Leinster finals: Portarlington win Laois title for third time in a row

Laois SFC Final

Portarlington 2-13 O’Dempsey’s 0-8

Portarlington have claimed the Laois SFC title for the third year in a row following an 11-point win over neighbours O’Dempsey’s.

For the third season running, Port saved their best performance of the campaign for the final. And they have achieved such a run of success by completely overwhelming Graiguecullen, Portlaoise and now O’Dempsey’s in a county final.

Port played with the wind in the first half and in a frantic opening quarter they slowly but surely made their dominance count.

There had been rarely a county final quite build-up like it, so rarely had such close rivals and neighbours done battle on the biggest day of all in Laois.

While the wet and windy conditions didn’t help, O’Dempsey’s could make no real headway against the brilliant Port defence.

Colm Murphy had been held scoreless in the semi-final against Portlaoise, a rare occurrence, but he hit the ground running here, putting his side into a lead early on after being fouled himself.

He would go on to score four points in the first half while his brother David, starting his first game of this championship, was outstanding, landing two wonderful points from play in an imperious display.

Adam Ryan was also in a different class, kicking three from play. Jake Foster, Scott Osborne (’45) and Ronan Coffey — on for the injured Stephen O’Neill — hit brilliant points too.

For O’Dempsey’s, they pulled a rabbit from the hat by throwing Conor Meredith in for his first start of the year, and though he did point brilliantly in the sixth minute, O’Dempsey’s struggled to get shots away, even if they got up the field on plenty of occasions.

Mark Barry pointed a mark in the 10th minute but it was to be their last score of the half.

Port hit nine without reply and by half time there was 10 points between the sides, 0-12 to 0-2.

O’Dempsey’s had the wind at their backs in the second half, but they’d a huge lot of ground to make up. And they were playing against an exceptional side at the top of their game.

Mark Barry did get the first two points of the second half, both frees after fouls on Conor Meredith, but the game was properly ended as a contest in the 38th minute when Rioghan Murphy cracked home a lovely goal after an O’Dempsey’s kick out went wrong.

And things went from bad to worse two minutes later when Robbie Kehoe got red-carded after lashing out at Jason Moore.

David Murphy and Matthew Finlay (free) swapped points before Colm Murphy fired home a second Port goal in the 48th minute.

Port even finished with 14 men, following the black carding of Ronan Coffey, but the result was never in doubt and O’Dempsey’s bad day was made even worse when Scott Osborne excellently saved a Mark Barry penalty.

In the end 11 points separated the sides. A Leinster club campaign, with the Wexford champions away first, begins in two weeks time.

Portarlington: S Osborne (0-1, 45); C Bennett, R Pigott, A Mohan; S Mulpeter, J Moore, P O’Sullivan; K Bracken, S Byrne; A Ryan (0-3), S O’Neill, R Murphy (1-0); J Foster (0-1), C Murphy (1-4, 0-2f), D Murphy (0-3).

Substitutions: R Coffey (0-1) for O’Neill (injured — 22), D Bennett for O’Sullivan (48), D Galvin for D Murphy (injured — 51), J Fitzpatrick for Ryan (56), E McCann for Foster (57)

O’Dempsey’s: E Nolan; C O’Hora, R Kehoe, J Kelly; J Lennon, S Lennon, S Nerney; B Howlin, B Nugent; F Holland, B Kelly, C Meredith (0-1); Michael Finlay (0-3, 1f, 1 ‘45), M Barry (0-4, 2f, 1m), Matthew Finlay.

Substitutions: E Finlay for Michael Finlay (40), D Howlin for B Howlin (40), K Kavanagh for Nugent (44), B Coen for Meredith (50), E Fitzpatrick for Holland (50)

Referee: D Cooney (St Joseph’s)

Louth SFC

Ardee St. Mary’s 1-12 Newtown Blues 1-12

Dáire McConnon levelled a wet and wild Louth senior final for Ardee St. Mary’s against Newtown Blues in Dundalk where both sides and their supporters plus a plethora of neutrals will have no complaints in watching them face each other again.

The feeling leaving the ground was that if they can entertain in the rain like that then a second helping would be most helpful. Ardee got the perfect start with a McConnon goal to put them 1-3 to no score ahead.

The Blues showed their craftiness at the top of the roll of honours list to lead at half time 1-8 to 1-5 thanks to a string of five unanswered points and after a John Kermode goal.

Ardee, with the wind at their backs, nailed five in a row themselves but the tension grew as the minutes wound down and the pitch got soggier. Rob Carr looked to have won it for the Drogheda side, but McConnon gladly equalised for all parties.

Ardee St. Mary’s: James McGillick; Conor Keenan, Donal McKenny, Paraic McKenny; Kian Moran (0-1), Karl Faulkner, Carl Gillespie (0-2, 2frees); RJ Callaghan, Liam Jackson (0-1); Jonathan Commins (0-1, 45′), Shane Matthews (0-1), Tom Jackson (0-3); Ciarán Keenan, Daire McConnon (1-2), Ryan Rooney.

Substitutions: Ronan Carroll (0-1, mark) for Rooney (ht), Robert Leavy for Callaghan (42), Dean Matthews for Commins (50), Conor Gillespie for S Matthews (54), Darren Clarke for T Jackson (58).

Newtown Blues: Johnny McDonnell; Conor Ayson, Ciaran Cluskey Kelly, Emmet Carolan; Alan Connor 0-01, Johnny Connolly, Fergal Donohoe (0-1); Chris Reid, Andy McDonnell (0-1); Daire Nally, Colm Judge (0-1), Ciarán Downey (0-5, 1, free); Jamie Kelly (0-1), John Kermode (1-0), Rob Carr (0-2).

Substitutions: Conor Moore for Ayson (40), Conor Branagan for Kermode (47), Ian Connor for Reid (57), Declan McNamara for Kelly (60).

Referee: Ultan McElroy (Kilkerley Emmets)