PJ Scully hoping for Laois breakthrough
PJ Scully remains a key figure for Laois.
By Cian O'Connell
** **
On the eve of a new hurling year UL student PJ Scully recalls glorious and grim moments from 2016.
The beauty of winning a first Laois SHC title with Borris-Kilcotton will always be fondly recalled, but a Fitzgibbon Cup Final loss and the departure of Seamus ‘Cheddar’ Plunkett, who served the cause so well, as manager offer a reminder of the challenges that exist.
Scully, though, remains optimistic about Laois’ future. “Yeah, definitely seeing Cheddar gone it was disappointing to see him go, but unfortunately he had to go,” Scully says.
“Eamonn (Kelly) has come in and he has a really professional set-up so we are quite happy with how things are going at the minute.
“We have met with Eamonn and his backroom team, we have been introduced to them. We are back training at the minute between gym work and pitch sessions so it is full on now.”
PJ Scully won a Laois SHC with Borris-Kilcotton in 2016.
Former Tipperary and Limerick hurlers, Conor Gleeson and Ollie Moran, are both involved in Kelly’s backroom team. “Conor Gleeson is in, he worked with Rathdowney before and won the County title so he knows the Rathdowney lads very well and obviously knows the Laois Championship which helps.
“Ollie has great experience with Limerick and he has come onboard, hopefully the two of them will bring that experience and hopefully bring us to the next level.”
What is a realistic target for Laois in 2017? “We want to improve on last year, it was a disappointing year,” Scully admits.
“From the League point of view we want to keep our 1B status, that is important for our development as a team. To get to a quarter final ahead of the Championship where we are in the Round Robin, that isn't going to be simple. We aren't looking any further in the Leinster Championship, we will be just trying to get out of the group stages to see how we can go from there.”
The 2016 Allianz Hurling League was particularly tough with the only source of encouragement being a promotion/relegation play/off success over Westmeath. “We never got going, we had some disappointing results along the way,” Scully remarks.
UL student PJ Scully pictured at the launch of the Independent.ie Fitzgibbon Cup.
“Luckily we performed on the day in Tullamore against Westmeath to get over the line to save ourselves from going down. That would have been a big blow for us as a team because we are very young and we need to keep hurling against the likes of the Limericks, Clares, Galway are now down in it this year. They are teams we want to be playing and they are the only teams we will get better against.”
Significant work has been carried out in the underage ranks so Scully feels that improvements can be made at senior level. “Yeah, we have a lot of good young hurlers, but getting them to come from minor and under 21 to senior level is the hardest thing,” is Scully’s assessment.
“We need to keep the feet on the ground, we haven't won any Leinster titles or anything like that so we won't be getting carried away. There are hurlers there in Laois, but we need to keep working hard. Hopefully with a bit of luck we can maybe make a breakthrough in a couple of years time.”
It will be a busy stint for Scully, who is a key figure for Brian Lohan’s UL panel in the Independent.ie Fitzgibbon Cup. UL were beaten in a thrilling decider by Mary I last February. “Yeah, it was a great game to watch for the supporters, but for UL and the players it was obviously disappointing to lose it. We aren't too worried about it any more, we are over it. We are hoping next year that we can go a step closer again.
“We have NUIG, CIT, and St Pat's, it is a tough group. We will train over Christmas focusing on getting ourselves right for the three teams. They aren't going to be simple, we will see where that takes us.”
