At the weekend, Laois hurling enjoyed one of it's high points in recent times as they defeated neighbours Offaly 0-29 to 0-21 to set up a Leinster championship semi-final against Galway.
The Tribesmen are a team they gave a run for their money last year, losing by two points in the provincial quarter-finals.
It seems there are signs of a revival in Laois hurling and tonight we got a sense of progress from Cahir Healy, who was a dual player for the county, but is now focused solely on the camân and sliothar.
During the low points of 2011 and 2012 when they were on the end of championship maulings, Healy admitted that his inter-county hurling career was "nearly dead and buried".
"They were very bad days those hammerings. When I started with Laois, we beat Dublin by four goals in Nowlan Park in the championship and then seven years later, they beat us by 22 points. It's hard to describe when you're getting absolutely tanked and it looks like you're going nowhere. We didn't know where it was going to turn around from," the Portlaoise clubman said, citing poor management, lack of belief and apathy among players as the main problems at that time.
But he says the current setup under Seamus 'Cheddar' Plunkett is like "chalk and cheese" when compared to the low points of a few years ago.
"It really was embarrassing," he said of the bad old days. "You found it hard to show your face or even say 'I'm a Laois hurler', I'm getting beat by 40 points all the time."
Praising Cheddar's impact, he said he always knew that the current manager would fight to get the best for his players, and brought new demands, personnel and methods on the players which have introduced a "culture of doing things right".
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