Laois crack recent McDonagh Cup hoodoo with comfortable win over Carlow

Joe McDonagh Cup Final 

Laois 1-27 

Carlow 1-18 

LAOIS exorcised their Croke Park demons this evening with an outstanding victory over Carlow to clinch the 2026 Joe McDonagh Cup.

Cillian Dunne stole the show by scoring 1-6 from play in his first Joe McDonagh Cup final whilst the Laois backs were also excellent in containing the volatile Carlow forwards.

Rain battered the pitch in the build up to the game, which you'd expect would have suited Carlow more but they couldn't handle Laois throughout and proved very wasteful in front of the posts, racking up 22 wides.

It has been a long road for this group of players having lost two finals in a row but this was a real day of redemption for the team and for manager Tommy Fitzgerald.

Carlow made a blistering start to the game with a point from Martin Kavanagh within seconds of the throw in and despite an immediate reply from Picky Maher, Carlow took a three point lead a minute later.

A long ball dropped into the Laois square and Eoin Reilly struggled to clear his lines which allowed James Doyle to snipe and poke the ball into the net.

Carlow wouldn't find another score for seventeen minutes however as their radars went completely askew, hitting a huge amount of wides in that period.

Mossy Keyes got Laois back on track with a good score from the left wing and Maher added his second with a free before Aaron Dunphy levelled the game with a good point twelve minutes in.

Two excellent scores from Martin Phelan and Cillian Dunne saw Laois into a two point lead by the midway stage of the half, though Carlow were threatening as both Reilly and Podge Delaney had to pull out excellent goal line saves.

Kavanagh ended their drought with a trio of scores, though Laois kept their noses in front thanks to Maher and Dunne.

Maher struck again after outrageous defensive work from Phelan and Phelan was the creator again moments later when he won a contest on the ground in midfield and found Dunphy who finished well for a point.

Carlow fired back with long range efforts from Fiachra Fitzpatrick and Evan Kealy but once again Phelan came to the fore with a powering run out from the back and the ball eventually ended in the hands of Conroy who stuck it over the bar to make it 0-13 to 1-7 at half time.

Jack Treacy struck early in the second half for Carlow but Maher hit back with a quick brace of frees for Laois and the sides went to trade another two each with Treacy and Kavanagh on target for Carlow with replies coming from Maher and an outrageous score from Fiachra C Fennell.

Dunphy and Maher both followed with good scores from play but the teams continued to go tit for tat with Chris Nolan and Donagh Murphy hitting points for Carlow.

The gap was reduced to just two points when Nolan and Doyle struck, but Carlow were dealt a huge blow when the ball broke across the square to Cillian Dunne who rifled home off the ground from close range, sending the vocal Laois crowd into a frenzy.

Fitzgerald opted to empty the bench from the midway stage of the second half and it proved very effective with Fionan Mahony and Gearoid Lynch bringing a huge amount of energy to the play.

Carlow were doing their level best to battle back with scores from Kevin McDonald, Kavanagh and Chris Nolan while Podge Delaney was again called upon to make a brave block to deny a goal chance.

The Laois bench continued to be effective with Jack Kelly putting in an excellent cameo in scoring three points while James Keyes added another from play and was a terror to the Carlow backs in the closing moments.

Most suitably Cillian Dunne forced the final roar from the Laois faithful with a late trio of scores, capping off the performance of a lifetime from the young Clough-Ballacolla man.

SCORERS:

Laois: Picky Maher 0-9 (0-6fs), Cillian Dunne 1-6, Aaron Dunphy and Jack Kelly 0-3 each, Ben Conroy, Martin Phelan, Mossy Keyes, Fiachra C Fennell, David Dooley and James Keyes 0-1 each.

Carlow: Martin Kavanagh 0-7 (0-5fs, 0-1 65), James Doyle 1-1, Jack Treacy 0-3, Fiachra Fitzpatrick and Chris Nolan 0-2 each, Evan Kealy, Donagh Murphy and Kevin McDonald (f) 0-1.

LAOIS: Eoin Reilly (Abbeyleix); Ian Shanahan (Ballinakill), Podge Delaney (The Harps), Cody Comerford (The Harps); Lee Cleere (Clough/Ballacolla) Fiachra C Fennell (Rosenallis), Ryan Mullaney (Castletown); David Dooley (Rosenallis), Aidan Corby (Clough/Ballacolla); Martin Phelan (Castletown), Picky Maher (Clough/Ballacolla), Aaron Dunphy (Borris/Kilcotton); Ben Conroy (Slieve Bloom), Cillian Dunne (Clough/Ballacolla), Tomas Keyes (Camross).

Subs: Mark Dowling (Camross) for Keyes (51m), Jack Kelly (Rathdowney/Errill) for Conroy (55m), Fionan Mahony (Abbeyleix) for Corby (58m), James Keyes (Colt-Shanahoe) for Phelan (65m), Gearoid Lynch (Ballinakill) for Dunphy (69m).

CARLOW: Brian Tracey; Paul Doyle, Dion Wall, Jack McCullagh; Jon Nolan, Kevin McDonald, Evan Kealy; Fiachra Fitzpatrick, Ciaran Whelan; Conor Kehoe, Jack Treacy, Donagh Murphy; Martin Kavanagh, Chris Nolan, James Doyle.

Subs: Paddy Boland for Kehoe (39m), Jake Nolan for Murphy (53m), John Michael Nolan for Whelan (temp, 62–64m), John Michael Nolan for Kealy (66m), Fiach O'Toole for Treacy (73m).

Referee: Eamonn Furlong (Wexford)