Final year for Micko and Laois

Kerry great Mick O'Dwyer has confirmed that 2006 will be his last year in charge of the Laois footballers.

The 69-year-old, who led Laois to a National League final and the county's first Leinster SFC title in 57 years in 2003, his first year at the helm, is determined to bring further success to the midlands.

O'Dwyer said: "It is there for them (the players) and they know what they have to do. No player can be satisfied with a single Leinster medal to show for their efforts . They have to have a bigger goal than that and they are well capable of doing it, but they will have to make the sacrifices required.

"There is no room for players who are not prepared to make the sacrifices and that means full attendance at every training session and complete discipline off the field.

"Drinking is finished and a player who I find out breaks that rule from now on will be gone off the panel in a flash, with no exceptions.

"There are a few players who want to have a good social life and drink and go to night clubs and still play for Laois, but you are going nowhere with fellows like that," he told The Laois Nationalist.

"We are just a few steps behind the three top teams and I believe that we are capable of bridging that gap. I wouldn’t have stayed on if I didn’t believe it."

O'Dwyer's panel began working with new trainer Gerry Loftus before Christmas, and beat UCD 5-4 to 1-13 in a challenge match last Saturday, with Colm Parkinson and Brian 'Beano' McDonald back in tow.

Laois face Kildare in the O'Byrne Cup quarter-finals on Sunday.

O'Dwyer, meanwhile, is hopeful star forward Ross Munnelly can get some change out of the DRA, the GAA appeals body, when his appeal against a 12-week ban for allegedly breaching playing rules by lining out for DCU in a Higher Education League match is heard tonight.

"I hope Ross gets back to playing football soon and that common sense prevails. He would not have played for the college if he had thought there was any doubt about his eligibility. His first priority is Laois," O'Dwyer said.