Laois hardly broke a sweat and yet they were able to dish out a 36-point drubbing to Kilkenny in their O'Byrne Cup football quarter-final at Freshford yesterday.
"We have a good, high level of fitness in our team at the moment, and that stood to us," suggested Laois manager Mick O'Dwyer, as he tried to ease the pain for the losers afterwards.
"That gave us a huge advantage. After 15 or 20 minutes Kilkenny were gone.
"We are working towards the Leinster championship, and at the moment we are not interested in anything else," O'Dwyer added.
Even without their Portlaoise contingent, who are tied up in the All-Ireland club championship, and with only five of last year's championship side, Laois ran riot. Under-21 forward Donal Brennan was in great form, shooting 2-8, all but three points from frees.
Laois eased through the opening half, when their ball-retention skills and support play were too much for the opposition. With the aid of a 28th minute goal from Brennan, Laois opened out a 1-10 to 0-0 half-time lead.
During that period Brennan and team mate Tom Kelly, along with Kilkenny's Paul Buggy, were sin-binned, but the encounter was not overly-physical.
During the nine minutes immediately after the break Laois buried the opposition. Goals were scored by Paul Lawlor, substitute Stephen Kelly and Pádraig Clancy to take them 4-10 to 0-0 ahead.
Kilkenny's lone score came from a close-in free by Michael Duggan in the 61st minute.
On a positive note, the fixture raised €4,475 for the GOAL South Asia appeal fund.
LAOIS: F Bryan; P McDonald, C Begley, T McDonald; K Kelly (0-1), T Kelly, P McMahon; P Clancy (1-1), D Miller; M Dunne (0-2), C Conway (0-2, one free), C Bergin (0-3); P Lawlor (1-2), J Challoner, D Brennan (2-8, 0-3 frees). Subs: G Kavanagh (0-2) for M Dunne, S Kelly (1-1) for T McDonald, D Murphy for F Bryan.
KILKENNY: S Murphy; S Flynn, P Mullins, D Dunne; R Nolan, A Murphy, M Grace; P Buggy, P Maher; S Coonan, S Kennedy, M Duggan (0-1, free); A Holden, D Buggy, P Brennan. Subs: D Walsh for A Holden, P Shore for P Brennan, P Donnelly for P Buggy (inj), R O'Keeffe for D Dunne, K Murphy for S Coonan.
Referee : F Barrett (Kildare).
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