Laois will be no soft touch but Galway can plough on

Inside Track with John McIntyre

IT’S not that long ago when Laois hurlers couldn’t keep it pucked out to Galway – suffering a string of heavy championship defeats between 2005 and ’09 when they closest the Midlanders came to an upset was a 2-22 to 2-11 loss ten years ago – but those days of one-sided encounters are now a thing of the past.

Certainly, in the counties’ last two summer meetings, Galway endured severe moments of anxiety before surviving their journeys to O’Moore Park. In 2013, they eventually came out on top by 2-17 to 1-13 after a strong finish, but 12 months ago Anthony Cunningham’s men really flirted with disaster before edging home on a 1-22 to 0-23 scoreline.

To be honest, few anticipated that the teams would be meeting in the Leinster championship for a third consecutive year in 2015, especially after Laois’s disappointing Division 1b campaign and their sluggish form in the subsequent round-robin provincial qualifiers where they lost to Antrim – a squad which has imploded since.

All that was bad enough, but when team manager Seamus Plunkett resigned ahead of their recent championship clash against Offaly over two of his players lining out in a club challenge game, it appeared that Laois were losing their way after the progress of the previous two seasons. Frantic mediation followed and within days the popular ‘Cheddar’ was back on the sideline and the sideshow was over.

It had been difficult to assess how this upheaval would impact on the Laois hurlers in the short term, but the bottom line was that it clearly did a lot more good than harm judging by their best display of 2015 against Offaly. Going from four points behind to winning by eight against a county they hadn’t overcome since 1972 doesn’t brook any argument. A refocused Laois had made, by their standards, a genuine breakthrough.

Assembling a massive tally of 29 points in putting Offaly to the sword, Laois potentially will offer a more rigorous assessment of Galway’s current worth than they had to endure in that replay demolition of Dublin. Cahir Healy and his defensive colleagues won’t be conceding nearly the same amount of time and space, especially as midfielder Joe Campion has the sweeper role off to a fine art by this stage.

Unlike Dublin, Laois will pack their rearguard when necessary, hit on the counter-attack and try to get their long range shooters into position. The tactic worked a treat against Offaly with Zane Keenan, Willie Hyland and Cha Dwyer picking off a series of points with growing confidence and expertise. They will also draw encouragement from giving Galway a big fright for the past two years, but they don’t have home advantage this time and having to travel to Tullamore reduces the odds of a sensational outcome.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.