Looking to the past to build for future

Fergal Byron was a grown man of 21, and on the brink of a 10-year senior football career that would earn him a Leinster medal and an All-Star, when Laois first served notice of an upturn in fortunes with an All-Ireland minor title in 1996.

By the time the Courtwood keeper retired in 2007, the midland county had collected a treasure trove of silverware: Six minor and three U21 provincial successes, a hat-trick of minor All-Irelands and that senior provincial breakthrough under Micko in 2003.

That they could, and unquestionably should, have taken away even more only adds weight to the merit of the foundation work carried out in the early to mid-90s by visionaries such as Sean Dempsey, Oliver Phelan, and Gabriel Lawlor.