Interview Laois footballer Padraig Clancy: Ian O'Riordan talks to the towering young midfielder who believes Mick O'Dwyer is the man to finally turn minor promise into senior success

Despite an unbeaten run in the National Football League the jury is still out on the rise of the Laois footballers under Mick O'Dwyer. Early spring is a long way from late summer. And the competition heats up on Sunday when they meet Armagh in the second league semi-final at Croke Park.

Yet as evidence that Laois are now a wholly different team under O'Dwyer's influence the performance yesterday of midfielder Pádraig Clancy was totally convincing. In Dublin to collect his Vodafone player-of-the-month award for March, Clancy, who stands six foot five and a half in his socks, spoke in a way few Laois footballers have dared to speak before.

"Well the mood is definitely good," he started. "Sure we beat them (Armagh) this time last year. And I think that if we all play to our potential we can beat them again. But of course Armagh will be the biggest team we've played this year. I remember the game last year was very hard hitting, and I suppose they'll show us where we're really going."

Clancy is a sort of microcosm of Laois football. Still only 22 and blessed with natural athleticism, he seems to have been coming for years. He caught the end of Laois's glorious All-Ireland minor years of the 1990s, playing with the team that lost the 1998 final to Tyrone.

Since then he's mostly fielded questions about underachievement and lost potential.

"Well nearly all this team now have played on the minors, and are all good footballers. Now we're all just gelling together as seniors. And all the players now believe we're good enough to do something at senior level."

With the word "believe" he starts the talk about O'Dwyer. His appointment as manager late last year sparked what Clancy is certain is a true new beginning, whereby the majority of the Laois team can finally go on to drop the burden of just being promising minors, but unfulfilled seniors.

"I was thrilled, absolutely delighted, when Micko was appointed. There was a feeling in the camp that if a big name didn't come, then we still mightn't make the breakthrough this year. And he is the best manager in the country. His record speaks for itself.

"And the training has been brilliant. It's actually fun, and everyone enjoys going now. Most of all he knows what he's talking about. He has the personality, and he gets on brilliantly with everyone. And he's brought a lot of discipline in as well. I mean discipline is in, on and off the field.

"In fact the first thing Micko talked to us about was discipline. No stupid tackling, and no messing. Mark your man and play as a team and that's it. But the main thing he has brought to us is confidence, and self-belief. If we feel we're going down in a game we can pick ourselves up. It wasn't always that way."

If anything, O'Dwyer's appointment in Laois added to the mythology surrounding the Kerryman. Talk of punishing training sessions - on and off the field - began to develop yet Clancy throws all that out the window.

"If anything, the training is easier. It's my fourth year with the seniors and before it just seemed harder. We did all our laps with Micko and all that, but this time of the year it's more about football, and fast running.

"And there's no way people have seen the best of Laois yet. Not a hope. I mean it would be great to win on Sunday, and we'll go all out to win, but our main is the championship.

"Its the Wexford game we're really thinking of because they are flying at the moment as well."

In this sort of form Clancy points to it being a fully competitive game on Sunday. And with the majority of players still under 25 he sees no reason for an early season burnout. The way Laois see it, early spring soon turns to late summer.

"I think Leinster is wide open. We're certainly not looking beyond Wexford, because I think they are even capable of winning Leinster this year. But we really want to do well in Leinster. A lot of us are sick of underachieving. We want to start winning, and winning now."