Galway - 1-12 Leitrim - 0-6Galway ended a seven-year wait since their last Connacht title win yesterday when they outclassed a Leitrim team that came to McHale Park with high expectations on the back of a good semi-final win.
The younger members of the famous Clancy, Meehan and de Paor clans were the ones who stamped the mark of quality on this game, Galway's attack providing the platform for a long overdue success.
They had built up an 0-10 to 0-3 lead in the first half, although Leitrim were the first to score and also enjoyed a spell of supremacy towards the end of the first half which yielded just one point, which came in the 27th minute.
For Galway, Gearóid Clancy, Michael Meehan, Aongus Callanan and Cillian de Paor nailed some excellent points in that first half.
The game was effectively killed as contest just four minutes into the second half when de Paor finished a good three-man move to score the only goal of the game.
Difficult underfoot conditions, which made the surface so greasy, always made scores hard to come by in a second half spoilt by wind and rain.
In fact, another 25 minutes elapsed before Niall Coleman got Galway's second score of that half.
Gavin McWeeney picked off some good scores for Leitrim with the aid of that strong breeze, but there was never any doubt that this victory would belong to the Galway side.
GALWAY: M Killelea; K McGrath, A Burke, G Sice; D Kilkelly, D Mullahy, I Barrett; B Cullinane, N Coleman (0-1); F McCann (0-2), C de Paor (1-2), A Callanan (0-2); J Donoghue (0-1), M Meehan (0-1), G Glancy (0-3).
LEITRIM: C McCann; B McWeeney, S McGourty, F McMorrow; B Prior, N Nash, D McHugh; C McNama, C Farrell; G McWeeney (0-4), F Holohan, D O'Donnell; C Prior (0-1), P McGuinness, D Gillooly (0-1). Subs: D Beck for Mullahy; W Gilgunn for O'Donnell; N Maguire for McNama; D Gibbons for Gillooly.
Referee: M Daly (Mayo)
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