Corby eyeing Joe McDonagh Cup success with Laois
Laois hurler Aidan Corby with the Joe McDonagh Cup. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile
By Paul Keane
Aidan Corby looks out beyond the county boundary, from Laois into Offaly, and can't help but be inspired.
Corby and Laois will play in the Joe McDonagh Cup final on Saturday, against Carlow, and are attempting to follow the same path taken by Offaly in the last two years.
Offaly defeated Laois in the tier two final in 2024, retained their Leinster SHC status in 2025 and pushed on for a landmark top-three finish in this year's provincial round-robin. Now that's what you call progress.
And it's a template that is there now for other ambitious counties to follow. Laois, desperate for a win after two McDonagh Cup final defeats on the trot, would love to do just that.
"After winning the Joe McDonagh in 2019, we came back down a year or two after that," said Corby. "We didn't kick on at all. But Offaly have. They have maximised the group of players they have, in fairness to them.
"We played them in a Leinster minor final only a few years ago and, from that, we might have only three or four lads on the panel since. I think they have eight lads starting from that group."
Corby isn't far out with his stats. Half a dozen of the Offaly minors that started that 2022 Leinster final against Laois - Liam Hoare, Ter Guinan, Shane Rigney, Conor Doyle, Adam Screeney and James Mahon - all featured in Offaly's most recent Leinster SHC game. Two more of the 2022 minors, Brecon Kavanagh and Dan Ravenhill, played in this season's Leinster SHC while Donal Shirley would have too, but for injury.
"Offaly were able to do that partly because they're up in Leinster and young lads want to play on the big days, in packed out stadiums," continued Corby. "That's driving those young lads on, big time. Things like that could make a huge difference for smaller counties. And you see it with Offaly, hurling is after going massive in the last two or three years."
That's the pot of gold that could potentially be at the end of the McDonagh Cup rainbow for Laois and Carlow. If they can just get over the line this weekend.
When the counties met at the beginning of the round-robin in April, Carlow won by 4-17 to 1-17.
Aidan Corby gets away from Cathal McCabe of Kildare during the 2025 Joe McDonagh Cup final. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
"Thankfully that was Round 1 and not a knock-out game," said midfielder Corby, a back-to-back Laois SHC winner with Clough-Ballacolla in the last two seasons.
"Carlow have some serious hurlers. We did learn lessons from it. The main thing for us is that we cannot let them outfight us again like they did that day.
"The way we lost that day, we were not really happy with it because we did not perform to our levels, so hopefully we can put in a much better performance than we did that day."
Laois have scored 10 goals in their last three games and are getting a sweet tune from the likes of Aaron Dunphy, the two Keyes, Cillian Dunne and the ultra experienced Stephen 'Picky' Maher in attack.
Carlow have their own in-form score poachers in Chris Nolan, Marty Kavanagh and Donagh Murphy.
Throw in two sets of mean defences, and panzers like Corby controlling the middle third, and it could be a cracker.
The big thing for the Laois man is that they do themselves justice. That, win or lose, Laois don't leave Croke Park this time with a pile of regrets.
That's how it felt last year when, tied at half time with Kildare, they were overwhelmed in the second half and went on to lose by 10 points.
"We felt we should have been winning at half time," said Corby, eyeing the 11 wides they struck in the first half.
"We hit a lot of wides and it was the same against Offaly in the final the year before, when it was nearly 20 wides for the whole game.
"When we had our purple patches, we didn't capitalise as much as we should have. Last year, Kildare came into their own and they are obviously serious athletes. Once they got a run on us, they were really hard to stop. So us not capitalising on the first half was probably our biggest problem last year."
Not that those final defeats have necessarily left Laois carrying any extra baggage this weekend.
"It's more that hopefully we have learned our lessons now, we're hoping to kick on, on Saturday," said Corby. "There is no-one looking too far back, saying, 'Ah I hope that doesn't happen again'. Everyone is just excited about the match."
