Kildare inflicted a 15-point drubbing on neighbours Laois in Portlaoise on Saturday.
Kildare’s final tally, 3-16, was reflective of their superiority in the second half while Laois only managed 0-10, fading badly in the face of Kildare’s onslaught.
Kieran McGeeney had made a number of changes to his forward line and they immediately paid off. New boy Fionn Dowling was hauled down in the square and Johnny Doyle slammed home the resultant penalty.
It put Kildare ahead after Laois had opened the scoring through Donie Kingston and Ross Munnelly.
Another new face, Tomas O’Connor, then barged his way into the heart of the Laois defence and at the second attempt he poked home for Kildare’s second goal.
MJ Tierney landed a huge free to narrow the gap but Kildare remained in control, even with the lack of a real scoring threat.
The half-time tally, 2-3 to 0-6, was reflective of a game played out in the middle third.
Thankfully the second half was more entertaining for the 11,395 people in Portlaoise. Ollie Lyons got Kildare on the board and then Hugh Lynch launched a fine point from the sideline to pull further away from a limited Laois side.
Padraic Clancy fisted a point, and Tierney, who was probably the standout for Laois, reduced the deficit to five but Kildare were never in real danger of letting their lead slip.
The teams traded points but as the game entered the closing stages Kildare started to slip further ahead before killing the game with a James Kavanagh goal.
Further points arrived from Doyle and Lynch and in the end Laois appeared to simply give up, just as they had done earlier in the season to Dublin.