St Kieran’s, Kilkenny 1-15 

Presentation College, Athenry 1-12

St Kieran’s, Kilkenny have been crowned Croke Cup champions for the fifth time in six years and a 23rd time in all after finishing strongly to edge out Presentation College, Athenry in a thrilling final at Bord na Mona O'Connor Park in Tullamore.

Conor Kelly's late goal, allied to eight points from Eoin Cody, who won an All-Ireland club medal with Ballyhale Shamrocks on St Patrick's Day, proved crucial as the famous Kilkenny hurling nursery repeated last year's victory over their Galway rivals. 

The first half was essentially a shootout between respective free-takers Cody and Mark Kennedy. St Kieran's were wasteful in the opening period, but they still had their noses in front until Presentation's TJ Brennan made it 0-7 apiece on the stroke of half-time. 

Cody had St Kieran's three points up within minutes of the restart, but Athenry turned it around with a goal from Kennedy and points from Kennedy and Brennan to lead by two with a quarter of an hour remaining.

But their dreams of getting their hands on the Croke Cup for the first time slipped away in the closing stages when Kelly's kicked goal in the 54th minute was followed by points from Killian Egan and David Blanchfield.

St Kieran's lost Darragh Corcoran to a second yellow card and Kennedy brought his tally to 1-8 from the resultant free, but it was a case of too little, too late for the Galway boys.

St Kieran's, Kilkenny - D Mason; D O’Keeffe, P O’Neill, J Young; D Corcoran, C Murphy, K Egan (0-2); M O’Connell (0-1), D Blanchfield (0-2); C Brennan (0-1), E Cody (0-8, 6f), A Brennan (0-1); D Maher, C Hoban, C Kenny. Subs: C Kelly (1-0) for C Hoban, D Fwamba for M O’Connell, J Brennan for C Murphy.

Presentation College, Athenry - P Rabbitte; C Brennan, E Lawless, J Reilly; O Salmon, S Quirke, D Parr; I McGlynn, B Lee; S Burke, G Lee (0-1), TJ Brennan (0-2); M Kennedy (1-8, 0-5f), A Clarke (0-1), A Brett. Subs: J Joyce for B Lee, L Leen for G Lee.

Referee - J Murphy.

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