Dublin opened their Leinster title defence with a comfortable 2-21 to 2-10 victory over Laois at Nowlan Park.

A paltry crowd of just 16,764 turned out to see the Dubs on a rare appearance outside Croker Park as the All-Ireland champions effortlessly progressed to the last two in the province while their opponents went into the hat for Tuesday's Qualifier draw.

The game was done and dusted after five minutes as goals from top scorer Dean Rock - after 15 seconds - and Diarmuid Connolly - had the Dubs ahead by 2-0 to 0-1, with Gary Walsh pointing in between.

It was even worse for the midlanders at the break as they trailed by eleven points, 2-12 to 0-7, and were also down to 14 men with John O'Loughlin receiving a straight red card for leaving Michael Darragh Macauley with a bloodied nose off the ball.

After the early goals, Rock (3) and Ciaran Kilkenny stretched the gap to nine, 2-4 to 0-1, before Donie Kingston and Paul Cahillane (free) pulled a couple back. Connolly and Rock increased the lead, O'Loughlin replied, but Rock (free) and David Byrne had the game done and dusted long before O'Loughlin saw red.

It was 2-7 to 0-4 when the Laois attacker was dismissed and Cahillane pointed a free for the 14 men on 29 minutes only for the deadly Dubs to reply through Kilkenny and Rock. When Kingston pointed, it was Rock and Kilkenny who hit back; Connolly nonchalantly cancelled out a Kevin Meaney thumper before the short whistle.

Kevin McManamon and Kilkenny tagged on the first two scores after the restart to leave 13 between the teams but the O'Moore County battled back brilliantly with goals from Cahillane (penalty) and wing back Stephen Attride in the 42^nd and 46^th minutes respectively, 2-14 to 2-7.

Substitute Ross Munnelly reduced the arrears a little more but Dublin hit back with a mercurial brace from the gliding Connolly and a facile double of Rock frees - 2-18 to 2-8. The on-song Rock added two from play and Darren Strong pulled back a consolation point three minutes from time.

Laois goalkeeper Graham Brody pulled off a superb penalty save to deny Connolly a third Dublin goal from the penalty spot in the last minute before substitute Con O'Callaghan and corner back Damien O'Connor swapped injury-time scores.

Dublin - S Cluxton; D Byrne (0-1), J Cooper, P McMahon; J McCarthy, C O'Sullivan, J Small; B Fenton, M D Macauley; C Kilkenny (0-4), K McManamon (0-1), D Connolly (1-4); P Mannion, D Rock (1-10, 0-6f), B Brogan. Subs: D Bastick for M D Macauley, M D Macauley for D Bastick, M Fitzsimons for P McMahon, C Costello for B Brogan, C O'Callaghan (0-1) for P Mannion, D Daly for C O'Sullivan, E Lowndes for J Cooper, E O'Gara for D Rock.

Laois - G Brody; P Cotter, M Timmons, D O'Connor (0-1); S Attride (1-0), D Strong (0-1), G Dillon; J O'Loughlin (0-1), B Quigley; C Begley, P Cahillane (1-2, 1-0pen, 0-2f), E O'Carroll; D Kingston (0-2, 1f), C Meredith, G Walsh (0-1). Subs: K Meaney (0-1) for E O'Carroll, N Donoher for G Walsh, R Munnelly (0-1) for G Dillon, A Farrell for P Cahillane, G Hanrahan for P Cotter, R O'Connor for C Meredith.

Referee - C Branagan.

Tweet

Most Read Stories