By Michael Devlin

This Sunday will be almost a year exactly – 364 days in fact - since Moorefield and Portlaoise last faced off in the Leinster Senior Football Club Championship.

Niall Hurley-Lynch’s brilliant point deep into injury time secured a famous win for the Kildare champions last November, who went on to collect the title after another victory in dramatic fashion over St Loman’s Mullingar a month later.

While Hurley-Lynch’s late score clinched the result over Portlaoise that day, it was Eanna O’Connor’s goal with five minutes remining that swung the game for Moorefield, following moments after the dismissal of Portlaoise’s Craig Rogers on a second yellow card.

And as the pair do battle again this weekend in Newbridge for a 2018 provincial semi-final spot, Portlaoise manager Malachy McNulty declines to paint the game as a revenge mission.

“It was a hard, tough game," he said. "We built up a two-point lead with six or seven minutes to go, and unfortunately, we went a man down," he said. "They just kept coming at us, they found a gap for the goal and took it, and that was the difference in the game. It was a disappointing and frustrating game to lose.

“We don’t look at the revenge aspect too much at all. Moorefield are a fantastic team, there’s no doubt about it, they’re strong and powerful. But we’re focusing on this as a standalone game. Anything that happened in the past doesn’t really register when I’m getting the guys ready, they just know the challenge ahead and they’re trying to be as best prepared they can for it.”

Portlaoise have held a strong grip on the Laois County Championship for over a decade, clinching 11 of the last 12 titles, with defeat to Stradbally in 2016 their only blip in that run. McNulty, in his fourth year in charge, believes that dominant record doesn’t mean it’s always been plain sailing for ‘The Town’, and that fine margins over the past three seasons have kept the hunger and drive intact within the camp.

“You have to negotiate your local championship, and they can be the trickiest," he said. "I’ve been involved with this team for four years and I can tell you that.

“In 2015 we won the final after a replay, and then in 2016 we were beaten by Stradbally in the final kick of the game. Last year you could say that we comfortably won it, but it was a hard-fought final, so there’s nothing given within the county. You just have to go back to scratch and go at it all over again, and there lies the challenge.”

Those fine margins are there to see again in previous Leinster campaigns during McNulty’s tenure. Three years ago, just a point separated Portlaoise and eventual All-Ireland champions Ballyboden St Enda’s, as well as last year’s narrow defeat to Moorefield, who also went on to claim the Leinster title.

“It’s a matter of so close but yet so far. The margins have been minimal over the last few years, so with that you have to look at ways to improve and to get that bit of edge, and that’s an incentive to push us on.”

Despite their recent dominance of Laois club football, as well as holding rank alongside St Vincent’s as the most successful Leinster club with seven provincial titles, Portlaoise haven’t won the Jack Delaney Cup since their 2009 defeat of Westmeath champions Garrycastle. McNulty, a corner-back on the team that year, believes that is testament to the difficulty of the championship year in year out.

“The Leinster Club Championship becomes a different game, it becomes an arm wrestle between the best teams in the country. It’s kind of like a whirlwind to be honest with you because these games pass you by so quick, the 60 minutes are gone in a flash. It’s a really tough championship to negotiate.

“My resounding memory from the 2009 game was that we went down to 14 men, and it was a fantastic goal from Brian Fitzgerald with five or ten minutes left in the game. We pushed on to a five or six point lead and you got a sense that it was coming, and when the final whistle came it was a fantastic feeling.”

After retaining the 2018 Laois crown with victory over O’Dempsey’s in O’Moore Park last month, McNulty and his backroom team - Sean Cotter, Aidan Fennelly and Liam Dunne - quickly moved their thoughts to the upcoming Sunday’s fixture.

“From a management point of view, thoughts change immediately. You’re getting ready for the next game, and you have a sense of who you’re going to play. We knew it was going to be either the Westmeath or Kildare champions, and we had the opportunity to see both those teams in action which was a wee bit of a help. Straight away as a management team, you’re turning your attentions to that.

“Players, you obviously give them their two or three days to celebrate the milestone in the year, like every team in the country does. It’s within a few days that they’re back in the saddle and ready to go again.

“It’s going to be an arm wrestle, there’s no doubt about it. I think the hungrier team will win on the day. Moorefield have loads of football in them, we’ve loads of football in us, so it’s going to come down to a real tight, physical battle.”

Portlaoise will look to All-Star nominee goalkeeper Graham Brody and team captain Paul Cahillane for leadership, while David Holland, Kieran Lillis, Benny Carroll and Gareth Dillon all played key roles in the Laois county team that reached the Leinster final this year for the first time since 2007.

18-year-old corner back Gary Saunders is another player who has impressed since breaking into the team this season, as has county final man of the match Ricky Maher. The corner forward was a teenage member of the 2009 panel, and after a decade of knocking on the door of the senior team, he has nailed down his place in the team this season with his two goals against O’Dempseys proving crucial.

“I’ve a resounding belief in this crop of players, even though in fairness in the last three years there has been a high turnover of players in terms of lads coming through and developing. There will be six or seven new players next day from when I was starting off as manager three years ago.

“You get a great buzz out of changing things up and developing things and bringing players on. I was honoured to be offered the job at the time, I believed that this group of players could push on and I still believe. It’s a distant second to playing, but I’m happy to be doing it.”