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Laois SFC Preview: Emo v Portarlington

Saturday, 30 October 2021 12:53

We spoke to both managers to get their views.

Portarlington and Emo is possibly the final many people thought Laois would be watching a few months ago. 

Emo were the form team when covid brought a halt to the championship in 2020 and Portarlington are the pick of the majority in GAA neutrals in the county to pick up where Portlaoise have left off in the last decade. 

The reigning champions are looking to make back to back county finals for the first time since the 1995 and 1996 seasons. 

Emo on the other hand are aiming to make it back to their first decider since 2015 and avenged the demons of losing out to Graiguecullen last year by beating them a fortnight ago to reach this stage. 

Speaking to us on Thursday, their manager David Costello said:

The lads fought to the end against Graiguecullen and now our minds are firmly on Portarlington. Semi-finals are always tough and the last day out was an emotional one for the lads but they got through it. 

Going into last year's semi-final against Graigue things were going well, were confident and it just didn't work out for us.

Fair play to them they came out on top and it was a bit of a shock for us but we're just working away again trying to get back to where we were last year.

Port's forwards are very strong and among the best in the county, we know that, everyone knows that.

We've a plan in place we're set up defensively very strong,  or at least we hope to be and we know they're defensively very strong too and scores might be hard to come by for both sides. 

Meanwhile Portarlington boss Martin Murphy admits this campaign has been a rollercoaster: 

We're not in a bad place but it has been a difficult few weeks in the lead up the championship because of the quick turn-around and the motivation factor of winning a senior title in August and then trying to get revved up for round one of 2021 championship a few weeks later. 

We've come through the early stages without really impressing anyone but we are still in the hunt. 

On their strong defence which is now nine championship games without conceding a goal: 

All you have to do is look at the quality of defenders in there. All of them have played for Laois at one time or another and we live and die by our defence. I have to commend them for the hard work they're putting in.

It's three years in the making. I came in in 2019 and put a system in place and they bought into it. It's not a system that you can adapt overnight but they have worked hard on it and pride themselves in it. So far so good. 

We asked him how Portarlington are handling the championship favourites tag:

It's difficult for any club that shows any great promise like we have in the last 18 months not to be given a favourites tag but the players are a very level headed bunch of lads.

They see the dangers of being overconfident going into games, take every game as it comes like I've asked them to and it has worked for us so far. 

This team and group are different that previous groups at the club who have underachieved or underperformed having won a championship and maybe gone out early the following year. 

And on their opponents Emo, Murphy had this to say: 

It's going to be no easy task to beat Emo. I think they're in a good place and back where they were before last season's semi-final. 

They could have caused a shock against Graiguecullen last year had the championship gone ahead as planned.

The likes of Jack Owens and Paddy Hosey are a year older and wiser and I expect them to be a serious threat on Sunday. 

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