Clonkill 1-13
Raharney 2-9

Clonkill claimed their first Westmeath senior hurling championship crown since 2015 at Raharney’s expense after a thrilling final at TEG Cusack Park, Mullingar this afternoon.

Eoin Price’s 17th minute goal helped the victors to lead by 1-6 to 1-5 at half-time and they looked like cruising towards victory once Brendan Murtagh opened up a four-point gap close to the hour mark.

However, Raharney were never once out of this decider and kept the heat on with an injury-time goal from Niall Flanagan which had Clonkill holding on for the precious win here until the very end.

The game was at 0-3 apiece when Raharney buried in their first goal in the 11th minute through Conor Raleigh off the back of some superb work from Killian Doyle.

Murtagh and Cormac Boyle traded the next two points prior to Price catapulting the winners in front and they’d lead by the minimum at the halfway stage.

Murtagh moved Clonkill two in front early in the resumption and more scores at that same end from Niall Mitchell and dual star Luke Loughlin would outweigh Ciaran Doyle’s single, leaving it at 1-9 to 1-6 with 25 minutes to go.

Loughlin again re-opened the three-point margin with a terrific individual point and, despite Raharney closing the gap again, they’d get punished again by Murtagh’s deadly shooting which put them four adrift heading into the added minutes.

Flanagan got the breakthrough in the 61st minute to flick a cool finish past Andrew Mitchell in the Clonkill goal but time ran out on his team to get an equaliser, leaving the victors to earn their club's 15th success in this competition.

Clonkill - A Mitchell; D Egerton, J Kenny, M McGrath; A McGrath, P Dowdall, L Folan; S Power, B Murtagh (0-8, 6f); K Reilly, M Keegan, L Loughlin (0-2); E Price (1-2), A Price, A Dowdall. Subs: N Mitchell (0-1) for A Dowdall, C Austin for L Folan, J Smyth for A Price, N Dowdall for M Keegan, J O'Brien for N Dowdall.

Raharney - A McHugh; S Quinn, C Jordan, N Carthy; D Finn, P Greville, J Shaw; N Flanagan (1-0), C Boyle (0-2); J Boyle, R Greville, G Greville (0-1); C Raleigh (1-0), C Doyle (0-3f), K Doyle (0-2). Subs: D Giles for N Carthy, E Ahearn (0-1) for C Raleigh, B Smyth for J Shaw, E Keyes for J Boyle.

Referee - B Kelly.

Tweet

Most Read Stories