Antrim 1-22
Laois  0-11

by Kevin Egan at Croke Park

A dominant, ruthless second-half performance that saw Antrim land 13 out of their 16 attempts on goal from the 34th minute onwards, was enough to draw a line under the county’s one-year stint outside the Glen Dimplex Senior Championship and send them back up to top tier camogie for 2027.

Laois have made immense strides forward over the past couple of seasons, securing success in the league, the Leinster championship and last year’s All-Ireland Premier Junior competition. However after landing the significant scalps of Down and Kerry en route to this final, they found the air far too thin at Croke Park once Antrim turned up the intensity in the second half.

Róisín McCormick and Eobha McAllister landed five scores from play apiece over the course of the hour with McCormack firing in the only goal, and on top of that, a string of precision dead-ball strikes that put clear daylight between the sides.

Yet when Laois started the second half with three of the first four points after the restart, the smash-and-grab underdog win was there to be seized, albeit the midlanders were paddling frantically to stay afloat in the contest up to that point.

McAllister and McCormick will get their share of plaudits for their performances in front of the posts, but Antrim can thank their defensive unit for some lockdown play in the opening half when Laois were committing bodies to the rucks and scraps, securing plenty of possession as a result.

The Saffrons did threaten to overwhelm their opponents early on, firing close-range points through Lucia McNaughton and McAllister that fizzed less than a metre over the crossbar from inside the 20m line.

Meanwhile, the Antrim full-back line didn’t concede a score from play over the course of the game while Shannagh Hegarty was as firm as a tidal wall on the 45, blocking down three Laois attempts on goal and executing a handful of outstanding clearances.

Still, there was nothing the Antrim defence could do when Gráinne Delaney and Clodagh Tynan fired the sliotar over the heads of all of them and over the crossbar from distance to settle the O’Moore County and level the tie.

The infrequency of their scores meant that Laois continued to be on the ropes and Catherine Kirby’s reaction when she failed to test the ‘keeper from the edge of the square, merely drawing a white flag at the Davin End goal, was a clear indication that she knew they needed to land a haymaker or two rather than just picking off jabs here and there.

McNaughton intercepted a Laois pass to set up McCormick and McAllister struck another sublime point on the run in two highlight reel plays for Antrim in the second quarter but at 0-9 to 0-5 in front at half-time they were in front, but far from out of sight.

Points from Tynan, Aimee Collier and Delaney in the first four minutes of the second half further heightened the tension around Croke Park, and an Antrim team that started this season by beating Cork in the top tier of the National League, faced into the most critical half hour of their entire season, battling the live threat of a defeat that would have undermined their confidence and self-belief for years to come.

With that pressure on their shoulders, Elaine Dowds’ team produced a masterclass in creation and execution in front of the posts to explode past the opponents and over the horizon.

Janey McIntosh got the ball rolling with a neat finish from a tight angle, McAllister took possession in the left corner and put a point on a plate for Hegarty with a sublime pass, and the gradient of the mountain that Laois had to climb was multiplied in the 42nd minute when Cliona Griffin couldn’t quite hold a long delivery in traffic but the breaking ball fell perfectly for McCormick to scoop it up on the run.

A subtle drop of the shoulder and sidestep was enough to open up the goal chance, and the Loughgiel attacker went for the scalpel rather than the broadsword with her finish, surgically placing the sliotar into the bottom right corner at the Davin End.

Laois could easily have taken more off the eventual deficit than they did, but they chose to die trying to win rather than meekly seeking respectability, albeit without ever really testing Antrim captain Caitríona Graham in between the posts.

Tynan added two more points but that forlorn chase for goals left the midlanders stretched at the back and Antrim kept adding points, shooting five in the last ten minutes to emphatically confirm that senior championship camogie is their natural home, one they will happily revisit next Summer.

SCORERS FOR ANTRIM: R McCormick 1-11 (0-5fs, 0-2 45s); E McAllister 0-5; M Kelly 0-3; L McNaughton, J McIntosh, S Hegarty 0- each

SCORERS FOR LAOIS: C Tynan 0-4 (0-2f), G Delaney 0-3, A Collier 0-2f, C Kirby 0-1, K O’Keeffe 0-1

ANTRIM: C Graham; C Patterson, C Conlon, C McNaughton; C McKillop, K Molloy, S Hegarty; A Boyle, L McNaughton; M Kelly, R McCormick, N McAtamney; J McIntosh, C Griffin, E McAllister. Subs: S O’Neill for Molloy (half-time), E McIntosh for J McIntosh (48), O McAllister for McAtamney (48), D Dobbin for Patterson (56), A Ferris for McNaughton (56).

LAOIS: A Lowry; L Finlay, A Finlay, K Whelan; L Conroy, C Tynan, R Deegan; S Creagh, J Bergin; K O’Keeffe, G Delaney, C Kirby; K Keenan, A Collier, S Delaney.  Subs: E Hassett for Kirby (36), A O’Dea for Keenan (45), A Lacey for Deegan (52), S Fleming for O’Keeffe (57), A Carroll for Whelan (57).

REFEREE: Joe Mullins (Clare).

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