Munnelly magic swings it

THEY looked like dead men walking after Dublin finished with them three weeks ago and they came within 15 minutes of being bundled unceremoniously out the championship exit door on Saturday.

Yet, here we are, midway through July, and the talk in the Laois camp is of All-Ireland semi-finals and maybe even beyond.

Lazarus would have been proud of these boys.

With 65 minutes gone in Navan, Mick O’Dwyer’s tenure in charge of this inconsistent but thrillingly unpredictable outfit seemed numbered.

Laois were on their knees, overrun in midfield and overstretched in defence as a four-point half-time lead morphed into a one-point deficit.

One swing of Ross Munnelly’s left boot changed the landscape utterly, however, and as soon as his 67th minute strike hit Brendan Murphy’s net, Meath’s gallop was halted and Laois took charge.

From utter despair to total elation, all in a matter of seconds. It was typical Laois.

There comes a time in any player or team’s life-span when the word ‘potential’ ceases to become a compliment and instead becomes a weight around their shoulders. Laois are at that stage.

Until now, the summit of their achievements on the national stage has been their All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Armagh four seasons ago.

Progress in 2006 would mean taking one step further, at the very least.

Explained Noel Garvan: “Realistically for this team, if we don’t get to a semi-final it is not a good season. That’s being realistic because we have been at it four years now.

“It’s time to get to a semi-final and we will take it from there.”

It is by no means a straightforward path to the last four. Munnelly’s two goals may have allowed Laois end the game with a convincing six-point cushion but they papered over a number of cracks that will require some serious attention in the weeks to come.

Chief among O’Dwyer’s concerns will be his midfield. Noel Garvan is miles off the form that almost won him an All-Star last season, Padraic Clancy may or not be fit again for round four of the qualifiers and young Brendan Quigley is still very rough around the edges in the senior game.

The best news is to be found up front, where Chris Conway and Ross Munnelly have rediscovered some of their best form in the past fortnight and 2003 captain Ian Fitzgerald has been sublime on his introductions against Tyrone and Meath.

O’Dwyer’s top priority though is instilling some consistency in his team . “We’re not consistent,” agreed centre-back Tom Kelly. “You have to be up there with the likes of Armagh. They are consistently good. Like in the second half there we lost our way big time. We would be punished against a better team and Croke Park is wide open as well so we have to pick up on that.”

Questions remain but their last two wins seem to have answered the critics who doubted their mental strength after the 14-point defeat to Dublin.

Their commitment and desire against Tyrone in round two led Mickey Harte to rate their second-half display as one of the best he had ever seen and, despite their shortcomings in Navan, they still pulled a result out of the fire.

Coming only seven days after their Trojan effort in Portlaoise, their achievement in Páirc Tailteann takes on added significance.

“It looked at one stage that they might run away from us,” said Garvan, “but then we got the breakaway goal and that was it. Maybe in the past we could be accused of dropping the heads and letting teams run away with it but that didn’t happen (this time).”

LAOIS: F Byron; A Fennelly, D Rooney, J Higgins; P McDonald, T Kelly, P McMahon; B Quigley, N Garvan; B McCormack (0-2), C Conway (0-6, 1f), R Munnelly (2-4, 2f); B Sheehan, B McDonald (0-1), G Kavanagh.

Subs: I Fitzgerald for Kavanagh 61.

MEATH: B Murphy; C King, K Reilly, N McKeigue; N McLoughlin, A Moyles, S Kenny; N Crawford, M Ward (0-2); M Doran (0-2), B Lynch (0-1), P Curran (0-4, 3f); D Regan (0-1f), J Sheridan, G Geraghty (0-2).

Subs: C McCarthy for Lynch 12, R Magee for Regan 47, S Bray for McCarthy 61, S MacGabhann (0-1) for McKeigue 63, O Murphy for Doran 65.

Referee: P McEnaney (Monaghan).