Laois can maintain dominance over Kerry if midfield click

THE clash of Kerry and Laois in the first of the All-Ireland MFC semi-finals at Croke Park tomorrow is the first meeting between these counties since 1996 when they met in the final.

Victory went to the O'Moore County that year for the first time with a team that included Brian McDonald, Noel Garvan, Kevin Fitzpatrick, Chris Conway and Stephen Kelly, all of whom were members of this year's senior team which won the Leinster title for the first time since 1946. Kerry's team that year included current seniors Aodán MacGearailt, Mike McCarthy, Tomás Ó Sé and Ian Twiss. Laois won the Tomás Markham Cup for the first time on a 2-11 to 1-11 scoreline.

This year's Laois team are said to be exceptionally talented and coach Seán Dempsey doesn't deny it. "While losing the Leinster final to Dublin was a huge setback, we managed to recover well and beating Tyrone, who were fancied in many quarters this year, was just the lift we needed. We played both Tyrone and Cork in challenge games earlier in the year and I rated Cork slightly the better team. So when we met the Ulster team in the championship I was reasonably confident we could take them.

"After a shaky start we settled well and in the end deserved our victory, but it was hard-earned. Tyrone are always a tough, physical team to beat.

"We've been training since last November and I would rate this present team as good if not slightly better than the 1996 winning team even though we lost the Leinster final.

"You can never feel over-confident when going into playing Kerry. They bring huge tradition with them and you have to be twice as good to beat them.

"Having seen them play I feel the form we displayed against Tyrone would be good to win tomorrow, but the big question for us is, can we repeat that form? Only time will tell."

Lack of consistency has been a huge worry to Kerry coach Pat O'Shea. They made hard work of disposing of Clare in the opening round of the Munster championship and struggled against Cork in the opening half of the final before finishing in style and then took a long time to shake off a dogged Mayo side in the All-Ireland qualifier.

In Bryan Sheehan, Barry O'Grady and Dan Doona, Kerry have three highly talented forwards who will post a lot of problems for the Laois defence.

Midfield has been a troublesome area for Kerry all season and the fact that Brian Moran is back in again from the start tomorrow he was replaced early in the Munster final and came on as a sub against Mayo suggests

Kerry are still unhappy with this vital area.

If Craig Rogers and Brendan Quigley get an even break at midfield, Laois have enough power in attack in Colm Kelly, Peter McNulty and Chris Bergin to put sufficient scores on the board that should see them maintain their dominance over the Kingdom at this level.

LAOIS (MF v Kerry): C. Gorman (Clonaslee-St. Manmans); C. Healy (Portlaoise), C. Reilly (Portarlington),R. Stapleton (Annanough); P. O'Leary (O'Dempseys), C. Begley (Stradbally), N. Donagher (Courtwood); B. Quigley (Timahoe), C. Rogers (Portlaoise); D. Brennan (Arles-Killeen), C. Kelly (St. Joseph's),

P. McNulty (Portlaoise); M. Tierney (Ballyroan), C. Bergin (The Heath), C. Kelly (Stradbally). Subs. E. Culliton (Timahoe), I. Fleming (Graiguecullen), D. Murphy (Portarlington), B. Fitzgerald (Portlaoise), B. Mortimer (Stradbally), M. Timmons (Graiguecullen), E. Butler (St. Josephs), D. O'Shea (Portlaolise),