Dublin rounded off their Division 1B campaign with a comprehensive victory over Laois, but it mattered little to the victors as Waterford beat Offaly to secure the last promotion place.
The teams went in at half time with only three points between the teams but a strong second half from Dublin allowed them to pile the misery on Laois.
In an even enough first half, it was the visitors who kicked off the scoring through Conal O'Riain, Laois responding through Aidan Corby to level up matters.
Dublin started to dominate the game but were guilty of wayward shooting at times, registering three wides in the first six minutes alone.
They did find their range eventually and hit the next three points through Ronan Hayes, Diarmaid Ó Dúlaing and the impressive Darragh Power.
James Duggan got the next score for Laois, which was badly needed as they were struggling somewhat.
Conor Donohue and Ó Dúlaing added scores, the latter from a free, to push the Dublin lead out to four. Aaron Dunphy responded for Laois before Dublin struck for a goal as a pass to remember from Donohoe found Power who made no mistake finding the back of the net.
Laois got the next score through Fiachra C Fennell before Power added a point to his tally.
The hosts then found a bit of a rhythm and started to come into the game and got the next two scores through Mark Dowling and James Duggan.
Dublin were still finding scores easier to come by though with O’Riain getting his second of the day. Kevin Burke and Duggan traded points as the game headed for the interval.
PJ Scully hit the last two scores of the half, one from play and the other a 65, to leave the scores 1-09 to 0-09 in favour of the visitors as the sides headed for the changing rooms.
Ó Dúlaing opened the scoring in the second half for the away side before Scully registered a free to keep Laois in touch.
O’Riain and then Ronan Hayes stretched the lead out further as Dublin started to get a grip on the game. Scully landed another as Dublin looked like running away with the game.
Brian Hayes scored another for the away side and a free from Sean Currie put Dublin in command.
Aaron Dunphy responded before subs John Hetherton and AJ Murphy got in the act. Scully nailed another point as the game headed into the final quarter. For Laois this was as good as it got as they failed to score for the rest of the game.
Currie added another to his tally before Dublin found the killer blow through a well-worked goal from David Purcell.
They closed out the game with four unanswered points from Currie, O’Riain and Murphy (2) to round off an impressive win.
Laois: Eoin Fleming; Diarmaid Conway, Lee Cleere, Cody Comerford; Ryan Mullaney, Eoin Gaughan, Jordan Walshe; Fiachra C Fennell (0-01), David Dooley; Aaron Dunphy (0-03, 0-01 65), Tomas Keyes, Aidan Corby (0-02); PJ Scully (0-04, 0-03fs), Mark Dowling (0-01), James Duggan (0-02).
Subs: Ben Conroy for Duggan (49), Donnchadh Hartnett for Cleere (55), John Lennon for Dowling (58), Colin Byrne for T Keyes (68), James Keyes for Dunphy (68).
Dublin: Sean Brennan; Andy Dunphy, Paddy Smyth, Conor McHugh; Paul O’Dea, Paddy Doyle, Kevin Burke; Conor Burke, Conor Donohue (0-01); Darragh Power (1-02), Conal Ó Riain (0-03), Brian Hayes (0-02); Sean Currie (0-03, 0-02fs), Ronan Hayes (0-02) Diarmaid Ó Dúlaing (0-04, 0-03fs).
Subs: David Lucey for Doyle (45), John Hetherton (0-01) for Ó Dúlaing (48), Iain O hEither for O’Dea (51), A. Jamieson-Murphy (0-03) for C Burke (56), David Purcell (1-00) for R Hayes (64).
Referee: James Owens (Cork).
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