Tipperary crush Laois in league opener

Liam Cahill won the battle of Ballingarry clubmates as his Tipperary side beat Willie Maher's Laois with a facile 20-point victory to open their Allianz Hurling League campaign.

This game will be soon forgotten but it at least provided an early marker of Tipp’s progress since beating the same opposition by four points last year.

Tipperary had only three starters overlapping from that day and two of those were playing totally different roles; Michael Breen from midfield to full-back and Séamus Kennedy from centre-back to wing-forward.

The only worry came as Conor Stakelum limped off after turning awkwardly and falling to the ground. For Laois, meanwhile, pragmatism may influence Maher to consider fielding a sweeper down the line.

Tipperary were over-reliant on Jason Forde for scores in pre-season. With the Silvermines star left on the bench, the test was to see who would step up to take over the bulk of the scoring burden.

The answer, in part, was Gearóid O’Connor with 0-11. More encouragingly, though, they had 14 different scorers from play across the 70 minutes despite firing 18 wides.

Five forwards had registered by the 20th minute. The one attacker who didn’t score did most of the spadework, Patrick 'Bonner’ Maher directly assisting 1-04 and setting up many more moves.

O’Connor had the first five points, two from play, before Maher crafted a goal chance for Kennedy. With the Laois defence marked absent, Kennedy slotted low under Enda Rowland.

Tipp had six goal chances in the first half, with Rowland saving from Seán Ryan and Cian O’Dwyer, Noel McGrath hitting the side-netting, and O’Dwyer and McGrath blocked when eyeing goal.

Tipp accumulated 10 wides in the first 35 minutes but their shooting improved as the half progressed.