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Club Kingpins

0-11 for captain Cooney as St Thomas' capture sixth Galway SHC crown in 10 years

The champions edged out Clarinbridge by three points to complete a four-in-a-row.

St Thomas’ 0-20

Clarinbridge 0-17

John Fallon reports at Pearse Stadium

CAPTAIN CONOR COONEY led the way as St Thomas’ captured their sixth Galway SHC title in ten years with another accomplished display.

It’s St Thomas’ fourth title in a row — Cooney has skippered them to all four — as they maintained their record of never having lost a final.

Clarinbridge, bidding to turn underage success into their third senior title, were in contention throughout the champions were superb in the tight exchanges and picked off some excellent scores.

The sides were level four times in the opening 17 minutes, with Clarinbridge taking the lead each time before the champions responded but then after the first water break St Thomas’ pulled clear with Darragh Burke, Conor Cooney and James Regan shooting points to lead by 0-7 to 0-4.

Clarinbridge hit back with Evan Niland getting his second pointed free before Darragh Burke restored the goal lead with his second point.

Mark Kennedy got his second point for Clarinbridge and centre-back TJ Brennan also found the target, with two more frees from Cooney leaving three clear going into stoppage time at the end of the opening half.

Clarinbridge finished the half strongly and a good point from the left by Gavin Lee and a third free from Niland left them trailing by just 0-10 to 0-9 at the break.

Oisin Flannery for St Thomas’ and Lee exchanged good points directly after the restart before Cooney and Eanna Burke hit the target to push the holders 0-13 to 0-10 after 37 minutes.

Eanna Burke pushed the lead out to four and they took that advantage into the second water break after Flannery and Regan hit the target for St Thomas’ and Niland landed two more frees for Clarinbridge.

But with Cooney leading the way, St Thomas’ kept a safe distance between and while Niland kept Clarinbridge in contention, they never looked like getting in for the goal they needed as the champions continued their brilliant run of success.

Scorers for St Thomas’: Conor Cooney 0-11 (0-6f), Darragh Burke 0-2, Oisin Flannery 0-2, James Regan 0-2, Eanna Burke 0-2, David Burke 0-1.

Scorers for Clarinbridge: Evan Niland 0-10 (0-9f), Gavin Lee 0-2, Mark Kennedy 0-2, TJ Brennan 0-1, Mikey Daly 0-1, Niall Armstrong 0-1.

St Thomas

1 Gerald Kelly

2 Cian Mahony, 3 Fintan Burke, 4 David Sherry

5 Evan Duggan, 6 Shane Cooney, 7 Cathal Burke

8 David Burke, 9 Bernard Burke

12 James Regan, 11 Conor Cooney, 14 Darragh Burke

15 Damien McGlynn, 13 Oisin Flannery, 10 Eanna Burke

Substitutes:

21 Victor Manso for B Burke (50)
20 Brendan Farrell for McGlynn (50)
18 Damien Finnerty for E Burke (60)

Clarinbridge:

1 Aaron Binden

4 Oisin Salmon, 3 Ian O’Brien, 2 Christy Bannon

5 Shane Ryan, 6 TJ Brennan, 8 Sean Kilduff

7 Shane Bannon, 9 Patrick Foley

10 Mikey Daly, 11 Evan Niland, 13 Mark Kennedy

15 Niall Armstrong, 14 Cian Salmon, 12 Gavin Lee

Substitutes:

19 Liam Leen for Armstrong (44)

Referee: Liam Gordon (Killimor).

BTL 5

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