Laois hurlers face trips on roads less travelled next year

DIVISION 2 awaits for the Laois hurlers in 2026 after falling to their fourth defeat from five games in Division 1B after the visit of Carlow to Laois Hire O’Moore Park on Saturday afternoon.

There will be trips on roads less travelled for Laois’s faithful supporters across the county, with a potential trip overseas on the cards as London have already secured their promotion from Division 3 with five wins from five.

Other contenders for next year’s opposition include Derry, Kerry, Wicklow, Meath, Mayo, Kildare and Donegal depending on how fixtures go in Divisions 2 and 3 this weekend, results that will now have a keen eye fixed on them from ourselves.

While that all lays ahead of us, Saturday’s game is still firmly at the forefront of the minds of Laois players and fans alike as it was a win that got away after a titanic tussle against a quality Carlow side.

Laois came into the game with a raft of injuries having lost Eanna Lyons, Cha Dwyer and Paddy Purcell against Antrim whilst Jer Quinlan was also not togged out despite being named to start, and to add further insult to the injuries Podge Delaney was forced off after just 30 minutes in the game.

Delaney had an excellent start to the contest and his presence at the back was immediately missed, as it’s a relatively new backline compared to the six that made up the unit for most of the 2024 campaign.

One positive on the injury front was the return of Diarmaid Conway to the starting line up as he brought his usually tenacious tackling and incredible pace, which made life tough at time for the Carlow inside line.

Despite the disappointment of the result there are plenty of positives for Tommy Fitzgerald and his team to take from the game as they did rack up a massively impressive 29 points, a score that would certainly win the majority of game.

As the old adage goes, goals win games and that proved to be the case again on Saturday as it was the two goals at crucial moments that were the difference as they got the first after five points in a row from Laois in the first half to kill that momentum and the second came late in the game when Laois had just built up a three point lead.

The defensive unit allowed too many goal chances throughout as Cathal Dunne was forced to make a huge amount saves to keep the game alive in the first half and that was the difference between the sides.

Laois were unable to get goal chances quite as easily and were forced into half chances at goal that were dealt with excellently by Brian Tracey, while Dunne was left with little chance of saving the Carlow goals.

A relative dead rubber lies ahead against Dublin this Saturday and it will be the final competitive game for Fitzgerald and his side before the wildness of the Joe McDonagh Cup arrives in mid-April.