Portlaoise are taking nothing for granted ahead of the final

Preview – LGFA SFC Final 

 THE Portlaoise Ladies footballers are facing into their third successive county final and their fourth in five years. They’re also aiming to win a third championship on the bounce against the same opposition in the form of St Conleth’s.

Portlaoise midfielder Fiona Dooley was speaking ahead of the final at the Laois LGFA media night in the LOETB Portlaoise Institute last Friday evening.

“I don't think you ever get sick of them, it's great to be back in it. Every year it's getting harder and harder. The competition amongst the teams is so strong each year so it's quite hard to get back there, but we're just delighted to be there again and hopefully we'll be winners on the day,” she said.

Dooley knows what to expect against a side that they’ve defeated in the last two county finals.

“They're a fantastic team and we won't underestimate them but I suppose we can't control them. We'll look at ourselves and prepare to the best our ability and hopefully on the day we'll perform,” Dooley said.

For the second year in a row, Portlaoise defeated Timahoe in the semi-finals with the Portlaoise player hoping that the Timahoe game will stand to them against St Conleth’s in the final.

“That was a tough game and it will stand to us coming into Conleth’s because it'll be another tough game. Timahoe are always there, thereabouts, and you'll never underestimate them going into matches. They definitely made it difficult for us and made us work for it and thankfully we did get the luck to draw and won it. It'll definitely stand to us now going into the county final,” she said.

The mood in the camp is good according to Fiona and that there’s been no talk or thought of Portlaoise’s quest for three in a row.

“Everyone's in good form, looking forward to it. I suppose that side of it, we haven't really talked or thought about it too much, but yeah, everyone's just looking forward to it and can't wait to get out and play, especially being back in O’Moore Park,” Dooley said.

Ronan Molloy is in his first year as manager of the Portlaoise team having been involved as an S&C coach under previous manager Stephen Duff. He gave huge credit to his group of players saying that it’s easy to manage them as they all know what they’re doing.

“If I'm being honest, the girls nearly manage themselves at this stage. They know what they're doing, I put out the cones, get them fit and the girls will do the stuff themselves. They're really well organised and there's not much to it after that, to be honest with you. Anything that you ask them to do, they do it well and they're very committed, so you don't really have to put in too much work yourself as a manager,” he said.

Reflecting on Portlaoise’s championship to date, Molloy is content with how Portlaoise have progressed through the championship.

“I'd say we'd be quite happy at the minute. We go our own way, we don't worry too much about the opposition, we respect them, but we just do our own thing. We stick to our own way of playing, we have a way of playing and we don't veer from that regardless of the opposition. We don't have game plans or tactics in that sense. We stick to our way and it's been working so far. So I think we have been tested but relatively comfortable.

We've handled the test, but I know Conleth’s is probably the biggest test. They've handled anything on their side and we've handled it on our side, so we'll see when it comes to the final then. It's going to be a tit-for-tat battle, I'd imagine,” Molloy said.

The Senior county final is also back in Laois Hire O’Moore Park with the 2023 final having been played in Stradbally. Molloy knows how important it is that the girls get to play in the county stadium.

“I think that's huge. Obviously I was around them with the S&C last year and it's great to win a county final no matter where you are, but the girls deserve to be in O’Moore Park. They put in massive effort, they're on the go since I think maybe January 20 and we kicked off January 27, so they deserve to be in O’Moore Park. If you want to showcase the sport and want to get people in there, let the girls into O’Moore Park and let them have their day in it,” he said.

In terms of the fitness of his squad, Molloy revealed that they were down a few players for the semi-final against Timahoe and he’s hoping that he’ll be able to call on them for Saturday’s game.

“We had a couple of injuries for the semi-final and still we're hoping that they'll be back for the final. But we have a large squad, that's one thing I suppose where we have that we can relax a little bit in the sense that if you lose someone, you're bringing in like for like around the pitch. We had experience coming in, we brought in Laura Nerney the last day, she was brilliant. We've Aisling Kehoe there, we have Sarah Anne to come back in. This year, we brought in a lot of minors and they've just been exceptional in everything we've asked them. The panel's very strong, I have to say. You're probably looking at fighting for positions more than anything. You're not worried when someone comes in because it's tit for tat for positions. We said it to them during the year, some girls lost their position and it's dog eat dog to try and get it back. So there's that competitive nature in the squad that they know if they go in, I can have full confidence that they're ready to go,” he said.

Competition in a squad is something a manager always wants and for Molloy, ‘it’s a good headache to have’.

“It’s a good headache to have. I've been in other places where you're robbing Peter to pay Paul and you're putting different players in positions and you know their confidence isn't there going into positions and you're praying it goes well. But with the girls, there's so many switches and changes you could do and I don't think it weakens the team in any way at all. I think you could put just any one bar of forwards into any position in the back of the midfield and they can all do the job. It's been really good,” Molloy said.

When asked where he thinks the game against St Conleth’s will be won or lost, Molloy had this to say.

“They seem to be putting up high scores, conceding a lot. We're probably the opposite, we're not conceding as much. We've been fairly miserly in defence. We carry a lot of runners in the field. Any game we've had with Conleth’s, it’s been a two-point victory in the last two county finals, it's going to be roughly like that again. The only thing is our girls seem to thrive in the tight games as opposed to the games where it's handy. They seem to play better when it's tighter, so it's a great character to have. We'll just go into battle with them and we'll see where it ends up then,” he ended.