This is not where Laois want or need to be at this time of year

WHILE it hasn’t always been pretty over the last seven weeks, the first goal for the Laois senior hurlers has been reached with plenty to spare.

Promotion back to the upper echelons of league hurling was essential for Tommy Fitzgerald and co and with the win over Meath secured on Sunday, that guaranteed both a home league final in O’Moore Park and promotion to Division 1B for 2027.

All the respect in the world is due to the likes of Mayo, Derry, London and Meath for the work they’re putting in, but that’s not the calibre of sides that Laois want or need to be facing at this time of year.

There has been little learned from thrashing the lower level counties throughout the league and though Kerry put up a stern test in O’Moore Park, Laois won’t even be facing them in the championship as they were shambolic last year and got relegated to the Christy Ring Cup.

Speaking after Sunday’s game, Laois boss Fitzgerald stated that he wasn’t particularly pleased with how his team played on Sunday and reckons they’ve a lot of work to do over the next six weeks to get ready for Carlow in the first round of the championship.

He’s right in a sense that there’s improvement needed before entering the dog eat dog world of the Joe McDonagh Cup, but he’s also correct when he said that they can only beat what’s in front of them.

Meath put up no real challenge on Sunday, which was a shame as they were on a hot run of form having won three of their four games, losing out only narrowly to neighbours Westmeath.

It’s indicative of the quality in Division 2 that Meath lay second after four games, and in truth if needed Laois could have ramped up and doubled their winning tally it felt.

To win by 17 points without scoring a goal and still be criticised for being wasteful in front of the posts. Sounds like a backhanded compliment to me.

Laois were at their ease on Sunday, evidenced by the score put up alone, but if you dig deeper it becomes more impressive.

The hosts had 11 individusal scorers, just the ninth ever time that has happened for Laois, and more impressively again they all scored at least one from play.

Six of the scores came from the bench with Picky Maher, Martin Phelan and Fiachra C Fennell all on target.

Perhaps the main criticism coming away from the game, and it’s something that has been mounting in recent weeks, is the lack of goals and even chances at goals.

Laois have scored just three goals since hitting Mayo for five in the first half of their league opener in Tooreen.

They added one in the second half against Mayo and raised single green flags against Kerry and Westmeath – but were held goalless by both Derry and Mayo.

It’s not something to worry about in those types of fixtures, but it’s definitely something that Fitzgerald and co will be looking to improve on before the Joe McDonagh Cup comes around because goals will be needed to win games there.

There’s still an experimental feel to games with Laois as Fitzgerald weighs up how to line out his forwards.

A pacey forward line including Tomas Keyes, James Keyes, Cillian Dunne and Jack Kelly started on Sunday with the size coming from Ryan Mullaney and Aaron Dunphy, but by the end we also saw Picky Maher, Martin Phelan and Mark Dowling in there, all clearing 6 foot with less emphasis on speed.

There’s no shortage of options, but trying to find the balance is going to be the key going forward.