Colm Begley: 'Dublin are not invincible'
Colm Begley
By John Harrington
Laois footballer Colm Begley doesn't believe the Dublin footballers are an invincible force in Leinster.
The reigning All-Ireland champions have won the last six Leinster titles in a row and 11 of the last 12, but Begley thinks it’s possible they could get caught on the hop in their own province next year.
“I think they could, I think it could happen,” he said. “Dublin are obviously at a very high level but it’s hard to keep yourself mentally focused.
“For Dublin probably Leinster isn’t their goal, they obviously love to win it, don’t get me wrong. They want to be Leinster champions the whole time and they want to be the best team consistently but they might get caught out some day and under-perform.
“A wet day or something like that could help another team but at the moment it’s hard to see them being beaten and they are such a well-drilled side. But the Mayo performance will have given lads hope as well and give teams hope that they are not invincible.”
The only prospect of Laois playing Dublin in next year’s Leinster championship would be were both teams to qualify for the provincial Final.
Begley doesn’t think the other counties in Leinster are afraid of Dublin, but admits it’s a bonus to come out of the hat on the other side of the draw to the province’s most dominant force.
“I’d say teams are very eager to see what the draw is in the Leinster championship to see what side they go on,” he says.
“I think teams on the opposite side of Dublin are probably delighted and they’ll all be thinking to themselves ‘ok, we have a chance to go and make a Leinster final.’
“In my mind if you make a Leinster final you never know what can happen. Dublin obviously have such a high level of performance, but in a Leinster final you just wouldn’t know and that’s what I would think.
“I’d love to play at Croke Park in a Leinster final against Dublin, that would be an unbelievable experience for me personally.
“The last one was 2005 before I left (for Australia) and it is still to this day one of the most amazing atmospheres I played in.
“The teams on our side of the championship are probably going to themselves ‘we have a chance here now if we get ourselves playing right and we can make a Leinster final and who knows from there.’
“It probably is a bit disheartening for teams on the other side, Dublin are always firing usually from the start of the year. But you can’t see it that way.
“Even for teams to put in a performance against Dublin win or lose, if they play well or of they put in a good performance against them, they’ll probably look up at that and go ‘well, we’ve competed against the best team in the country."
Peter Creedon will manage Laois in 2017.
Laois will be under new management in 2017 with former Tipperary boss Peter Creedon succeeding Mick Lillis in the position.
The Laois players are still in the getting to know you phase with Creedon, but Begley says they like what they’ve seen from him so far.
“So far it has been positive. It’s a cliche but it’s nice to get something fresh in there, we didn’t have an overly good year last year through a combination things.
“Peter Creedon has come in, he has a good reputation by all accounts and did good things with Tipperary and has been organised and structured in what he has done so far which is a positive for players. It brings a nice energy to it.
“Before Christmas there’s a lot of hard work, bringing players in getting them conditioned. There’s a bit of football talk, talking about how we are going to play, and overall it has been very positive.”
