Fitzgerald: Laois will be right for acid test

LAOIS forward Ian Fitzgerald insists the Leinster champions are well on course to defend their provincial title, regardless of whether they are relegated to Division Two or not on Sunday.

Mick O’Dwyer’s side take on 1B high-flyers Wexford at home in the league’s last round knowing they must win and hope results elsewhere go in their favour if they aren’t to relinquish their place in the top flight.

With Wexford, under the stewardship of former Laois player Pat Roe, gunning for an historic place in the semi-finals at their first attempt, that won’t be easy, But Fitzgerald is playing down the significance of the occasion and the result.

“It wouldn’t make a whole lot of difference to us this year, one way or another,” last year’s Leinster-winning captain explained. “We don’t want to be in Division Two next year either, but we’re happy the way things have been going for us the last few weeks.

“We’re improving all the time and we’re looking at this game more as our last real run-out before the championship. We’re not even looking at it as a relegation league game, really and it won’t have any bearing on the championship this year either.”

Last year, in O’Dwyer’s first year in charge of the midlanders, they remained unbeaten until the league final against Tyrone, but this year saw the county take much longer to get into gear. Fitzgerald though claims they will still be in full stride by the time the championship comes around.

“Last year the league gave us a huge amount of confidence but we needed that at the time. We needed to build our confidence up after the poor year before or whatever but the Meath game [their first win] gave us that this year. That showed us that we were getting back to where we wanted.

“It’s not an excuse but we were badly hit by injuries earlier this year at the start of the league. On top of that, we weren’t as tuned in as we might have been because we only came back from holidays in South Africa a week before the league started and before we knew it we’d lost the first three games. We have lads coming back from injury now the whole time and that’s standing to us.”

The brightest spark for the Leinster side has, without a doubt, been young forward Ross Munnelly, who has scored 1-18 in his three starts since returning from injury.

“Ross has been brilliant since he came back and his frees have helped as well. When you look at it, we have Chris [Conway] and Beano [Brian McDonald] who can kick them from the other side as well so I’d have no worries about that this year.”

Despite their laid back approach to Sunday’s game, Laois will be aware that anything less than their full commitment on the day will leave them open to a serious hiding as Wexford are eager for revenge after Laois dumped them out of the championship with a resounding win in Croke Park in 2003.

“It’ll be a good game in Portlaoise. Pat Roe has done a brilliant job with them this year. They were disappointing against us in the championship last year and I was surprised by that.

“All year I’d been telling people I was wary of them and they actually started well against us in Croke Park that day.

“We got a run on them after that and won easy enough but they’ve shown their strength of character this year and they’ll be a tough team to beat.”