It could be said that Cork and Laois football had a sliding doors moment in 12 years ago in Thurles, where they meet in a round four qualifier this evening.
They played in the 2007 All-Ireland under-21 final, a game which Laois dominated but conceded 1-1 late on to lose by a point.
From the Laois panel selected to play against Offaly last week, John O’Loughlin, Donie Kingston and Brendan Quigley played in that under-21 final as well as injured duo Mark Timmons and Cahir Healy, who was the captain.
Paul Kerrigan is the only player from the Cork team still playing at senior level though several of them had long senior careers and Eoin Cadogan (now with the Cork hurlers), Michael Shields, Ray Carey, Colm O’Neill, Daniel Goulding and Kerrigan himself all played in the 2010 All-Ireland senior final win over Down.
Laois football was riding reasonably high at the time though they never kicked on.
Healy reflects: “I think maybe the culture in Laois probably wasn’t strong enough at that time. John O’Loughlin made that point to me.
“Cork would have a culture, a history of winning All-Irelands so even if they weren’t going well there was a demand on younger lads that you’re playing for Cork now, you need to man up, you need to do this, you need to do that. Maybe we didn’t have that expectation of ourselves.”
Laois have actually leapfrogged Cork into Division Two for next year and while they’re underdogs, it’s still a decent opportunity for them.
“That’s why it’s a really big game,” says Healy. “Cork were in Division Two this year, now I know they got relegated, and Laois were in Division Three so you’re playing a team that’s above you, per se, but they’re not so far above you like Dublin that you might be thinking ‘oh defend’ or ‘keep the score down’.
“You’re really thinking, ‘We could take a scalp here, maybe there’s a chance for us’.”
Prediction
There's an assumption out there that Cork rediscovered themselves after their performance in the Munster final but history tells us that judgement should be held for now.
Back in 2015 they pushed Kerry to a replay only to lose to an unheralded Kildare side in Thurles in the qualifiers and Laois, a very well-organised side under manager John Sugrue, are not to be underestimated.
If Cork maintain their recent form they’ll have enough to get through to the last eight, after which a more reasoned assessment of them can be made.
VERDICT: Cork
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