February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Mark Jones
St. Joseph’s 0-12, Toomevara 0-8
There is no sign of Clare relinquishing their grip on Munster hurling. For the fourth year in succession, the provincial club title went to the Banner county with St. Joseph’s Doora-Barefield running out deserved winners over Toomevara of Tipperary at the Limerick Gaelic Grounds.
More remarkably, St. Joseph’s are the fourth different club from Clare to taste provincial glory in that time and they look the sort of team which could well go all the way to the All-Ireland title next spring.
Once Jamesie O’Connor, one of the club’s newly inaugurated All-Star trio, blew Toomevara away with five points in the opening 10 minutes, there was only going to be one winner. The Tipp men battled back from the early damage. However, O’Connor was still on song and he ended up with nine points in all.
Apart from Tomas Dunne, no Toomevara forward scored from play and such was St. Joseph’s dominance, they could afford a sequence of wides in the closing minutes and still claim the club’s first ever provincial crown.
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Kilmacud Crokes 0-9, Eire Og 1-6
Eire Og of Carlow kept their dream of another Leinster club football title alive when they pulled two points out of the hat in the closing minutes to scrape a draw in last Sunday’s final at Newbridge.
The keenly contested decider wasn’t without its share of controversy as Kilmacud were convinced they had a perfectly good point by Ray Cosgrove ruled wide by the umpire midway through the first half.
Unlike Fr. Manning Gaels, who had appealed their semi-final defeat by Eire Og because of a similar disallowed score, the Dublin champions accepted the decision and the replay is set for Tullamore on Sunday.
Crucially, Kilmacud failed to score in the last 20 minutes, and although Eire Og also struggled on a heavy pitch, they picked off those two late points through Brian Carbery and Anthony Keating to earn a second chance.
Kilmacud recovered after they were hit by Jody Morrissey goal with seconds of the start and Mick O’Keeffe’s accurate free-taking ensured the sides were level 1-3 to 0-6 at the interval.
Div. 2 football
The action in the National Football League was confined to Division 2A, where Wicklow brought Roscommon’s unbeaten run to a halt with a 1-8 to 0-5 victory at Aughrim. The result put Wicklow at the top of the table on six points along with Roscommon and Kerry, who defeated Westmeath by 1-12 to 1-7 at Killarney.
Louth squandered far too many scoring chances, but were still too good for London at Ruislip, where it finished 0-12 to 0-4. Limerick, meanwhile, recorded their first win of the campaign when they saw off the challenge of Antrim at Dromcollogher.