Laois just cannon fodder for Rebels

NOT so much a contest as a despairing painful cry for help.

Hurling at its best, as seen in the last two Septembers, remains a game of unequalled skill and scope, but Saturday’s slaughter in Portlaoise was a shocking and painful reminder of just how deep-rooted the problems are in the code’s more marginal counties.

Nobody can say they didn’t see this coming.