O’Dwyer upbeat in face of Laois adversity

JUST as well Laois manager Mick O’Dwyer is a pragmatist. And that he enjoys golf!

Otherwise, he’d probably be sitting at home in Waterville feeling dejected about his team’s defeat in the Leinster football final replay last Saturday and concerned about facing All-Ireland champions Tyrone in Croke Park next weekend without some key players.

Twelve months ago, Micko inspired Laois to a long overdue Leinster title. And while expectations were high going into the All-Ireland series, the bubble burst in the quarter-final when Armagh beat them. Still, the margin was two points. Laois were by no means disgraced, they just lacked the experience Joe Kernan’s team gained over the previous four or five years.

This year, hopes were higher and, based on early season form, they were justified.

Yesterday, in a brief conversation during a round of golf, Micko admitted he had high hopes for his team.

“When I started early this year and we had a full panel and everything was going right, I was convinced we would give it a right rattle,’’ he said.

On top of the injury worries coming into last weekend’s replay with Westmeath and others that were picked up in the course of it, two of the squad absented themselves from preparations this week.

Colm Byrne (replaced at full-back in the drawn game and not used last week) and Michael Lawlor (used as a sub the first day, picked but replaced in the replay) hadn’t spoken to O’Dwyer up to yesterday and it’s assumed they won’t be travelling with the team.

“We hear that they are gone. None of them made any contact with me. I heard nothing from them,’’ he said.

“They didn’t turn up Sunday or Monday. What do you do with players like that?’’

He didn’t disagree with the comment that it’s starting to unravel. The bottom line is that they have too many injured players, he points out.

“Rossie (Ross Munnelly) was injured coming into the replay with a bad ankle, Beano (Brian McDonald) has a bad groin injury that he will have to have an operation on and (Padraic) Clancy was just back after breaking a finger.’’

Add in that team captain Chris Conway (he underwent an emergency operation for appendicitis last week) was ruled out and Colm Kelly suffered a broken leg, and you can appreciate Micko’s dilemma.

“We had too many players injured and that was our biggest trouble more than anything else,’’ he added.

Wing-back Darren Rooney suffered a fractured thumb last Saturday while centre-back Tom Kelly fractured a middle finger. Kelly ‘has a chance,’ while Rooney remains ‘doubtful’.

O’Dwyer is anything but defeatist, but he is realistic. “We haven’t got that depth of reserve talent. We’ll just have to go and play it now, that’s all.’’