Carlow crush Offaly to set up Joe McDonagh final date with Faithful

Carlow have qualified for the second Joe McDonagh Cup final. At their home patch in Netwatch Cullen Park on Saturday they put a severely weakened Offaly team to the sword with the visitors hardly putting up a fight.

At the same time, Laois did what they had to do in Kerry winning handsomely enough but it will have been a long road home for the O'Moore players as news came through that Carlow were also victorious.

Carlow’s neighbours will surely ask questions about Offaly’s motivation but the losing management team here will surely be worried. Not one of their fringe players put in a performance which would have merited consideration for selection in the final in two weeks’ time.

Carlow were on the front-foot from the start. James Doyle fired over a point. Marty Kavanagh converted a free. They could have had a goal but Chris Nolan was dismayed that the whistle had blown for a free in a split second before he pulled the trigger. Fine margins indeed.

These things balance out and Offaly were later penalised for an illegal hand-pass with a clear overlap against a Carlow defence which had gone too far forward.

Carlow's leading scorer of all time, Marty Kavanagh, converted a succession of frees while James Doyle, with three from play, was always threatening the Offaly defence. Only Shane Dooley at full-forward and full-back, Ben Conneely, stood between the visitors and total humiliation. Elsewhere, Offaly players got nothing out of a determined and focussed home side.

At the break, Carlow led 0-16 to 0-6. Only a complete accident was going to deny them. Even though Dooley and Liam Langton flighted over Offaly points in the opening minutes of the second half, their comeback was never on.

Kavanagh landed four points from play.

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