Sheridan's perfect ten steers Moytura to county title
Moytura, 2026 Mayo premier junior hurling champions.
There were celebrations in south Mayo on Saturday evening after Liam Mulally’s early second-half goal for Moytura effectively ended the Mayo Premier Junior Hurling final as a contest.
As if an eight-point deficit at that moment was not enough of a hill to climb, Claremorris ended with 13 men after receiving two red cards. A four-point gap at full-time owed more towards Moytura, reduced to 14 themselves, taking their foot off the gas late in the day.
On an overcast day at MacHale Park, this was a sluggish sort of a game with plenty of fouling, leading to a real lack of flow; 17 of the game’s 26 points shared between the teams came from dead ball scenarios.
Brendan Sheridan was Moytura’s main man among their scorers, accounting for two-thirds of their points. His first came two minutes in and another from play just 30 seconds later. He made it an early triple with an effort from out wide to put Moytura 0-3 to no score up. Dylan Burke got Claremorris on the scoreboard with 8 minutes played with a well-struck effort before Sheridan landed another.
Burke blasted over another and Evan Heraty scored a free from deep. Ronan Fallon scored the first of his seven frees for Claremorris before Heraty and Sheridan stretched the lead out further with a set of frees.
Burke notched his third of the half from a free and Fallon added his second to leave the gap at two points. However, Moytura would finish the half strongly. Sheridan popped over a free with 26 minutes played and Ger Lynagh intercepted Claremorris captain Stephen Murphy’s sideline ball to pop over a point.
Sheridan nailed a 65, his seventh point of the half, to leave a gap of five points at the break. From the restart, Moytura accelerated up the pitch and while Brendan Sheridan’s effort dropped short, it came to Liam Mulally who provided the finish. The lead was extended to nine points by Brian Collins. James Woolley and Ronan Fallon added points for Claremorris but their gargantuan task got even bigger when both Stephen Lane Spellman and Aiden McGing were shown red cards about halfway through the second half.
The pick of Brendan Sheridan’s points, a swirling, curling effort from distance added to the lead before he and Evan Heraty put more spare change on the board for Moytura. Claremorris, to their credit and despite being second best, hit a purple patch before full-time and would leave the scoreboard looking far more respectable. Their consistent offensive yielded a further four scores from frees for Ronan Fallon.
A late red card via a second yellow for Evan Heraty could have made Moytura nervous but time, and the score, was on their side. Sheridan went into double figures for points with his final free of the day. Mark Jennings late goal for Claremorris proved to be just a consolation.
Scorers: Moytura: Brendan Sheridan 0-10 (5f, 1 ’65), Liam Mulally 1-0, Evan Heraty 0-3f, Brian Collins and Ger Lynagh 0-1 each.
Claremorris: Ronan Fallon 0-7f, Dylan Burke 0-3 (1f), Mark Jennings 1-0, James Woolley 0-1.
Moytura: Gary Hopkins; Ger Lynagh, Conor O’Malley, Brian Mullins; Ryan Kelly, Finn O’Loughlin, Michael McDonnell; Ruairi Gilvarry, John Heraty; Thomas Holleran, Brendan Sheridan, Evan Heraty; Brian Collins, Liam Mulally, Conor Doyle. Subs: Patrick Burke (for Mullins 40), Shane Holleran (for T Holleran 47), Mikey McDonagh (for Mulally 51), Shane McGahon (for O’Loughlin 55), Rob Ormsby (for Kelly 60+1).
Claremorris: Liam Heneghan; Stephen Murphy, Brendan Walsh, David Woolley; Stephen Colleran, Michael Foody, Brian Loughrey; Ronan Fallon, James Woolley; Mark Jennings, Stephen Lane Spellman, Evan Dillon; Dylan Burke, Aiden McGing, Liam Lavin. Subs: Peter Murphy (for Dillon 18), Bradley Murphy (for Lavin 33), Gerard Murphy (for Burke 45), Padraic McHugh (for S Murphy 49), Padraig O’Connell (for P Murphy 55).
REF: James Judge (Tooreen)
