Dunne stars as Laois defeat Carlow to claim Joe McDonagh Cup

June 06, 2026

Laois captain David Dooley raises the Joe McDonagh Cup ©INPHO/Tom O'Hanlon

Laois triumphed to their second ever Joe McDonagh Cup final with a 1-27 to 1-18 win against Carlow at Croke Park this afternoon.

Having lost out in the second-tier competition’s last two finals, the O’Moore men overcame the concession of an early James Doyle here to win out by nine points at headquarters and promote themselves to the Liam MacCarthy Cup.

The teams had registered 0-1 apiece in the opening minute before Doyle made the most of Eoin Reilly's spill to find the net for Carlow.

The Laois response to that concession was superb, as they sent over five points unanswered via Tomás Keyes, Stephen Maher (free), Aaron Dunphy, Cillian Dunne and Martin Phelan.

Maher helped stretch the lead for his side and the scores of Dunphy, ‘Man of the Match’ Dunne and Ben Conroy would usher them towards 0-13 to 1-7 interval lead.

Jack Treacy’s point early in the resumption trimmed the Carlow deficit to two, but their neighbours would push it out to four again and then hit the jackpot with Dunne’s goal on 54 minutes.

Treacy, Kevin McDonald (free) and Martin Kavanagh (free) pulled back scores for the Barrowsiders, but they’d end up ruing 22 wides over the 70 minutes in the capital.

Chris Nolan made it a three-point game ahead of Dunne (2), Jack Kelly and James Keyes steadying the ship for Tommy Fitzgerald’s charges, and it’d be Dunne that wrapped up the winning tally deep in injury-time as Laois banished the ghosts of the last two final defeats in this competition. 


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