Laois hurling manager Willie Maher ready for battle as Laois look to return to the top table
Laois Senior Hurling manager Willie Maher is gearing up for his second year in charge of the O’Moore County with the Ballingarry man having seen his Laois side relegated from Division 1 of the Allianz Hurling Leagues as well as failing to get back into the Leinster Championship by virtue of the Joe McDonagh Cup.
Maher has recently confirmed his backroom team for the upcoming season with the Tipperary man bulking up his panel as opposed to only having himself, Eamon Jackman and Dan Shanahan in the set-up last year.
The Laois Hurling head coach will be Brian Horgan, who joins with a wealth of experience all across Ireland. Horgan played at all levels for Tipperary where he won the Munster Minor Hurling Championship in 1993 while he also captained Tipperary to the u21 all ireland in 1995 as well a 5 year stint with the Tipperary Senior team which included a National League in 1999.
The former Knockavilla Donaskeigh Kickhams player has plenty of knowledge in the world of coaching too. He was a coach involved with the Tipperary All-Ireland winning team of 2016. He also worked alongside Maher when the Tipperary Minors were crowned Munster and All-Ireland champions in 2012. Outside of Tipperary, he was the Kerry hurling coach in 2014 when The Kingdom won Division 2A of the league as well as reaching the Christy Ring final.
Horgan has a successful track record when it comes to the club scene too having coached Templederry to a North final and County semi final in 2015 as well as reaching the county final as Doon coach in 2018. He then went up to the capital to join Willie Maher in taking Cuala to Senior Hurling glory in 2019 as they won a league and championship double. He’s also coached Camogie teams with him bringing Boherlahan Dualla to county finals.
“Brian was in with me with the Tipp Minors back in 2012 and 2013 where we won the Minor All-Ireland in 2012. Brian is top class and has been with the Tipp Senior team in recent years too. He’s a big coo to get and he was also with me in Cuala as well when we won two county championships in Dublin. He’s been with me a lot of the time. He’s a top class coach, top class fella and had a good playing career. I’m just delighted to get him on board.”, Maher said.
There’s only one survivor from last year’s coaching set-up as that sees Eamon Jackman return as a selector. Michael Connolly joins Jackman as a selector with Maher explaining how important it was to get Brian, Eamon and Michael on board as well as the loss of Waterford’s Dan Shanahan.
“Eamon is an unbelievable Laois man, his hurling and professional pedigree is unquestioned as regards getting the Principal job in Heywood. It’s a massive addition to Laois and the local area of Ballinakill, He’s a really good fella. Our backroom team was lean last year, it was only myself, Eamon and Dan (Shanahan).”
“To lose someone like Dan, he’s a fantastic character, a great person, a great coach and he wanted to go do the Waterford U-20’s. He had wanted to do it for a long time so you couldn’t hold him back. To get Brian, to get Eamon back on board and to get Michael Connolly as well, I think we’re much stronger this year. I personally know the players a good bit better and we’re looking forward to it. We’re in a much better place starting this year than we were last year.”, he said.
Michael Connolly joins the Laois backroom team having spent many years in Dublin building their underage structures as well as coaching the underage teams.
“Michael was with me in St Kieran’s a few years ago, he boarded with me. He’s a Waterford man originally with his coaching credentials based around the Dublin underage system. Mick set up and ran the Dublin underage for 10 or 15 years so he’s very well-versed in hurling development, coaching and training. He’s also coached the Dublin Minor and U-21 teams in the last few years. He’s a very good people person and very good strategically so he’ll be a massive addition to what we want to do.”, Maher added.
Paul Dermody comes into the team as Goalkeeper Coach with Dermody having been involved with the Kildare and Wexford Senior teams. Maher goes on to describe what the role of a Goalkeeper Coach is in today’s world.
“His job is to coach the players around the aspects of goalkeeping. You’ve seen the way goalkeeping has evolved over the last number of years so you need someone to focus just on the goalkeepers. The general coaching of players in goal over the years was just literally letting them into the drills. But that approach is probably outdated so Paul will be working alongside us in developing plans in regards to whether you go short or long on the puckouts, positioning for shots and marshalling a back-line.”
“He’ll dictate the training around that for Enda (Rowland), Cathal (Dunne) and Brochan (O’Reilly), who’ll be with us this year. It’s a very special addition and he was also with the Wexford hurlers last year so it’s a bit of a coo to get someone of that calibre. We’ve really beefed up that area.”, he said.
Dave Moriarty returns to the role that he held in 2020 under former Laois manager Seamus ‘Cheddar’ Plunkett as a Strength and Conditioning coach.
“We’d a really good S&C Coach in Cathal last year but to get someone of David’s pedigree, we are just delighted even with the gym sessions and the testing he’s been doing to date. He has a really big personality and we need to move in regards to closing the gap in our S&C. It’s an area that myself and the players identified last year as one we were going to work on. We’ll use the pre-season to try to close those gaps so to have David leading that is just brilliant. He knows a lot of the players, he has really good experience across hurling and football.”, he added.
Maher was thoroughly impressed with the Laois Hurling Championship and the standard that came with it. The Laois manager also feels that some lads have played their way onto the county team and that he’s delighted he got the time this year to take in the championship.
“The Championship was competitive throughout. I suppose in the semi-finals the weather on the day pushed hurling out the window and it was really difficult conditions for all four teams. It was great to see how players responded to that so I think the Laois Club Championship is in a decent place. Camross have a right shot at doing something in Leinster, they’re a really good team. It was great to see the likes of Tom and Cathal Cuddy, two young lads coming through as well as Mossy Keyes, who was the star of the show in the county final.”
“There were plenty of players putting their hand up for selection. I know the players a lot better this year from being at all the club championship games, just seeing who’s there and seeing how the players are playing. We’re in a much better position than last year in regards to not really knowing what was there. The club championship this year has given me food for thought and I was delighted to get it.”, Maher said.