A little over a month ago, Laois played Roscommon in a league semi-final and won by three points. Yesterday, Donie Brennan’s players took on the Rossies again, and this time won by seven – but in terms of where the two teams are in their development, it was chalk and cheese, and Brennan knew it.
“Momentum in sport is huge, especially in Gaelic football,” said the former Laois attacker.
“We got to win a league final, we won last week against Kildare, that’s huge. Roscommon were coming from losing to Sligo, losing to Laois, losing to Kildare and into today’s game.
“Over the last few years they have been All-Ireland semi-finalists and contenders, but we felt we had the momentum and the confidence.
“Players are willing to work hard and put their bodies on the line. Even though there was seven points in it, we missed an awful lot of chances. It was seven, it could have been 17, but that’s neither here nor there. We’ve plenty to work on for our All-Ireland quarter final all the same”.
Whatever tweaks and changes might be needed, the foundations are clearly in place. On what was a searingly hot afternoon, Laois devoured the ground up and down the field, wearing down their opponents and creating any number of scoring chances from deep positions. To Brennan, that is the starting point for any team.
“We pride ourselves on hard work. Even at the end of those long runs you just have to suck it up as you have to find a finish or a shooter and get the ball over or into the net.
“Gaelic football is not rocket science, you have to work hard and make those hard runs. You have to be prepared to track back as well. That’s what we expect”.
“We have 33 on the panel at the moment and we have people fighting to get on to the matchday programme. That’s why we have people fighting to get in the 20 that play a part and then we have people fighting to get in to the 15”.
The next challenge for Laois is a quarter-final contest with Louth, where anything less than victory will be seen as a setback.
It’s an unusual position for this group, and unlike a lot of managers who would still try to come up with some spurious reason to shunt the weight of favouritism off their shoulders, Brennan is happy to embrace it.
“Isn’t it better to have the expectation there? It means that we are winning matches, that we are going well and that we are in the right position.
“We have put ourselves in that position by hard work, training hard, through players buying in and listening and doing what they are told.
“We will probably go in as favourites and deserving favourites after winning Division Three, after beating Roscommon and Kildare.
“People were calling it a hard group, but we’ve won the two matches in it. I don’t think (favourites tag) will be a factor for us. We have to go out and work hard and win the match to progress to a semi-final, just like any other game”.
That quarter-final will on the weekend of August 7-8 with the winners meeting Down or Wexford in the semi-final a week later.
SEE ALSO – End of an era as Matthew Whelan calls time on inter-county hurling career
The post Brennan looking forward as Laois ladies footballers set their sights on All Ireland quarter-final appeared first on Laois Today.
source https://www.laoistoday.ie/2021/07/27/brennan-looking-forward-as-laois-ladies-footballers-set-their-sights-on-all-ireland-quarter-final/
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