phelan knows that Portlaoise will provide tough opposition in the opening game after they got promoted in 2023.

“Portlaoise, they had a few nice wins there in the Division 1 this year as well. Tommy Fitz is over them, so they're motoring well now and I'm sure Tommy Fitz will have them well-oiled for next week. They have a strong panel. They seem to have had more or less everyone together there for the league. They weren't short too many, so we're not going to underestimate them at all. I think we're looking forward to it and I'm sure they are as well,” he said.

One of Laois’ best performers this year Ryan Mullaney will be missing the majority of the championship for Castletown which is a huge blow. They’re also without Conor Phelan and Dylan Conroy but Phelan says that the younger lads have stepped up and they’ve also got players back this year that they didn’t have last year.

“Ryan's gone to America for the summer, and he's gone travelling for a short while after. We've Connor Phelan gone away to Australia there as well and Dylan Conroy got surgery on his hip a few weeks ago. So, there's three big losses there and starters that would have been on the team last year. But to be fair, we've had a few of the younger lads after stepping in. Ryan Peters there this year, he's only up, he was with the Laois Minors last year. I think he was a Laois Minor vice-captain. He's after slotting in there nicely and we're after getting a few lads back but I wouldn't say that we wouldn't have had all year last year, like Tadhg Cuddy and Conor Walsh. The importance of a strong squad now for the Senior Championship is very important and I think the lads have stepped up to that as well,” Phelan said.

The Castletown skipper says that their league victory can’t be used too much coming into the championship as they didn’t have to play any Senior teams on their way to lifting silverware.

“The league win was great, yeah, but those are the kind of things that we set for ourselves at the start of the year to come through that league. Championship is a different kettle of fish altogether, different outfits. We haven't had one team really this year that's going to be in the Senior Championship so, it's hard to know what to expect, but we are excited,” he said.

All eight teams in the championship will have aspirations of getting their hands on the Bob O’Keefe Cup but Phelan reckons that anything less than a semi-final for Castletown would leave them disappointed.

“I suppose last year we were unlucky not to make it to the semi-final. We were beaten by a last-minute goal in extra time to Clough Ballacolla, who were after winning the last few Senior Championships, so really like we're not that far off. The year before, we lost a semi-final so I suppose anything less than the semi-final for us this year in our eyes will probably be a disappointment, that's what we're aiming for the year forward,” Phelan said.