Focus on the football, insists Fitzpatrick

WHAT with all the off-field ructions in the midlands lately, no-one could be chastised for forgetting the fact that there is actually football to be played before the Christmas lull.

Laois and Offaly have been the unwitting centres of attention for the past two months now, filling the sports pages with tales of strikes, resignations, rumoured abdications and mysterious disappearances.

Add in the ongoing manager saga in Carlow and what you have is the best Irish rural soap opera since Glenroe shut up shop.

Their county contingent of players aside, Offaly champions Rhode have been just interested onlookers in their county’s shenanigans.

Portlaoise, on the other hand, have been firmly centre stage, whether for their part in the Mick O’Dwyer numbers-at-training saga or for captain Colm Parkinson hitting the headlines after an incident outside Bozo’s nightclub in Athlone at the end of last month.

“There’s been a lot of stuff said but it’s all in the papers as far as we’re concerned,” said club and county player Kevin Fitzpatrick yesterday.

“It’s got nothing to do with us.”

“As for the training thing with Laois, that’s Laois; we have to concentrate on what we’re doing and our focus is the Leinster championship.”

Fitzpatrick’s claim is only to be expected but, the truth is, Portlaoise have more to worry about than what the media is saying.

Rated as real dark horses for the Leinster title only a few short weeks ago, the club will face Rhode minus the 2003 Laois captain Ian Fitzgerald, who is in Madrid for his stag party weekend.

Also absent from duty is former underage county star Martin Delaney. The Laois panellist has been in sublime form for the club all year but is out for another month after tearing ankle ligaments during the county final win over Emo.

Other question marks hang over the side too, like the fact that a handful of the panel are dual players who only hung up their hurleys for the winter last week after the defeat by UCD in the Leinster Club championship.

Take into account that this is a youthful Portlaoise side with a lot of mileage in the tank already this year and the concerns are obvious, facing a tough Rhode side on a heavy pitch.

“Personally, I’m amazed at how those young lads can keep going,” said Fitzpatrick.

“We have lads like Cahir Healy, Peter McNulty, Craig Rogers and Brian Mulligan playing hurling and football and minor, senior or whatever for months on end. It takes a fair man to fit all that in but they’re able to do it.

“We’ve been listening to people saying Portlaoise are soft touches for years but I think we proved our worth in the county final. We knew that Emo were going to come out and play physical and they did.

“People thought a few of the younger lads would lose the heads but these are lads who have played inter-county hurling and football senior and minor and they didn’t let any of that get to them.”

“It was always in our sights to do well in Leinster, it’s just that we didn’t do ourselves justice the two years I’ve been involved and we’ve played in Leinster,” said Fitzpatrick.