A devastating display of attacking relentless and foot to the throttle intensity, Down destroyed Laois in this Tailteann Cup semi-final, setting up a final against Meath.
Down dominated from the start, a side relentlessly running at a tepid Laois defence early on.
With less than a minute elapsed, Pat Havern had set Liam Kerr running clear in absolute acres of room, Kerr caressing his finish beautifully beneath Killian Roche.
Havern then turned scorer, fizzing a point over with ease before he himself had a goal, the ultimate transformation from provider to scorer, four points in four minutes and a huge eight-point margin with ten minutes gone, Laois looking shellshocked.
Typically aligning with their tepid opening, when Laois did score, Mark Barry pointing brilliantly from range, only for Kerr to cancel it out emphatically with his second goal, the forward profiting opportunistically from a rebound before parrying athletically, swivelling, and finding the bottom corner.
Daniel Magill rubbed salt in increasingly exposed Laois wounds, finishing off more Havern hounding, the fourth raising of the green flags for a Down goal, and astounding score of 3-2 to -0-1, ten points already separating them.
As was the way, Eugene Branagan became Down’s fifth different scorer, but Eoin Lowry hit a free in reply for Laois.
But it was one step forward and two steps backward for them as Ceilum Doherty lashed over the bar, followed by Havern’s second score, taking his individual tally to an irrepressible five in twenty-five minutes.
Killian Roche booted another free accurately, but Rory Mason and Havern hooked well-aimed points in as Down neared an astounding twenty-point total.
On the half hour, Laois finally scored from open play, a sweetly struck point by Evan O’Carroll before Branagan’s brace took Down to twenty, a Kerr free extending the lead.
Summing up the calamity of a half for Laois, Kane repelled Paul Kingston a much-needed goal as the sides went in split by a chasm of eighteen points, Down coasting at 4-10 to 0-4 ahead.
Despite a trio of half-time replacements, the second half started in the exact same as the first with Kerr gleefully taking his hattrick of goals, two minutes in, a score reenforced by Ryan Johnston’s first point, Down starting to make a mockery of proceedings.
Then came some spirit from Laois, Barry onto a brace which was swiftly followed up by a quickfire brace of his own from Lowry.
Cruelly though, Odhran Murdock applied the finish to another devastating Down break as they hit six, Branagan and Shealan Johnston firing in with points either side of Barry’s third.
Replacement Donagh McAleenan then got in on the scoring fun, exchanging a swift, nifty, one-two with Johnston before arrowing unerringly into the bulging corner.
Murdock and Kingston swapped scores before replacement Kevin Swayne bundled a goal over for Laois, only to see it rendered immediately immaterial by Magill’s second, instant reply.
Barry continued to impress on the Laois side and converted a penalty cooly, heaving his team up to 2-10 in a frantic, albeit chasing shadows, second half.
In plenty of bright cameos, another Laois replacement, Dylan Kavanagh pointed but Down, despite easing off, kept going and completed the scoring job with Patrick Branagan and, fittingly given the starter of the spree, one final point from Kerr.
An unbelievable forty-point total for Down against a rather respectable Laois attacking tally of eighteen but their at-sea defence led to heartbreak in the face of an unstoppable, dominant Down side.
Into the Tailteann final against Meath they march, well acquainted with the Croke Park surroundings now, setting up a thrilling final in a few weeks’ time.
