We’re in the off season and awards season in the GAA world at the moment but that doesn’t mean that thoughts aren’t well and truly turning to 2026.
The Laois ladies footballers are enjoying a bit of down time after hectic and eventful club and county campaigns but the planning is well underway for what the new season will bring.
“Yeah, it’s starting,” said Laois senior manager Stephen Duff on Saturday morning as Meaney Plant and Civil were announced as the new sponsors.
“We gave the girls a bit of extra time off compared to other counties because obviously our year went further, and then a lot of them are involved in senior club going right up to two or three weeks ago.
“Portlaoise only finished last week, so we want to give them time and space to decompress, refresh, recharge their batteries, and then come back fresh and ready to attack the Division 3 league again.
“Planning has started, some girls are back in the gym, and there’s a gradual return to play there. Not massive at the minute, but we’re trying to hold them back. No, we probably won’t be back on the pitch until late November, first of December.
“We’re confident in the work we can get done before the league, so we’re trying to give the girls time to be normal human beings.
“They sometimes forget that they’re not just county players, that they’re people with lives too, so we’re trying to give them that time and space.”
Having lost to Tyrone in this year’s All Ireland intermediate final, a number of the players were back in Croke Park recently for the Team of the Year celebration including goalkeeper Eimear Barry, defenders Clodagh Dunne and Andrea Moran and corner-forward Emma Lawlor.
“I suppose I had kind of had put it to the back of the mind for the last couple of weeks, but then we were up in Clough Park last week and it brought it all back again,” said Eimear Barry.
“It was nice to be in Clough Park, but it was not nice to be experiencing looking back at reels of the final. It’s actually, you know, quite at the forefront now in my mind and the disappointment.”
However, despite the disappointment, on reflection Barry says that Laois achieved a lot over the past season.
“There’s a bit of transition going on with the team and I don’t know, maybe if we asked ourselves at the start of the year would we have got to an All-Ireland, we probably would have taken it.
“Obviously you get to an Ireland you want to win, but I think maybe we were a step ahead of where we actually are.”
“We took two relegations (league and championship) from the year before, so I suppose there was a lot of hurt there still,” said Emily Lacey, who had a fine season in attack for Laois as she continues to establish herself as a quality player at this level.
“We were very frustrated and then all of a sudden it all started kind of coming together. It all started kind of becoming a bit more enjoyable.
“To get those wins and then in succession and into a Leinster final and then next thing you know you were looking at a good group stage. It was very enjoyable for me personally anyway. I was winning with the girls and all of that and just going on a great run.”
An extra-time win over Wexford in searing heat was a massive moment in their season.
“It was brilliant and I think after that it just showed. It kind of confirmed for ourselves more so than anything that we actually have a chance of pushing on here and I know we didn’t get the end result, but I know for a lot of the younger girls playing in Croke Park and having that experience of an All-Ireland final is just brilliant.”
“We lost it, but sticking together afterwards really brought us together as well,” added captain Andrea Moran.
“We had a great year together, getting to know each other and winning on big days. The semi-final as well, I suppose that was a huge win for us and it really brings everyone together.
“So I suppose next year, obviously the goal is to get back there and get back there and win it.”
Moran was also keen to praise new sponsor Kevin Meaney and his partner Laura – a former team-mate of many of the Laois side – for coming on board.
“We’re so grateful to Kevin and to Laura as well,” she said.
“It’s great to have a sponsor, I suppose, who have football experience and they know what it’s like getting out there, putting on the jersey and the commitment that you give as well.
“We’re so grateful to them and it’s great even to see Laura here today as well. I mean, she was just a Laois legend.”
That social side of things is an important element, with Moran also enjoying the Team of the Year presentation in Croke Park and the Laois awards night is coming up later this month.
“We had a great night last Friday. There was four of us up there, so it was lovely to get up there and be there with our families as well. It’s great.
“It’s nice to celebrate. I know it was a tough end of the year, but I suppose these nights, they don’t come around often, so you do need to enjoy them.
“These are the girls you’re spending three or four nights a week together and it’s nice to, you know stick together and you have to celebrate the good things as well.”
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