Kearns strikes good balance

LEINSTER SFC:THIS CONCERNS the evolution of Gaelic football. The game has rapidly progressed over the past six years, mainly due to an Ulster revolution that forced the old order to reassess and rebuild, literally, the foundations of an intercounty player's physique.

The prototype footballer these days is in the Paul Galvin or Bryan Cullen mould. In Laois, they have Brendan Quigley. Well, actually, they don't have him against Wexford this Sunday in the Leinster semi-final as he damaged his head recently falling through a sky-light.

A year ago Laois manager Liam Kearns spoke in these pages about football in the county under his regime. He had relieved fellow Kerryman Mick O'Dwyer of the managerial duties that season and quickly realised precious physical development had occurred at inter-county level during the previous four-year tenure.

An excellent crop of underage players were immediately dispatched to the weights room - several years behind primary rivals from Ulster, Dublin and Kerry. The O'Dwyer short-passing game was also dispatched to the scrapheap, yet so burned into the collective psyche, it occasionally returns, like in the latter stages of the narrow quarter-final victory over Wicklow (and a returning Micko) on May 31st.

"Well, I would say the Dublins, the Corks, the Armaghs, the Kerrys, they all have four, five years of constant weights done," said Kearns 12 months ago. "They are at the stage now where they are huge. People are questioning now is the game less skilful as a result because of the amount of emphasis on strength work. There is a balance needed between the two."

There certainly is and Laois are on the cusp of striking it. There is no question about the quality coming out of the midlands nursery, with regular underage success dating back to 1996.

"We've been looking for bigger guys," said Kearns yesterday. "Physically stronger men."

He proceeded to list them. The fullback Mark Timmons breaks six foot, as does Barry Brennan, Colm Kelly and Quigley. Kelly, however, joins Quigley on the injury list this weekend after damaging knee cartilage in training.

Then there were the two powerful revelations at midfield: Kevin Meaney (22) and John O'Loughlin (19). Kearns kept Wicklow guessing right up to throw-in with Brennan and Pádraig Clancy joining the pre-match huddle before retreating to the sideline. Clancy is fit again but has not been selected. The progress of O'Loughlin has been well charted but it was Meaney, overlooked at minor, who provided the stand out performance in the middle third of the field. He looks a natural.

Now all Kearns's young team have to do is replicate their first-half performance from the last day for 70 minutes in the intimidating environment of Croke Park. Is there an advantage in that Wexford have traditionally faltered at this juncture? "Not at all. There are seven new players in this Laois team. Six of them are playing a senior match in Croke Park for the first time. It will be interesting to see how they go."

Kearns sounded back to his composed, no-nonsense self yesterday. After the Wicklow match, when the pressure caused by almost losing to O'Dwyer and Division Four opponents was etched all over his face, he unloaded verbally on the local media for voicing their opinions on his management style.

There were pockets of brilliance from Laois that day. Lightweight magicians Ross Munnelly and Michael Tierney, who is expected to recover from a hamstring tear, posting some excellent scores to edge them clear.

In the second-half they inexplicably stuttered, allowing Wicklow claw back into the contest. "We played well overall but just got caught up in attacking, over-carrying the ball a little. We had 40 scoring chances and took 15. That is not acceptable and Wicklow could have caught us."

Meath committed a similar crime against Wexfordand allowed Matty Forde the type of match-winning position he so relishes. The great marksman will gladly accept a similar opportunity come Sunday. "I saw (Wexford manager) Jason Ryan's comments on the progress of Division Three teams in the championship and he is right," continued Kearns.

If Laois have learned any lessons, and embraced the Kearns way, now is the time to show it. Get past Wexford and they should have all the big men back in harness to combine with their hugely talented, yet smaller posse for the ultimate challenge on July 20th.