Niall Hurley the hero as Mayo beat Galway in Connacht MFC final
6 May 2022; Niall Hurley of Mayo in action against Tomás Farthing of Galway during the Electric Ireland Connacht GAA Football Minor Championship Final match between Galway and Mayo at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park in Castlebar, Mayo. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
The Connacht Minor football championship title was won by Mayo for the first time in three years in convincing fashion at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park in Castlebar.
A crowd of 1,733 spectators turned out to see Mayo corner-forward Niall Hurley produce a man of the match performance, shooting five points from play, and tormenting the Galway rearguard in the process.
The winners led from pillar to post and were ahead at half-time by four points.
Quickfire scores after the restart from midfielder Jack Keane and goalkeeper David Dolan (a long-range free) pushed Mayo’s out to six points (0-9 to 0-3) and they never looked back from there.
Galway did threaten to rally on a few occasions but some poor decision-making and shot selection dogged their efforts to get back into contention.
Scores from Colm Costello (free), Vinny Gill and and dual star Cillian Trayers did keep the scoreboard ticking over for the young Tribesmen, but they never got any closer than four points at any stage.
Mayo kept them at arm’s length with well-worked efforts from the outstanding Niall Hurley (2), sub’ Zac Collins and Ronan Clarke (free) to run out deserving winners.
The homeside led at the end of a pulsating, free-flowing first half by 0-7 to 0-3.
They came flying out of the blocks and missed a few early chances before nippy corner-forward Niall Hurley used his devastating pace to good effect twice and clipped a couple of superb points to ease Mayo ahead.
Galway finally opened their account in the eleventh minute when Colm Costello converted a free, but this was cancelled out soon after at the other end by Ronan Clarke (free).
The open nature of the match continued with both sides trading points through Stephen Curley and the fleet-footed Niall Hurley before a Costello free reduced the gap to the bare minimum on 20 minutes.
However, Mayo then took control for the rest of the half with Dara Hurley (a twin brother of Niall) crashing a goalbound shot off the crossbar before a string of points followed from stylish full-forward Ronan Clarke (two, one free) and towering midfielder Luke Feeney (mark).
This left Seán Deane’s charges in a commanding position at the interval, despite racking up six first half wides.
Galway felt they had genuine penalty claims when Colm Costello was tackled heavily by Mayo goalkeeper David Dolan in the large parallelogram.
But referee Barry Judge adjudged no foul to have been committed.
Alan Glynn’s team were left cursing their luck when a late flicked effort from substitute James Summerville came back off the Mayo crossbar.
The newly-crowned Connacht champions will now take on beaten Leinster finalists Kildare in next Sunday’s All-Ireland quarter-final while Galway will face provincial winners, Dublin.
Both games will be played at O’Connor Park in Tullamore.
D Dolan (0-1, 1f); R Mortimer, J MacMonagle, L Silke; L Maloney, C McHale, P Gilmore; J Keane (0-1), L Feeney (0-1, mark); J Maheady, D Hurley, D Duffy; C Keaveney, R Clarke (0-4, 3fs), N Hurley (0-5).
O Armstrong for Keane (38); D Gallagher for D Hurley (38); Z Collins (0-1) for Maheady (42); S O’Dowd for Keaveney (58); J Finn for Maloney (63).
K Gilmore; A Colleran, R Flaherty, T Farthing; R Coen, C Trayers (0-2), V Gill (0-1); J Lonergan, S McGlinchey; S Dunne, E Monaghan, M Mannion; S Curley (0-1), C Costello (0-3, 3fs), O Morgan.
O Kelly for Colleran (HT): C Cox for Dunne (41); F O’Connor for Costello (52); J Summerville for Mannion (52); L Carr for Curley (62).
B Judge (Sligo).
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