It just keeps getting better for Laois

Gaelic Games: When is a big occasion not a big occasion? When it's National League. The semi-finals of the National Football league drew about 30,000 to Croke Park yesterday but each of the four teams on display had it's own agenda.

Only the summer months will tell how important, if at all, yesterday was.

And yet we accept that caveat when we press through the turnstile. Customers may not get value for money. Teams may choose today to step gracefully from the carousel. Yet yesterday's football semi-finals had sufficient novelty to keep us in our seats as a nippy breeze whistled around the ground.

Tyrone visibly warmed to the idea of beating Fermanagh as the curtain raiser went on and then Laois continued their renaissance with a sprightly display against an Armagh side who looked more motivated then we imagined they would.

Laois were the story of the day. As their modish forward Colm Parkinson noted afterwards they have gone from being just a "group of young fellas" to being a serious team. How serious only the summer will tell. In English football widespread credence is given to the notion that Johnny Foreigner doesn't like it up 'im. In Leinster football most believe that Laois footballers will always crack up on the big day. They are flakier than a house made of puff pastry.

If Laois are to shed that image this could be the year.

Mick O'Dwyer walks among them now and footballers who were celebrities at under-age find their reputations dwarfed in his shadow.

He's been sweating the bad habits out of them, stringing words in the air for them to hang onto until gravity is defied, giving them the sort of heady excitement that he brought to Kildare over a decade ago.

It's a remarkable messianic trick. Back in 1991 he brought Kildare to a league final and almost filled Croke Park with born again flour baggers.

He's repeating the deal now. There were only about 30,000 in Croke Park yesterday but Laois people have been let down many many times. Yesterday may make believers of them at last.

If there is not a sense of belief now there never will be. This team has had under-age success, they are unbeaten in the league this season, they have beaten Kildare for the first time in 71 years and yesterday they beat the All-Ireland champions Armagh. They are back in a league final for the first time since they won the competition in 1986. Time to ride the wave.

They have a nice look to them too. Quick and coherent and showing the makers mark in all aspects of play. They get more out of themselves than they have in recent years and yesterday's man of the match winner Colm Parkinson was a case in point.

He scored three points yesterday but moved with an intelligence and wit that suggested the promise he had a few years ago.

And speaking of promise Damien Delaney has blossomed again. Top scorer in the campaign he had 1-6 yesterday including a goal right at the start of the second half which gave his side a two-point lead and the platform for better things.

"All year we have had our eye on playing Wexford here on May 11th," said O'Dwyer.

"But now we have a final where Laois people can come out in their thousands to support this team and I think they will. We played exciting football today and that's what we want to play this summer. So we are very pleased."

Laois' pleasure at progressing to the final probably outshone that of Tyrone but the northerners gave the best performance of the afternoon, scoring four fine second half goals in a rather clinical dismantling of Fermanagh.

The sides slugged it through a listless first half which demonstrated little except how they came to possess the best two defences in the country this year. Fermanagh led by a point at the break.

Then a Peter Canavan goal immediately after the interval opened the gates for a second half that left one wondering how Fermanagh managed to be one of the best two defences in the country this year. The goals kept coming. Another for Canavan. Two for his partner Eoin Mulligan. And one for Fermanagh to keep things interesting.

So a final on May 4th for a couple of teams who wouldn't claim to be anything more than works in progress. The novelty of the pairing, the whetting of the appetite for summer and perhaps a bit of sunshine.

Could be enough to make a real big occasion of it.