Donoher’s dark days on his road to Croker
Final is everything to Laois star
THE over-riding sense is that Laois footballers are heading to Croke Park tomorrow simply to make up the numbers. It is just a boxticking exercise before Dublin, who are available at odds of 1/200, take the Delaney Cup home for the eighth consecutive season.
Just don’t tell Niall Donoher there’s little point in this Leinster football final.
The Courtwood native was one of his team’s most impressive players in their hard-fought win over Carlow. And he has learnt the hard way to savour every moment that he spends in a Laois jersey. He knows the agony of almost having his career snatched away from him.
Back in January 2012, when Justin McNulty was moulding Laois into a reasonably competitive force, Donoher turned awkwardly on his knee during an O’Byrne Cup game in Dr Cullen Park. From an innocuous incident, Donoher suffered a horrendous injury with cartilage coming out of the side of his knee. He didn’t kick a football for over two years.
‘I missed more than two years of ball, 18 months initially and then more than six months trying to get back.
‘There were two Championship campaigns and three National League campaigns, so it is wonderful to be looking forward to a Leinster final. There are a lot of dark days when you are recovering from an injury like that, where you don’t think you will play in Croke Park again,’ the 32-year-old dynamic forward says.
‘I was just going for a ball one day below in Cullen Park, twisted my knee and the cartilage just completely broke out of the side of the knee, so it was pretty bad.
‘I had to get microfracture surgery on my knee. I had never heard of that surgery before, but the surgeon said I recovered as well as I could. When you get a chance to get back in, you are not going to pass it up.’
Given the horrific nature of his injury, it is remarkable that Donoher got back playing football to any standard, never mind lining out in a Leinster final tomorrow. He admits there were dark evenings when he wondered if he could ever get it back but praises those around him for never letting him get too low.
‘In your own head, you will go through those feeling, that maybe I wasn’t going to get back here.
‘But I had loads of unbelievable people around me and had a lot of people backing me. In fairness, I was never left to do any of the work on my own,’ he continues.
‘Everyone was there to support me. And the knee has been good ever since. There have been no problems with it.’
One of those people that played a big role in his support structure was current manager John Sugrue, who was the physio in McNulty’s back-room team. As Donoher undertook his long and arduous recovery, Sugrue was a constant supporting presence and the forward is enjoying the opportunity to repay the Kerryman as he has taken the helm.
And Donoher feels that Sugrue has restored a bit of belief and confidence within Laois football. ‘There’s no point in beating around the bush, the squad were at a pretty low ebb when we started off this year,’ the forward said.
‘Personally, I didn’t think this day would come, not at the start of the year. I didn’t see us making the Leinster final from where we were. ‘But we had a good League, got a few wins. And when you rediscover the winning habit, the group becomes a lot tighter and there is a much more of a buzz around the squad. ‘When you are losing games, confidence is hard to build up. And it is amazing what a few wins
can do, how much it can raise confidence in a group of players. The last few years have been very, very tough but I think that Laois football have a much better future,’
And even if the outcome of tomorrow’s match is inevitable, there is a buzz back in the O’Moore County.
There are blue and white flags flying around the midlands and they will travel in their droves to Croke Park tomorrow.
‘It has taken a while to get going again but the buzz is definitely coming back ,’ Donoher adds. ‘Whatever happens against Dublin, we are guaranteed to play five Championship games this summer — and it could be even more if we get to the Super 8s.
‘That will be five times that kids will have seen Laois play this summer. And it is all about the kids, they are dragging their parents to the matches. It is great to see the interest being rekindled.’
And for those who will wonder what’s the point in Dublin easing to a 15 or 20-point victory in Croke Park tomorrow, that’s the point. That young kids in Laois have heroes in their footballers again — and it wasn’t so long ago that one of those, Niall Donoher, thought he wouldn’t kick football again.