‘Overall we’re happy, we got to see a lot of players’ - Fitzgerald

IT’S been a long week for Laois hurling manager Tommy Fitzgerald and his players with three Walsh Cup matches in eight days, eventually coming to a head with the visit of Kilkenny to Rathdowney on Sunday.

Fitzgerald is happy enough after the preseason campaign which saw them lose out to Wexford and Kilkenny but beat Carlow, however he reckons there’s still more improvements to be made.

After Sunday’s loss, the Laois boss said, “We’re happy overall with the work and what we’ve seen over the last eight days, it’s not ideal playing a third game today but it’s as good as a training session and it gives us a chance to see the players against good opposition in a competitive environment.

“There’s lots there we have to work on obviously, but overall we’re happy, we got to see a lot of players and they put good work in.” 

A big plus for Fitzgerald has been the opportunity to blood new players and there was a lot of that against Carlow on Thursday evening.

“We made ten changes from the Wexford game so that was the most pleasing aspect that we got to see more lads that day and we made ten subs as well so we played 25 players,” he said on Thursday night’s game.

“The energy, work rate and attitude were all good that night and the honesty from the lads over the three games has been very pleasing.

“They’re all fighting for jerseys and you can see that they love hurling for Laois and they all want that jersey.

“Thursday night epitomised that I thought, a midweek game in January in the Walsh Shield isn’t the most attractive proposition but these lads are fighting for jerseys and that showed on the pitch in terms of work rate.

“Overall if we’re looking to sum up the Walsh Cup, we’re probably happy enough with what we’ve seen and what we’ve gotten out of it.” Thursday’s victory set up an exciting clash with Kilkenny on Sunday and though there’s no questioning Kilkenny were the better side, Fitzgerald was again happy with how his players applied themselves.

“There was a cross-field wind but it was nearly favouring Kilkenny in the first half and the first five or ten minutes was rabbit in the headlights stuff, we were scrambling,” said Fitzgerald, alluding to Kilkenny racing into a 1-5 to 0-0 lead after six minutes.

“Once we settled we left a lot of scores behind, but it was tricky with that wind and the ground even today is much softer than it was last week so it’s not a nice day for hurling.

“We did settle after the first five minutes and found our feet but we missed a few chances again early in the second half to put ourselves into a position to go for it in the last ten so we have loads to work on too.” With the Walsh Cup out of the way and business end of things kicking off with the league opener against Mayo on the 25th of January, Fitzgerald and co have to start culling the panel.

“It’s the worst part,” he claimed, regarding cutting players from the panel.

“Every one of the lads that came in have given a massive effort and they’re good lads, they want to hurl for Laois.

“We had three challenge games before Christmas and we had these three games so we have had a chance to see everyone and we feel everyone’s gotten a crack at the whip so we’ve a couple of really tough decisions to make over the next week or so.” When asked about some of the more notable names currently out through injuries, Fitzgerald said,” There’s a few lads we won’t see until the latter rounds of the league but they’re on track and they’re progressing well and we knew where they were at the start of the year and they’ve progressed since.

!If we can keep the other lads injury free we’ll get a lot stronger with those bodies coming back over the next couple of weeks.”