Laois hurler James Duggan.
Joe McDonagh Cup
LAOIS 5-28 KERRY 1-21
By Kevin Egan at Laois Hire O’Moore Park
At half time in Laois Hire O’Moore Park, the announcement went over the tannoy that James Duggan’s five-goal tally meant that he was the first Laois player to score five goals in a championship tie since Billy Delaney in 1939.
It was outstanding combined work from both the Harps corner forward and resident Laois statistician Eoin Culleton (Laois GAA Bible) to make the announcement possible, but it also meant that for the second half of this contest, a huge number of spectators could be seen turning their heads down and into their phones to tune into the action from Croke Park.
There should be much closer games next week when Kerry travel to Ballycran where several key players are expected to come back into availability for manager John Griffin, while Laois will play host to a resurgent Kildare side in a fixture that could well serve as a de facto championship semi-final.
Duggan had the first of his five goals in the third minute when he got a flick to a long Ryan Mullaney delivery to deflect the ball past Louis Dee, but Kerry responded well to that score and rattled off the next four points to level the game, with Kevin Goulding and Shane Nolan both firing over superb scores.
By the time they scored again in the 27th minute, Laois had registered 2-9 unanswered and were already out of sight. David Dooley and Fiachra C Fennell were utterly dominant at midfield, combining for 0-7 from play between them, while it seemed like Duggan had the magic touch, as everywhere he went, a goal chance seemed to come his way.
Four goals in ten minutes were fired to the town end net by the attacker, including one from his boot, one off the ground and two other close range strikes.
While Duggan had a perfect five-from-five record with goal chances, Louis Dee seemed to have the Indian sign over the rest of the Laois attack. He made a string of incredible saves while Aidan Corby also hit the post with another effort, though Kerry will take some heart from how the rate of goal chances slowed down considerably once Eric Leen came off the bench, suggesting that the return of the St. Brendan’s man could yet save Kerry’s Joe McDonagh status.
Daniel Casey and Shane Nolan worked hard as a two-man inside forward line for Kerry despite being outnumbered with every delivery, but the Kingdom didn’t have anything like the same scoring power from range, notwithstanding a couple of good second half strikes from Ronan Walsh and Darragh Shanahan.
U-20 hurlers Tom Cuddy and Jer Quinlan were withdrawn at half-time to conserve their energy in advance of their Leinster semi-final clash with Kilkenny on Wednesday and still Laois didn’t miss a beat. Instead the introduction of Mark Dowling and Aaron Dunphy only added further scoring power to the Laois attack, and they kept raining over points, even as Dee repelled more and more goal efforts.
There was one more goal in the game and it fell to Kerry’s Killian Hayes with the last play of the match, but by then, all bar a handful of eyes and ears were tuned into Croke Park to see and hear history being made by the Wee County.
Scorers for Laois: James Duggan 5-2, Tomás Keyes 0-7 (0-6f, 0-1 65), Aaron Dunphy 0-6 (0-3f, 0-1 65), David Dooley 0-4, Fiachra C Fennell 0-3, Mark Dowling 0-2, Pádraig Delaney 0-1f, Ryan Mullaney 0-1, Willie Dunphy 0-1 Paddy Purcell 0-1.
Scorers for Kerry: Shane Nolan 0-11 (0-7f), Killian Hayes 1-0, Daniel Casey 0-2, Oisín Maunsell 0-2, Kevin Goulding 0-1, Luke Crowley 0-1, Rory Mahony 0-1, Tom Doyle 0-1, Darragh Shanahan 0-1, Ronan Walsh 0-1
LAOIS: Cathal Dunne; Pádraic Dunne, Diarmuid Conway, Cody Comerford; Tom Cuddy, Pádraig Delaney, Ryan Mullaney; Fiachra C Fennell, David Dooley; Aidan Corby, Tomás Keyes, Paddy Purcell; James Duggan, Jer Quinlan, Ben Conroy.
SUBS: Donnchadh Hartnett for Cuddy (half-time), Aaron Dunphy for Quinlan (half-time), John Lennon for Dooley (41), Mark Dowling for Conroy (45), William Dunphy for Keyes (57).
KERRY: Louis Dee; Kyle O’Connor, Flor McCarthy, Dara Kearney; Ronan Walsh, Kevin Goulding, Darragh Shanahan; Paudie O’Connor, Adam Segal; Tom Doyle, Oisín Maunsell, Luke Crowley; Rory Mahony, Daniel Casey, Shane Nolan.
SUBS: Killian Hayes for Doyle (32-35, temp), Hayes for Crowley (half-time), Seán McGrath for Segal (half-time), Eric Leen for McCarthy (half-time), Seamie Foran for Mahony (53), Luke Rochford for O’Connor (65).
Referee: Brian Keon (Galway).
