Lethal Maher drives Portlaoise to another title
PORTLAOISE are Laois senior football champions for a 34th time — and 11th time in 12 years — after beating O’Dempseys in O’Moore Park yesterday. A goal in each half from man of the match Ricky Maher were key scores as they made their overall superiority count against an O’Dempseys side making their first final appearance since 1983. Powered by former Laois players Robbie Kehoe and Peter O’Leary, O’Dempseys gave as good as they got early on with youngster Mark Barry, Micheál Finlay and Barry Kelly prominent in the opening stages. All-Star nominee Graham Brody had to pull off a brilliant early save from O’Dempseys star forward Matthew Finlay. Portlaoise responded in style to this let-off and rattled off 1-5 in quick succession — the goal from Maher in the 18th minute added to by points from Conor Boyle, Paul Cahillane, Gareth Dillon and Craig Rogers. O’Dempseys hung in and, with Micheál Finlay and Barry kicking points, they then struck for a wellworked team goal, flicked to the net by big fullforward Dan McCormack. When Barry Kelly pointed moments later there was one between the sides. Captain Cahillane, however, knocked over two points and Portlaoise led 1-10 to 1-7 at the break. Portlaoise withstood O’Dempseys early forays in the second half and Maher’s goal in the 39th minute began to put distance between the sides. Cahillane brought his tally to five points while midfielder Kieran Lillis, Conor Boyle and a longrange free from goalkeeper Brody all added points too. At one stage, Portlaoise stretched 10 points clear and, while O’Dempseys fought back as well as they could with a string of nice scores — from Matthew Finlay, Mark Barry and Barry Kelly — the result was never in doubt. Portlaoise now go forward to another Leinster campaign where they’ll be hoping to make a bigger impact than they managed in recent times. They have eight Leinster club titles to their name but haven’t been successful in the province since 2010. They play the Kildare or Westmeath champions in the Leinster quarter-final on November 11.