Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Oisin has been breath of fresh air
BOSS KELLY HAILS WORK OF ARMAGH HERO MCCONVILLE
LAOIS hurling manager Eamonn Kelly believes Armagh legend Oisin Mcconville can have the same impact on his players that Kieran Mcgeeney had in Tipperary.
Kelly (right) revealed it was the success of Mcgeeney as a guru with the Tipp hurlers during Eamon O’shea’s reign that convinced him to draft Mcconville into his setup.
Mcgeeney and Mcconville were key figures during Armagh’s breakthrough Allireland of 2002. Mcgeeney captained the Orchard county and later worked in the background as a performance analyst with Tipp who were within a point of winning the 2014 All-ireland. Mcconville was man of the match in the 2002 football decider and is now a trained counsellor having turned the corner on gambling addiction. He and Kelly sat together in the stand on Sunday as Laois beat Meath to claim top spot in the Leinster qualifier group. Kelly admitted he was impressed by stories of Mcgeeney’s time with Tipp and said: “That’s why I looked at it with Oisin, to be honest. The lads have great time for him and that’s the same role as Kieran that Oisin is doing for us and, to be honest, he’s a breath of fresh air.
“He would see a lot of similarities in where Laois are at the minute with where he was when he started off his career with Crossmaglen and Armagh, they were kind of teams in transition and that’s what the lads like about him, they see a lot of similarities too.
“How it came about is I got to know Oisin a while back and we’ve been looking to the sports psychology side of things.
“There were a few facets of our game where we felt we weren’t working hard enough, that our body language was bad at times and he’s come in and taken a look at that.
“The way I look at it is that those Armagh players are hugely mentally tough fellas and Oisin is a qualified counsellor also so he has come in and I find him very good for myself as well, he’s a very good sounding board and the players really like him.”
Mcconville is the latest addition to a star studded Laois management team that also includes former Limerick All-star Ollie Moran and ex-tipp player Conor Gleeson.
Coach Moran hit out at those who believe it’s already a done deal that Davy Fitzgerald’s Wexford will advance to play holders Kilkenny in the Leinster semi-finals.
Moran said: “We went down to Wexford Park on the back of two quite sizeable beatings from Limerick and Galway in the League yet with two minutes to go we were a point behind with a free to level it.
“Laois, historically, have no fear of playing Wexford which is great. The fact they’re being dismissed and written off to that extent, it can only motivate them as well.”