O’Dwyer’s title chances looking up as Laois get motoring in midfield

MICK O’DWYER’S chances of retaining the Leinster SFC title with Laois took a considerable turn for the better on Sunday with the outstanding performance of his new-look midfield against Wexford.

Last week, the Laois manager was hit with the news that his top midfielder Padraig Clancy would be out of action for at least eight weeks after undergoing surgery on his thumb. That was possibly the biggest blow for O’Dwyer as midfield was the chief area of concern.

Clancy’s form was reliably excellent but his partner Noel Garvan all too often blew hot and cold and their shortcomings as a team were exposed in the mid-summer games against Kildare and Armagh.

On Sunday however, regular half-back Kevin Fitzpatrick moved up alongside Garvan and contributed four points from play with his bursts upfield while his counterpart ruled the skies. As a partnership, it dovetailed perfectly with both their opposite numbers being called ashore before half-time.

Without Clancy to lean on the last few weeks, Garvan has begun to shoulder more responsibility and when the Timahoe player returns, O’Dwyer will at last have proven cover for midfield and the possibility of all three marauding the centre at some point won’t be out of the question.

“I’ve played midfield with the club but I wouldn’t really be used to it. I wouldn’t really prefer to be back in the backs though. You get more freedom in midfield, you can go forward when you want. When I go, (centre-back) Tom Kelly holds back and when Tom goes I stay back. It works well.

“Garvan is a great man to catch a ball, which I wouldn’t be great at and if anything breaks I’ll go on a run,” Fitzpatrick said. “We work well together but Clancy and himself work well together too so we’ll see how it goes. I’ll play anywhere come the championship. It’ll be hard to hold down places because lads are coming back from injury the whole time.”

Laois are certainly now spoiled for choice with the return to availability of so many players. Donal Miller, who can play midfield as well as up front, is on the verge of a comeback and young forward Gary Kavanagh will still figure come the championship.

“We were missing a good few players early on, lads like Ross Munnelly and Beano who are our two free-takers and that cost us five, six points a game at the start of the year,” said Fitzpatrick.

Laois now have eight weeks to prepare for their championship opener against Longford or Carlow.