“These guys are good, very
good players. These have
played Fitzgibbon Cup hurling
and would have been the
backbone of our team when
Carlow IT were getting to
semi-finals and a final and
quarter-finals.”
Brennan, a former Kilkenny
team-mate of Carey’s, took
over what seemed to be a
poisoned chalice this season.
Inter-club rivalry led to Ross
King walking away for a spell,
while other valuable players
felt there were better ways to
spend their time other than
county hurling. All of which
hinted at dysfunction within
the county and perhaps even
between their players.
“It’s certainly not
dysfunctional,” says Carey.
“They are very dedicated. When
you speak about Cha Dwyer, it was
‘how was the weight with Cha?’
because he fluctuates up
and down, but he’s in great
shape at the moment. He is a
fantastic player.“Picky Maher was brilliant for
us and we were very unlucky he
broke his thumb and we missed
him, and were beaten by LIT
by a point in a semi-final. Enda
Rowland is probably the best
striker of a ball in the country at
the moment: with his puckouts,
or as a seventh defender with ball
in hand where he can pick a man.Obviously as a shot-stopper
as well. So, these guys are
seriously dedicated fellas and
it doesn’t surprise me, their
achievements so far.”In the Joe McDonagh final,
Laois had everything to
lose — most importantly,
promotion to Leinster for- With that achieved,
they have attained
permanent underdog status
for the rest of the season, and
there is little to lose.For Tipp, coming into the
game off the most damning
of Munster final defeats to
Limerick, everything is now
on the line. Player for player,
you could make a case for
winning by a point per man
today, but confidence can be
a fickle bedfellow.Boyne would have sat down at
half time against the Treaty and
shown some worrying workrate
statistics to Sheedy; by the end,
the management team had
to reflect on Limerick making
approximately twice as many
tackles. That has to change.Tipp have won the only two
championship meetings
between these counties by 17
(1949) and 24 (2003) points,
but any let-up today could
send this writer’s keyboard on
another unexpected journey.AARON DUNPHY, RIGHT, AND JOE PHELAN
OF LAOIS, CELEBRATE FOLLOWING THEIR
TRIUMPH OVER DUBLIN AT O’MOORE
PARK IN PORTLAOISE