PREVIEW: Laois footballers face Kildare with Leinster semi-final spot on the line in Newbridge

Laois will head to Cedral St Conleth’s Park in Newbridge on Sunday afternoon knowing a significant step up in intensity awaits as they face Kildare in the Leinster Senior Football Championship quarter-final.

Confidence in the Laois camp will be high after a solid opening-round win over Offaly last weekend in Tullamore, where they ran out 3-12 to 0-12 winners. Goals from Kevin Swayne from Portlaoise, Ciaran Burke from Crettyard and Park-Ratheniska's Simon Fingleton underpinned a dominant display that ensured progression into the last eight with minimal fuss.

However, Sunday’s assignment is a very different challenge. Kildare, playing on home soil in Newbridge, will be keen to impose themselves early and avoid a repeat of their defeat to Laois in the 2024 Tailteann Cup quarter-final in Tullamore, Laois’ first championship win over their neighbours since 2005.

Kildare will also come into Sunday’s clash on the back of a disappointing Allianz League campaign, having been relegated from Division 2 alongside Offaly, the same Offaly side Laois defeated in last weekend’s championship opener. 

The rivalry has been building steadily in recent seasons under Justin McNulty’s management of Laois, with the sides also meeting in the 2025 Allianz Football League, where Kildare produced a comprehensive 0-21 to 0-9 victory in Newbridge. That result will still be fresh in Laois minds, particularly given the venue for Sunday’s showdown.

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History adds further weight to the occasion. The counties famously contested the 2003 Leinster final, where Laois captured the Delaney Cup under Mick O’Dwyer in one of the county's most celebrated days in their history.

Interestingly, championship meetings in Newbridge are rare, with the last one dating all the way back to 1984 when Laois emerged 1-10 to 0-7 winners.

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The prize for the victors is significant: a two-week break before a Leinster semi-final against either Meath or Westmeath. The winners of that tie, played earlier on Sunday in Tullamore, will meet Laois or Kildare in Tullamore on Sunday, May 3. Meath, last year’s Leinster finalists, All-Ireland semi-finalists and the team that ended Dublin’s 13-year provincial dominance in 2025, will be expected to be the opposition.

Laois v Kildare throws-in at 3.45pm on Sunday, April 19, in Cedral St Conleth's Park in Newbridge.