Scintillating Tooreen reclaim Connacht hurling title
Tooreen’s Shane Crinnigan and Fergal Boland celebrate their victory Meelick-Eyrecourdt in the Connacht GAA Club Intermediate Hurling Championship final at King and Moffatt Dr. Hyde Park, Roscommon, this afternoon. Picture: David Farrell Photography
Tooreen totally outclassed their Galway opponents Meelick-Eyrecourt on Saturday to win a fifth Connacht intermediate hurling title since 2017. Last year’s beaten finalists did the heavy lifting in the first-half, with two goals from man-of-the-match Liam Lavin and a bullet-like penalty by Sean Kenny helping the Mayo champions into a seven points half-time lead.
Meelick-Eyrecourt were never able to make inroads into that margin in the second-half and with their last score arriving as early as the 47th minute, it allowed Tooreen to stretch out their lead and ease into next month’s All-Ireland semi-final.
Lavin scored the game’s first goal after just three minutes after Meelick-Eyrecourt’s full-back line failed to deal with Tooreen goalkeeper Bobby Douglas’ booming delivery, and while John Fleming combined superbly with Niall Fleming to rattle the Tooreen net eight minutes later, Meelick-Eyrecourt were already playing catch-up.
Liam Lavin won a penalty that Sean Kenny fired past Enda Lawless while Lavin struck a glorious third Tooreen goal in the 20th minute, with Meelick-Eyrecourt reliant on the frees of Nathan Earner to stay in touch.
The chasers were handed a lifeline when James Lyons pulled a goal back on the half hour mark but Tooreen still held a 3-11 to 2-7 advantage at the turnaround and were able to keep their opponents at arm’s length after the restart, with Meelick-Eyrecourt managing just two points from play in the second-half.
