O’Loughlin warns Laois to avoid stuttering starts

LAOIS selector Declan O’Loughlin is adamant that his team will secure an All-Ireland quarter-final spot if they can avoid a repeat of the slow starts that handicapped them so badly against Offaly and Dublin.

The 2003 Leinster champions found themselves six and five points down respectively at half-time in those games and, though Ross Munnelly’s last-gasp goal saved them against their neighbours, they were eventually punished for their early lethargy by Dublin in the provincial final.

“We’ve put it behind us. We’ve never dwelled on the Dublin game. What we have taken out of it is that we played the best football of the championship in that second half and there’s no reason why we can’t do that again. What we need is a fast start. I believe if we get off to a good start we won’t be beaten.

“We managed to get off to a flier against Kildare in the Leinster semi-final and our game went from strength to strength that day so I’d imagine the lads will be focused on hitting the ground running against Derry.”

Mick O’Dwyer has clearly been influenced by the Jekyll and Hyde halves in his selection of the side to meet Derry on Saturday, which shows one change in personnel and one positional change.

Captain Kevin Fitzpatrick switches to the ‘40’ with Barry Brennan nestling into his old slot at full-forward but it is the demotion of Brian McDonald to the bench with his younger cousin Donie Brennan replacing him that has caught the headlines.

Rumour had it earlier in the week that ‘Beano’ had broken two fingers in training but the injury subsequently turned out to be merely a slight strain of the digits instead.

O’Loughlin was eager to talk up McDonald’s contribution rather than play it down however, highlighting the huge strides he has made since breaking his leg against Tyrone in the qualifier last summer.

“I don’t think it was fair the way one paper reported it as ‘Beano gets the bullet’. He has struggled a bit since he came back from his injury problems, he’d be the first to admit that himself.

“We’re very confident though that he will be able to do a very good job if he’s called on. Micko just felt that it would be better to have him in reserve, to use him as an impact sub.”

Despite the praise showered on them for their comeback against Dublin, it hasn’t escaped peoples’ attention in the county that four of the starting forwards failed to score.

The inclusion of Donie Brennan was expected but strong cases have also been argued for Stephen Kelly who has impressed in training, Shane Cooke who has returned from suspension, or even the young 2003 minor star Chris Bergin.

O’Loughlin pointed out that, though Donie Brennan is the only new face, it still took O’Dwyer, Gabriel Lawlor and himself a full hour and a half to pick the starting fifteen.

“As Micko has said, we beat Kildare by 12 points and lost to Dublin by a point with the very same team so we didn’t see that much reason to make drastic changes. We’re very confident in the team we’ve put out.

“I feel sorry for the players who didn’t make it but Croke Park is a big place and players tend to wane as the match goes on. The likelihood is that we’ll be using five subs.”

LAOIS: F Byron; A Fennelly, D Rooney, J Higgins; C Begley, T Kelly, P McMahon; P Clancy, N Garvan; R. Munnelly, K Fitzpatrick (capt.), B Sheehan; C Conway, B Brennan, D Brennan.