Electric Ireland Fitzgibbon Cup Final

UL 4-19 University of Galway 1-13

By Paul Keane at SETU Waterford Arena

A year after breaking University of Galway hearts with the late match winning goal in the 2022 Electric Ireland Fitzgibbon Cup final, Mikey Kiely proved the difference once again for University of Limerick.

This time it was a dramatic four-goal haul from the Waterford forward that set the seal on a commanding win and back to back titles for UL.

Kiely finished with 4-1 in total, all from play, as he went one better than the hat-trick of majors he previously sniped in the quarter-final defeat of UCD.

Waterford manager Davy Fitzgerald must have been licking his lips as he watched his county man tear the University of Galway defence asunder.

University of Galway may have felt robbed by Kiely's dramatic late goal last year though there was no argument about who was the better team this time as UL ran out 15-point victors.

Tipperary's Gearoid O'Connor fired nine points for UL while county colleague Bryan O'Mara put in a strong performance in defence and lifted the cup afterwards as captain at the SETU Arena in Waterford.

Darragh Corcoran, a recent All-Ireland club winner with Ballyhale Shamrocks, Cork's Sean Twomey and Limerick's Adam English played key roles in the win too.

UL enjoyed a terrific start with Kiely scoring his first two goals for UL inside 12 minutes to open up an 11-point lead for the favourites.

And while UG did bounce back with a strong 15 minutes or so approaching half-time, reducing the lead to four points at one stage, Kiely's third goal before the interval sucked all the wind from their sails.

Adam English's dynamism in the UL attack was a real problem for the University of Galway defence and he set up Kiely's first goal before sniping two points himself.

Galway free-taker Evan Niland got his team going with a 16th minute point that kick started a run of scoring as the underdogs suddenly found their groove, outscoring UL by 0-8 to 0-1 between the 16th and 29th minutes.

Kiely's third goal was a hammer blow and with Brian O'Sullivan also on the mark for UL, they led 3-8 to 0-10 at half-time.

University of Galway needed goals to get back into the game but they never arrived as UL took over in the second-half, Kiely's fourth goal coming in the 34th minute when he volleyed in after being set up by the excellent Sean Twomey from Cork.

Twomey pointed himself in the closing stages while O'Connor, Coughlan and Clare's Mark Rodgers all got onto the scoresheet too in a fully deserved 15-point win.

Greg Thomas did pull back a late goal for University of Galway but it was little consolation at that stage.

Scorers for University of Limerick: Mikey Kiely 4-1, Gearoid O'Connor 0-9 (0-7f, 0-1 65), Adam English 0-2, Mark Rodgers 0-2 (0-1f), Bryan O'Mara 0-1, Brian O'Sullivan 0-1, Colin Coughlan 0-1, Sean Twomey 0-1, Darragh Corcoran 0-1

Scorers for University of Galway: Evan Niland 0-5 (0-3f), Greg Thomas 1-0, Niall Collins 0-3, Oisin Flannery 0-1, Phelim McGann 0-1, Brian Concannon 0-2, Tiernan Killeen 0-1.

University of Limerick: Dean Mason (Kilkenny); TJ Brennan (Galway), Mark Fitzgerald (Waterford), Shane Staunton (Kilkenny); Killian Sampson (Offaly), Bryan O'Mara (Tipperary), Darragh Corcoran (Kilkenny); Brian O'Sullivan (Cork), Colin Coughlan (Limerick); Adam English (Limerick), Gearoid O'Connor (Tipperary), Sean Twomey (Cork); Mark Rodgers (Clare), Mikey Kiely (Waterford), James Power (Waterford).

Subs: Diarmuid Hanniffy (Galway) for Power 38, Mike Gough (Clare) for Staunton 44, Conor Flaherty (Galway) for Sampson 50, Padraic Dunne (Laois) for Fitzgerald 57, Killian McDermott (Clare) for Rodgers 59.

University of Galway (Galway unless stated): Liam Reilly; Phelim McGann, Eoin Lawless, Oisin Salmon; Mark Hardiman, Tiernan Killeen, Colm Cunningham; Alex Connaire, Ian McGlynn; Brian Concannon, Evan Niland, Darren O'Brien (Clare); Oisin Flannery, Greg Thomas, Niall Collins.

Subs: Shane Morgan for Hardiman 34, Ruben Davitt for Cunningham 47, Cillian O'Callaghan for Collins 55.

Referee: Colm Lyons (Cork).