Leitrim end their campaign with victory over Tipperary
It was a long time coming, but Leitrim signed off on 2025 with their first victory as they defeated Tipperary by eight points at TEG Cusack Park.
That win wasn't enough for the Connacht men to progress, however, as their -21 score difference was bettered by Antrim's -16 for the final third-placed qualification place.
Stephen Poacher's debut win was achieved with goals from Jack Flynn, Tom Prior, and Joe McGloin, although they left a handful more behind them.
This contest brought together two teams carrying a huge turnover of players from last year. Still, the opportunity for Tailteann Cup progression was clear, although Leitrim needed a heftier margin of victory than Tipp.
Leitrim full-forward Darren Cox was a late withdrawal as McGloin came into their attack.
Shorn of full-back line regulars in Jimmy Feehan and Jack Harney, Tipp U20 star Eoin O'Connell came in for his first start at full-back alongside Emmet Moloney.
Leitrim targeted goals from the off. Moments after they met for the coin toss, Steven O'Brien slid in to strip opposite captain Mark Diffley before he could aim for the net.
Then, Ben Guckian got inside only for Manus McFadden to produce a goal-saving block, which resulted in the corner-back exiting the field. From the subsequent move, Tipp opened the scoring with a lovely two-pointer by Cian Smith. The Clonmel Commercials youngster ended with 0-07 to his name.
Leitrim didn't land a score until the 16th minute, but it was worth the wait. Guckian played a one-two with McGloin before slipping the ball to Flynn. Shane Ryan got a solid touch to Flynn's shot, but it bounced in off the crossbar.
O'Brien's kick-out mark led to a levelling point by Emmet Moloney, but they wouldn't score again between the 20th minute and half-time.
Guckian's pacy point moved Leitrim ahead before striking for a second goal in the 27th minute. Goalkeeper Daire O'Shea booted a free long, Barry McNulty won it on the run, and he released the influential Prior, who confidently picked out the bottom corner.
McNulty won and converted a free, and it remained 2-02 to 0-03 at half-time despite a couple of late goal chances. Jason Madigan got in the way of Donal Casey's shot, while Prior dived to block Smith's drilled effort.
The sides shared the first four points of the second half, with Daithí Hogan and Smith scores sandwiching those from Riordan O'Rourke and Flynn.
But Leitrim were beginning to exploit the conditions through Guckian and O'Rourke points.
After a Smith free, the Connacht side struck for their third goal. Conor Quinn produced a diving block on Seán O'Connor, and they countered with Diffley squaring for McGloin to palm home.
Prior could've tacked on a fourth goal but chose to point for a 3-07 to 0-06 lead. Smith stroked over a two-point free in response, while Darragh Brennan had a shot at goal blocked by Diffley, who then limped off.
Leitrim came close twice more in stoppage time, but McNulty and O'Rourke fired wide.
Leitrim: D O'Shea; K Clancy, M Diffley, É McNamara; J Foley (0-01), D Casey, J Rooney (0-01); B McNulty (0-01f), C McGloin; J Flynn (1-01), K Keegan, T Prior (1-01); B Guckian (0-02), J McGloin (1-00), R O'Rourke (0-02).
Subs: C Quinn for C McGloin (23, inj), T Hughes for Diffley (65, inj), D Feeney for J McGloin (67), E Harkin for Keegan (70).
Tipperary: S Ryan; M McFadden, E O'Connell, E Moloney (0-01); L Boland, M Stokes, J O'Neill; P Feehan, K Costello; M Freaney, S O'Brien, C Smith (0-07, 1tp, 1tpf, 3f); D Hogan (0-02), D Brennan, S O'Connor.
Subs: J Madigan for McFadden (6-14, temp), Madigan for McFadden (30, inj), C Fahey for Freaney (34), E Power for Feehan (52), M O'Shea for O'Connor (57), M Russell for Boland (60, inj).
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Independent
18 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Wexford hoping it's third time lucky as Antrim visit for Tailteann Cup test
Wexford will take on old adversaries Antrim in the Tailteann Cup preliminary quarter-final having lost by 0-25 to 1-17 to Fermanagh in their final group game on Sunday. Despite the defeat, the silver lining was that Carlow's loss to Longford meant Wexford finished second in the standings, securing a home tie in the knockout stages.
Irish Daily Mirror
19 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
McGeeney hails 'best system GAA has ever produced' that is set to be scrapped
Kieran McGeeney's one man crusade to save the All-Ireland round robin format is beginning to gather support. The much-maligned system is due to be binned at the end of this season after a GAA Special Congress voted in a new format last February, with an overwhelming majority of 92.8 percent. Ironically, it comes at a team when the format is being widely showered with love by pundits and fans alike. McGeeney's comments came after another thrilling weekend of football where Derry and Galway played out a pulsating draw, Armagh trumped Dublin at Croke Park and Mayo bounced back to shock Tyrone in Omagh. On top of that, Down pipped Louth in a thriller at Newry, while Meath and Roscommon fought out a draw at the Hyde. The main factors for getting rid of the old format were the belief that there were too many games for a tight window and that only four teams were eliminated out of 16 after three rounds of games (24 matches). Another solution would have been to have just two teams qualify out of the four-team groups rather than four, although this may have meant more dead rubbers. In the current system, the carrot of topping the table to claim the one of the four automatic All-Ireland quarter-final places on offer has proved worthwhile with teams seeing the value in it and going after it hard. Having one game less and clear two week breaks between big games appears to have advantaged sides, rather than having a hectic schedule of playing three huge championship matches in 13-15 days. The other criticism of the format was that teams could lose three championship games and still make the last 12, as happened with Derry and Roscommon last year. However, this fails to take into account how competitive Ulster in particular is. The new format still has 16 teams, who qualify in the same fashion - the eight provincial finalists, the highest ranked league finishers, and the Tailteann Cup winners from the year before. Those 16 teams play off against each other in Round 1, with the winners going to Round 2A and the losers going to Round 2B, where those eight losing teams play off against each other. The four Round 2A winners qualify for the quarter-final stage with the Round 2A losers meeting the Round 2B winners in Round 3 (preliminary quarter-final). Once again the lopsided provincial championships determining the top eight seeds corrupts the system, but this seems unlikely to change in the near future. The new system is already used in the Sigerson Cup. McGeeney, though, reckons the current format is the best the GAA has ever had with big games week on week in May and June. And he says you can't look beyond your next fixture: 'That's why I love this system," he says. "You're looking at the next point. 'As you can see there (the Armagh/Dublin game), the way this game is played, the minute we put that ball short, Dublin were hungry to get a score because they know how much it means. We were the same against Derry. 'Again, I think it's why it's the best system that the GAA has ever produced.' McGeeney doesn't believe the system is too hectic and demanding on players and managers and that the preseason builds a robustness in players if it is done properly. 'I think the whole system is better,' he continued. 'I genuinely do. Those week to week (games). It is hard. Again, that was probably the argument for the pre-season. Teams do their own pre-season. 'Those days of flogging players and the stuff that I used to do is long gone, thank God. Your pre-seasons are mapped out to the last degree. 'To have somebody who doesn't even know your players, their medical history or anything else, to tell them what to do, I think plays a big part. 'If you get the pre-season right, that robustness in your players can last. It doesn't guarantee it, but it's no different in any sport, professional or amateur. 'I don't think it's too much. Sometimes when you get extra time in a game and you can be out the following week, that's a lot because you're basically playing two games in that one weekend. 'In general, sometimes you fall foul of it, sometimes you don't. 'The cadence we have is pretty good. I do think the system we have works well. We can't expect every game to be a clinker. 'We can't expect everything to be brilliant. It's no different than when there's Champions League or World Cup rugby. There's going to be rounds and there's going to be games that are poor. 'But I think what we've got is good. In our sport, we have to respect the club level as well. 'At the minute, we seem to have that, although most of the leagues are going on at the minute without a lot of the county players. They're normally back in for the tail end of the league. 'It's an important part of it and into the Championship. I don't know if we need to mess with it that much. I think we've done enough of that. I know it changes again next year, but the cadence is pretty good.
Irish Examiner
a day ago
- Irish Examiner
Despite distractions and defeats, Mayo do what Mayo do
All-Ireland SFC: Mayo: 2-0-17 (23) Tyrone: 1-2-9 (16) How did this happen? To explain this shock result, you first need to consider the current landscape of Gaelic football contenders. Then remember: this is Mayo. Over the past few weeks, we've been served periodic reminders that the margin between the Sam Maguire chasing pack is minimal. There are a whole host of quality sides and they all have obvious flaws. Mayo have bared them all in recent weeks. On the pitch, they suffered devastating losses against rivals Galway in the Connacht final and Cavan in their opening group stages game. Off it, their manager stepped back to deal with personal health issues, their county board hosted an explosive meeting and their support was dwindling. They were against an outfit that downed Ulster champions Donegal at home and buoyed by another U20 title midweek. So Mayo came to Omagh and mauled them. 1-9 to 0-4 up at half-time, the home side closed the gap to one midway through the second half yet Mayo surged again. 'You saw Tyrone last week, they went to Ballybofey,' said Stephen Rochford post-match. 'Who wins in Ballybofey in championship games? Not too many I can remember anyway. They responded. We knew it was going to be tight going down the final quarter. The energy that came off the bench, the support play they gave each other was really commendable. But there is always a but. There is always a but. We must do it again in two weeks.' Mayo's first green flag was fortunate. They worked the clock just before half-time and eventually freed up Bob Tuohy for a shot. He dropped it short, Niall Morgan failed to deal with it and Darren McHale took advantage. Even still, they were full value for the lead. Paddy Durcan was immense, finishing with three points and the Man of the Match award. Jack Carney moved to the inside line and found some form. Conall Dawson came into the half-forward line and brought unsurpassed energy. David McBrien was a rock in the middle. What happened to Tyrone? They scored just 1-6 from play. Their kick-out was destroyed, winning three of 11 long. The final shot tally was 29 to 17. 'It is hard to know,' said a frustrated Malachy O'Rourke. 'Sometimes when you get a bad performance, the next one there is a lot of soul searching in between and boys come back with a point to prove. Having said that, we were just looking for consistency. We got a good performance last week. 'We knew you had to go out and earn the next day. We just didn't do that. Overall we were disappointed with our play. Many aspects, we were flat and hadn't the energy we had last week. We thought we fought our way back into it. We thought we may be able to forge ahead. It wasn't to be.' Consistency. That preciously-sought commodity. As Stephen Coen said afterwards, if every team wants to be consistent, everyone has to be inconsistent. To their credit, Tyrone did respond after the turnaround. They hit 1-2 without reply, including a sweet Darragh Canavan goal. A Morgan two-point free cut Mayo's lead to a point. Davitt Neary came off the bench and hit back. He stole short kickouts, he won frees, he took off and was felled by Liam Gray for a Ryan O'Donoghue penalty. He missed a huge kick against the same opposition in the 2021 All-Ireland final. This time, he slotted it. They still need a result in the final round, but the benefit is profound. A host of young prospects showed what they are about. After a momentous low, they lifted it. 'Why was it different? We just did not perform against Cavan,' said Rochford. 'Our opening 12 minutes was just lacklustre. We tried to do a lot of things well, when you are just a bit off and a team come against you, you look really mediocre. 'I think we are better than a mediocre team. But you just can't be at that. There is no way of getting into the psychology of it. We just backed each other up today. We supported each other. 'We got scores and also left scores behind. That was not anywhere near a complete performance. We will go after that because we know we need to be better when we got to play Donegal.' Scorers for Tyrone: D. Canavan 1-3 (2 frees); N. Morgan 0-4 (2 tpf); D. McCurry 0-2 (1 free); M. Donnelly, B. McDonnell, M. McKernan, K. McGeary 0-1 each. Scorers for Mayo: R. O'Donoghue 1-6 (1-0 pen, 0-5 frees); D. McHale 1-0; P. Durcan 0-3; R. Brickenden, C. Dawson 0-2 each; A. O'Shea, C. Reape (45) J. Carney, J. Coyne 0-1 each. Tyrone: N. Morgan; C. Quinn, P. Teague, N. Devlin; M. McKernan, R. Brennan, K. McGeary; B. McDonnell, C. Kilpatrick; S. O'Donnell, M. Donnelly, C. Daly; D. McCurry, M. Bradley, D. Canavan. Subs: S. O'Hare for O'Donnell, L. Gray for Brennan (both half-time); P. Harte for Bradley, R. Canavan for Daly (both 47); A. Donaghy for McDonnell (61). Mayo: C. Reape; J. Coyne, S. Morahan, E. Hession; R. Brickenden, S. Coen, P. Durcan; D. McBrien, M. Ruane; C. Dawson, D. McHale, B. Tuohy; J. Carney, A. O'Shea, R. O'Donoghue. Subs: D. Neary for McHale, J. Flynn for Tuohy (both 52); F. Kelly for Dawson (55); F. Boland for Ruane (64), S. Callinan for Durcan (67). Referee: D. Coldrick (Meath).
