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Monday, September 21, 2020

Seven Talking Points after a Super Sunday of Laois GAA club action

And with that three more teams were knocked out of the Laois senior football championship.

From Gary Walsh’s 2-7, to O’Dempsey’s smash and grab win over Killeshin to Portlaoise getting back to winning ways, we look back over all the weekend’s action here.

1 – Draws for next round

The draw for the next round of the senior championship could hardly have gone any better from a neutral point of view.

We’ll have a massive local derby when Portarlington and O’Dempsey’s meet for what will be their first championship clash since a drawn group game way back in 2005 while there would be an unusual rivalry too between Ballyfin and The Heath, two clubs that find themselves operating on the outskirts of Portlaoise.

Though they met in a relegation game just two years ago – a game The Heath won – they have never played each other in a senior championship knockout game before.

Portlaoise and Emo have invariably thrown up some hugely entertaining championship games over the years too, most recently in the drawn 2015 final, and while you’ve to go back a long way for Emo’s last win over Portlaoise, they have come very close on numerous occasions in the past.

And the final quarter-final game will be another relatively local derby when Graiguecullen meet Ballylinan. And one of the most interesting aspects there will be the battle between Gary Walsh and Mark Timmons, two of the top players in the county.

The interemediate semi-final pairings, which have been brought forward a week to this Sunday, see Clonaslee and The Rock meet for the second time this year after Clonaslee narrowly won the Round 2 game. Crettyard will play Mountmellick in the other semi-final.

2 – Portlaoise back to winning ways

After losing to Portarlington in Round 2, Portlaoise got back to winning ways when they had just that bit too much for St Joseph’s on Sunday evening.

Joseph’s made Portlaoise work hard for the win, but a Kieran Lillis goal in the first half was the crucial score. It helped give Portlaoise a six-point cushion at the break.

Though Joseph’s kept going in the second half and the introduction of Michael Keogh and Matty Campion made a big difference, the closest they could get was three points.

Portlaoise finished the game without Ricky Maher, Brian Glynn, Benny Carroll, Conor Boyle and David Seale, who were all taken off, but subs David Holland, Ronan McEvoy and Damon Larkin all popped up with crucial scores and Portlaoise did enough to win 1-13 to 1-8.

3 – O’Dempsey’s win a thriller

The most entertaining game of the day on Sunday was undoubtedly the clash of O’Dempsey’s and Killeshin.

It was a game that had a bit of everything: two red cards, a black card, a penalty, some great scores and a late smash and grab from O’Dempsey’s with 1-2 late on to secure their passage through to the quarter-finals.

Robbie Kehoe was given a straight red card by referee Brendan Hickey just before the first-half water break for an off-the-ball incident with Eoin Lowry but the numerical advantage only lasted seven minutes as Adam Deering then got a straight red for a high belt on Mark Barry. Deering’s offence looked to be on the lower end of the scale but he did give the referee the ideal opportunity to level things up.

For O’Dempsey’s if it was bad enough to lose one centre-back in Kehoe, his replacement Conor Meredith, who was switched back from centre-forward, had to be taken off before half time after getting injured in a bone-crunching collision with David McDermott.

While there was never much between them, Killeshin looked the more likely winners for most of the second half, particularly after Evan Lowry scored a brilliant team goal – his third goal in this championship. Indeed Lowry could have had another goal only for his palmed effort to be taken off the line brilliantly by Cormac O’Hora.

The O’Dempsey’s penalty decision then seemed a bit soft too after a number of Killeshin defenders surrounded Dan McCormack but Mark Barry converted it with confidence to bring it back to one with seven minutes remaining.

Yet points from Gavin Brennan and Ross Bolger’s third meant Killeshin were three up as the game entered injury time.

But a typically brilliant Barry Kelly run set up Matthew Finlay, and after a tough outing on Shane Bolger all afternoon, he found enough space to fire a brilliant goal past Shane Coakley.

Killeshin had a great chance to regain the lead but Evan Lowry seemed to have too many options – goal, point or pass either side and his shot went tamely wide. From the next attack Mark Barry fired over the lead score for O’Dempsey’s and then sub Derek Dunne, making his senior debut, smartly punched over to put two in it.

And that was that.

4 – No stopping Gary Walsh

Gary Walsh is one of the form forwards in this year’s senior championship again and he hit 2-7 of Ballylinan’s tally of 4-7 in their win over Ballyroan-Abbey.

Young Adam Dunne was tasked with man-marking Walsh and while he started well, the amount of ball coming into Walsh was relentless in the first half and he 1-4 to his name at the break as Ballylinan led 2-4 to 0-2.

He kicked a couple of good points early in the second half and though Ballyroan-Abbey staged a comeback to get back within three, Walsh’s second goal ended the game as a contest. The two Kealys – Larry and Liam – got a goal apiece in either half while Walsh finished the game with a lovely left-footed point in injury time.

Of Ballylinan’s 4-24 in three games, he’s scored 2-20. No other club are currently as reliant on one man but he’s delivering in style.

5 – The Heath book junior quarter-final place with big comeback

The junior football championship may be flying under the radar at the moment but The Heath’s second team had a great 2-15 to 2-8 win over Portarlington on Sunday to finalise the quarter-final pairings.

That group had just three teams in it and they all won a game each; Portarlington beating Kilcavan; Kilcavan beating The Heath; and then The Heath beating Port. And The Heath’s seven-point win yesterday, after coming from behind, means they top the group on scoring difference and Kilcavan take second place.

It means the quarter-final lineup is now: Portlaoise v Barrowhouse; St Joseph’s v Ballyroan-Abbey; The Heath v Castletown; Park-Ratheniska v Kilcavan.

6 – Spink go through to knockout stages in style

Spink are the only exclusively first ‘football’ club in the Junior ‘B’ grade and they made sure of their place in the semi-finals thanks to a big win over Arles-Killeen on Sunday evening.

They now join the other group winners Stradbally and Graiguecullen (who meet each other) in the semi-finals while the second-placed teams play off to see who will get the fourth semi-final spot against Spink.

It means Rosenallis play Slieve Bloom and the winner of that then meets Emo.

Semi-finals: Stradbally v Graiguecullen; Spink v Rosenallis/Slieve Bloom/Emo.

7 – End of the road for Rathdowney footballers

After 72-year-old goalkeeper Tim Barry grabbed all the headlines for the Rathdowney footballers in their opening championship game, they actually then gave a walkover to Borris-in-Ossory in yesterday’s quarter-final game.

Borris-in-Ossory go forward to meet last year’s beaten finalists Colt in the semi-final while O’Dempsey’s, the last ‘football’ team in the competition meet Kilcotton.

Could it be a Borris-in-Ossory v Kilcotton final? They’d love to see that right in the middle of the hurling championship and they all playing together!

SEE ALSO – Seven Talking Points after Saturday’s club GAA action

The post Seven Talking Points after a Super Sunday of Laois GAA club action appeared first on Laois Today.



source https://www.laoistoday.ie/2020/09/21/seven-talking-points-after-a-super-sunday-of-laois-gaa-club-action/

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