Gaelic Games

Monaghan and Limerick claim league titles at Croke Park

Eoin Duffy in top form as O’Rourke’s side beat Meath

Meath goalkeeper Paddy O’Rourke claims the ball ahead of Monaghan’s Dermot Malone during the Allianz Football League Division 3 Final at Croke Park. Photograph: Donall Farmer/Inpho
Meath goalkeeper Paddy O’Rourke claims the ball ahead of Monaghan’s Dermot Malone during the Allianz Football League Division 3 Final at Croke Park. Photograph: Donall Farmer/Inpho
Orla Bannon
Sat Apr 27 2013 - 21:08

MONAGHAN 2-16 MEATH 3-8: Monaghan and Limerick were celebrating league title success in Croke Park tonight.

In front of an attendance of 7,742, free-scoring Monaghan captured the Allianz football league division three title with a 2-16 to 3-8 victory over Meath.

Five unanswered points midway through the second-half was the period when Malachy O’Rourke’s side did the damage, while Meath failed to score for 21 minutes.

Monaghan had seven different players on the scoresheet with Eoin Duffy’s 1-3 from play one of the highlights.

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The Ulster side made a blistering start and raced into a 1-5 to 0-1 lead in the opening 11 minutes.

Meath needed to respond and did so as new boys Eamonn Wallace and Mickey Newman combined for the latter to score a goal at the Canal End less than a minute later.

In an open, high-tempo game, two superb points followed in less than a minute from the imperious Conor McManus, who tormented Kevin Reilly.

Monaghan missed a lot of scoring opportunities but still led by 1-9 to 1-5 at the interval.

Mick O’Dowd’s team made Monaghan pay for their wastefulness by scoring 1-1 within 90 seconds of the restart.

Ciarán Lenehan’s second point of the game was followed by a lung-bursting 60 metre run and goal from Davy Dalton.

A Newman free put them ahead in the 41st minute for the first time in the match.

Meath failed to score for 21 minutes in the second-half, during which time Monaghan scored five unanswered points through Finlay (two), Eoin Duffy (two) and Owen Lennon.

Newman’s point ended Monaghan’s scoring streak and then the same player grabbed a 66th minute goal to breathe new life into Meath’s fading challenge.

That brought Meath back to within a point but Kieran Hughes snuffed out any Royal hopes of taking the game to extra-time with a late goal to clinch the title for Monaghan.

MONAGHAN: R Beggan; K Duffy, D Wylie, F Kelly; D Hughes (0-1), N McAdam, C Walshe; O Lennon (0-3), D Clerkin; P Finlay (0-3, 2f), K Hughes (1-1), E Duffy (1-3); C McGuinness (0-1), C McManus (0-4, 1f), D Malone. Subs: S Gallogly for Malone (30), D Mone for Clerkin (42), P Donaghy for McGuinness (52), V Corey for Wylie (55).

MEATH: P O'Rourke; E Harrington, B Menton (0-1), C Young; C Lenehan (0-2), K Reilly, D Dalton (1-0); B Meade, C Gillespie; P Gilsenan (0-1), G Reilly, P Byrne; E Wallace (0-1), S Bray (0-1), M Newman (2-2, 1f). Subs: D Larkin for Gilsenan (28), A Tormey for G Reilly (54), S Kenny for Byrne (54), B Dillon for Dalton (56), B Farrell for Bray (67).

LIMERICK 0-16 OFFALY 1-11: Limerick kicked the last four points of the game to snatch the division four title against Offaly.

The worrying sight of John Galvin (hamstring) and Ian Ryan (ankle) both limping off in the last five minutes will have taken the gloss off their 0-16 to 1-11 victory.

Both men are now rated doubtful for their Munster SFC tie against Cork in four weeks time.

Offaly owned the first 15 minutes of the game, opening up a 1-4 to 0-1 lead with Ross Brady’s 12th minute goal the highlight.

An outrageous point from McNamee put Offaly 1-5 to 0-3 ahead after 22 minutes but they didn’t score again before half-time as Limerick reeled off five points in a row to draw level at 0-8 to 1-5 at the interval.

The second-half was closely contested. Two outstanding points in three minutes from Offaly’s Brian Connor looked to give them momentum.

However Limerick kicked the last four scores of the game in the last 10 minutes, sub Derry O’Connor kicking points off either foot, in an exciting finish.

LIMERICK: D O'Sullivan; L O'Dwyer, S Lucey (0-1), M O'Riordan; S Lavin (0-2), P Browne, P Ranahan; B O'Brien, J Galvin; J Riordan (0-1), T Lee (0-1), S Buckley (0-1); E O'Connor (0-1), I Corbett (0-1), I Ryan (0-5, 4f). Subs: D O'Connor (0-2) for Lee (57), M Sheehan for Lucey (58), S O'Carroll (0-1, 45) for Galvin (67), D Treacy for Ryan (69).

OFFALY: A Mulhall; P McConway, S Pender, B Darby (0-1); E Carroll, R Brady (1-0), M Brazil; A McNamee, R Dalton; G Guilfoyle, B Connor (0-2), A Sullivan; N Darby, N McNamee (0-4), K Casey (0-4, 1f). Subs: D Kelly for A McNamee (55), W Mulhall for Sullivan (68)