'We're going to give it everything for the rest of the year'- Laois' Eamon Jackman

With Willie Maher absent from the sideline at the weekend due to work commitments, Laois’ Eamon Jackman stepped up to the plate and coached Laois to a comfortable victory over Meath in Navan.

The Ballinakill native was impressed with his side’s first-half performance but was disappointed with Laois’ lack of scores in the second period.

“We came up here with a job to do and that was to get two points. I suppose coming off the back of the Carlow game, you're a little bit vulnerable and we put a good bit into that fixture, emotionally, and just didn't get over the line on the night because we weren't good enough, simple as that.

“Today, we played some good stuff at times in the first half. Our hurling was good, and our decision-making was good, and we opened them up a good few times. Second half, not so good. We only scored 14 points in the second half. We set ourselves a target a little bit higher than that. But at the end of the day, when you get into a game like that, and the game stops for a nice length of time in the second half, it's hard to get the intensity back up and changes on both sides but we got the job done,” he said.

Laois’ Mossy Keyes and Jer Quinlan were top-class as they both set each other up for a goal as well as scoring two points from play. Jackman was delighted with their performances on Sunday.

“They worked really hard. They kept making the runs. They kept making second runs, third runs, and the ball was slowed down. They were showing all the time. It's easy inside when things aren't going your way to maybe not make those runs. It takes a lot of mental strength and resilience to stay at it. And the boys stayed making the runs, even when initially the ball wasn't coming in. But they're two really good ball hurlers and stickmen.

“I suppose people of Laois have known that for a long time. We're asking for them to be consistent to win every ball that comes in there, or at least put serious pressure on the opposition, stopping that ball coming out quickly, which we know is a template now for modern-age county hurlers, stopping the flow coming from teams full-back lines,” he said.

Meath made a great start to the game but hit a few sloppy wides and Jackman knows that against the better sides, those chances would have been taken and it’s up to Laois to try to rectify that.

“They created chances but didn't take those chances. Being respectful to Meath, we have set our sights higher than Meath. I'm not beating around the bush here. We hope to compete with Carlow, Offaly and Westmeath in Joe McDonagh so we would want to be putting teams away.

“At times their skill set let them down and we know better teams will punish us . We wouldn't be happy with the goal they scored in the second half. It's a ball we should be dealing with. That's pretty standard hurling and basic hurling, and we have to get better at that, and we'll be looking at that for the next day because when we play the likes of Offaly and Westmeath, they have two serious target men in there, and we'll have to be strong in that position. And likewise, if we get another rattle at Carlow, or if we're playing Down in the semi-final, or even Kerry, they have some big target men as well,” he said.

The Carlow defeat was a crushing blow for the Laois team as they just didn’t perform on the night and probably should have lost by more than five points. Jackman says that Laois tried to right the wrongs of the Carlow game in preparation for their trip to Navan

“We've been very, very focused in our training. We've identified two or three areas, and we've worked forensically on that off the field, and on the pitch the last number of nights. The weather conditions have been pretty poor but we've managed to secure other venues on the nights and the group have really stayed at it. 

“We're still at a panel at 36, every man in there is working really hard ,players are coming back from injury. Five or six lads played with the 20’s this morning in an internal game and they’re working themselves back to fitness. We're in a position now where we used 20 lads today and I know there's five or six lads going back down the road tonight, really disappointed not to get hurling. Maybe there’ll be an opportunity for them next weekend and they'll have to take it if they get in on the pitch,” he added.

Willie Dunphy, John Lennon and Fiachra C Fennell have been great servants for Laois over the years with Jackman going on to say that those older lads are great in showing the younger lads what it means to represent their county.

“They are showing them the passion and what it means to commute down from Meath t every night like Willie or John to keep coming back with his injury profile. Touch wood his injury profile is good at the moment and he got in there for another 20 minutes.

“But I suppose on a personal level, as someone who's involved in training the lads nightly, they are really giving us everything. They are a group of players who want to play for Laois. Things don't always go your way on the pitch, and people will say different things about you outside of a circle, but as a group of players, they are very, very tight. They are very together. They have set their own targets and whatever happens we're going to give it everything for the rest of the year and see where it takes us,” he said.

Kerry will make the trip to Portlaoise on Saturday and Jackman knows that they’ll give Laois a run for their money in the final league game.

“They were well in the game for a long period, and Kildare pulled away near the end. They're the sort of team that when their backs are to the wall, they've produced big performances.

They hurled yesterday without their talisman Shane Conway. He'll probably be back next weekend and he's going to cause us trouble along with some of the other key players.

“So we've set standards. The standards we set are probably what we showed in the first half. These standards weren't met in the second half, so perhaps the challenge for us now is to meet those standards for a full 50 to 70 minutes next Saturday against Kerry in O’Moore Park,” Jackman said.

Jackman ended the interview with the news that Willie Maher will return to the sideline next weekend.

“Like all of us, he's got a job, a busy job. His job involves a pharmaceutical company in America. He's put off a certain piece of work for the last two years to commit to Laois. It was unavoidable this weekend. He was beckoned to America for a meeting, and we'd known for the last month or two that was coming. We had a plan in place. We have a full management team there. We have a management team of 10 to 15 people. So it really was seamless from Friday night from our team meeting where Willie was present. 

“He'll be back in the field Tuesday night, so we'll be ready to go again. I've had three or four missed calls already from him. He's listening somewhere over in Florida or Orlando on Midlands Radio today, so he'll be delighted to get the win. He's putting serious, serious effort into this. He's putting a lot of his own personal time, family time. We're here on Mother's Day, and a lot of us are in the same position. We're off for six and seven hours so yes Willie will be back next week,” he ended.