Journey’s end a bitter pill for Laois

THE morning after the night before and reality was already starting to bite for the Laois footballers after the county’s most successful season in 57 years.

The gap of 24 hours hadn’t softened the blow of losing to Armagh in the quarter-finals and, if anything, the fact that they were so close to sealing a semi-final slot made it all the harder to deal with.

“That’s why we’re so disappointed, the fact that we were so close,” admitted forward Brian McDonald. “The difference in the end was probably that we didn’t play to our full potential out there. They’re not All-Ireland champions for nothing and we wish them all the best for the rest of the year. Hopefully, they’ll go on and win it now.”

In the aftermath of the loss, many of the Laois players pointed to the sheer physicality of Armagh as one of the main deciding factors in determining the winner on the day. Goalkeeper Fergal Byron claimed it was the crucial difference between the sides, but McDonald felt too much was made of that aspect.

“I don’t know. Every game is different. Going into the Leinster final we had all the pressure of trying to end that gap and we had the five-week break so this time we had nothing to lose. If a few more breaking balls had gone our way it could have been different but I don’t think we were afraid of them or the physical side of it. There was nothing out there we hadn’t experienced before, to be honest.”

It may not be much of a consolation to McDonald or his team-mates, but Laois’ performance in running the champions to two points confounded virtually every critic, none of whom gave O’Dwyer’s side a chance of winning on Sunday.

“Ah sure, fellas always need something to write and everyone did have us written off but we knew if we played as we can play we’d rattle them and we did that to a certain extent,” said the Arles man who scored six points against the Ulster side.

“If we’d got a goal maybe it would have upset them a bit or if we had managed to get two points ahead but it didn’t happen.

“In the Leinster final we got a bit of a break and managed to stay in front but we missed a few scoring chances [against Armagh and maybe looking back if we’d managed to put them over or in the net it might have been a different story. Like Micko said we’ll regroup for next year. It’s been a long road to here and we’ll try and make it back.

“It’s been a great year and after a week or two we’ll be brought back to reality and go back to the club championship and realise what we’ve done. We’ll always remember the Leinster final day and the support we had that day. The supporters have been behind us all year and we can’t forget them. We did our best for them out there.”

Ironically enough, after only their second defeat in league or championship all year, Sunday night was the first time the players could really celebrate their achievements of this past six months. No civic reception was held in the wake of the Leinster title victory, as all thoughts turned to the All-Ireland quarter-final. That should change in the weeks ahead but it’s a sign of just how far Laois have travelled this year that any celebrations will be tinged with regret at not going at least one step further.

“After the Leinster final we were brought quickly back down to earth and as Micko said, Sam Maguire was his aim,” McDonald pointed out. “It was a big bonus for us to win the Leinster this year and no-one can take that away from us but Micko made us focus after it and we really wanted more. We’re disappointed now to say the least.”