LAOIS 2-9 DUBLIN 4-20
The good people of Laois waited 111 years to host Dublin in the championship and may well be prepared to wait the same amount of time for the Blues' next visit after this record O'Moore Park massacre.
For Dubs' fans, the first half in particular was manna from heaven. They basked in the sun while watching Jack McCaffrey's first championship outing in three and a half years, Paul Mannion's in two and a half and a feast of points and goals right in front of them at the Town End.
The fare wasn't quite as good in the second half from their point of view as they watched Eoin Lowry smash two goals in response in front of them, but the game was well over by then.
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The gigantic gulf between the sides was evident well before the interval, by which time the Dubs held a 23-point lead - one more than they managed in victory over Laois last year - and their record winning Leinster championship margin of 31 points, achieved against Westmeath five years ago, was under threat.
In the end, plenty of the visiting supporters traipsed out as dark clouds gathered overhead and, as the rain came down and Barry Judge's final whistle brought a merciful end to proceedings, the Dubs went home as 27-point victors.
The Dubs looked sharp and were ruthless for the most part, chalking up four goals inside 34 minutes.
But while it was a good day out for the Blues faithful, Dessie Farrell practically admitted he learned next to nothing about his side from it as their 12-year vice-like grip on the Delaney Cup inevitably looks set to continue.
“That’s always a challenge," acknowledged Farrell, when asked what he took from the game.
"But it's good to get game time into a lot of players and we have players coming back from injury as well.
“It probably was a little bit easier than we thought. We had prepared well, we got a good start and kept momentum with us for long periods of that first half after one of those dream starts."
Farrell was pleased that McCaffrey and Mannion had the opportunity to start.
"The lads had a couple of injuries during the league and we definitely would have liked to give them more action up to this point," he said.
"But today was an opportunity to do that and it was great to see the lads come through.”
After enduring that first half bombardment, Laois boss Billy Sheehan could have taken some solace from his side's second half display. He was brutally realistic about the context in which the fightback occurred, however.
“They went out there and gave their all but can you take anything from the game? No," said Sheehan.
"We’ve got to realise that we are simply not at that level. We thought we were. We trained very hard, we felt that we had a good chance and then we were blown out of the water.
The way the goals were looking we looked like we could concede seven or eight but we shut that up.
"Even though we pushed back a sweeper there we still conceded 15 points, so very disappointed all around. Dublin's shooting return must have been massive, but the reality is there was a massive gap in performance between the two teams."
Laois actually took the lead through Paul Kingston's early point and it took Dublin a minute or two to calibrate before going into all-out attack mode.
Within eight minutes they led by 2-2 to 0-1. Con O'Callaghan led the way with a delicate finish for the first goal, Colm Basquel followed up with the second and that pair were lethal in tandem.
Having said that, Laois shot themselves in the foot on too many occasions to mention, coughing up possession for both goals while at the other end firing aimless long, diagonal balls into their frustrated full-forward line.
It was game over with less than 10 minutes played but the onslaught continued as Dublin swept comfortably in defence and won turnover after turnover in midfield, where McCaffrey, James McCarthy, Brian Fenton and more were allowed to run rampant.
Sean Bugler was brilliantly denied Dublin's third goal by keeper Scott Osborne, but when it came it was similar in that Laois threw away possession in the 25th minute through Padraig Kirwan's free and Lee Gannon had the freedom of O'Moore Park to pick his spot.
The fourth arrived just before the break when a clinical move was finished by Ciaran Kilkenny.
With a host of experienced players primed to come off the bench, the onslaught looked set to continue.
But in fact Laois responded with two quick-fire goals from Eoin Lowry that will have Farrell seeking answers from his full-back line, especially the second when Kingston was gifted possession and he teed up Lowry.
In response, Dublin rattled off the next seven points as Farrell made personnel changes as his mind inevitably travelled forward to next week's meeting with Kildare.
The talk after this latest Leinster SFC mis-match was whether it wasn't just the Tailteann Cup that should be the next destination for Laois, but even a third tier competition.
Such was the difference in class between the midlanders and Dublin. Two decades ago, this was a real rivalry but it is 20 years since Laois won this championship fixture.
For now, Laois find themselves in Division 4 - they finished third in the recent shake-up - while the Dubs will be back in the top tier in 2024 after winning the Division 2 title.
“We felt we had a good chance there today," said Sheehan. "We looked forward to it, the boys were thrilled to have the game in Portlaoise.
"Sligo were thrilled to have the game (against New York). I’m sure Clare and Limerick were thrilled to get the game.
"I don’t know who won the other three (Leinster) games today but the likes of Offaly, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow would all be happy to be in a semi-final next week.
"Clare happen to be in a Munster final. I’m sure whoever won between Donegal and Down will be happy and Armagh will be happy so you can’t just say that just because Dublin are dominant in Leinster that the provincial system is poor.
"You have to take on its merits that Dublin team are a train and they continue to be relentless. Fair play to them.
"Kerry were like that in the 70s and it took time for Cork to break their mould. It was Kilkenny in hurling and now it's Limerick. Things will change but Dublin are so far ahead at the moment it is disappointing.”
Farrell, who will have Mick Fitzsimons back marshalling his full-back line against Kildare after the Cuala veteran missed out yesterday with a knock, also believes the current system deserves a chance.
“I wouldn’t necessarily agree with that (a third tier)," said Farrell.
"The competition structure has been on the agenda and has been debated wide and far for many a year now. It’s always going to be a bit of a conundrum to come up with the right solution for that one.”
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