‘Absolutely shocked’ McNulty takes blame

Paul Grimley apologised to Armagh supporters last week and while Justin McNulty didn’t go that far, he claimed responsibility for an abject Laois display, admitting that he had come second best to his former team-mate Aidan O’Rourke in the tactical stakes.

Such was the limp, listless nature of the Laois performance, he couldn’t guarantee that there would be any reaction in the qualifiers.

“Shocked, shocked absolutely shocked” were McNulty’s first words when he emerged from the dressing room after keeping his players locked inside for close to 45 minutes.

“We came here today expecting to deliver a big performance and we certainly didn’t get that from the first minute to the final minute. We didn’t seem to have any fight throughout. Louth were tactically better, hungrier than us and fully deserved their victory.

“My mind is boggled trying to figure out how that happened today.

“The team didn’t go out there to under-perform, the team went out there to put in a big performance.

“We lost the personal battles in a number of positions on the pitch today, and I lost the sideline battle, there’s no question about that.” said McNulty.

“This is about us deciding whether we’ve got the hunger to stay together and regroup and go back at it again — or throw in the towel, simple as that.”

This is McNulty’s third Leinster championship as Laois manager and they have just one victory — over Longford in his first game in 2011 — to show for it.

“It’s not about three years; the plan was to go out today and execute a performance — to go out and show that this team means business this year. Obviously it didn’t happen.

“Me as a manager — I have to take ultimate responsibility. My job is to get the team to play, and it didn’t happen the way we would have liked it today. Hands up, my fault.

“There were a number of scores that came from individual errors, but this is not about blaming the players or blaming anybody else. We’re all in this together. We’re all responsible, and we know that that wasn’t a true reflection of this team’s capability.”