St Mary’s Athenry 3-24
Graigue-Ballycallan 2-19
St Mary’s Athenry won back-to-back All-Ireland Club hurling titles after a memorable victory over Kilkenny side Graigue-Ballycallan at Croke Park this afternoon.
The game was forced into extra-time after Graigue-Ballycallan mustered up a rousing second half performance to deny the men from the West a victory over the 60 minutes.
The first half proved a dull affair with neither side settling into their game.A string of frees from Athenry full forward Eugene Cloonan propelled the Westerners into an early lead.But the Kilkenny champions remained in contention, due largely to the sharp shooting of corner forward Adrian Ronan.
Athenry stretched their advantage early in the second half with fine points from Cloonan, Donal Moran and captain Joe Rabbitte.However, Graigue-Ballycallan gained composure and jumped to life midway through the half.
Kilkenny inter-county star Adrian Ronan scored two successive points before drilling the sliotar low and hard into the Athenry net, bringing the sides level in the process.Ronan then added three further points to stretch his side into a commanding three point lead.
Athenry, staring defeat in the face, needed to dig deep and called upon free taking expert Cloonan to reduce the gap.After a brace of points, Cloonan scored a scrappy goal to level the game and force extra time.
The first 15 minute period of extra time saw Athenry begin to dominate.Points from Cloonan, Brian Higgins and David Donohoe opened up a three point lead.
Any notions Graigue-Ballycallan entertained of a Championship title were then dealt a crushing blow when Joe Rabbitte latched onto Cloonan’s long searching ball to drill home Athenry’s second goal.
Despite James Young’s late goal in the second period of extra time, Graigue-Ballycallan still had a five point deficit to overcome.
But a late David Donohoe goal for Athenry killed off the contest and crowned Athenry All-Ireland club champions for the third time in their history.