‘A joke' – Laois boss blasts GAA for quick turnaround from Joe McDonagh Cup final to All-Ireland outing
LAOIS manager Tommy Fitzgerald reckons it is a 'joke' they must play Tipperary this weekend.
The
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Tommy Fitzgerald, right, and selector Niall Corcoran during Sunday's Joe McDonagh Cup final loss
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Kildare won on a scoreline of 2-26 to 1-19
Tier two winners Kildare will host Dublin and Laois will be at home to Tipp in Portlaoise — most likely on Saturday.
Laois upset Dublin at that stage of the competition in 2019.
But they lost to Wexford by 12 points last year and face a tough task to pick things up.
Fitzgerald said: 'It's very raw at the moment but we will regroup and it's important we represent the jersey and the county as well as we can the next day.
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'But it's a bit of a joke doing it next Saturday.'
Successive final defeats are a bitter pill to swallow for Laois — but they were fortunate to be in the decider having sneaked in on goal difference.
And this was their second heavy defeat to Kildare this season having lost in the group stage in Portlaoise.
Fitzgerald felt their awful shooting in the first half cost them.
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He said: 'We had 11 wides in the first half and a few dropped short.
A lot of them were good scoring opportunities.
'I don't know how many times we hit it wide on the near post. It hurt us.
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'We were still in a decent position when we got the goal at the start of the second-half.
"We probably struggled on our own puck-outs. That's where they really hurt us with their intensity.
'We did a lot of work on them in the last two weeks but Kildare are a well coached team. They're a good side and they punished us.'
Experienced performers Paddy Purcell and Podge Delaney fired four points between them.
Purcell surged through to set up the Laois goal too.
They were on the Laois team that won the 2019 Joe McDonagh Cup.
But Fitzgerald is satisfied that he does not need to rip up the script and start again.
He said: 'There's not that many, one or two maybe, that are coming towards the end.
'Apart from that, the age profile is quite good. We'll be hoping they can develop as a group, stick together and build something over the next few years.'
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