County senior hurling and camogie final season is now in full swing with the Offaly, Westmeath, Roscommon, Carlow and Waterford finals being played last weekend. There were wins for Four Roads in Roscommon, their 8th final in a row, with a 3 pt. win over Padraig Pearses. Cathal Dolan was in fine form, striking the sliotar over the bar 6 times, 3 from play. St. Mullins retained their Carlow crown with a 7 pt. win over Mt. Leinster Rangers.
Clonkill dethroned Raherney in the Westmeath decider with a 4 pt. win. Niall Dowdall got the deciding score when he drove the sliotar to the Raherney net late in the game.
Ballygunner won back to back titles in Waterford when they beat Tallow in an entertaining final before a large croud in Walsh Park. Brian O’Sullivan with 5 pts. was the main difference between the teams, showing great accuracy with the Sliotar throughout.
In Offaly, Coolderry used the long tradition of winning Senior titles to overcome a young and determined St. Rynagh’s team to win their 30th title. Rynagh’s, who came from 7 points down shortly after half time to take a 3 pt. lead with 5 mins. to go succumbed to a late Coolderry charge led by veteran Joe Brady who scored the vital goal when catching the sliotar high in the air and beating Conor Clancy in the Rynaghs goal.
Tag: GAA
All-Irelands are completed and County Final season begins.
All-Irelands are completed and County Final season begins.
Clough-Ballacolla came from 6 pts. down early in the second half to claim their 3rd Laois senior hurling title in 7 years. Stephen Maher was the star of the show scoring 12 pts. ten from placed balls, striking the sliotar with great accuracy from all angles. Zane Keenan will feel particularly disappointing having scored 1-09 and still ended up on the loosing team. Laois hurling has been on the up in recent years and this was a high quality County Final, showing that hurling is in a good state in Laois.
Meanwhile, Ballycran defeated their old rivals Ballygalget in the Down final. They, like their Laois counterparts, came from 5 pts. down to win by 2, scoring 1-04 without reply in the last 10 mins. 7 pts. from Scott Nicholson lead the way for Ballycran.
Cork retain All-Ireland Ladies Football Championship
Cork retain All-Ireland Ladies Football Championship on last day of final Sunday of All-Ireland finals.
Cork Ladies Football team completed a remarkable double for the Cork Ladies when they retained their All-Ireland Ladies Football Championship with a 2 pt. win over a determined Dublin team in a repeat of last years final. Last Sunday week, Corks senior camogie team won back the All-Ireland Camogie crown with a 5 pt. win over Galway. This was a remarkable win for this Cork team as they had several new additions to their team following several retirements from their ranks.
Last Sunday Dublin footballers won their 3rd All-Ireland football final in 5 years with a very comprehensive win over a disappointing Kerry team in very wet conditions in Croke Park. Dublin played some brilliant football under the conditions and deserved their win.
On the first Sunday of September Kilkenny won the All-Ireland hurling final with a 5 pt. win over Galway. Following a close first half Galway led by 3 pts. at half time. But Kilkenny changed gear after half time and took over for the second half, running out convincing winners.
Limerick take U-21 hurling Championship in style.
Limerick take U-21 hurling Championship in style.
Limerick gave a scintillating display of fast, open, skilful hurling to defeat Wexford in the All-Ireland U-21 Hurling Championship by 0-26 to 1-7. Following their Munster final win over a fancied Clare team going for 4 in a row, Limerick continued on their rich vein of form to completely overpower Wexford. Right from the start Limerick were the sharper team, controlling the sliotar and striking some great points. 7 Limerick players scored, with Ronan Lynch, 6 and Barry Nash, 5, top of the list for a Limerick team that led by 11pts. to 4 at half time. The open fast hurling was in marked contrast to the very physical nature of the hurling that we saw in the senior final six days earlier.
No surprises in big weekend for Senior Football GAA Championship.
In a major weekend of Gaelic Football, Cork and Kerry came through their Munster Championship semi finals without too much trouble, although Tipperary did launch a challenge to Kerry in the first half. But Kerry, with Gooch Cooper back after a long injury, took control in the second half and were convincing winners.
Donegal sent out a warning to all opponents with a very big win over Armagh. Nobody saw this coming but Donegal completely dominated the game from the off to win by 9 points putting Armagh into the playoffs. The game of the day turned out to be the clash of Mayo and Galway in the Connacht semi final. Galway were determined to improve on last years thrashing, and they did, pushing Mayo, who are going for 5 Connacht Championships in a row, to the final whistle with Aidan O Shea being the difference between the teams.
Elsewhere, Kildare defeated Laois convincingly in their replay, Meath defeated Wicklow and Westmeath defeated Wexford.
Wexford, Galway, Laois and Waterford advance…
Wexford, Galway, Laois and Waterford advance in first major weekend for hurling Championship.
Laois bridged a 43 year gap when they comprehensively defeated Offaly in the Leinster Championship Quarter final with Willie Hyland and Cha Dwyer striking the sliotar with great accuracy, scoring 12 pts. from play between them. Wexford had a comfortable win over Westmeath in their quarter final with Ian Byrne scoring 1-7 for Wexford, crashing the hurling ball to the net just after half time. In the game of the day, Waterford followed up their defeat of Cork in the League final with a good win over them again on Sunday. Maurice Shanahan was the star for Waterford, scoring 1-9 and hurling with great skill and endeavour, leading Waterford to a Munster final meeting with either Tipperary or Limerick.
Great credit to Longford for playing an open, man to man game.
In what turned out to be a very one sided game, Longford decided to play an open game against Dublin in yesterday’s Leinster football Championship. Dublin gave an exhibition of fast attacking football, brilliant to watch on one hand but unfortunately, the game has become HANDBALL, not football, with anything up to 10 handpasses in succession before the ball was kicked, probably for a score. Critics complain about the blanket defence and how it’s destroying “football”. Yet, when a team like Longford come out to play an open game they still criticize the one sided game it was, and not commenting on the brilliance of Dublin. Dublin will be difficult to beat in this form and if teams decide to play an open game they will find it very difficult to win.
Dublin and Galway finish level in entertaining contest.
In the first round of the Leinster Hurling Championship Dublin and Galway ended up level at 0-20 to 1-17 in an entertaining but low standard Championship game in Croke Park. In sometimes difficult conditions Galway came from a point down when Aidan Harte struck the sliotar between the posts to earn a replay in Tullamore on next Saturday. Galway opened up a six point lead in the first half after Joseph Cooney had scored a brilliant goal, picking the hurling ball on the run, soloing on goal before striking the ball to the Dublin net. But this only served to awaken Dublin who went on to dominate most of the proceedings, without putting Galway away. They depended mainly on David Treacy to score from placed balls, striking the hurling ball with great accuracy, scoring 11 points in total. The extra game next Saturday will give the winners, hard to say who that will be, an advantage going into the semi-finals.
Last weekend 17.05.15 in GAA
Westmeath footballers follow their hurlers in keeping the County colours flying. In a mixed weekend for the Midland teams in the first round of the Leinster football Championship, Westmeath and Laois had good wins while Offaly had a disappointing defeat to Longford, whom they had trounced by 13 pts. only 3 weeks ago in the division 4 league final. Offaly were 7 pts. ahead early in the second half but allowed Longford to take control of the game and go on win by 3 pts. Westmeath meanwhile defeated Louth in their opening game and continued the counties good run in all grades at present. Laois also had a big win over Carlow in their opening round and will be hoping to improve on last year’s performances and win a Leinster football final.
We’ve just reduced our prices!
O’Meara Sliotars have just reduced the prices of all their Hurling Balls on their on-line shop, making the O’Meara Sliotar range of hurling balls even more affordable to our customers.This is in line with our motto of “Top Quality at Affordable Prices ” Check out our website, www.omearasliotars.com to avail of these great prices. The O’Meara Supreme Waterproofed leather training Sliotars are receiving very favourable comments at present during these very wet training conditions. Players are very happy to train with a hurling ball that remains dry irrespective of the amount of rain falling.
