Micko leads Laois to glory

Laois 2-10, Offaly 0-13

A decorated member of football's aristocracy, winner of over a dozen All-Irelands as player and manager with his native Kerry, spurned by his own he turned bandit, robbing from the rich, giving to the poor.

First it was Kildare, plundering Leinster, picking the considerable pockets of both Meath and Dublin in the process. Now it's Laois, a county that has known only the hardest of footballing times but, on the very impressive evidence of the quality football they played in this Leinster championship replay in a packed Tullamore yesterday, that is surely about to change.