Donal Burke fires senior hurlers to victory over Laois

HL DIVISION 1B 

DUBLIN 0-30 LAOIS 1-19 

Donal Burke's marksmanship led the way as Dublin bounced back from their opening round defeat to overcome hosts Laois in this HL Division 1B clash at MW Hire O’Moore Park, Portlaoise on Saturday.

The Na Fianna man tallied 0-18, including three points from play, as Mattie Kenny's men recovered from a slow start to run out fairly convincing winners.

Donal's tally almost equalled the 1-16 (0-10f, 0-2 '65') he compiled against Laois in last October's Leinster SHC clash when the same two counties had most recently collided.

However, Laois made the better opening and led 0-4 to 0-1 inside five minutes with Paddy Purcell getting their scoring underway within ten seconds of the first whistle.

By the 11th minute the Dubs were level following points from Donal Burke - two frees - either side of a fine score from play from Daire Gray.

The exchanges remained very evenly balanced with Dublin taking the lead for the first time in the 25th minute courtesy of Donal Burke's sixth successful free.

Points from Donal Burke, two more frees, and a point from Cian Boland, pushed Dublin 0-13 to 0-9 clear by the 34th minute but a brace of Ross King scores closed the gap for the O'Moore County men before half-time (0-13 to 0-11).

The opening seven scores of the second half were all frees, including one by Donal Burke from inside his own '45', and by the 44th minute Dublin held a 0-18 to 0-13 advantage.

It was during this period that Dublin set themselves up for victory with further scores from Seán Moran, a Donal Burke '65', and points from play from Conor Burke and Andrew Dunphy.

So Dublin had established a 0-22 to 0-12 buffer by the 50th minute after outscoring their hosts 0-8 to 0-1 in the previous ten-minute spell.

The only goal of the contest - Cha Dwyer's cleverly improvised overhead finish to the net in the 53rd minute - fuelled local hopes of a Laois comeback.

But Dublin scores from Conor Burke and his namesake Donal, a massive long-range effort, kept Laois on the backfoot as Dublin triumphed by eight points.

SCORERS – Dublin: D Burke 0-18 (0-14f, 0-1 '65'), C Burke, A Dunphy 0-2 each, D Gray, D Keogh, E Dillon, R McBride, F Whitely, C Boland, P Crummey, S Moran 0-1 each. Laois: PJ Scully (0-6f), Ross King (0-4f) 0-6 each, C Dwyer 1-3 (0-1 sl), P Purcell 0-2, E Rowland (0-1f), C Collier 0-1 each.

DUBLIN: A Nolan; P Smyth, E O’Donnell, A Dunphy; D Gray, L Rushe, S Moran; C Burke, J Madden; D Sutcliffe, D Burke, C Crummey; R Hayes, E Dillon, C Boland. Subs: O O’Rorke for Boland (51), D Keogh for Dillon (51), R McBride for Madden (55), F Whitely for Hayes (58), J Malone for Moran (66), J Hetherton for Sutcliffe (71), P Crummey for C Crummey (71).

LAOIS: E Rowland; D Conway, S Downey, D Hartnett; P Delaney, M Whelan, J Kelly; FC Fennell, P Purcell; J Ryan, C Dwyer, C Collier; PJ Scully, R King, A Dunphy. Subs: J Keyes for Dunphy (47), E Gaughan for Scully (54), C Comerford for Ryan (54), C Stapleton for Fennell (66), C McEvoy for Delaney (66),

REF: P O’Dwyer (Carlow).