Defending champions Portarlington put neighbours O'Dempsey's to the sword in Laois final

Portarlington 2-13 O'Dempsey’s 0-08

Portarlington have claimed the Laois SFC title for the third year in a row, following an 11-point win over neighbours O’Dempsey’s.

For the third season running, Port saved their best performance of the campaign for the final. And they have achieved such a run of success by completely overwhelming Graiguecullen, Portlaoise and now O'Dempsey's in their county decider.

Port played with the wind in the first half and in a frantic opening quarter they slowly but surely made their dominance count.

There had been rarely a county final quite build up like it, so rarely had such close rivals and neighbours done battle on the biggest day of all in Laois.

While the wet and windy conditions didn't help, O'Dempsey's could make no real headway against the brilliant Port defence.

Colm Murphy had been held scoreless in the semi-final against Portlaoise, a rare occurrence, but he hit the ground running here, putting his side into a lead early on after being fouled himself.

He'd go on to score four points in the first half while his brother David, starting his first game of this championship, was outstanding, landing two wonderful points from play in an imperious display.

Adam Ryan was also in a different class, kicking three from play. Jake Foster, Scott Osborne ('45) and Ronan Coffey - on for the injured Stephen O'Neill - hit superb points too.

For O'Dempsey's, they pulled a rabbit from the hat by throwing Conor Meredith in for his first start of the year, and though he did point exquisitely in the sixth minute, O'Dempsey's struggled to get shots away, even if they got up the field on plenty of occasions.

Mark Barry pointed a mark in the 10th minute but it was to be their last score of the half.

Port hit nine