O'Byrne Cup showings give Laois footballers hope for attritional National League campaign

Having been relegated from Division two of the National football league less than 12 months ago, the Laois senior footballers will have an instant return to the second flight of the league to the forefront of their minds for the next few months as they look to bounce straight back.

Billy Sheehan is now at the helm and while the traditional tough nature of Division three football will be a big challenge for a new look Laois, recent showings in the O'Byrne cup have given plenty of reasons for Laois to regard themselves as a team who can get the job done.

Sheehan will have learnt a lot from the five pre-season games. He use 34 players in total and blooded a lot of players who are new or have little experience at playing at this level.

They managed to turnaround a 15 point defeat to Wexford in their opening round to make the final of the O'Byrne cup last Saturday. That tells you as much about their mindset as it does about their ability.

That game against Wexford was shocking stuff but wins over Meath, Wicklow and Kildare (after penalties) have thrown them into a different light and ensured that they overcame their first major challenge of the year.

The final against Dublin didn't go to plan but a win was always unlikely and the manner in which they equipped themselves and put it up to Dublin for large parts of the game means that their confidence or morale won't be dented ahead of their league opener against Louth.

It's a trip to Ardee on Sunday for Laois when they go up against Mickey Harte’s Louth in the opening round of the Division 3 football league. Reflecting on their O’Byrne Cup campaign, Sheehan felt he has learnt a lot during his first competitive outings, about the team, but also about himself.

“We have learnt a lot from those couple of games and I think especially about myself. As I said before, I am not one to go blaming the players, the manager is the one who implements what they are supposed to do and when the crunch comes, if the manager has his work done on the training field, we produce the goods and we didn’t so it’s me to look back on, not the lads.”

“We go from day to day. The focus goes to Louth now. I’m sure after watching that, Louth will just be waiting for us to come and we will have to get ready for that now and full focus goes to that now, Ardee next Sunday at 2pm.”

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Portarlington’s Paddy O’Sullivan and Portlaoise’s Gareth Dillon were both late omissions from the Laois side last Saturday with Dillon sustaining an injury in the warmup. The extent of Paul Kingston’s injury has not yet been determined with the forward awaiting results on a scan.

When asked about O’Sullivan and Dillon, Sheehan gave a positive update on the injury situation ahead of the crunch game next weekend.

“Paul Kingston went for a scan and we will get results of that scan over the next few days. Hopefully he is not out too long but we don’t know yet the full extent of the injury.

“Paddy O’Sullivan and Gareth Dillon, we are hoping will be both available for next Sunday. Gareth Dillon pulled up in the warmup, possibly fatigue after Wednesday night and Paddy hurt himself early on in the game against Kildare and kept going so look we have to mind him as well, he has a lot of miles on the board too with Portarlington.”

A look down through the fixtures and there is nothing simple about their path for the next two months. The league is the one competition where, for the majority, teams in the various leagues are around the same level and Division three is no different.

Laois will actually go off as the bookies favourites to win Division three, closely followed by Westmeath, a team who easily beat Laois in the championship last year.

They will travel away to Fermanagh in round three for what is always a tough assignment before welcoming an Antrim side fresh of promotion from Division four last year.

Championship opponents in Wicklow are next up as Laois travel to Aughrim while Laois finish off their campaign with a brace of home games against Limerick and a Longford side managed by Arles Killeen man – Billy O'Loughlin.

All those games are for another day and all that will be on their mind is picking up their opening two points of the league in Louth this Sunday. Mickey Harte's men have played Longford, Offaly and Dublin in the O'Byrne Cup and lost all three but like Billy Sheehan, Louth manager Mickey Harte would have always one eye on the start of the league.

NATIONAL LEAGUE DIVISION THREE

Sunday January 30 – Louth v Laois (Ardee) 2pm

Sunday February 6 - Laois v Westmeath (O'Moore Park) 2pm
Saturday February 19 – Fermanagh v Laois (Enniskillen) 6pm

Saturday February 26 – Laois v Antrim (O'Moore Park) 6pm

Sunday March 13 – Wicklow v Laois (Aughrim) 2pm

Saturday March 19 – Laois v Limerick (O'Moore Park) 7pm

Sunday March 27 – Laois v Longford (O'Moore Park) 2pm.