Electric Ireland Fergal Maher Cup Final at Mallow
St Mary’s University College Belfast 0-20 GMIT Letterfrack 3-7
By Cóilín Duffy
For the second year in a row the Ranch is on fire with All-Ireland silverware, but this time it was the turn of the St Mary’s University College Belfast hurlers, who delivered an impressive four-point win over GMIT Letterfrack in this Fergal Maher Cup final in Mallow on Saturday.
12 months ago GMIT Letterfrack captured their first title in this competition at the West Belfast colleges expense, but Collie Murphy’s charges weren’t going to let them have further glory.
Led by Antrim player Conor Johnston, who must have covered every inch of the pitch in Friday’s semi-final win over St Pat’s MICL, Thurles; and again on the way to a Man of the Match display in the final; St Mary’s battled hard to take silverware.
“They put in a great performance, and I’m delighted with their attitude as well,” Murphy said.
“Going into the second half they were two points down, we said do we want this or how much do they want it and they proved in the second half that they had the players there.
“You had the stars like Conor (Johnston), Pearse Óg (McCrickard) and Deaglan (Murphy) – all established county players. Then you had younger players like Micheál McGreevy and Tiernan Murphy who just came to the fore today.
“Over the last two days I thought we were the best team in the tournament.” Eight unanswered points in the middle part of the second half laid the platform for this win, in a game where Mary’s trailed by 2-4 to 0-8 at the interval.
St Eunan’s Donegal clubman Conor O’Grady netted a 14-minute goal, and Sean Hogan followed up with a second, after Johnston had drawn the sides level.
Both sides were down to 14 men at this stage, with Prionsias Burke and Adrian Cooke dismissed.
Johnston, Deaglan Murphy and McCrickard hit the first three points on the restart, and although Colin Waters equalised for GMIT Letterfrack, Mary’s took over.
Murphy and McCrickard sharing the next eight points, as Mary’s were totally dominant.
GMIT fought back with Eoin Purcell netting a 51st minute goal, but Mary’s held on for victory.
ST MARYS UNIVERSITY COLLEGE (Antrim unless stated): M Hopkins; E McGonigle (Derry), C Kelly (Derry), D Chapman (0-1); P Gunning (Derry), S Duffin, C Stinton; M McGreevy, P Burke (Derry); P Óg McCrickard (Down) (0-4), C Johnston (0-4, 1f), D Murphy (0-10, 5f); T Murphy (0-1), D Grant (Armagh), R McCusker (Down). Sub: D Heading for Chapman.
GMIT LETTERFRACK (Galway unless stated): D Doyle; C Griffin (Donegal), J McNamara, P Coss (Kilkenny); R Carr, A Daly (Laois), S Murphy (Wexford); C Waters (Offaly), C O’Grady (Donegal) (1-0); A Cooke (Limerick), E Purcell (Kilkenny) (0-4, 4f), S Claffey (1-0), G Walsh, S Hogan (Waterford) (1-2), W Kenny (Kilkenny) (0-1). Subs: Peter Tobin (Kilkenny) for Coss; E Farrell for Murphy.
REFEREE: Thomas Walsh (Waterford)
