David Dooley of Laois poses for a portrait with the Liam MacCarthy cup during the national launch of the GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship at Spanish Point in Clare. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
By John Harrington
History tells us that teams beaten in Joe McDonagh Cup finals struggle to bounce back from that disappointment when they play a preliminary All-Ireland quarter-final in its aftermath.
The average losing margin over the four such matches to date has been 22 points, so the task looks like a tough one for Laois when they play Wexford this Saturday in Laois Hire O’Moore Park.
Perhaps all the more so because they’ll surely feel like last Saturday’s Joe McDonagh Cup Final was a match they could have won.
They certainly looked like the more likely victors when they came from seven points down to draw level with Offaly at the start of injury-time, but ultimately it was Offaly who found the winning surge when it was needed most.
A sore one to lose for the O’Moore County, but half-forward David Dooley knows they can’t afford to feel too sorry for themselves with Wexford coming to town on Saturday.
“It was very disappointing but we left ourselves a lot of work to do as well conceding the goal from the throw-in at the start of the second-half which didn't help,” says Dooley.
“We fought hard and clawed it back well to get level with a couple of minutes to go and it looked like it might go our way, but a few things went against us then.
“It's difficult because we put so much into it and our goal at the start of the year was to get promotion to the Liam MacCarthy Cup.
“It's still playing in the back of the mind but we have to draw a line in the sand and get the bodies and minds right and reset for Wexford because it's going to be a big one on Saturday.
“They've had their eyes set on this game for the last few weeks so we need to be ready for it.”
David Dooley of Laois during the Joe McDonagh Cup final match between Laois and Offaly at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile.
If Laois are able to compartmentalise that Offaly defeat, they should be able to find plenty of positives to draw encouragement from going into Saturday’s game.
They won Division 2A of the Allianz Hurling League in impressive style, and in his second year as manager Willie Maher has a better knowledge of the players at his disposal and how to get the best from them.
He’s brought through a clutch of talented young players, including Dooley himself, who made his senior county debut this year.
The Rosenallis man got his first call-up in 2021 from then manager Seamus ‘Cheddar’ Plunkett, but an age eligibility rule-change meant he ultimately couldn’t feature that year.
That persuaded him to instead focus on rugby for a couple of years, and he was good enough to make it as far as the Leinster Academy until and some training sessions with the senior team until injuries put paid to a potential professional career with the oval ball.
He got back playing hurling with his club Rosenallis last year, and while it took him some time to get up to speed again, by the end of the championship his performances were good enough earn another call up with Laois.
“There's obviously a lot of skill involved in rugby too, but it's a completely different game,” says Dooley.
“It was tough coming back at the start because you expect to pick up where you left off but it doesn't really work like that.
“I played with the club last year and I found myself getting better and better every day which was satisfying.
“It's my first year back in now with Laois and it's been a bit of a whirlwind but I'm loving every second of it.
“I've always wanted to play at the highest level no matter what I was doing so it was a bit of a no-brainer to come back in this year and test myself against some of the best lads in the county.
“I'm glad I could contribute some way and I'm loving it.”
Hurlers in attendance at the national launch of the GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship at Spanish Point in Clare, from left, Jason Sampson of Offaly, Lee Chin of Wexford, Tony Kelly of Clare, Seamus Flanagan of Limerick, Paddy Deegan of Kilkenny, Ethan Twomey of Cork, David Dooley of Laois and Conor Donohoe of Dublin. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile.
Despite the result, playing in Croke Park last weekend was special experience for Dooley.
He was taken aback by the numbers and noise of the Laois support in the stadium, and hopes they come out to back them just as enthusiastically on Saturday.
“You know Wexford will bring a big crowd so hopefully we can match that,” he says. “The fact that it's in Portlaoise is definitely a help.
“Hopefully they come out in numbers again because we definitely noticed it in Croke Park. Even on the way in the bus we were seeing more Laois than Offaly supporters on the road and it was really nice to see.
“And then in the stadium you'd really notice the noise levels, it was like nothing I'd experienced before.”
Willie Maher has perhaps sensibly given his players a few days off this week to rest physically and reset mentally for the challenge of playing Wexford.
No-one is giving them much of a chance of pulling off an upset, but Dooley believes they can put it up to the Slaneysiders.
“It's going to be a tough one because Wexford obviously have some unbelievable players too but we just have to try to handle them and bring our own game to it as well.
“We saw some big results in the Leinster championship with Antrim beating Wexford and Carlow drawing with Kilkenny. I know knock-out is higher stakes but, still, we'll back ourselves.
“There's no point playing the game if you don't have confidence in yourself. We'll give it everything we have anyway and see where we go.”
