Kilmallock edge Na Piarsaigh to earn Limerick SHL glory
Kilmallock are Limerick senior hurling League champions for 2025 after they saw off Na Piarsaigh on an 0-18 to 0-15 scoreline at Claughaun.
Conor Staunton starred for 'The Balbec' with an impressive 0-8, his two efforts from play the highlight of what was a contest that never really got going.
Both teams were without a litany of starters that one would expect to see come championship in a game that Kilmallock deservedly came out victorious.
Pierce Connery got the scoring underway after two minutes but a Ronan Lynch free brought Na Piarsaigh level moments later.
Kilmallock, aided by a strong first half breeze, took control from the moment that Graeme Mulcahy put his side back in front.
Further scores from Connery and Staunton then saw Kilmallock open a 0-4 to 0-1 advantage with six minutes on the clock.
Keith Dempsey stopped the Kilmallock wave with a free but Connery and Staunton restored dominance for the south Limerick outfit.
Connery excelled in the first half and his fourth point inside the opening quarter cancelled out a fine Mark Hogan score for Na Piarsaigh.
That lead was stretched to five when Kilmallock keeper Conor Hanley-Clarke fired over a long-range free.
Oisin O'Reilly made it a six-point lead as the half drew to a close but a Lynch free saw the score at 0-10 to 0-5 in Kilmallock's favour at the break.
Lynch kept Na Piarsaigh in touch in the early stages of the second half with a couple of frees but Staunton always had a response for Kilmallock.
The lead was at three when the game entered the final quarter but strikes from Mulcahy and Staunton, either side of a Lynch placed ball, handed Kilmallock a four-point buffer.
Dempsey (2) and Adrian Breen gave Na Piarsaigh hope as the game headed towards its conclusion but a Staunton free and a superb O'Reilly point from play saw Kilmallock home to victory.
Scorers for Kilmallock: C Staunton 0-8 (5f, 1'65), P Connery 0-4, O O'Reilly 0-3, G Mulcahy 0-2, C Hanley-Clarke 0-1 (1f).
Scorers for Na Piarsaigh: R Lynch 0-7 (7f), K Dempsey 0-4 (3f), Mark Hogan, G Brown, D Lynch and A Breen 0-1 each.
Kilmallock: C Hanley-Clarke; D O'Brien, L English, D Joy; R Egan, A Costello; A Enright; S Quirke, G Enright; S Carroll, C Staunton, G Mulcahy; P Connery, O O'Reilly, S Dowling.
Subs: D Woulfe for Carroll (44), P O'Brien for Dowling (49), C Barrett for Mulcahy (58).
Na Piarsaigh: P O'Neill; A Dempsey, S Long, P Heaney; A Fitzsimons, R Lynch, T Grimes; J Finn, J O'Keeffe; JJ Carey, K Dempsey, G Brown; Mark Hogan, K Daly, D Lynch.
Subs: A Breen for Daly (39), E McEvoy for Heaney (39), Marcus Hogan for Brown (59).
Referee: E Stapleton (Doon).
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Daily Mirror
3 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Cork make big ticket announcement ahead of All-Ireland final amid huge demand
Cork county board have announced that they will not be taking any more ticket applications as their allocation for Sunday's All-Ireland hurling final has been fully distributed. Supply way outstrips demand on Leeside with the team having sold out all of their six games en route to the final, as well as the League final win over Tipperary, who they face once again in Sunday's decider. Cork fans heavily outnumbered their Dublin counterparts in their semi-final win at Croke Park earlier this month but tickets for that game were easier to come by given that they went on general sale. That is virtually never the case for a final, however, with tickets distributed through the clubs of the participating counties, but every other county is granted a small allocation also. Amid the unprecedented demand as Cork chase a first title in 20 years, the county board has issued a statement outlining how they cannot meet any further requests. 'Please note that our full allocation of tickets for the All-Ireland hurling final has been distributed and the process is now closed,' read the statement. 'We will not be in a position to meet any further requests. 'We acknowledge the desire of so many of our loyal supporters to attend this year's final, but our allocation could only meet a fraction of the demand.' Cork had received 'a very small second allocation', as outlined in an email to its units, but this will be distributed among clubs with playing representatives on the squad. The county board has also announced that they will host a Rebel Fanzone at SuperValu Pairc Ui Chaoimh for Sunday's final. Tickets are free and will be available to download online on Thursday morning from 7.30am. Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts.
Irish Daily Mirror
7 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Tipp boss Liam Cahill hits back at ' lazy and ill-informed' criticism
It was Liam Cahill's darkest winter. If November was bad, December was worse as he reflected on a summer when Tipp had been mauled by Limerick and Cork, earning a little bit of respect against Clare and a point against Waterford. Now, seven months later, he is in an All-Ireland final. And yet despite the redemption story, if you pick the scabs of the sores from 2024, the pain quickly comes to the surface. Cahill said: 'When you're in any job, it's the same for any person in a management role, when they represent so many people, you can't help feel that responsibility. 'So, I was always looking out at a team hoping that they'll reflect what you encourage them to do and what you would like to see happening from a performance perspective. 'Even though you're the manager of a team you're looking in as a supporter too; you want an outfit that will make people proud. That's what you're trying to create. 'And when that doesn't happen, as the old saying goes, players win matches and managers lose them, and the buck stops with the manager. 'And that weighs heavily whether managers admit that or not. I'd be very surprised if it doesn't weigh heavily on everybody in a role of that magnitude when it comes to poor performances.' So, if the summer of 2024 was about surviving, then winter was about planning. They targeted the League as a means of making progress, which they did, reaching a final which they lost to Cork. We'll come back to that crowd in a minute. But before we do, we must reflect on what Cahill endured last winter when there were times when he must have wondered if he had got the right job at the wrong time. He says: 'The reality of it is that by the time I came into the job in 2023 most people in Tipperary knew that there was a big change coming, because unfortunately, we had a number of really top-class players who were coming towards the end of their inter-county careers. 'And the gap between what needed to come in and replace them, wasn't maybe fully ready at the time.' The Tipp county board knew this - and to their credit they held their nerve last year when there were murmurs of discontent about the direction Cahill was taking the team in. And rightly so because he has pedigree, having won All-Irelands at underage level with Tipp, prior to bringing Waterford to the 2020 All-Ireland SHC decider. In three years, he has given Championship debuts to 14 of the panel who will travel to Croke Park on Sunday. His plan has been vindicated. Cahill says: 'The meetings I had (with the Tipp board) when I accepted the role would have been around absolutely having time, and having patience. 'But unfortunately, when you're in a county as demanding as Tipperary not everybody sees that and understands that, and expectedly so. 'It's not too different to Kerry from a football perspective, the demands are really high, so that brings added pressure as well.' And also pain. Some of the criticism stung, the idea his teams were exhausted, the suggestion he was a poor coach. Cahill opens up to say: 'The words that hit hardest were the ones around that Cahill flogs his teams, his excruciating training sessions. I felt it was disingenuous. 'Liam Cahill doesn't make it up as he goes along. People's comments on stuff like that not knowing what exactly is going on behind the scenes was lazy and ill-informed. 'I felt a little bit aggrieved that something so loose like that creates so much traction. 'There were other things such as 'Cahill plays with a sweeper'; Liam Cahill never played with a sweeper on his team in his life, ever. 'If it materialises it is because of the opposition forcing it. When you hear people talking about that, and Cahill's team is not coached right, I got really annoyed because I know the effort that goes in behind the scenes with Mikey Bevans, our head coach, and the work he does with the players on the field. 'It's hard not to listen to that but it does give you the motivation to try and prove people wrong. 'The reality of it is, the County Board had given me a three-year term to try and fix this thing the best I could. 'Yes, there was not much of a ship sticking out of the water, and it didn't look like it was going to come back up any time soon. 'But, I had huge belief in my ability to turn it around. I had huge belief in my coaching system, Mikey Bevans, I have huge belief in him, and Declan Laffan and his experience with what he had done on the club scene in Tipperary and Laois. 'So, I knew I had the right people around me so it was a case of getting it fixed.' This morning he is an All-Ireland finalist, his critics silenced, his reform plans enacted, his point proven. And yet he yearns for more, saying: 'For me, the first round of the Munster Championship in Thurles against Limerick, you could really sense it was starting to work out. 'I said it to the players from day one, you have to earn the Tipperary supporters' respect again. 'It is not lost on us as a squad, we are over the moon with the huge support we have and the energy there is around the place. 'We feel good. Cork are a great team. But we are there on merit.' Their winter of discontent is now forgotten.
The Irish Sun
a day ago
- The Irish Sun
RTE pundits argue over who is better prepared between Donegal and Kerry ahead of All-Ireland final
CORA Staunton and Tomás Ó Sé got into a heated debate on the Sunday Game following Donegal's hammering of Meath. The two RTÉ pundits argued over whether Jim McGuinness' side 3 The Sunday Game panel was split during this argument between Staunton and Ó Sé Credit: @TheSundayGame 3 Donegal rested some players late on in the match and that may stand to them come All-Ireland final day 3 Kerry may benefit from the recent challenges having not played a Division 1 team in the championship until facing Armagh in the quarter-final Donegal booked their place in the All-Ireland football final with a 3-26 to 0-15 victory over Meath while Kerry competed in a tighter but still comfortable Kerry legend Ó Sé believed neither team were particularly challenged in the semi-final but the Kingdom were in the better position of the two to go into the final. The five time All-Ireland winner said: "If you ramp up 3-26 against Meath, what benefit is that to them in a way? "Because would you be better off with a tight, tight game in the semi-final? Read more on GAA "I would argue the same for Kerry. Kerry's passage from quarter-final to semi-final was a little bit more difficult than Donegal's." Mayo icon Staunton thought the less intense fixture was ideal for Donegal especially with this year's congested inter-county schedule. The 11 time All-Star hit back: "I think Jim McGuinness will be very happy that he got 3-26 on the board today. "As I said earlier, he got players minutes, a good 20-25 minutes. He got a lot of his top players like Michael Murphy, Ryan McHuge, Peader Mogan, he got them off after 50 minutes. Most read in GAA Football "This is going to be their 11th championship game, the most there has ever been in any championship. So I think he will be happy that they will rest. "He has spoken a lot about 'we only had a week off' and the difficulties. I think he will be delighted that it wasn't a hard game and it didn't go down to the wire. 'Easiest interview I've ever had' jokes RTE GAA host after pundits go back and forth before Meath vs Donegal The Donegal GAA county board They were given just a six-day turnaround between the preliminary quarter-final against Louth and their quarter-final clash with Monaghan despite requesting for it to be played a day later. McGuinness himself "From my own point of view, you should never, ever make an excuse for a game before a game is played." The Donegal boss has had his complaints of the GAA's scheduling this season however, especially the decision for Ó Sé still thought Jack O'Connor's side had the better preparation for the final despite Staunton's point. He argued: "I just think Kerry are going to ask them a lot more difficult questions than the two previous teams have." The two sides will meet on July 27 to decide the Sam Maguire Cup winners for 2025.
