Carlow and Kerry ease to opening McDonagh Cup wins as Offaly edge Laois

Kerry's Michael Leane ©INPHO/Evan Treacy

Kerry opened their Joe McDonagh Cup campaign in impressive fashion as they handed Down a 1-26 to 1-14 defeat in Ballycran.

Shane Conway’s early hat-trick of points settled the visitors in perfectly before Eoin Ross hit the Mourne men’s net on 10 minutes.

Ross would a point to his personal tally on the half-hour mark as the Kingdom went in at the break leading 1-9 to 0-6.

The Munster men went on to stretch their lead to a dozen after the turnaround and not even a Ruairí McCrickard with 10 minutes to go could take the tarnish off the scoreline for Down.

In Tullamore, Offaly continued their red-hot form by securing a 3-19 to 1-22 win over neighbours Laois.

The Faithful men got goals from Eoghan Cahill and Joey Keenaghan during the opening period but would trail the fired-up visitors by 0-14 to 2-6 at the half.

Stephen Maher had led the charge for Laois up to that point but Johnny Kelly’s men would edge in front by the 44th minute via a Cahill free and it was his well-taken goal with eight minutes to go that sealed the win for the Division 2A champions.

Elsewhere, Carlow got their Joe McDonagh Cup campaign off to a dream start by trashing Kildare on a 5-23 to 0-19 scoreline in Hawkfield.

Paddy Boland rattled the hosts’ net with a brilliant individual goal three minute in and, from there, the Barrowsiders never looked back.

Boland netted two more to register his hat-trick inside 26 minutes ahead of Conor Kehoe raising two more green flags on route to a 19-point opening victory.