Fennelly: Home advantage only consolation for drawing Cork

LAOIS hurlers got the short straw when they were paired with Cork in the opening game in the All-Ireland qualifier series on Saturday week, with team manager Brendan Fennelly admitting that “the only consolation” was a home game in Portlaoise.

Antrim will play Westmeath in the other first-round game in what will be the first ever championship meeting between them.

For Cork and Laois it won’t be quite a ‘first,’ but a notable pairing nonetheless in the sense that the only previous time the counties clashed in the championship was almost a hundred years ago.

That was in the All-Ireland final of 1915, played in Croke Park on October 24 when Laois, represented by Ballygeehan caused a shock by defeating Redmonds from Cork 6-2 to 4-1.

In more modern times, they met in the Centenary Cup final in 1984, when Cork were triumphant.

Their most recent competitive clash was in the league in 2001 when a Cork team managed for the first time by Tom Cashman won 4-18 to 0-7 in Portlaoise. The teams also met last month in a challenge in Dromina.

Cork manager Denis Walsh is unconcerned about how the public perceive the Rebels to be in a different class. If he has a concern it relates to the fact that the squad members had been tied up with their clubs last week.

“I am just looking forward to the games, to getting back on the horse. We played a lot of good hurling in Thurles, but we still lost by eight points,’’ he commented.

“Cork had shown what they could do for long periods. The challenge now for everybody including myself is to translate that kind of form into winning performances,” Walsh said.

Laois are now managed by Brendan Fennelly (one of the famous Kilkenny brothers from Ballyhale), who took over from former player Niall Rigney.

“My immediate reaction was “anybody but Cork,’’ he admitted, saying that with different opposition he would have been more hopeful of doing well. The idea was that we would get the game on the 18th, hopefully win it and see how we would go after that.

“But we got the tough end of the draw. The only consolation is that it’s in Portlaoise. We played Cork the night the pitch was opened down in Dromina. Denis would have put out about half a team and they beat us by about 10 points.’’

Westmeath and Antrim may not have clashed in the Christy Ring Cup, which they both won at different stages, but they won’t be strangers to one another. Earlier this year they met in the League, when the Dinny Cahill-managed Antrim were winners by a four-point margin.

The second round winners will be involved in Phase 3 of the qualifiers when they’ll be paired with the two teams which emerge from the games between the beaten Leinster and Munster semi-finalists.