WATERFORD went some way to banishing the memory of their 14-point hammering at the hands of Cork in the Munster quarter-final with this comfortable win over Laois.
Pauric Mahony scored 11 points, including 10 frees, and Shane Walsh grabbed two first-half goals for Derek McGrath's men to send the Deise into the second round of qualifiers.
Laois actually started the game very well and had the sliotar in Stephen O'Keefe's net after 57 seconds when Neil Foyle took advantage of an error by the Waterford custodian.
Waterford recovered and equalised after 10 minutes when Walsh's two goals help Waterford lead 2-10 to 1-5 at half-time.
Early in the second half, Willie Hyland cut the gap to six with two pointed efforts, before Waterford took control again. When subsitute Gavin O'Brien split the posts, they were 11 points to the good.
As Waterford took their foot off the gas late on, allowing Laois tp hit the next five points without reply, Hyland and John Purcell impressive for the visitors. But Pauric Mahony's free reasserted the Decies' dominance and from there they cruised over the finish line.