The backdrop to Laois playing Galway in Sunday’s Leinster hurling semi-final is not pretty, nor is the likely outcome – yet the way Cahir Healy views it there is no gain without pain.
Healy has certainly endured some painful defeats with the Laois hurlers, which makes his decision to concentrate solely on them this year, and drop off the football panel, seem all the more perverse.
Yet there has been considerable gain already this year, first in promotion to Division 1B of the hurling league, then beating Antrim and Carlow to set up Sunday’s date with last year’s All-Ireland finalists.
"It just got to the point where I felt I was going nowhere with two games," says Healy. "I was getting stagnant. I didn't think I was playing well in the football or the hurling.
'My game'
"Hurling was always my first game when I was growing up. It just came down to that. Hurling was my game. That was purely why I picked it.
“I’m 26 now and I kind of felt it was time to pick a game and try and be good at one rather than be mediocre at the two of them.”
Football’s loss may have been hurling’s gain, as far as Laois are concerned, although the footballers’ shock defeat to Louth was probably not helped by Cahir’s decision.
Now comes the challenge of playing Galway, who beat Laois 5-29 to 0-17 last time they met, in the 2009 quarter-final. Last year, Laois lost to Dublin, 3-23 to 1-7, and then to Limerick in the qualifiers, 6-21 to 1-11.
“Yeah, last year, we were probably at the lowest ebb Laois hurling has ever been at. We haven’t been at too many high ebbs either, so that tells a lot about where we were.
“I think we just got our act together in terms of our commitment and effort in training and we stabilised during the league.
“It might sound defeatist, but I guess what we’d be looking at against Galway is to put up a performance, and see what we’re at.
“What this is going to tell us is how much progress, if any, we’ve made.
“If we go out Sunday and lose by 30 points, have we made any progress from last year or the year before?
“The results will say no, so that’s the thing for us Sunday, to find out really where we are because we’re two divisions behind them.
“We have not hurled a team like them all year. I suppose it’s a chance to test ourselves against one of the best teams in Ireland, some of the best hurlers in Ireland, so we’re really looking forward to it.
"But it's a huge step up. So you're probably hoping realistically to put up a fight against them.
Building
"They were talking about Limerick building for two or three years to beat Tipperary. How are we going to beat Galway after just one year of decent training?
“Really, we’re just trying to stabilise where we’re at.”
Cahir has no doubt that one of the main stabilising forces in Laois was the appointment earlier this year of manager Séamus Plunkett:
“Well he’s the same club as me, Portlaoise. So the fact we have a good management team with the hurling and good coaches did influence my decision a small bit.”
