Galway joy as Leinster crown goes into the West for first time

The Tribesmen defeated the Cats by 12 points in the final on Friday night.

WEST AWAKE: Galway’s Conor Gilligan leads the celebrations after victory over Kilkenny in the Electric Ireland Leinster MHC final at Laois Hire O’Moore Park, Portlaoise. Picture: Eóin Noonan

Galway 2-20 Kilkenny 0-14

Galway are Leinster minor champions for the first time in their history after they claimed a facile 12 point success over Kilkenny in Laois Hire O’Moore Park, Portlaoise on Friday evening.

After defeating the Cats earlier in the competition and including a number of players who were on the Presentation College Athenry team that lost to St Kieran’s in the Croke Cup Final, Galway were big favourites for the game and they were never really troubled as they dominated large periods of a disappointing provincial final.

Aaron Niland was one of those Athenry stars that played in the All-Ireland Colleges Final and he continued his rise through the ranks in scoring 11 points in total including a sensational individual effort at the end of the game.

Galway’s strength though is that they are far from a one man band with the goals coming from Jason Rabbitte and Brian Callanan.

Kilkenny threatened to make a game of it at different stages but ultimately like the earlier meeting in Nowlan Park, they really struggled to get the scores on the board.

Electric Ireland Leinster Minor Hurling Championship Final, Laois Hire O'Moore Park, Laois 12/5/2023

Another Kilkenny negative was that they barely created any goal chances with Ed McDermott’s shot off the post in the first half which arrived from Galway indecision their only real opportunity.

Galway on the other hand looked like they could waltz through the Cats rearguard when they liked and that was certainly the case early on as they opened up a 0-4 to 0-0 lead.

Galway’s dominance was such that Kilkenny only scored two points in the first 25 minutes with corner forward Conor Doyle getting both points.

By the time Brian Moore got Kilkenny’s third point, Galway had already amassed 1-6 on the scorecard with Jason Rabbitte combining well with Michael Burke for the game’s opening goal.

Niland, Rabbitte and Conor Gilligan all scored points in that opening period for the Tribesmen but with Kilkenny rallying woth scores from Greg Kelly, Sean Bergin, Brian Moore and Ed Lauhoff, the game was still a contest by the halfway mark.

Galway led 1-10 to 0-6 at that change of ends and they struggled to fend off their opponents in the third quarter and by the 43rd minute only five points separated the sides.

Kilkenny only scored three points in the remaining 20 minutes or so and it was from here that Galway really went into overdrive as Niland came into his own.

Subs Harry Holmes and Eoghan Mulleady even got in on the act after Brian Callanan finally put the Kilkenny challenge to bed with a late goal that put the seal on a historic night for the winners.

Scorers for Galway: A Niland (0-11, 6f and 1 ‘65), J Rabbitte (1-2), B Callanan (1-1), C Burke (0-2), M Burke, C Gilligan, E Mulleady, H Homes (0-1 each).

Scorers for Kilkenny: C Doyle (0-5, 2f and 1 ‘65), G Kelly, S Bergin (0-2 each), M Ahern, E Lauhoff, B Moore, B McDermott, C Phelan (0-1 each)

GALWAY- S Murray; T Blake, S Murphy, G King; D Quirke, D Campbell, E O’Reilly; M Burke, M Fallon; D Counihan, C Burke, C Gilligan; B Callanan, J Rabbitte, A Niland.

Subs: C Killeen for Fallon (h-t), S Keane for Campbell (h-t), J Donnellan for M Burke (54), E Mulleady for Quirke (56), H Holmes for C Burke (61), E Kennedy for Blake (63).

KILKENNY- B O’Sullivan; C Brophy, E Murphy, D Barcoe; R Garrett, M Stynes, M Ahern; D Vereker, E Lauhoff; S Bergin, G Kelly, J O’Neill; C Doyle, E McDermott; B Moore.

Subs: J Henderson for Barcoe (37), B McDermott for E McDermott (41), R Doherty for O’Neill (45), C Phelan for Lauhoff (48), S Kinsella for Murphy (51).

Referee- A Kinahan (Offaly).