'It's a chance to win silverware which we don't get too often'- Laois hurling captain Aaron Dunphy

Netwatch Cullen Park will be the venue for Easter Sunday's Division 2A Hurling final between Carlow and Laois. Carlow come into the contest having beaten Laois in the league phase as well as winning all five of their games to top the group and proceed straight through to the final.

Willie Maher's Laois team finished second in the league and had to overcome Down in a semi-final last weekend. He'll be hoping that his side can reverse the result when they face off this Sunday.

Laois competed in Division 2 of the Hurling Leagues for the first time since 2012 and Laois Senior Hurling captain Aaron Dunphy feels that it gave Laois a chance to blood younger lads into the panel as well as the chance to get some wins under their belt in preparation for the Joe McDonagh.

"You kind of have a different outlook from the beginning of the year, like you know looking at the fixtures that you have a good chance of winning lots of games and that's hopefully going to continue into the championship. I suppose Division Two is less physically demanding as well, like at some stages over the last couple of years we've had seven, eight, nine lads out injured because the games are so physically demanding against those top teams.

"The other thing is you get a chance to see the younger lads and give lads a chance a little bit more, like build that squad depth, whereas before like we're so tight trying to get results that you don't really get that chance in Division One. So yeah, it's a different outlook and I think it's kind of helped us so far this year and hopefully the momentum that we have built up will help us when we go into the Joe McDonagh," he said.

Although Laois won their opening two games of the league before losing to Carlow, Dunphy felt that Laois didn't perform in any of them. Carlow won by five points on the night but it could have been a lot more.

"I suppose the first two or three league games, Kildare and Down the first time and then Carlow one after the other, we were poor in probably the three games in a row. We kind of sat down and changed things after that, different things in training and how we've set up and things and performances have improved since then. So whether it'll be enough to bridge the gap or not, like it was five points but it was probably a healthy enough five point beating so that they were comfortable at that. Hopefully the changes we've made over the last six or seven weeks will be enough to bridge the gap anyway and make it competitive and please God get the win," he said.

Laois have plenty of experience in their ranks with a selection of their players having climbed the steps of the Hogan Stand in 2019 when they won the Joe McDonagh. Dunphy is hoping that Laois' experience in big games can help them on Sunday.

"I think our team is fairly experienced playing these kinds of crunch games. Now sometimes they're at the opposite end, there's not a cup for grabs, it's relegation games, but these really important kind of crunch games, we have loads of experience in them and hopefully it will count for a bit. Now in saying that, Carlow have plenty of experience too, like obviously they've had a couple of Joe McDonagh's won in the same period and they've been in a couple of Division Two league finals. So when it comes to finals, they probably have more experience than us, but we have plenty of experience in the crunch games So I definitely wouldn't be worried about it as a problem anyway," Dunphy said.

Like Dunphy mentioned above, Laois have got the chance to introduce younger players to the panel. Jer Quinlan, Tom Cuddy, Cody Comerford and David Dooley have all excelled so far for Laois and even Dunphy himself didn't think they'd slot into the Senior setup so easily.

"They're flying. They adapted to it straight away. I thought personally they might take a little bit to adapt to it physically, but they didn't. They went straight in and they've been our best performers in some of the games. So you'd be delighted with Jer and Tom and Cody as well in the Welsh Cup and the early league games. David Dooley, I suppose as well, is still young, even though he's been knocking around for a while, he's still young and he's had a brilliant year so far as well. So definitely the younger lads are putting a bit of pressure on and it's good to see," he said.

Dunphy ended the interview with what the feeling is like in and around the camp this week.

"I think everyone's just looking forward to it. It's a chance in a national final to win silverware, which we don't get too often. I'd say everyone's just looking forward to it and can't wait for Sunday," he ended.

Laois and Carlow go head-to-head on Easter Sunday, March 31 in the Division 2A final in Netwatch Cullen Park from 3pm. The game is being shown live on TG4's Youtube while the Leinster Express/ Laois Live will also be providing a free live blog from the game. Tickets for the game can be bought online here as well as the usual Supervalu outlets across the county.