Sideline View From The Laois Senior Hurling Final

Borris-In-Ossory/Kilcotton and Clough/Ballacolla meet for the sixth time.

Clough/Ballacolla will aim to win back to back Laois senior hurling titles for the first time in 103 years this Sunday. 

The defending champions renew rivalries with Borris-In-Ossory Kilcotton less than three months on from the 2020 final.

It's the sixth time the sides have met at this stage with Clough/Ballacolla coming out on top five times. 

Their manager Declan Laffan says it wasn't difficult to refocus the minds for the 2021 championship:

We had three weeks between the final and first round so we went back training the Friday after the final.

It's very unusual I guess it feels a bit surreal playing a county final three months after playing the previous one. 

I think that was maybe a public perception. We took care of our own end of things because we played a few challenge games that were good tests and I don't think it was an issue. We were quite happy going in.

We were fortunate in the second half against Rathdowney we got our tails up and got the scoreboard ticking and put the game to bed even though the scoreline didn't reflect it at the end, I thought we were always in control. 

Was he happy with the semi-final performance?

You can't really give out to lads when it's 14 v 15 going at it hammer and tongs.

We probably had the elements on our side in the second half which had a bearing on the outcome but we'd put in such an effort before conceding two late goals. I'm not reading too much into it and we drove on in preparation for the final now. 

We've had a couple of young lads come into our panel which has probably increased competition and upped the ante and it brings up the quality of everything happening in training. 

Look your older guys, Willie Hyland who have played inter county and been around a long time and unfortunately they've never done a back to back and it's a great opportunity for them to do that and they won't be found lacking in the preparation department. 

The back to back would be huge for this bunch of players if they could do something like that.

I think with the exception of Camross no one has really done it recently so to try and do it would be huge there's no point saying it's not. 

On the difference between Laois and Tipperary club hurling: 

You have to be a bit more spot on with your preparation in Laois. It's a bit more of a shorter season, everything comes thick and fast and because of that, you can't afford a slip up.

Back home in Tipp it used to be more spread out and the season felt a lot longer but sure once you're picking up the silverware at the end of the day that is what counts. 

This is going to be a slog and whoever wins it will have earned it at the end of 60-minutes. 

In contrast, Borris-In-Ossory are in their third final in a row but have failed to get over the line in the previous two years.

They've come through a perceived tougher group, which included two of the last three winners Camross and Rathdowney-Erril, unbeaten. 

Manager Ciaran Comeford was grateful of the quick turnaround at the onset of the 2021 season:

I think that quick turnaround has been a beauty the way things worked out last time around.

It's great to have the chance to get straight back up on the horse and prepare for this one. 

It can be a long winter and I learned about that first hand in 2013. It's a long time waiting around for a full calendar year to get another crack at it. 

On the final two months ago against the same opponents:

We feel we didn't do ourselves justice at all in that 2020 final and it was a very disruptive period time with injuries to key lads and another couple isolating with covid symptoms at the time.

Ultimately in the last final we didn't turn yup as a package. We knew we were not a bad outfit and it was just a case of stripping it back and looking it inward and getting the basics right and building it from there. 

We've also a couple of young lads coming in from the under-17 grade. Believe it or not we are a different outfit that we were even two months ago. 

The way things are in Laois you're playing one another at least twice a year and down through the grades these lads would have met consistently in finals and look it's a derby and there's a bit of an edge to it and that's great. 

Happy to come through a tough group unbeaten? 

Given the way the first game with for us against Abbeyleix a lot of people would have been saying we should be beating them, but in fairness they probably should have beaten us on the day and were very very good.

The next game was much improved for ourselves against Camross and I won't say the Rathdowney-Errill game was a dead rubber but it didn't have the same knockout championship feel to it.

It was great to build and the fight we showed in the Abbeyleix game to claw it back to a draw gave us the confidence to kick on to where we are at the minute. 

On their semi-final win:

For people in the stand they might not have seen it was definitely a six or seven point breeze so it was far from over at half-time. We spoke about a couple of things. No goals, keep plugging away at the scoreboard. Camross came at us straight away after half time but you'd have to be happy with how the lads played.

Their use of the ball was exceptional. 

Aaron Dunphy relishes the freedom he has with us since he came back from county and he's a quality hurler backed up with quality hurlers around him.

You could have argued that he was quiet the last day but, he still got three points and was rallied around by the quality we have in the side.