Laois have one foot in McDonagh Cup final as Picky sets a new record

Laois 4-28 

Down 0-27 

LAOIS senior hurlers now have one foot in the Joe McDonagh Cup final after overcoming Down by 13 points in an incredibly high scoring encounter in Laois Hire O’Moore Park on Saturday evening.

Aaron Dunphy topped the scoring charts for the second game in succession in fine style as he hit a second-half hat-trick of goals to put Laois out of sight, while Stephen ‘Picky’ Maher’s eight points saw him jump ahead of James Young to claim the honour of being Laois’s all-time top scorer in the championship with a total of 216 points.

The Mourne men have been on the end of some big defeats in recent years against Laois but they’ve been showing huge improvements in this campaign, though they weren’t able to match the intensity brought by Laois.

Though they fell away to a 13-point defeat, the visitors did show some glimpses of brilliance with Pearse Óg McCrickard standing out in particular, scoring fifteen points in total with eight coming from play.

Laois now just have to avoid defeat against London in their final game on Sunday coming to ensure their qualification to the June 6 decider in Croke Park against Carlow.

Down were hurling into the Portlaoise end and they got the opening score just seconds into the game through a Pearse Óg McCrickard free, however they wouldn’t raise another flag for ten minutes.

Picky Maher responded for Laois with an excellent score from the left wing and he added a second two minutes later to put them ahead for the first time.

Four more Laois forwards got themselves on the scoresheet by the tenth minute when Martin Phelan fired over from range and he was followed by Ben Conroy, Cillian Dunne and Mossy Keyes in a rip-roaring start from the hosts.

McCrickard briefly stemmed the flow of Laois scores with a free but Phelan hit back with his second and the Laois lead increased to seven with scores from Keyes and Maher.

Down began to find some joy at the other end with points from Daithi Sands, Tom McGrattan and McCrickard, though Laois were firing back in between through Maher and Aidan Corby.

A brace of points from play from Aaron Dunphy either side of a Maher 65 made it seven individual scorers from play for the hosts by the 23rd minute with a nine point gap between the teams.

Down began to up the pace themselves and fired a quick double of points through Tim Prenter and McCrickard while also breaking inside on a couple of occasions and forcing Eoin Reilly into action to clear his lines.

Laois were misfiring once again in front of the post with a series of wides but Phelan rectified that with his third from play and that was added to by David Dooley and Aaron Dunphy.

McCrickard struck a series of scores late in the half for Down but they trailed 0-18 to 0-11 at half time.

Laois had a dream start to the second half when Mossy Keyes took a couple of hits as he bound down on goal and eventually scooped it over Pearce Smyth for a goal.

The enigmatic McCrickard got a couple of frees on the board for the visitors but Laois hit back with a brace from Picky Maher, the second of which set a new record as Laois’s all-time top championship scorer with 216 points.

Tim Prenter got the first of three points in succession for Down and he was followed by Tom McGrattan and McCrickard, but their hard work was cancelled out in the blink of an eye when Phelan plucked the ball from the sky and handed off to Aidan Corby who played an exquisite ball inside to Aaron Dunphy and he rattled home his first of three goals.

Dunphy followed that up with a free and Corby added his third point of the game to well and truly put the result to bed with almost 20 minutes left to play.

A second goal soon followed for the Borris-Kilcotton man after a good move by James Keyes to play him inside and Dunphy finished well into the far corner of the net.

McCrickard hit back with a brace for Down either side of a David Dooley point before Dunphy completed his hat-trick inside twelve minutes with a third and final powerful finish.

Not unlike Laois’s most recent outing against Westmeath, the final minutes of the game turned into a shooting contest between the sides with McCrickard, Finn Turpin and McGrattan on target for the visitors while Laois saw three points come from the bench with a brace for James Keyes and one for Jack Kelly to see out a huge win for the O’Moore men.

SCORERS:

Laois: Aaron Dunphy 3-5 (0-2fs), Stephen Maher 0-8 (0-3fs, 0-1 65), Tomas Keyes 1-2, Aidan Corby and Martin Phelan 0-3 each, David Dooley and James Keyes 0-2 each, Cillian Dunne, Jack Kelly and Ben Conroy 0-1 each.

Down: Pearse Óg McCrickard 0-15 (0-7fs), Tom McGrattan 0-3 (0-f), Tim Prenter, Finn Turpin and Daithi Sands 0-2 each, Barry Trainor, Cahal Coleman and Paul Sheehan (65) 0-1 each.

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

Subs: Diarmaid Conway (Clough/Ballacolla) for McEvoy (ht), Mark Dowling (Camross) for Conroy (44m), James Keyes (Colt-Shanahoe) for Maher (52m), Jack Kelly (Rathdowney/Errill) for Dunne (52m), Padraic Dunne (The Harps) for Shanahan (59m).

DOWN: Pearce Smyth; Ronan Smyth, Ruairi McCrickard, Ben Teggart; Barry Trainor, Caolan Taggart, Niall McFarland; Donal Hughes, Tim Prenter; Pearse Óg McCrickard, Finn Turpin, Daithi Sands; Tom McGrattan, Ronan Beatty, Cahal Coleman.

Subs: Shea Pucci for Beatty (47m), Owen McDermott for Coleman (53m), Paul Sheehan for Hughes (58m), Tom Murray for Smyth (63m).

REFEREE: Colm McDonald (Antrim)