League title would be a bonus: O'Leary

Laois defender Peter O'Leary is hoping his side can deliver the knockout blow to Donegal's Allianz Football League Division 2 title aspirations tomorrow at Croke Park.

O'Leary was due in the boxing ring tonight. Along with team-mates from his club O'Dempsey's, he was set to take on the local Portarlington Rugby Club to raise money for charity.

However, Laois' qualification for the Division 2 decider has meant O'Leary's boxing debut has been put on hold.

"At the start of the year before I came back in, I was planning with Portarlington Rugby Club for a fight night, but bigger things have come at the minute," he said.

"I am grateful to be in a league final. I am still helping to organise the fight night and hopefully it will be a great night.

"I am sure there will be a massive crowd. It is something that the town hasn't experienced before."

He added: "People have had very low expectations about where Laois football is going at the minute, but we always had the belief that we thought we could pull it together.

"This year so far things seem to be going our way. I know it can change at any stage but this year we all seem to have pulled together and it is a case of so far, so good.

"Our goal at the start of the year was to get promoted to Division 1 and anything else apart from that is a bonus."

O'Leary was a member of the Laois minor team that claimed All-Ireland honours in 2003, and was ever-present in the successful Under-21 side that lifted the Leinster title in 2006.

However, the bank official says that there is a batch of players who are hoping to win their first silverware with Laois this weekend - some of whom are in defence, including newcomer Shane Julian.

"People seem to take it for granted maybe that once we win at underage level that it is automatically going to be turned into success at senior level.

"That isn't always the way. It is a massive step up from minor to senior. Even from Under-21 onwards, it is a different level of football.

"This year you see lads coming through into the senior team that didn't do well at underage.

"It's all about the commitment you can give. If you are prepared to put it in, it can just happen for lads. This year is the best example of how the team has come together.

"There is nobody that you can say just because they haven't won at underage level they are no good - it's all about whether they apply themselves at senior level.

"Shane Julian is among those playing exceptional football and who at the start of the year would have said that? It's brilliant."

O'Leary scored a point last time out against Donegal as Laois claimed their first league win over the Ulster side since 1995 and a place in tomorrow's final.

He is confident that the promoted O'Moore men can make it back-to-back victories at GAA headquarters.

Reflecting on the campaign to date, he surmised: "At the end of the day, Kildare have been in an All-Ireland semi-final, Tyrone have been All-Ireland champions, so they were a step up from the previous matches that we had.

"Obviously from those games we had a big improvement to show from then. We probably let the Kildare game slip from our grasp as we didn't kill the game off.

"Tyrone brought a different level of a game to us, they played the same style that maybe we are trying to get to but they have years of experience.

"We certainly learned a lot from that game to progress us hard towards this year. It's just up to us now to put it into action."