Crestfallen Fitzgerald unhappy with quick turnaround

Laois hurling boss Tommy Fitzgerald has described having to play Tipperary six days after his side's Joe McDonagh Cup final defeat to Kildare as a 'joke'.

The O'Moore County won't have much time to dwell on their second successive Joe McDonagh Cup final loss with the Munster giants coming to Portlaoise on Saturday afternoon for an All-Ireland SHC preliminary quarter-final. Kildare face Dublin in the other preliminary quarter-final in Newbridge a couple of hours later.

"It’s very raw at the moment but we will regroup and it’s important we represent the jersey and the county as well as we can the next day. But it’s a bit of a joke doing it next Saturday," the crestfallen Portlaoise clubman told the media in Croke Park last Sunday.

Fitzgerald lamented his side's poor finishing, adding: “We had 11 wides in the first half and a few dropped short. A lot of them were good scoring opportunities. I don’t know how many times we hit it wide on the near post.

"It hurt us."