Royals put to the sword in Portlaoise

Laois were comfortable winners over Meath on Sunday at O'Moore Park.

Laois 0-28

Meath 0-11

Meath were handed a stark reminder of the standard of hurling required at Joe McDonagh Cup level when they were comfortably beaten by last year's finalists Laois in the NHL Div 2 at O’Moore Park on Sunday.

On home territory, Laois were much sharper and more fluent in possession than the Royals. Laois made very few handling errors and they consistently punished Meath when the Royals were loose with possession.

Johnny Greville’s side always knew that this was going to be a tough test but some good performances in recent weeks had renewed this side with a certain level of confidence and belief. Their hopes of getting a result were clinging on by a thread at the break as they trailed by only four points.

However, before Meath had even gotten off the mark in the second-half, Laois had increased that gap to nine points. The Royals only scored three points in the last 20 minutes as the home side cruised to victory.

Gavin King did very well in between the sticks and he made some super saves late on to keep a clean sheet. Noah Conroy had a great gameat wing-back. Darren O’Higgins has had a relatively quiet league campaign but he was back to his energetic self on Sunday and scored two lovely points. After missing a few frees against Mayo last week, Tom Shine was extremely accurate with the dead-ball opportunities afforded to him.

Shine and O’Higgins got Meath off to a relatively bright start but the writing of Meath’s fate was on the wall early when all three of Laois’ full-forward line, Cillian Dunne, Aaron Dunphy and Tomas Keyes scored from play in the space of two minutes. In the 10th minute, Aidan Corby put Laois 0-6 to 0-2 ahead.

Three Tom Shine scores, one from play and two from frees, kept Meath afloat and after 23 minutes, they only trailed by three points. Laois seized back momentum through a couple of long-range efforts from Corby, James Keyes and Padraig Delaney. Meath responded with a brace of Shine frees and at the interval Laois led 0-11 to 0-7.

At half-time, Meath still held a glimmer of hope but that was quickly dashed soon after the restart when Laois rattled off five points on the spin. Lee Cleere had an opportunity for a goal in the 38th minute but his bullet-like effort just went over the crossbar. Corby contributed to Laois’ growing tally with his fourth point before Dunne split the posts from a near impossible angle. Tomas Keyes’ free in the 46th minute put Laois ahead by 0-16 to 0-7.

Tom Shine brought his tally to 0-8 with another brace of frees but Laois continued to dominate as Dunphy, Martin Phelan, James Keyes and David Dooley all raised white flags. After 55 minutes, Laois led 0-20 to 0-9. A nice move that started with a King puck-out was polished off by O’Higgins in the 60th minute. Meath’s last score came in the 64th minute when Tom Shine scored his eighth free.

Laois stalwart Stephen Maher started to pick Meath apart and he contributed four points from the bench as Laois finished with a flourish. King pulled off two fantastic saves late on to deny Ryan Mullaney and Maher goal opportunities.

The contest was a real grounding for Meath who experienced first-hand what is required to compete at a higher grade. Meath’s promotion hopes from the division are still alive but only just. They need to defeat Kerry in two weeks at Trim and hope that Mayo can beat Westmeath.

Laois - Eoin Reilly; Ian Shannahan, Lee Cleere (0-1), Cody Comerford; Ciaran McEvoy, Padraig Delaney (0-2), Jordan Walshe; David Dooley (0-1), Aidan Corby (0-4); James Keyes (0-2), Jack Kelly, Ryan Mullaney; Cillian Dunne (0-4), Aaron Dunphy (0-3), Tomas Keyes (0-5 four frees). Subs - Fiachra Fennell (0-1) for Walshe 36m, Stephen Maher (0-4 one free) for Corby 42m, Martin Phelan for T Keyes 48m, Padraic Dunne for Dooley 55m, Mark Dowling for J Keyes 63m.

Meath - Gavin King; Jarlath Ennis, Sean Geraghty, Anthony Healy; Noah Conroy, Daire Shine, Simon Ennis; Lorcan O’Connor, Joey Cole; Darren O’Higgins (0-2), Mark Leavy, Eoin Donegan; Tom Shine (0-9 eight frees), Mikey Cole, Lorcan Byrne. Subs - Cathal Barron for M Cole, Damien Healy for Donegan, Darragh Heffernan for J Cole all 47m, Kyle Donnelly for Leavy 57m, Sean Doyle for Byrne 64m.

Referee: Ciaran O’Regan (Cork).