Mullaney prays for somelight at the end of tunnel

REPRESENTING your county can open many doors but, as Laois hurling captain Padraig Mullaney has found out this season, the price of failure can be a heavy one.

So far, it has been a dismal season for the midlanders under new manager Dinny Cahill. All of their seven league games were lost, the most crushing was the relegation final defeat to Down, which consigned them to Division Two.

Though no more than 50 fans attended that game, in Navan, Mullaney felt the full wrath of the ‘armchair mob’ when he attempted to wind down that evening back home in Castletown.

“The abuse you take in this game is terrible. You couldn’t even go out and enjoy a drink. I went out with my girlfriend the night of the Down game. I’d say I had a couple of pints and I had to come home.

“I just wasn’t able to listen to it. I know lads say you should let it over your head but, when you have 20 lads in your ear, it’s very hard to ignore it.

“It’s very disheartening.”

Morale within the Laois senior hurling team is at a low ebb. Though the side failed to make any impression in the championship under former manager Paudie Butler, they did at least stay competitive in the NHL, claiming the scalps of Galway, Waterford and Offaly in recent years.

This season, despite some encouraging displays, Laois looked to have been on a one-way ticket to the trapdoor from day one. Many within the county have laid the blame for the malaise firmly at Cahill’s door.

The Tipperary man has long turned his nose up at the league and Antrim’s Brian McFall criticised that attitude earlier this week, claiming it served only to drain confidence levels from the squad during Cahill’s tenure in charge.

Whatever the reasons, Laois approach Leinster Championship game against neighbours Offaly in some disarray, their preparations not helped by this week’s tête-à-tête between Portlaoise and the county board.

“It’s been hugely disheartening — for the team and mentors,” said Mullaney of the season so far.

“We were putting in a serious effort and we just don’t know what’s going wrong. We started like 90 against Limerick. Every man put his head on the block against Limerick and it was the same against Wexford. We took Kilkenny to extra time in the Walsh Cup!

“But why can’t we do that against Down?

“Why can’t we do that against Antrim?

“Nobody knows.”

The players held two emergency meetings in O’Moore Park after the Down game, but whether the air has been cleared and sights refocused enough to trouble their bitter rivals on Sunday remains to be seen.

Two years ago, Laois relegated Offaly in the league but shipped a hammering in the championship weeks later — just when a sprig of optimism was beginning to bud.

Last summer, in their opening game, Laois had Wexford on their heels within minutes through a superb Damien Culleton goal. The surge tapered off and by the end they were well beaten, but Mullaney believes they briefly showed their true potential that day in Croke Park.

“The Laoises, the Antrims and Downs, they can turn it on when they want to. As soon as a referee goes against them or a crowd, heads start to drop.

“It’s belief. It’s not that you don’t have the hurlers.

“What is there between me and Brendan Murphy? About 20 miles. Yet there’s a huge divide.

Myself and Jackie Tyrell? Maybe 20 miles yet there’s a huge divide again. “Nobody knows why.”