Captain Conway back at the helm

TWELVE months ago, an injured Chris Conway watched Laois capture their first Leinster title since 1946 from the Hogan Stand.

If the secondary teacher lost out on Laois’ greatest day in half a century then he’s been busy making up ever since.

Conway eventually returned to action in time to star alongside Ross Munnelly as his club, Arles-Kilcruise, won a first county championship when they beat Stradbally by a point in the final.

For a club that’s a mere nine years old, these were heady days and when they went out 24 hours later and defeated Carlow’s O’Hanrahan’s in the first round of the Leinster club championship, the country braced itself for another fairytale from the midlands. Round Towers ended that dream but Conway was again chasing history earlier this year when he coached Knockbeg College to the Leinster Colleges ‘A’ final against St Pat’s of Navan in the schools first year at the top grade.

“It’s been hectic, but I had plenty of time to take stock in the summer when I was sitting in the stands injured, looking at what was going on. Obviously, the year ended on a high with the club championship. It never really stopped because I was back training with Laois the week we did get knocked out of the club championship against Round Towers.”

Missing out on Laois’ jet-propelled journey to success still hurts and Sunday offers a chance to sample the intoxicating feeling of success. Arles-Kilcruise’s county championship means he will start the game, as he has every other this year, as captain. If it’s an extra burden on the day of his first Leinster final he isn’t showing it.

“Last year we all got huge satisfaction out of the Leinster win and I was no different as a Laois supporter. Being part of it on the field will make it a lot more enjoyable though, there’s no doubt about that.

“Being captain doesn’t really add any more pressure on me, I would say. In the GAA now, on the field, every team has to have a number of leaders. I just see myself as another one of those. People on the outside will look more at your performance and your manner in leading the team anyway.”

With Conway, it’s form more than leadership Laois supporters want. Despite the run with the club throughout the winter, the player himself reckons it took until early March and the fourth round of the league before he felt his match fitness return.

His form since has been steady rather than electric as two points against Carlow (one from a free) and one against Meath to date in the championship would testify. With Gary Kavanagh and Donal Miller recently returned from injury and Dublin-born Shane Cook burning up the pitch at recent training sessions, Conway should be well aware of the need to hit a rich vein of form.

“Hopefully I’ll be reaching my peak against Westmeath. My own form has been a bit patchy, particularly in the corner. I’m not going to go on too much about it, but my preferred position is centre-forward even if I am happy just to be on the team at all. Definitely though, my general play in the corner would need to improve.”

That’s probably true for the entire Laois team. A stunning second-half display against Meath in the semi-final overshadowed the patchy first half, not to mention the stuttering win over Carlow.

Compared with Westmeath’s emergence from a far tougher side to the draw with wins over Offaly, Dublin and Wexford, it’s not hard to draw a comparison with Laois’ own path to the decider in 2003.

“They’ve been impressive alright. We’d respect them but we wouldn’t fear them. They are in a similar boat to us last year. There’s no doubt they’ve come through what is the hardest side of the draw. It’s been a knock-on effect for them like it was for us last year. Last year we struggled to get over Offaly after a replay and they got through against Offaly by the one point. They’ve improved from there. They’ve just been very unlucky not to make the breakthrough on a number of occasions over the last four years.”