Pride of The Village

James Stephens 0-19, Athenry 0-14

All the ingredients were in place for what should have been a classic two highly-regarded sides, perfect sod, beautiful sunny afternoon and with a succession of well-struck points in an opening half that ended 0-10 to 0-9 to the Kilkenny champions, that promise looked like being fulfilled. The second half, however, put a sorry end to such expectation as James Stephens' superb defence suffocated the Athenry threat and ran out comfortable and convincing winners.

First blood on the day went to The Village, a well-worked point after 20 seconds by Eoin Larkin, their top scorer throughout this championship, but this was countered within a minute by a superb sideline ball from Athenry midfielder Brian Hanley, from over 50 metres.