Portarlington have all the tools to make historic Leinster final

What a time to be from Portarlington. A double Laois senior football championship success has already made 2021 a year to remember but on Sunday, they will have a chance to make a Leinster final.

The GAA's theatre of dreams that is Croke Park will play host to the Laois champions and Dublin champions Kilmacud Crokes on Saturday with a Leinster final in early January the prize on offer.

They have been by far and away the most impressive team in Laois in the last two years and with a teak tough win under their belt against St Loman's two weeks ago, they are all set up for yet another step up in class.

Built on an ultra tight defence that saw them concede just one goal in two years of championship football in Laois, the tools and motivation are certainly there for Port to go and have a right cut.

With Clough-Ballacolla leading the way last weekend by proving the underdog can always have its day, Portarlington can look at that and took a boost from it as Kilmacud Crokes now go into their second Leinster semi final in two weeks. Speaking of Kilmacud and one name that springs to mind is Paul Mannion. The multiple All Ireland winner with Dublin and former All Star is their main man and Port will have to have a plan to deal with him.

He oozes class but just like any good forward, he thrives on space and decent supply so if Port can cut the supply out at source and get Mannion moving further out to field to receive the ball, they are off to a good start.
While they will no doubt have a game plan in place, it is unlikely that Portarlington will deviate too much from what has gotten them this far.

Diarmuid Bennett missed out the last day through injury and getting him back on the field would be massive.
Not because Colin Slevin didn't do well against Lomans but his absence saw Robbie Piggot moved out of centre back and back to the edge of the square to fill the void.

The driving force for Port this year has been the half back line of Stuart Mulpeter, Piggot and the electric Paddy O'Sullivan.
Against Lomans, Piggot had to go back while Mulpeter filled the number six void. Both did very well but getting back to their five, six, seven combination would be a massive boost for them.

Colm Murphy and Jake Foster have been doing the bulk of the scoring but crucially, the likes of Adam Ryan, David Murphy, Rioghan Murphy and Ronan Coffey are all scoring forwards also that you would bank on to land scores if put into the scoring scenarios.

Portarlington have a system that has 100 percent buy in and manager Martin Murphy will be leading his troops up to headquarters, not for a day out but to make a Leinster final.

“It is the stuff of dreams really. We are with these lads for the last three years now. We have a really good setup. Players have bought into it and worked really hard. If we can go to Croke Park and play with that confidence we played with today, we will give Kilmacud a good run at it”, remarked manager Martin Murphy after that game with Lomans.

The Laois champions are underdogs going into the game but the jury is out on whether they deserve to be. They have shown enough this year to convince people that they are the real deal.

Verdict: Portarlington