David would love to march up the steps to collect the McDonagh Cup
Laois hurlers David Dooley and Mark Dowling Photo: Denis Byrne
LAOIS captain David Dooley was joined by Mark Dowling alongside Tommy Fitzgerald at the Laois hurlers media night last Friday ahead of the Joe McDonagh Cup final and both players are looking forward to the occasion and are aiming to march up the steps to collect the Joe McDonagh Cup.
“Jesus, I would,” was David Dooley’s reply when it was put to him that he’d love to climb the steps to collect the cup.
He added, “Getting there last year and getting a taste of captaining your county on a big day has spurred me on to get back there again and right the wrongs from last time.” Dooley is hoping that he and his teammates can take what they learned from losing the last two finals and turn it into a positive on the third time of asking.
He said, “It’s always in the back of your head a small bit, at the start of the year our goal was to get back to the Joe McDonagh Cup final and we’ve succeeded in that so it’s about getting over the line this time.
“We don’t want to be coming back down empty handed again.
“We’re learning from the last couple of years and hopefully that experience will get us over the line.” The Laois captain felt that they were perhaps a little cold coming into the opening round fixture against Carlow having played against lower tier teams throughout the league campaign before making the step up once again for the championship.
“The standard in the league was quite poor, we felt we weren’t really tested throughout that so we got a shock to the system against Carlow the first day out,” he said.
“We’ve responded really well since, and hopefully we can keep the momentum going.” Competition for places is high in the Laois panel and Dooley doesn’t envy the higher ups who have to make the tough decisions for Saturday’s final.
“It’s a very tricky job for the lads, ultimately we want to have competition, that means the squad is in a good state,” said the Laois captain.
“Anyone who’s lucky enough to pull on the Laois jersey on Saturday week on the 26 with a chance of playing, they’re earned the right to.
“It’s going to be a big day for us all.” He concluded by saying the aim is to not get sucked in by the occasion and try to prepare as normal going into the big day.
He told us, “There’s aspects like not getting overwhelmed by the occasion but we’re trying to treat it like any other game, it’s easy to say that, but finals obviously carry more weight.
“You have to treat it like any other game, go through the same processes and prepare the same way.
That’s what we’re trying to do as a group.” Mark Dowling is one of the players who’s in the battle for a starting spot ahead of Saturday’s final with some very impressive displays off the bench in recent weeks, but he knows it’s a team game and they all want the same thing, a Laois win.
Dowling said said, “There’s serious competition within the panel, that’s the nature of intercounty hurling “You have one to 35 and 35 is pushing as hard as number one.
“Anyone that gets to take part is very lucky but we all have the goal to get up the steps and that’s the plan for next Saturday.
“There’s a massive effort from everyone, we’ve been here before and we need to get the job done this time.”
