Laois Star Niall Rigney One Of The Great All Rounder's In Modern Times Every weaker county has a Niall Rigney or two: a hurler or a footballer good enough to play for the Kilkenny's or Dublin's but fated by geographical accident to labour in less-exalted climes. Most of them trundle along quite happily through an uneventful career with perhaps a handful of local diehards aware of their excellence and nothing much else to show for their dedication. Niall has been playing with Laois hurlers since 1988 and spent most of that time in the shadows of Leinster neighbours Kilkenny and Offaly. They came very close to causing a major shock against Kilkenny this summer but, ultimately, no dice. However, the encouragement offered by that performance gained serious momentum a few weeks ago with the news that former Tipperary messiah Babs Keating had moved into the Laois hot seat. As a shot in the arm for Laois hurling, it must be the equivalent of Mick O'Dwyer joining Kildare back in 1990. That all ended in tears and Babs' task is just as formidable but now is a time for optimism in the O'Moore County and his arrival has generated a lot of excitement. "There's a good old buzz in the county players wise. Somebody like him, players are always going to look up to him after bringing Tipperary to a couple of All-Irelands. It's just a general buzz among the players in the camp, he's very good for players, he's a player's man," says Niall He doesn't believe that Babs will have to concentrate especially on the skill level, among the county hurlers. Laois doesn't suffer in comparison with Offaly or Kilkenny in terms of touch or control but, he maintains, in terms of commitment. The panel hasn't pulled together fully over the last five or six years but he has seen a greater unity or purpose in the last month since Babs took over and the sort of commitment needed might be forthcoming now. Laois players, he added, have been putting in the mileage over the years but there were one or two including himself he admits in recent years that had other commitments. He had been coaching rugby for the last two seasons with Portlaoise RFC and was unable to play league hurling but this winter he is no longer coaching and will be able to commit himself fully to Laois. Niall is one of eight sporting brothers, including of course, older brother Brian who has been capped for the Ireland rugby team. Niall played alongside Brian and another brother, Des, in the Greystones team for a number of seasons before he broke his neck in a frightening incident during a game. That was November '92. It finished a promising rugby career and kept him out of sport for eight or nine months. It was a very demoralising time for him and he missed the rugby for a couple of seasons but now he's fully accepted the situation and hopes to make the most out of his hurling career. Another brother plays corner back on the Laois team and the lads were reared in Portlaoise on a diet of football and hurling. Rugby didn't enter the equation until Brian first took it up at the age of 19. His progress to full international status was all the more astonishing because of his late arrival into the game but a source of great pride to the Rigney household. Having packed down alongside internationals like Nick Popplewell and brother Brian, Niall is well-placed to assess the fitness levels of Gaelic footballers, vis a vis top class rugby players. Does he subscribe to the view, held by some, that top Gaelic players are fitter than some full internationals? "I think they are, to be honest with you. It's the way the game of football has gone. The new rules are speeding the game up all the time, kicking the ball from the hand for frees and sideline kicks from the hand. It's all speeding the game up it's all running now whereas in rugby, I suppose, it's strength-wise a physical sort of fitness. And if you look at Ireland as opposed to England or New Zealand, their fitness level wouldn't be half as good." Part of the problem, he believes, for Irish players is that they're still amateurs holding down full-time jobs, trying to compete with quasi-professionals. "If you look at the likes of my brother Brian. He works for Heineken and plays for Shannon and is lucky to be able to train two nights a week whereas the English guys, they're in jobs where they can train twice a day every day. If Irish players didn't have their work commitments they'd be just as fit." At six feet two and sixteen stone Niall was ideally for the number eight jersey which he occupied with Greystones. It also made him a natural for the number eight jersey in hurling but this season he was switched to right half back from where he scored four points against Kilkenny last Sunday week. "I'm enjoying it. I've been playing hurling since I was 14 or 15 and I've nearly always played midfield so it's nice to get a break and a change. It's a totally different ball game playing wing back as opposed to midfield, you can just concentrate on one man."He attributes their sterling performance against Kilkenny in the Championship this year to a vein of resentment among the players to the public cynicism, or lack of faith in their chances. In short, they were written off. They had done poorly in the league and even their own supporters were anticipating a bit of a slaughter. "People in Laois weren't giving us a chance and even going down to the match they were saying we'd be beaten by 20 points, they didn't even travel to the game. It was just pure frustration from the player's point of view. So we went out to prove a point that we weren't as bad as people made us out to be and it worked. We could've beaten them." Pat Critchly was their manager for the last two seasons and did great work with the team, says Naill. He has left a good foundation for Babs. Pat tried to establish a level of commitment among the lads and he succeeded. Babs is known all over the country and everyone can relate to him. "He's just an ordinary Joe Soap, there's no bullshit to him, just comes in, tells you what you're doing wrong and that's it, you gotta get it right. He's got great respect." Niall played a lot of club football but was never too enamoured with the game despite the fact that it takes precedence among the supporters over hurling in the county. Of the three disciplines he's played, he prefers rugby. "I honestly preferred rugby. Take the social side of rugby. You could go and play a team, hammer the shit out of each other for a full 80 minutes and you could end up drinking pints with them at the bar. You know, it's just great crack, I really enjoyed playing it, the fact of going playing with the two brothers. As against the hurling, if I go out to hurl against Offaly or whoever on Sunday, I could mark Joe Dooley and I probably see Joe for another six months. The social side of rugby I really enjoyed. I'd love to see hurling the way rugby is, getting to meet players afterwards, I think that's the way it should be, like at the end of the day everyone has to go to work the next day." Niall is a butcher with Cleland's supermarket in Mountrath, County Laois. He says there is a healthy amount of crossover between sportsmen, rugby lads playing Gaelic or hurling in summer to keep fit, Gaelic and hurling lads playing rugby during their off-season. He agrees that rugby has, by and large, failed to spread the gospel outside traditional areas, especially in rural areas where soccer has made significant inroads. Dublin's win this year was particularly important in this context, he believes. If Dublin hadn't won the All-Ireland this year I think soccer would have taken over completely. At the Gaelic summer camps every second young lad was wearing Man United or Liverpool jersey so, for a fact, Dublin needed to win the All-Ireland, soccer was taking over. That's what was needed for the GAA. They don't publicise it enough, make it glamorous for the kids." Laois have got a straight bye into the semi-finals of the Leinster Championship for 1996 but they then have the formidable task of facing Offaly who play the winners from the weaker counties - with respect to those same counties. That, of course, will be their big ambition for next year but in the meantime they'll be concentrating on the League and hoping to pick up on their three-point win over Limerick in the second round. Wexford beat them in the first. They're looking forward to the incoming season, Babs has infused them with renewed enthusiasm and, while they're not making any big statements of intent, they are discreetly confident of making solid progress. "Everyone's looking forward to it, we're all pulling together and working hard, keeping a low profile and hopefully, concentrate on getting promotion to Division One, maybe a quarter final play-Off in the League." He readily acknowledges that Offaly represents a huge obstacle: "Oh yeah, Leinster champions, maybe should have been All-Ireland champions, so that's bound to be tough." That said, their victors in the final, Clare, also represent a great source of hope and inspiration for weaker counties like Laois. "What Clare did is a great example to the weaker counties like Laois or should be anyway. Their self-belief should be a lesson. They showed they could do it, they had the confidence on the big day, you never know.." Taken from Hogan Stand magazine 10th November, 1995 Tweet

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