Senior Hurling Final
Tipp get title in battle
Tipperary 2-18 Galway 1-17

In an excellent senior hurling final, Tipperary did just enough to take the title with a storming second half performance. Galway will feel that they left it behind as they had at least four goal chances that came for naught in the second half while Tipperary were far more economical at the other end. It was neck and neck in the first half with the lead changing hands on numerous occasions. Galway had the slightest of leads at the break, 1-09 to 1-08. Cormac Murphy had the Galway goal while Brian O’Meara had rattled the net at the other end. It continued in a close fought vain for much of the second half with the Galway defense doing Trojan work. Liam Butler was outstanding in the second half alongside Ger O’Halloran. However a lot of times their clearances came back down the field after Padraig Maher and David Tracey had intervened at the other end.

ritical to Tipp’s cause was the high percentage of accuracy that their attack had in particular Shane Burke and Brian O’Meara. Burke hit the net with five minutes left to finally put breathing space between the sides. Galway did have two final attacks but they were both snuffed out be stops by Craig Harford in the winner’s goal.

Galway 1 Gavin Lally 2 Andrew Keane  4 Ger O’Halloran 5 Richie Gaule 6 Andrew Shore 7 Mike Cunningham 8 Martin Fennelly 9 Liam Butler 10 Ger Kelly 11 Eoin Larkin 12 Robbie Jackson 13 Paul Gordon 15 Cormac Murphy Subs Martin Dolphin Robert Mitchell

Tipperary 1 Craig Harford 2 Donagh Maher 4 Paul Shutte 5 Colm Forde 6 Padraig Maher 7 Francis Kennedy 8 David Tracey  9 Cian Maher 10 John Sheedy  11 Brian O’Meara 12 Shane Burke 13 Paul Loughnane 15 Davie Loughnane Subs Pat Egan, Fintan Maher

Referee Finbarr Flood

Intermediate Semi Final  
Monaghan too strong
Monaghan 3-16 Sligo 1-06 

Monaghan were far too strong for Sligo as they advanced to the Intermediate final where they will meet Long Island Gaels. The Gaels defeated Mayo in the second semifinal on Saturday night. Sligo had the first score in the contest when Adrian Marron pointed a free, He was one of the few bright sparks, but Monaghan were quickly on level terms. The defensive play of Paul Lamb and Sean Kelly made creating chances near to impossible for Sligo while Bonnie Duffy and Lonan Maguire were excellent in the half back line. The winners purred into a 0-08 to 0-04 half time lead and had their first goal minutes into the second half when Paul McArdle rattled the net off the fingers of out stretched fingers of Danny Lafferey. On the ten minute mark they had their second goal; again McArdle was the scorer to effectively kill off the contest. James Connolly, Dave Harvey and Kevin Connolly followed with points as the victory became a stroll to the end line. 

Sligo 1 Danny Cafferey 2 Denis Kilkenny 3 Paul Kelly 4 Thomas Brett 5 Naill Gallagher 6 Barry Phelan 7 Kevin Roe 8 Denis Coffey 9 Sean Kinahane 10 Chris Cunniffe 11 Adrian Marron 12 Brian Henry 13 Hughie Marron 14 Mike Mangan 15 Cathel Brennan

Monaghan 1 Donal Hearty 2 Mike O’Regan 3 Sean Kelly 4 Paul Lamb 5 Lonan Maguire 6 Bonnie Kenney 7 Mark McCaughey 8 Kevin Connolly 9 Kevin Smith 10 Caoimhin O’Callaghan 11 Darren Freeman 12 Shane McKenna 13 John Connolly 14 Paul McArdle 15 Dave Harvey

Referee Martin O’Connor 

Junior B Football Final
Second Half surge wins it
Longford 1-17 Manhattan Gaels 2-05

Longford used a dominating second half performance to take home the Junior B football title at Gaelic Park on Sunday. The sides were level three times in the first half before Longford started to get ahead. They had the final two points of the first half but also had most of the play but errant shooting stopped them from getting further ahead. That included a penalty being driven wide by Brian Kavanagh when Tommy Dolan was pulled to the ground. Amazingly Ger Shivanan was not booked for his discression. The winners added four points to their total to increase the advantage to 0-09 to 0-03 with twenty minutes left. Manhattan then had their best period of the contest when they had 1-02 in five minutes with the goal coming from Barry McErlean when a mistake from a kickout at the Longford end allowed the Gaels to punish. They were now within two but the winners reacted in the best way possible. A string of points, five in total before Sean McCoy had a clever goal when he took a PJ Mahoney pass and side stepped three men before dispatching to the net put the contest out of reach. Three further points before a consolation Conor Hickey goal put a gloss on the scoreboard amounted to a comprehensive victory for the reformed Longford club. 

Manhattan Gaels  1Ger Shivnan 2 Leo Quigley 3 Paul Staunton 4 Paddy McGuinness 5 Ryan Canavan  6 Naill Brennan 7 Joe O’Connor 8 Conor Hickey (1-01)9 David Varley 10 John Crowe (0-01)11 Barry McErlean (1-00)12 Brian Whelan (0-02) 13 Neven Higgins 14 Cormac Finn 15 Mick Moroney (0-01)

Longford 1 Dave Lynch 2 John McCorry 3 Micheal Ledwith 4 Eugene O’Hagan 5 Val Delaney 6 Mike Creegan 7 Brendan Donaghue 8 Kevin Smith (0-01)9 Paul O’Hara (0-02)10 Brian Kavanagh (0-04)11 PJ O’Mahoney (0-02)12 Sean McCoy (1-02)13 Nathan Finnigan (0-03)14 Tommy Nolan (0-01)15 Ronan Rodgers Sub Brian Curley (0-02)

Referee Peter McCormack