Why has Laois hurling fallen so far and so quickly?

Diarmuid O’Flynn
Have you ever seen a fight where one guy was simply being pummelled for round after round and the referee didn’t intervene?
It felt something like that for those of us in the attendance of over 7,000 who witnessed the Dublin demolition job on Laois in Tullamore on Saturday evening in the Leinster senior hurling quarter-final.
Dublin won the toss and elected to play with the strong breeze at their backs – that was the start of the Laois travails. Whatever slim hope they entertained rested on that toss.
“We were hoping that we'd stay onto their coat-tails and upset them and get into their face,” said a forlorn Laois boss Teddy McCarthy afterwards. “And it didn't happen.”
Once the coin turned up the other way it was game over.
Dublin were 1-4 to 0-0 clear after 12 minutes. Laois mounted a mini-assault and came away with 1-1 from two raids in two minutes. But that was it. No more scoring for Laois into that wind and rain in the first half, trailing 3-14 to 1-1 at the break, then another eight points conceded on the trot to start the second half – 3-22 to 1-1 after 54 minutes.
It was a bloodfest and there was nothing referee James Owens could do about it, nothing any of us could do except turn away.
Dublin themselves eventually relented, eased up for the final quarter and allowed Laois land a few light blows. But this was a sad sight, a sorry sight, a sight that will surely have worried new GAA President, Laoisman and hurling enthusiast Liam O’Neill.
Remember too, this was actually an improvement on last year for Laois – who will forget the 10-20 to 1-13 drubbing doled by Cork just under 12 months ago in the qualifiers?
And it’s not about to get any easier for them either, drawn to face a fast-improving Limerick side in just under three weeks in the qualifiers.
How have Laois fallen so far and so fast? Simple – it’s that sport even more ancient than hurling, a sport even more intrinsic to our nature; I'm talking of course about in-fighting. Boy, are we good at it, world-class at every level whether local, regional or national.
I have no doubt that Laois have better hurlers than those who lined out for the county in Tullamore on Saturday afternoon last.
Where are they? Why aren’t they playing?
It’s probably too late now for Teddy McCarthy or anyone else in Laois to do anything about their in-fighting problems before June 23rd and that date with Limerick but there will be time enough in the long year ahead.
For anyone concerned with Laois hurling, for anyone connected with the county board, it should be a matter of absolute priority that everyone should gather round the table and sort out their differences.
This is not preaching, this is not patronising, this is not stone-throwing.
Laois, and counties like Laois, need to have everything working for them if they’re going to throw down the gauntlet to the likes of Dublin. Dammit it was only a few years ago they were beating Dublin in the championship, and beating them well
Remember this: Laois 4-14 Dublin 0-14. That was in 2005, only seven years ago.
There is pride in Laois GAA, pride in Laois hurling. There’s tradition there too, and honour, and passion, and all the other ingredients to compete again. But is there the will? Is there the selflessness, the generosity of spirit to see past their own individual gripes and look at the bigger picture?
From here we can only question; only Laois can supply the answers.

Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/PdlJgJzHxv4/post.aspx

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