Laois 0-12 Carlow 0-08
The rainbow adventure has been halted – at least for the time being. Although the sound of the Carlow chants echoing through Croke Park confirmed that this has already been the most novel Leinster football championship in some years, Carlow never fully fired here.
They gave the dream of a final appearance a good rattle without ever knocking Laois out of the composure and rhythm which now carries them through to a daunting provincial showpiece against the All-Ireland champions.
Turlough O’Brien’s team can have few regrets. They played with their customary resilience and organisation, dropped everyone bar one forward behind the defensive lines and ran the ball with sufficient menace to concoct three clear-cut goal chances over the course of the day.
Just one shot on target would have been enough to ignite the Carlow crowd and, in truth, the game itself. But the incendiary score never came. Instead, Laois navigated their way through the crucial midway point of the second half – 0-7 to 0-6 ahead and Carlow in the mood for insurrection – by reclaiming control through a couple of Donie Kingston frees and a smartly taken point on the run by Niall Donoher. The day ended on a fitting note, with Evan O’Carroll, whose father passed away last week, coming in to chip the insurance score deep into injury time.
“A tough day for Evan,” agreed John Sugrue. “That fella has been standing up inside in the dressingroom this year and doing a big job for us. It’s a great sign of the steel inside in the fella and I think it is probably a fitting tribute to his dad that he came out and finished the game for us today.”
As Sugrue pointed out afterwards, anyone with even a remote interest in the game knew how Carlow would approach this assignment. His retort was to send out a team to play with infinite patience, using the space along the sidelines and refusing to take the ball into contact.
It led to a predictably slow-burning affair: just three scores in the first 15 minutes and long periods of possession broken by frenetic attacks. Laois dominated possession, tried to find Donal Kingston, corralled by Carlow shirts on the edge of the square, with an occasional long ball and waited and waited until they forced a few pockets of space through which to work.
Colm Begley set the tone with a strong running point in the 23rd minute and Alan Farrell was at the end of a slickly worked move that involved John O’Loughlin, Paul Kingston and Ross Munnelly. The score was an eye-catching advertisement for what Laois might have done had Carlow given the room to play. Instead, they had to remain content with those occasional clear looks at the shooting posts and were vulnerable to the electric jolt of a Carlow goal throughout the second half.
“I’m pleased we managed to get ourselves through that game,” Sugrue said.
“It wasn’t pretty for long stretches. They are a hard opposition to play against so we are happy enough. I don’t think anyone can look at Carlow and say they don’t know what is coming. They were stiff opposition and stuck with us and at times in the second half it went a little bit too close for comfort for us.”
Sugrue’s team are highly organised but the licence he continues to give Graham Brody, the Laois goalkeeper who isn’t all that gone on the whole staying-in-goals-idea, makes for brilliant entertainment.
Brody wanders further up the field than several notional forwards in the contemporary game and is simply too restless a soul to stand on his goal line chewing the fat with the umpires while the play is at the other end of the field. And it frequently was, with Laois probing and skirting around the edges of the Carlow defensive alignment.
“You can’t just want to charge through them and do what you please,” Sugrue said. “You have to do what works for you.”
If Carlow’s dream summer was to continue, then the flashing opportunity to shoot on goal for Diarmuid Walshe just before half-time or the equally fleeting chance for Paul Broderick in the 65th minute had to produce something special. Instead, they were snuffed out. Carlow attacked from such a deep position, running the ball after forcing the turnover, that by the time they were within shooting range, Laois had regrouped. Too often, they were forced to go for long, speculative efforts. They trailed 0-3 to 0-6 at the break and never got back to level terms.
“Laois are well versed in how we play,” Turlough O’Brien acknowledged.
“They are two well matched teams. Maybe it wasn’t a game for the purists but I think it was a very interesting game.”
It was absorbing in that there was a faint doubt about the result going into the 70th minute. But on a sunny day in Croke Park, it was impossible to disguise the fact that the Leinster championship is, for the time being, a pale imitation of what it was a generation ago such is Dublin’s dominance.
Sugrue and Laois took their places in the sun to watch the All-Ireland champions make light work of Longford in the second semi-final in which the scores came thick and fast. It will take a performance for the ages for Laois to upset Dublin’s march to an eighth title on the trot.
LAOIS: 1 G Brody; 2 S Armitage, 3 M Timmons, 4 G Dillon ; 5 T Collins, 6 C Begley (0-1), 7 F Crowley (0-1); 8 J O'Loughlin (0-1), 9 K Lillis; 10 A Farrell (0-1), 11 N Donoher (0-1), 12 D O'Connor; 13 R Munnelly (0-2 frees), 14 D Kingston (0-3, two frees), 15 P Kingston.
Subs: 18 B Carroll for 12 D O'Connor (41 mins), B Glynn (0-1) for 10 A Farrell (46), 19 E O'Carroll (0-1) for 13 R Munnelly (54), 17 D Strong for 15 P Kingston (64), 21 G Walsh for 14 D Kingston (71), 22 D Conway for 8 J O'Loughlin (73).
CARLOW: 1 R Molloy; 2 C Crowley, 3 S Redmond, 4 C Lawlor; 5 J Morrissey, 6 D St Ledger, 7 C Molloy; 8 S Murphy, 9 E Ruth; 10 S Gannon, 13 P Broderick (0-6 four frees), 12 D Walshe (0-1); 11 D Foley, 15 J Murphy; 14 D O'Brien (0-1).
Subs: 18 B Kavanagh for 10 S Gannon (half-time), 19 C Lawler for 12 D Walshe (57 mins, inj), 20 S Doyle for 14 D O'Brien (63), 22 K Nolan for 2 C Crowley, 21 D Moran for 15 J Murphy (both 71).
Referee: F Kelly (Longford).
