Leinster Championship – O'Meara Sliotars, Footballs & Accessories

Posted on November 4, 2015 by admin — Leave a comment

Dublin take Centre Stage

Dublin take Centre Stage on another busy weekend on the GAA club front.

Cuala and Ballyboden were crowned Dublin County Champions in hurling and football on another busy weekend for the GAA clubs. Cuala had a comprehensive win, their first in 21 years, in the Dublin hurling decider with a 10 pt. win over St. Judes. Although only leading by 1-7 to 0-7 at the interval Cuala took control of the 2nd half, adding two more goals. Both Sean Treacy, with two goals and David Treacy with 7 pts. were the difference between the teams. Cuala go on to meet Coolderry in the Leinster Championship next weekend. Ballyboden overcame St. Vincents by 4 pts. in a surprise win in the football decider. St. Vincents, Dublin, Leinster and All-Ireland club champions were expected to retain their crown,but two goals by Andy Kearns, one a penalty, was the difference between the teams, finishing on a scoreline of 2-8 to 0-10.

Posted on October 29, 2015October 29, 2015 by admin — Leave a comment

County Hurling final season in full swing.

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.

Posted on September 16, 2015 by admin — Leave a comment

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.

Posted on August 19, 2015 by admin — Leave a comment

Game of the Year… (To Date)

Galway triumph in hurling ” game of the year” to date.
On what was one of the most exciting, skilful and dramatic games of hurling ever played Galway won their way to the All-Ireland hurling final against Kilkenny by a single point scored in the 3rd minute of injury time by substitute Shane Maloney. In a game where Tipperary full forward Seamus Callinan scored 3-9 and still ended up on the loosing side, Galway were the better team but Callinans goals kept Tipperary in the lead for long spells of the game. Galway scored 0-26 pts. some of which were outstanding points with the Galway forwards striking the hurling ball with great accuracy. Joe Canning, 10 pts. Jason Flynn and Cathal Mannion 5 pts. each accounted for 20 of Galway s pts. Both goalkeepers brought off some spectacular saves also, deflecting the sliotar out for 65s from point blank shots. There was a total of 45 scores in 70 mins, what other game would produce this much entertainment and skill in 70 mins.

If Galway can reproduce this display they will be very hard to beat in the All-Ireland final.

Posted on August 12, 2015 by admin — Leave a comment

Kilkenny make All Ireland Final once again.

Kilkenny experience and intensity too much for young Waterford team while Tyrone come through the back door to All-Ireland football semi-final and Mayo will be serious contenders after big win over Donegal.Kilkenny are yet again through to the All-Ireland hurling final after a typical display of skill and intensity that laid the way for a 6 pt. win

over Waterford. With T J Reid and Richie Hogan to the fore, Reid scoring the only goal of the game when he latched on the a loose hurling ball before crashing the sliotar to the Waterford net. Maurice Shanahan helped keep Waterford in the game but Kilkenny were deserving winners.
Tyrone defeated Ulster football Champions Monaghan in the All-Ireland quarter final on Saturday. This was a disappointing result for Monaghan after winning in Ulster to go down to another previously beaten Ulster team. But Tyrone were the better team on the day and manager Mickey Harte said afterwards that they are really looking forward to meeting Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final.
Mayo put in a masterful and assured performance against Donegal in the other quarter final running out winners by 8 pts. The game swung in their favour both sides of half time with a brilliant goal from Aidan O’Shea on the stroke of half time and an opportunity goal by Lee Keegan just after half time. From then on Donegal, with Michael Murphy their main threat, were chasing the game. Mayo go on to play Dublin in the other semi-final which will be a difficult assignment but not without hope.

Posted on June 18, 2015July 27, 2015 by admin — Leave a comment

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.

Posted on June 12, 2015 by admin — Leave a comment

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.

Posted on June 9, 2015 by admin — Leave a comment

Galways A-Team turn up to take Dublin apart.

Galway hurlers put on a brilliant display of finishing against a careless Dublin defence in this Leinster Championship replay in Tullamore. Galway scored 3 goals in the first quarter, all scored by Cathal Mannion, in an unforgettable performance by him when he made great use of his chances, crashing the hurling ball to the net three times. The game was almost out of Dublins reach by then, although if they had scored their 2 penalty chances in the first half they could have made it uncomfortable for Galway in the 2nd half. Galway go on to play the winners of Offaly and Laois in the semi-final.

Posted on June 4, 2015 by admin — Leave a comment

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.

Posted on June 1, 2015July 27, 2015 by admin — Leave a comment

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.