Burke points way as senior hurlers overcome Laois

LEINSTER SHC QUARTER-FINAL

DUBLIN 2-31 LAOIS 0-23

Dublin jumped the hurdle of Laois with 14 points to spare in Saturday's Leinster SHC first round clash at Croke Park.

Next up for the Dubs is a provincial semi-final against Kilkenny back at GAA headquarters next Saturday (3.45, Live on GAAGO) with the other semi-final seeing Galway face Leinster holders Wexford (6.15, Live RTE).

Coming up to the first water break the Dubs led 0-7 to 0-6 but points from Donal Burke, a free after a foul on Ronan Hayes, Rian McBride and Chris Crummey after linking with Davy Keogh put Mattie Kenny's men 0-10 to 0-6 clear.

Donal Burke's accuracy was to have a major impact on proceedings as he hit 1-16 overall, including 10 frees and two 65s.

His scores came from a a variety of distances and angles and he also provided the assist on other occasions in a stellar performance.

The Na Fianna man's goal came in the 27th minute when he raced through the Laois defence from 50 metres before applying a great finish as the angle tightened.

Before the interval Dublin moved clear with Burke converting his two 65s and Cian Boland grabbing one from play to lead 1-16 to 0-12.

The Dubs restarted well with three Donal Burke frees extending their advantage before Danny Sutcliffe hit his second point and now the boys in blue were 11 points clear.

Laois rallied with points from Jack Kelly, Paddy Purcell and Pádraig Delaney but their comeback was shortlived and over the close of the game they relied heavily on the freetaking of Ross King and keeper Enda Rowland for their scores.

By the second half water break Dublin were 1-24 to 0-21 up with Seán Moran getting on the scoresheet.

Check out the highlights from our Senior hurlers’ Leinster Quarter Final win over Laois this evening #UpTheDubs pic.twitter.com/2iuwXu2Bq4

— Dublin GAA (@DubGAAOfficial) October 24, 2020

In the final ten minutes Dublin made certain of victory with Donal Burke bringing his tally to 1-16 and subs Eamonn Dillon and Mark Schutte bringing Dublin's number of scorers to ten players.

At the other end the Dublin defence was solid and did not give their opponents any real goal opportunities while Conor Burke did well operating in the sweeper role.

Eamonn Dillon's emphatic finish for Dublin's second goal late on put an extra gloss on the final scoreline.

Donal Burke was named man of the match and afterwards his manager praised the display of the 22-year-old Na Fianna clubman.

“Anyone who has watched Dublin hurling for the last number of years knows that Donal has been a great player since he was 16 or 17," said Dublin manager Mattie Kenny afterwards.

"He played really well for the Dublin minors and under-21s so he was always a great talent coming through.

"Everyone in Dublin was delighted to see him out there doing it at senior level.

"He’s a very, very skilful player, a great striker of the ball and in fairness to the young lad he got some great scores there tonight.”

SCORERS – Dublin: D Burke 1-16 (0-10f, 0-2 '65'), E Dillon 1-1, C Crummey 0-3, C Burke, R McBride, D Sutcliffe, C Boland 0-2 each, S Moran, D Keogh, M Schutte 0-1 each. Laois: R King 0- 10 (0-9f, 0-1 '65'), S Maher, A Dunphy, E Rowland (0-2f), P Purcell 0-2 each, P Delaney, R Mullaney, F Fennell, J Kelly, J Ryan 0-1 each.

DUBLIN: A Nolan; P Smyth, E O’Donnell, J Madden; C Burke, D Gray, C O’Callaghan; S Moran, R McBride; C Boland, D Burke, D Sutcliffe; C Crummey, R Hayes, D Keogh. Subs: E Dillon for Hayes (50), L Rushe for Crummey (56), J Malone for Gray (61), M Schutte for Boland (68), S Barrett for Moran (72).

LAOIS: E Rowland; D Hartnett, R Broderick, L Cleere; P Delaney, R Mullaney, F Fennell; P Purcell, S Downey; J Keyes, A Dunphy, J Ryan; R King, S Maher, W Dunphy. Subs: J Kelly for Cleere (33), C McEvoy for Broderick (35+2), M Kavanagh for Keyes (h-t), C Phelan for Mullally (51), E Gaughan for Maher (68).

REF: P O’Dwyer (Carlow).