Laois should advance at expense of Carlow

LAOIS should have little difficulty seeing off the challenge of Carlow in their Leinster SHC clash in Portlaoise this Saturday.

But O'Moore manager Paídí Butler is refusing to delve too deeply into such thoughts. After all, Carlow created something of a minor shock last weekend in defeating Michael Duignan's Meath in Navan, a side which had extinguished Laois's championship hopes last summer.

However, Laois under Butler is a completely different proposition to last year's model as results in Division One of the league have already shown. But even at that, Butler is playing it safe.

"I was at Navan to see the game the other night and I was very impressed with Carlow. They've got a lot of the players from their very good U21 side of two years ago and they're pure hurlers.

"I thought they were full value for their win against Meath and deserved to win by more than just the one point. Meath scored a goal against the run of play that brought them back into it but Carlow were very much the better team," he said.

Butler is renowned in the game as much for his encyclopaedic knowledge of hurling as his impressive coaching skills which have been so much in evidence in the midlands this year. As such, the work of the opposition's Kilkenny-born manager Michael Walsh has not escaped his attention.

"Michael has got their attention over there and it's obvious they're a team going in the right direction," he insists. "Any team that scores 17 points from play as they did against Meath needs to be respected."

Despite such assertions, Butler says his sights are fixed further along the summer horizon, in the direction of an encounter with the reigning All-Ireland and NHL champions. To get that far, they will have to dispose of Carlow first and then most likely Dublin their closest rivals in Leinster.

Butler will be hoping for an improved performance on their 18 points win against Wicklow last Monday when, despite the comfortable winning margin, the side fell below the standards they had set against the likes of Galway, Waterford and Limerick in the league campaign.

Butler put part of this down to missing two key players David Cuddy who was out injured with a broken finger and Darren Rooney who was rested after playing for the footballers in Croke Park against Tyrone the day before.

"We couldn't play Darren from the start after the game he played the day before. It just wasn't on. Missing those few players probably affected our rhythm a bit," he said.

Laois were able to call on the services of David's brother, Paul, for the Wicklow game despite suffering a broken toe only a handful of weeks before and David himself may even be back in time for the clash with Dublin in two weeks, providing they don't stumble against Carlow and Marty Morris' men see off the threat of Westmeath in Parnell Park.

"It was a great for us to see Paul out there," Butler says. "I had told a few guys he probably wasn't going to play, but he had a late fitness test and declared himself fit. David is having the wires removed from his hand on Thursday and it'll be two more weeks before he's ready," he said.