Michael Dempsey Serving Laois over 3 decades and still a key piece in the county jigsaw Serving your native county faithfully over a period spanning three decades is a fair achievement to which not many footballers can lay claim to. Even more admirable if that self-same county has been bedevilled by a lack of self-belief which has thwarted every effort it has made in sixteen years to rise above it's self-generated mediocrity. In the coming days, a tale will unfold down Laois way. Will the Laois players exude a sufficient belief in themselves to cause the biggest first round upset in this year's football championship and so bury a weakening Meath side? Ever since making his inter-county debut for Laois in 1979, Michael Dempsey has been wearing an underdogs' collar. The only time it was removed was back in 1986 when, for once, the footballers of Laois played in a way which indicated that they themselves believed that they were the best team in the country. Like sun-showers on a mid-summer's day, self-belief can quickly disappear, it can depart the scene as quickly as it emerged. Paradoxically though, while the showers have nourished the green sod of O'Moore Park and other arenas, ever since that famous National League victory six years ago, an amazing drought has stunted Laois growth in terms of their ability to understand that they have every right to be the best in Leinster, or Ireland for that matter. Along with younger brother Martin, Michael Dempsey represents the only link with the Laois team which thrilled the nation with their positive inventive and skilful football on their way to beating Monaghan in the '86 League final. At first an eager comer-back on a Laois team whose only realistic aspiration back in '79 was to add to it's O'Byrne Cup tally, Dempsey the elder soon earned himself a reputation for being good on the ball, clever in tight situations and wholehearted. Rock-solid was a more conservative description used locally to describe the Saint Joseph's player at that time. By his own admission, he was playing in his most favoured sector although his preference would change in time with maturity, added strength and guile. A son of Ballyadams where families such as the Brennan's, Garvans and Lacey's hold court, the personable publican quickly proved himself a good ambassador for the Dempsey clan in the border parish. On the club front, he played a significant part in the domination by Saint Joseph's, of Laois football in the '70's during which time they emerged championship kingpins on four occasions. There were low points as well with his beloved St. Joe's, something which would condition him perhaps for inter- county team times ahead. The then insurance employee was on the wrong end of a Matt Connor inspired Walsh Island blitz in the Leinster club final of 1978, a campaign, Michael believes, should have been won if only as a reward for men at the Saint Joe's club like Kieran Brennan. It might have been different had he been reared in Kerry or Dublin a dozen years ago, but as it was his initiation into big time football was spectacularly uneventful. In truth, Laois flattered to deceive when the pressure was on over the summer months, under the heat generated by more professional sides like the Dubs and Offaly. There seemed to be light at the end of the tunnel though and sure enough, after a shock win over Meath in the Leinster Championship of '85, it burst through to brighten up the whole gaelic scene in the spring of '86. Brothers Michael and Martin Dempsey were joined in the icon category by the rest of the Laois side as the county celebrated the prospect of a new dawn. The Dempsey's, Tom Prendergast, Colm Browne, and others like Willie Brennan were now making shapes towards a leinster title and who knows what else. With the return to the fold of the highly respected John Costello. Michael operated from the comer-forward berth for that memorable final dual. "I was just glad to have made the first fifteen. We were all on a high after beating Monaghan that year", Michael remembered. The '86 win was to be no watershed though. A Leinster final defeat in '85 was hard enough to swallow but ignominy followed with the team's exit at the hands of Wicklow in the infamous Battle of Aughrim in the championship of '86. From that period onwards, morale, confidence and that most fragile of all qualities, self-belief, deserted the Laois side with resultant disenchantment and frustration ridding the team of some of it's better players in the seasons that followed. Recently a move into running the Pedigree Comer Bar in Ballylinan near Athy, placed constraints on his time. Though still a bachelor, his commitment to his new business has made him think about the time he will need to spend keeping in shape to meet the challenge of Leinster Championship Football. He insists he'll make time and despite the ravages of bitter and successive disappointments with the Hoops, intends to stick with the pace as long as team manager Richie Connor and selectors Noel Carroll and Mick Bolton include him in their plans. "I'm still only 32 and still have an appetite for the game. I don't see this year as being my swansong with Laois, no matter how we fare out against Meath". Neither has the team-management's constant relocation of the Saint Joseph's ace this year effected his enthusiasm or form. In the course of Laois' six game Division Two run this season, (they lost three), Dempsey has been employed at various times in the role of midfielder, (his best position, supporters would maintain) leader of the attack and target man on the edge of the box. Having to make do with a talented but lightweight attack, the Laois team-management can hardly be blamed for trying out the veteran teamster as a tour de force up front. Meath defensive steel is top of the Laois team-talk agenda, one would have to imagine. When Connor and Co. possess a strapping, mobile, brave and sturdy operator like Dempsey, it's understandable that they should see him as the very Bulwark that players like Leo and Mick Turley plus Mick Lawlor would thrive alongside. A corner stone in the Laois set-up for the last dozen years, Dempsey is still reckoned by his peers to be a key piece in the Laois-winning jigsaw. He's needed more at midfield though, they say. Alongside Tony Maker, they insist. Not a natural forward, Dempsey's ability to provide leadership and punch to a lightweight attack, however could see him deployed in a forward, attacking role even if his starting position is toe-to-toe with Liam Hayes. At 14 stone and tipping the 6 foot inch mark, his physique makes him an ideal player to lift his county free from an expected midfield mire in Sunday's match at Navan. Troublesome knee operations and a niggling hamstring of late suggest that the sores of battles gone by are beginning to fester but Michael insists they're merely the result of wear and tear. Contrary to public opinion, nationwide, he doesn't expect that the Meath game will add to the lie that Laois enjoy the physical, robust-type championship fare. "Granted we had two players sent off against Sligo in the League and people remember our run-in with Louth at Croke Park last year but to pinpoint Tommy Smith's sending off against Meath in last year's final as typical of our game is highly exaggerated. It's the inconsistency of officialdom rather than any major discipline weakness in the Laois set-up that has brought about headline-catching incidents", Michael declared. Adverse publicity received by Laois over recent years has been unwarranted, he maintains, negative football is not part of the Laois game, he adds. Objective observers would, no doubt, agree with the 'erstwhile midfielder who steered Saint Joseph's to a county Championship win in '89 only to lose to Ferbane in the provincial series. Players such as goalkeeper Tony McMahon, defender Pat Rowe and Tony Maher represented their county with distinction in the Leinster colours this year while George Doyle, Denis Lawlor, Eamon Lacey, Tommy Smith and Mark O'Brien would rank amongst the most skilful players in the country. The notion that Laois ought to benefit from a prospective physical match is discounted by Dempsey and most knowledgeable followers of the team. A disastrous opening League game against Fermanagh set the tone for a disappointing League campaign for Laois but recent victories over Roscommon and Offaly has given the 32 year old stalwart renewed hope as the Navan Showdown approaches. "We've learned a lot over the course of our League campaign and needless to say from our defeat to Meath in the Leinster final last year. We must finish off at least 80% of the chances we create in the Meath match. It's vital. I believe that Meath's full-forward line are their most important sector and if we can hold those three, we'll have a great chance of upsetting them, even in their own backyard", insisted the daddy of the Laois side. It's an ominous task, he admits though, but the raw material is there to fashion an award-winning product. Brother of Junior county panelist, P.J. and Sean, the support of a sometimes lukewarm Laois public in Navan could make a sizeable difference, he feels also. Significantly their defeat against Down last September and Deny more recently, could, he feels, make Meath a more potent, more dangerous combination this Sunday than they have been of late. Still, the team's senior citizen is as optimistic as even the most fervent True Blue Laois supporter. Even though he acknowledges that had the open draw system prevailed this year, Laois would probably, as a seeded team, have avoided the Royal County, he refuses to throw his hat at the task ahead. "Sure, it's a daunting task but it's Richie's (Connor) third year in charge and hopefully it will prove to be third time lucky for us. We've a young team, one with ambitions on achieving success and I'm fairly confident". Taken from Hogan Stand magazine 22nd May 1992 Tweet

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