GAA – Galway Senior Football Championship

Photo: Connacht Tribune

NUIG contingent star as Moycullen crowned Kings of Galway Maigh Cuillinn 2-12 Mountbellew-Moylough 1-11

By Oisín Bradley

Sports Editor

CLG Maigh Cuillinn made history recently, as they powered to a 2-12 to 1-11 victory over MountbellewMoylough in the Galway Senior Football Final.

It is a win which is the crowning moment in the 106-year history of the club, as it is their maiden county crown, and the first time they have secured that the Frank Fox cup headed out the N59 to Phairc Mhaigh Cuillinn for the first time.

The first half of the clash was nip and tuck, and neither the men in green or their counterparts from

By Oisín Bradley

St Thomas came to the fore in a keenly contested Galway Senior Hurling Championship final to defeat Turloughmore by the slim margin of two points. It was a result which meant that the club from South Galway wouldn’t be relinquishing their grip on the Tom Callinan Cup, taking it home for the third season in succession.

It was a game in which the pendulum of momentum swung put significant daylight between East Galway could lay claim to the lead as Austin O’Connell blew the half-time whistle.

The game was on a knife-edge until the fixture entered the final quarter, when NUIG student Conor Bohan came up with the goods for Maigh Cuillinn, producing a three-pointer in the 45th minute. To the credit of Mountbellew-Moylough, they refused to let the hammer-blow affect their psyche and their heads refused to drop. However, the lead always looked like it was insurmountable, and so it proved.

Dessie Connelly was imperious on the day, and a couple of scores late in the day ensured that it would be him who was laying hands on the Frank Fox cup, in a historic day for all from Maigh Cuillinn.

GAA – Galway Senior Hurling Championship

The result was especially striking from an NUI Galway perspective, with 13 members of both the management and backroom teaming having been involved with University in years gone by.

The most notable was the captain of the winning side and Man of the Match on the day Dessie Conneely. Conneelly, who was named at corner-forward, was in totemic form on the day, notching a barnstorming 1-9 of his side’s 2-12 tally and causing plenty of headaches for the Mountbellew-Moylough rear guard.

The wily forward pounced to score a fine goal only moments after the re-start and surely caught the eye of Galway bainisteoir Pádraic Joyce as he looks to stay at the summit of the Allianz League Division One table.

By Oisín Bradley

NUI Galway student Adrian Varley was captain of the Cortoon Shamrocks side which ensured that they would be playing Senior Championship football in 2021 after pipping Kilkerrin-Clonberne in the Intermediate Final.

Varley, who was co-captain of the club from the north of the county, was pivotal in his side’s victory to return to the Senior rankings following their drop down two years previous. The flame-haired corner forward raised the white flag on four separate occasions in an engrossing affair which was competitive until the death.

The men in sky blue had it all to do after suffering a hammer blow early on, when household name Shane Walsh converted a penalty in the opening exchanges and Kilkerrin-Clonberne tagged on another score with no reply within the first five.

A brace of points from Varley, who was involved in the college’s Sigerson Cup panel last year, helped to drag Shamrocks back into the game.

While Cortoon were battling hard, their Kilkerrin-Clonberne counterparts were doing their utmost to keep them at arms’ length.

Not long into act two, all was about to change however. Paul Varley (twin of Adrian), arrowed an excellent delivery into the square, where Joseph Donnellan displayed tremendous power to rise highest and fetch the ball, before unleashing a powerful strike which nestled behind Kilkerrin-Clonberne shotstopper Fiachra Mac an Tsaoi to level proceedings.

It was a side with a massive NUIG backbone, as every single score on the day for the kingpins came from one of the college’s alumni. As well as Conneelly’s monstrous tally, Bohan chipped in to raise a green flag, while Owen Gallagher bagged himself a brace of points and Gareth Bradshaw got in on the act from corner forward with a solitary score. Neil Mulcahy and Aidan Claffey also started for Maigh Cuillinn in defence. While bainisteoir Don Connellan also boasts NUIG connections.

Cathal Clancy was also a coach in the backroom team, while Sean Kelly, Paul Kelly and Fresher coaches Diarmuid Lee and Niall Walsh were all

GAA – Galway Intermediate Football Championship

St Thomas edge Turloughmore to secure the threepeat St Thomas 1-14 Turloughmore 0-15

to each side on numerous occasions, with neither side able to Conor Cooney. Photo: Tommy Grealy/INPHO each other. Turloughmore were ahead as the game Sean Loftus and Linnane raised white flags to entered the final chapter and will be bitterly disap- put the men searching for their first Galway title pointed they couldn’t hold on until the finish line. in 30 years, however man of the match and captain However, St Thomas showed their pedigree to sum- Conor Cooney levelled matters for an astounding mon a late surge which saw them clinch the title. sixth time as the clock ticked into the red. Eanna

Turloughmore forged ahead early on in the Burke and Brendan Farrell hit their opening points clash, David Sherry’s long ball from deep found of the day, and they would prove to be the most cruthe hands of Conor Cooney, who races out in front cial as they left the three in a row Champions in the of the defence to claim the ball and fire it into the ascendancy upon the shrill of the referee’s whistle. roof of the net in some style. ST THOMAS’: G Kelly; C Mahony, F Burke 0-1f, D

The men from mid-Galway were dealt blow Sherry; J Headd, S Cooney, S Skehill; David Burke, after blow as their opponents raced away on the J Regan 0-1; Darragh Burke 0-1, C Cooney 1-6, 6f, scoreboard, however their grit and determination E Duggan; O Flannery 0-3, B Burke, E Burke 0-1. which brought them to the decider shone through, Sub: B Farrell 0-1 for Duggan 50mins and they clawed back to level terms as referee Alan TURLOUGHMORE: M Fahy; M Morris, R Burke, Kelly signalled for half time. D Loftus; F Moore 0-2, J Holland, K Hussey; Daithí

Joe Hession’s men couldn’t carry their momentum Burke, S Loftus 0-1; S Linnane 0-4, C Walsh 0-4f, from the end of the first 30 minutes into the start of M Murphy; B Callanan 0-1, M Keating 0-2, G Burke the second 30 however, and it was tit for tat in the 0-1. Subs: B Connolly for Daithí Burke 32mins; R third quarter, with St Thomas holding the slightest Badger for Callanan 58, Daithí Burke for G Burke 58 of edges as the fixture entered the final chapters. REFEREE: A Kelly (Rahoon-Newcastle)

NUI student Varley leads the way in Intermediate decider Cortoon Shamrocks 1-10 Kilkerrin-Clonberne 1-8

panellists.

Cortoon’s tails were up from then on and they smelled blood. Adrian Varley bisected the posts twice again, before Shane Walsh, Conor Rabbitte and Johnny Ryan spearheading the charge for the men donned in red to leave the game on a knife edge as it entered the final furlong.

With the fixture in the melting pot, veteran David Warde edged the men from just off the N83 ahead in the dying echelons, before Peter Finnerty made a substitute’s dream performance, chipping in with a crucial score to secure the title.

Chaos ensued in injury time, with a high tackle from co-captain Varley seeing him banished to the line by the man in the middle, Christopher Ryan, for a scything challenge. It wouldn’t be long before his own Brian Roache followed him as well as Chris Glynn, KilkerrinClonberne’s captain, for the fracas which ensued.

Varley will care little, however, and it would be him as well as co-captain David Finnegan who would be hoisting the Cotter Cup above their heads and heading home with the title of Galway Intermediate kingpins for the third time in the club’s history.