Laois Intermediate Football Championship Preview

The Laois Shopping Centre Intermediate Football Championship gets underway on Friday evening with eight teams vying for glory in the hopes of playing Senior football in 2024.

Ballylinan come into this year's championship having been relegated from the senior grade in 2022, their neighbours Killeshin defeated them in last year's final. They will be earmarked as one of the favourites to make an instant return to the top table of club football. Their first round game sees them up against Crettyard, who will also have aspirations of getting back into the Senior Championship for the first time since their relegation in 2019. Evan O'Carroll had an excellent year in the blue and white for Laois so Crettyard will be hoping he can bring that form into the championship.

There will be a battle of two second teams on Friday evening as Portlaoise face O'Dempsey's. Portlaoise are back at the Intermediate grade following their Junior Championship win over Barrowhouse. O'Dempsey's will be hoping for better performances this year as they only scraped past The Rock in last year's Relegation Final, 1-11 to 0-13.

Mountmellick and Arles-Kilcruise clash on Friday evening with Mountmellick coming into the championship having won the ACFL Division 3 title. They defeated a fellow Arles side in the form of Arles-Killeen, who are a Senior side. That will give Mountmellick a boost of confidence and they'll be hopeful of going one step further than last year where they were beaten by The Heath at the semi-final stage. On the other hand, Arles-Kilcruise were in last year's final and also suffered the same fate as Mountmellick with The Heath being crowned Intermediate champions for 2022.

The final clash of the first round sees Timahoe pitted against another second team in the form of Ballyroan-Abbey. Both sides met in last year's championship at the same stage where extra-time was needed to separate the two teams, Ballyroan-Abbey getting the victory on that occasion. These two sides ended up having no influence on the latter stages of the competition last year with both of them knocked out at the quarter-final stage.

See the first round fixtures below:

Friday July 28

Mountmellick v Arles-Kilcruise at 7.30pm in Timahoe

Portlaoise v O'Dempsey's at 7.30pm in Courtwood

Saturday July 29

Crettyard v Ballylinan at 7pm in Annanough

Timahoe v Ballyroan-Abbey at 7pm in Mountmellick