Whisper it, Laois are making up ground to hurling’s top echelon

When Laois ran Clare to four points in the Allianz Hurling League Division 1 quarter-final, the general reaction was surprise mixed with the usual praise-masquerading-as-condescension.

The feeling was they were great to be getting so close, but to anybody who had been paying a closer eye to developments in the O’Moore County, it was merely further evidence of hard work continuing to pay off.

Laois begin their Leinster SHC preliminary campaign away to Westmeath tomorrow (3pm) and are regarded as strong favourites to progress to the championship proper, but it has not been an overnight success. Since 2005, the county has been operating the Setanta Programme, where children from the age of 10 upwards have had their skills developed.

Last year, a first appearance in a Leinster MHC final in 22 years provided more proof of the success. Pat Critchley, Laois’s only hurling All Star and current minor manager, is one of those centrally involved and he outlines the journey to here.

“We decided that the skill levels of the 14-year-olds coming into development squads weren’t good enough,” he said, “so we had to go down underneath that again.

“We set up the Setanta Programme for 10-, 11-, 12- and 13-year-olds and made it open to all, there was no elitism. At the beginning, it was parents doing the coaching but gradually we brought in county players who would have been in college and that helped to improve it more.

“Guys like Dwane Palmer, who was in the first year of the programme, are doing it now and it’s brilliant as he fully understands the system. It builds a great camaraderie and spirit among the players when they come up together like this.”

Patience was a key requirement for those doing the heavy lifting at the start, however.

“There were years where we’d be beaten at minor and people would be asking, ‘What’s this Setanta Programme all about?’” Critchley said, “not realising that the players playing wouldn’t have been in it.

“There’s a bit of momentum now and the aim is to have a minor team competing every year. We’ve beaten Offaly three years in-a-row at minor and before that we had only done it once in 40 years.

“We won three Tony Forristal U14 Division Two titles in four years and before that we had only won twice in about 20 years. Now we’re Division 1 in all the underage competitions like that and the coaches know they have to prepare teams for Division One.”

With 11 of senior manager Séamus ‘Cheddar’ Plunkett’s squad having come through Setanta, it has contributed to an upsurge there too. Galway were run to seven points last year but Critchley is keen to point out that getting through the preliminary section will not be easy.

“All the games are banana skins,” he said.

“The other teams all want to beat us and even if we do get through it’ll be five Sundays in-a-row with an U21 game in the middle too against Dublin.

“All we can do is just keep going and that includes continuing to improve at underage too, even going down to U8 level. It’s all about a positive mindset. I say to people we’re lucky we’re a small county because it’s more easily accessible for parents bringing kids. Someone like Offaly in the ’80s and ’90s is what we have to try to emulate. You mightn’t be a Kilkenny in hurling or a Kerry in football but you can certainly make an impact.”