Friendly links set the ball rolling

As the dust settles on Sunday's historic Leinster final at Croke Park, Laois' first provincial title since 1946, Ian O'Riordan talks to one of the central players in the recruitment of Mick O'Dwyer to the Laois cause.

Long after the sun had gone down on Sunday's Leinster football final the celebration carousel was still circling around Laois. So many toasts still to propose. To each of the 57 lost years and all the Laois footballers lost with them. To the day they started luring Mick O'Dwyer to the position as Laois manager.

Yesterday, through the constant noise of O'Loughlin's hotel in the centre of Portlaoise, comes the story of that day, which happened almost exactly a year previously. How quickly they now toast that golden moment.

At the heart of it is Declan O'Loughlin, the hotel owner, former Laois footballer and now the team selector with O'Dwyer, and older brother Tom O'Loughlin, former Laois football chairman and the man who formally put the first call through to O'Dwyer.

Through his work in the hotel business, and through his service to football, Declan O'Loughlin had known O'Dwyer for several years and developed a close friendship. And a conversation during a round of golf in Waterville finally planted the seed in O'Dwyer's mind. Laois football could win something big with him on board.

So Tom O'Loughlin, then chairman of the Laois football board, started the formalities: first the confirmation that the Kerryman was finished with Kildare, then the official invitation to talk with Laois.

"It was the last week in July," recalls Tom O'Loughlin. "The week after Kildare were beaten by Kerry in Thurles. Micko had announced the year before that he was leaving Kildare that season, and that he wouldn't be staying no matter what.

"But when we first talked nothing was certain. I just asked him if he'd like to talk some more with us. He agreed to that, but he said he hadn't given it any thought whether or not he'd take it further than that."

Those talks continued until October, and O'Loughlin at one point travelled to Waterville to maintain the interest. O'Dwyer had hinted to some people that he might allow himself a brief rest after his work with Kildare before committing to another county, but another round of golf with Declan O'Loughlin sealed the deal.

"That was in October," says Tom O'Loughlin, "when Micko informed Declan that he was available if we wanted him. And that was that."

O'Dwyer's appointment was like an injection of enthusiasm for Laois football. Players of a couple of generations could tell the hard-luck stories since 1946, when Laois last won the Leinster title. Including Declan O'Loughlin, who played at corner forward on the Laois team that lost the 1981 Leinster final to Offaly (the game, incidentally, that, before last Sunday, was also the last final involving neither Dublin nor Meath).

Yet not even the O'Loughlins are claiming now that they expected O'Dwyer would bring such immediate success to the county.

"No, we certainly didn't realise then that we would win Leinster this year," says Tom O'Loughlin.

"But we knew we had a team that was capable of it, that we had some great footballers. It was my view that we desperately needed to get someone in that could harness the talents together.

"And we've had some good managers in recent years. In fact on balance I'd say we've had better managers than most counties. When I came in as chairman of the football board I discovered that we had appointed and got rid of 11 managers in the previous 20 years. So that was just less than every two years."

While there were no obvious shortcomings in those recently preceding O'Dwyer - men like Colm Browne (twice), the young Tom Cribbin, Mick Dempsey, Bobby Miller and Offalyman Richie Connor - they had all left with feelings of underachievement. The time had clearly come to move further afield.

Any fears of it being a difficult transition for O'Dwyer, fears heightened by a certain reputation for passing moments of disorder in Laois football, never occurred to Tom O'Loughlin.

"From day one there were never any problems. Micko just came in, met all the players, and said exactly what he was going to do. He played two or three challenge games every weekend until Christmas, and then finalised his panel.

"But everyone in the county that aspired to be on the county team was invited to trials, and got several trials before any decisions were made."

Late on Sunday evening, when the Laois team finally arrived back at O'Moore Park, the crowds were still arriving to start the welcome-home party. But it seemed many had also come to welcome home O'Dwyer.

"It was late enough by the time we got there," says O'Loughlin, "but Micko still addressed the crowd that was there. And then it was back to O'Loughlin's hotel."

Since then Tom O'Loughlin has been asked several times to describe the impact he feels the Leinster title will have on Laois football. And still he finds himself almost lost for words.

"To see what it means to so many Laois people is unbelievable. People last night were showing me grass in their wallets that they had taken from Croke Park. And souvenirs of all descriptions like that. I mean it's indescribable what it means to so many people.

"And when you think about the population of Laois, a little over 50,000, and how we sold around 17,000 tickets in advance of yesterday. That's like one in three people in the whole county going to the match.

"Then take say Dublin's population of one and a half million, and they turn out 40,000. So in proportion to that our support is phenomenal."

Last night, however, those formal celebrations were being drawn to a halt. The next thing planned for the week was tonight's training, and the build-up to the All-Ireland quarter-final on Sunday week.

O'Dwyer's ambitions, after all, have never ended with provincial finals.