Everyone was a winner in the second game at sunny Croke Park, where Tipperary defeated Laois by 2-25 to 1-18.

Liam Sheedy’s men have qualified for an All-Ireland semi-final meeting with Wexford in a fortnight but will have to improve on this display if they’re to get past the Leinster champions.

It was the losers who embarked on a lap of honour around GAA HQ after the final whistle and they were fully worthy of the warm applause from both sets of supporters as their excellent season came to an end. They’ve really caught the public imagination with their against-the-odds performances against Dublin and Tipp in the last eight days.

Shock winners over the Dubs in their preliminary quarter-final last weekend, the Joe McDonagh Cup winners continued where they had left off, delivering a stunning first-half showing to turn around just four points behind, 2-11 to 1-10.

With 44,135 at Croker for today’s quarter-final double-header, Ross King’s goal a minute from the break kept Eddie Brennan’s charges very much in contention at the short whistle, Jason Forde and Seamus Callanan having netted at the other end as the Premier County struggled to shake off their intelligent, well-organised opponents.

Mark Kavanagh (free) and Aaron Dunphy had the underdogs ahead early on, pointing either side of a Forde reply and Willie Dunphy cancelled out Ger Browne’s point before Kavanagh’s second pointed free made it double scores after seven minutes, 0-4 to 0-2.

Forde won and converted a ninth-minute penalty, Callanan gathering a superb Noel McGath delivery to plant the second Tipp major approaching the midway stage in the first half. The midlanders refused to roll over and points from Kavanagh (free) and Aaron Dunphy had them back within the two goals, 2-9 to 0-9, King’s clinical 34th-minute diving finish to the net at the Davin End no less than they deserved and ensuring that they were still in contention at the break.

Forde’s point stretched the gap upon the restart but the underdogs suffered a massive setback in the 38th minute when Aaron Dunphy was sent off for a second yellow-card offence, Forde’s free and a Padraic Maher point rubbing salt in the wound – 2-14 to 1-10.

Going through the motions, the beaten Munster finalists failed to pull away as one might have expected, although they were comfortable winners and their progress to the last four was never in any doubt. The winners had Michael Breen sent off (two yellows) two minutes from time, Forde’s injury-time free pushing them past the 30-point barrier.

Job done but they’ll have to improve if they want to be in the All-Ireland final.

Tipperary - B Hogan; C Barrett, J Barry, A Flynn (0-1); B Maher, Padraic Maher (0-1), R Maher (0-2); N McGrath (0-2), G Browne (0-2); D McCormack, J O’Dwyer, N O’Meara; J Forde (1-12, 1-0pen, 0-9f, 0-1'65), S Callanan (1-2), J McGrath (0-2). Subs: M Breen for A Flynn, M Kehoe for J O’Dwyer, J Cahill for G Browne, B Heffernan (0-1) for J Barry, J Morris for N O’Meara.

Laois - E Rowland; L Cleere, M Whelan, J Phelan; J Kelly (0-2), R Mullaney, P Delaney; J Lennon (0-1), P Purcell (0-1); A Dunphy (0-2), M Kavanagh (0-11f), E Lyons; W Dunphy (0-1), C Dwyer, R King (1-0). Subs: E Killeen for J Phelan, S Maher for C Dwyer, C Phelan for E Lyons, S Bergin for W Dunphy, E Gaughan for J Lennon.

Referee - C Lyons.

Tweet

Most Read Stories