O’Dwyer plays down hype of Laois glory

WHILE they are already favourites for Leinster, with some tipping them for even greater glory, Laois manager Mick O’Dwyer is keeping a lid on the hype that is threatening to envelop his vibrant team again this summer.

Injury woes and patchy league form are O’Dwyer’s chief concerns and he eels that, with their championship opener only three weeks away, there is still a lot of work to be done.

“People say we are lying in the long grass, but we don’t want to be,” O’Dwyer said. “They looked at some of our results in the league and said, sure what do I care about the league. But I want to win every game and some of those results were very poor.

“We probably went to South Africa too late in the year, and when we got back, Limerick gave us a hammering. And we had a lot of injuries too. Injuries can crucify a team.”

With either Longford or Carlow looming, O’Dwyer has to do without Pauric Clancy, one of the sensations of last summer, for a couple of months. He has also been hit with the further blow of regular full-forward Colm Kelly facing an extended period on the sidelines. Kelly looks to be out for eight weeks with a hamstring tear.

So O’Dwyer tempered the belief that Laois are looking at a double Leinster success, saying the province is much more competitive than last year.

“You have Dublin, people say Tommy [Lyons] is under pressure, but Tommy is always under pressure, I saw him with the U21s last week in Portlaoise and he was under pressure. He is a martyr for it. Offaly have just come out of nowhere again, Kildare are there and Meath.

“If we get over our first round game, we are going to have a titanic battle with Meath. Nobody knows anything about those fellas. They are the ones lying in the long grass.”