LEINSTER SFC QUARTER-FINAL Portlaoise (Laois) 1-14 Rathnew (Wicklow) 0-12:IN PORTLAOISE these days, every passing year is another maybe year. You have go back as far as 2006 to find the last time they weren't part of the chorus line in the Leinster Club Championship and yet they don't show up front and centre nearly as often as they ought to.
When they put in a stint like they did during their second-half display yesterday, you can only furrow your brow and wonder why that should be.
Because when they’re good, they’re very, very good. They blitzed Rathnew after half-time, outscoring them 1-10 to 0-4 and looked every inch the contenders.
But when they’re bad, they’re just as likely to be sloppy and seem uninterested. If it hadn’t been for Colm Parkinson – who either scored or had a hand in each of their first-half points – they could easily have been too far adrift at the break to find their way back.
In the end, their forwards had too much about them to leave this game behind. Parkinson was a stone in the Rathnew shoe throughout and when corner-forwards Paul Cahillane and Craig Rogers got in on the act on the second half, the Rathnew defence got a chasing.
Brian McCormack stood tall as well, stitching a couple of fine scores into the Portlaoise total to put clear water between the sides.
“We’re trying to have an attacking philosophy,” said Portlaoise manager Mark Kavanagh afterwards. “We’re encouraging them to shoot if they think the shot is on. That’s something we’ve worked on, so that anyone who gets into that area will feel he can take the shot on and go for it. And in fairness to them, a lot of the shots went over the bar.
“The first-half display wasn’t all bad. Basically when it came down to it, we just weren’t winning enough dirty ball and we were giving away frees in the full-back line. After half-time, we started to win that dirty ball and Rathnew probably started to flag a little bit. That’s what it look like on the sideline, that maybe they got a bit tired after a hard game last weekend.
“They were a bit flat in the second half, I thought. We had a hard game last week but they had a county final and I can tell you, county finals really take it out of you.”
More to the point was probably the fact Rathnew lost that county final last weekend and only found themselves in the provincial championship because their conquerors in Wicklow were an amalgalated side.
To their credit, they didn’t start here like a squad that had been feeling sorry for themselves. Leighton Glynn and Tommy Gill had the beating of the Portlaoise full-back line all the way through the first-half and if Gill had finished to the net just before the break instead of blazing over the bar, he would have put seven points between the sides.
As it was, Parkinson managed the last point of the half to leave the scoreline 0-8 to 0-4 going in for their tea. Portlaoise nipped and tucked them back at the start of the second half and when wing-back Brian Gaynor came forward and rammed home the game’s only goal on 38 minutes, it put them ahead for the first time in the game. It was a punch to the stomach that left Rathnew winded and they just never managed to catch their breath.
“We were very pleased with the first-half performance,” said Rathnew manager Harry Murphy. “That was a good a brand of football as we’ve played in a while. It looked good for us at half-time but then we lost Stephen Kavanagh and Stephen Byrne at crucial times and that really hurt us. Once they got the goal, that was what did all the damage.
“They started to open us up then and we were chasing them and the field seemed to become a lot bigger at that stage. We were probably beaten by the better side on the day.”
Next up for Portlaoise will be St Brigid’s in a fortnight. No room for maybes that day.
PORTLAOISE: M Nolan; C Healy, K Fitzpatrick, B Mulligan; B Gaynor (1-0), T Fitzgerald, C Boyle; B Smith (0-1), A Kelly; B Glynn, B McCormack (0-2), H Coghlan; P Cahillane (0-4, 0-3 frees), C Parkinson (0-3), C Rogers (capt, 0-4, 0-2 frees) Subs: I Fitzgerald for Parkinson (51 mins); E Whelan for Kelly (59 mins).
RATHNEW: J Hollingsworth; A Clarke, D Power (capt), P Merrigan; S Byrne, S Canavan, D Franey; J Stafford, S Kavanagh; P Ellis, N Mernagh (0-2), E Glynn; T Gill (0-4, 0-3 frees), M Doyle, L Glynn (0-6, 0-4 frees) Subs: E Doyle for Byrne (half-time); R O'Brien for Merrigan, B Mernagh for Franey, C Healy for Kavanagh (all 48 mins); P Murphy for Ellis (55 mins).
Referee: S Doyle(Wexford).
