Laois manager Eddie Brennan turning focus to 2020

Eddie Brennan's Laois side fell to Tipperary in the All-Ireland quarter-final

It's been quite the year for Laois hurling. Finishing fourth in Division 1B, they won the Joe McDonagh Cup and shocked Dublin before exiting the championship with their heads held high after a credible performance against Tipperary.

Eddie Brennan's first year at the helm will go down as a resounding success.

However, the Kilkenny native is in no mood to rest on his laurels.

"I'm not going to sit down and pat the back off myself," he explained.

"The process is that you did a lot of good things this year, but you also have to say 'what can we do to develop that?' or 'were there things we could have done a bit better?'

"The cup is half full. We'd a massive year all in all. That's ultimately where it's at right now. The competitor I'm conditioned to be, I look at that match and say 'we could have got more out of it'. That's the reality, and that's the process of losing.

"The big takeaway was that we're not that far away from the top tier, and you're kind of looking at it from the point of view that already, I'm looking forward to the National League campaign next year."

Focus has already switched to how they can progress even further

The O'Moore County will soon prepare for life at the top table, in the restructured Division 1 and the Leinster Championship.

"It's the level you want to be at," he continued. "The Joe McDonagh was excellent in what it was.

"If we stay static, stay at this level and say 'it was good enough to win us a Joe McDonagh, it was good enough to get us to an All Ireland quarter-final, we'll do that again, we're going to go nowhere. We have to push the bar a little bit higher."

Of course, promotion to the top tier will also bring a unique challenge for Brennan - plotting against his native Kilkenny. Having won eight All-Ireland titles as a player with the Cats, he's expecting mixed emotions.

"It will be a weird one, because we're going to have to play them twice, in league and championship," he smiled.

Brennan is set to go toe-to-toe with former mentor Brian Cody

"That was possibly on the cards coming in at the start and I suppose you just go in with the mindset that you've a job to do. It will be interesting definitely. For the players, it's a great opportunity just to measure yourself against Kilkenny. We get to do that next year.

"That for me will be a great opportunity to test themselves and for the lads, it's great playing here and there but to go to Nowlan Park and to go to Ennis to play Clare or wherever the road takes us, that's where you're going to learn and that's what the players will want I'd imagine."

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For now, the O'Moore County will enjoy the fruits of their labour, and Brennan opined that the powers that be should strike while the iron is hot, and take advantage of the hurling fever which has swept across the county off the back of the senior hurlers' summer odyssey.

"You have to take advantage of a bounce, no matter what it is," he noted.

"You could invest all the money you want sometimes, but if it's not spent wisely, [it's wasted].

"Then you can get the likes of what we got this year, and it's for free. That's the beauty of a bit of success. It's not easily got sometimes, it doesn't happen to every county, but when you get it, you really have to milk it when it's there."

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