Laois fail to send shiver down the spine of ‘Goliath’s big brother’

Laois 3-16 Wicklow 0-18

Not nearly enough stones were accurately slung to concern Goliath's big brother. Laois, clearly in possession of superior footballers, struggled to contain the pack mentality imbued in Wicklow by Johnny Magee before sloppily progressing to a Leinster quarter-final in Nowlan Park on June 4th.

Donie Kingston walked away with 1-7 but the imposing inside forward will struggle to hurt Dublin; his lack of mobility was obvious and he only caught fire down the straight.

That free-wheeling finish was enough to overwhelm a Wicklow team so clearly steeled for championship days by the Kilmacud Crokes set, which also includes Magee’s brother Darren and Ray Cosgrove.

But everyone agreed that the football on view was aeons off the sulphuric offence Dublin will rain down upon them on the field Brian Cody where whips his hurlers into shape.

The disgust with Portlaoise being denied the opportunity to host the All-Ireland champions lingers.

"We will play wherever we are asked to play but I think the game being played in Nowlan Park is a disgrace," said Laois manager Mick Lillis.

“I genuinely think it was a shocking bad decision and one that the people who voted for it will have to live with.

“But it’s all down to money and it is a terrible indictment of the GAA that it is down to money. It is not down to bums on seats, which was the reason, that there are more seats in Nowlan Park. Sure the Dubs don’t sit down in Croke Park, why would they want to sit down in Nowlan Park?”

Two stands

O’Moore Park can house 27,000 but two stands make up most of the 24,000-capacity Kilkenny venue.

“The fanfare of bringing Dublin to any venue would be phenomenal,” said Lillis. “To bring it to Nowlan Park, the home of hurling where a game of football is never played, is a bit if a travesty.”

The decision is made.

"It's not David and Goliath, it's probably David and Goliath's bigger brother," Lillis said with a glint.

“There is a monster there. If you were looking in there you would be saying ‘Look, there’s not much point in Laois going to Nowlan Park’ but life is not like that. You go and you out your best foot forward.”

Laois were always in control of this tie due to early Wicklow inaccuracy. This covered all aspects of their attempts to counter-attack at pace along with shooting six first-half wides (three of which were frees – two by John McGrath and one from Rory Finn – in spitting distance of the posts).

Dublin will be unmoved by what Laois showed in response. It’s undeniable that they continue to produce powerful, highly skilled forwards, with Evan O’Carroll clearly joining that category.

Ross Munnelly looks as sprightly as ever, hitting two smart points and a nicely weighted assist for John O'Loughlin to confirm Laois dominance by the half hour when the midfielder made it 1-10 to 0-7.

Rallied

Their first goal had arrived after eight minutes when full forward Gary Walsh was afforded far too much space to solo then shoot low past Robert Lambert.

Wicklow rallied before the turn with the impressive Dean Healy reducing the deficit to five points.

The second-half performance by Magee’s men was truly impressive as Wicklow succeeded in matching the physicality of Laois men like O’Loughlin, who was regularly man-handled out the field, while it took Kingston an hour before he got any joy out of fullback Paul McLoughlin.

Most concerning of all were the unforced errors made by the Laois defence, which were ruthlessly punished by Paul Cunningham, John McGrath and Andy O’Loughlin.

This, momentarily, made it a one-point game. O’Carroll pointed frees either side of a second Laois goal, from their energetic substitute Ruairi O’Connor, to all but rule out an upset.

Or so we presumed. Wicklow refused to let go as much as Laois lacked the composure that will be essential to avoid a terrible beating next month.

“You would be terrified,” Lillis conceded. “If we defend like that Dublin will be gone out the gate in 10 or 15 minutes and they won’t even look behind them.”

Three more Wicklow scores from Healy, Cunningham and Finn left a goal between them again. And when Finn landed his sixth point of the evening it looked like Laois would blow up as only they can.

But, almost instinctively, Kingston hit back with two points. John Crowe responded for Wicklow before corner back Arran Murphy raced up field to post a quality score. Two-point game. Five minutes to play.

Kingston, yet again, steadied the ship with a free. The big Arles Kileen man had the last say with a thunderous shot to the roof of Lambert’s net as the seconds ticked away.

LAOIS: 1 G Brody; 4 P Cotter, 3 M Timmins, 2 S Attride; 5 D O'Connor, 6 D Strong, 7 G Dillon; 8 J O'Loughlin (0-1), 9 B Quigley; 10 N Donoher, 11 P Cahillane (0-1), 12 E O'Carroll (0-4, three frees); 13 R Munnelly (0-2), 14 G Walsh (1-1), 15 D Kingston (1-7, 0-3 frees). Subs: 23 M Campion for N Donoher, R O'Connor (1-0) for R Munnelly (both half-time), 21 K Meaney for M Campion (47 mins), 20 A Farrell for G Dillon (55 mins), 26 E Keane for G Walsh (61 mins), 22 J Farrell for E O'Carroll (67 mins)

WICKLOW: 1 R Lambert; 2 C Hyland, 3 P McLoughlin (0-1), 4 A Murphy (0-2); 6 D Healy (0-2), 7 S Kelly, 5 C Murphy; 8 R Finn (0-6, four frees), 9 N Gaffney; 10 D Hayden (0-1), 11 J McGrath (0-2, one free), 12 M Kenny; 13 P Byrne (0-1), 14 P Cunningham (0-2, frees), 15 M Lennon. Subs: 21 A McLoughlin (0-1) for N Gaffney (half-time), 20 D Woods for M Kenny (40 mins), 22 P O'Connor for J McGrath (42 mins), 18 J Crowe (0-1) for C Murphy (49 mins), 25 S Thompson for P Byrne (56 mins), 23 G Allen for M Lennon (66 mins).

Referee: F Kelly (Longford).