Castlegar 2-30

Oranmore-Maree 2-14

By Pádraic Ó Ciardha at Pearse Stadium

CASTLEGAR got their 2024 campaign off to a fantastic start with a 16-point demolition of Oranmore-Maree on the opening weekend of this year’s Senior A Hurling championship. Many were predicting a tight battle in this meeting of two of last year’s quarter-finalists, but the men from Cashel just had too much firepower for a young Oranmore-Maree outfit.

One of the hallmark’s of the current Limerick side is their willingness to shoot early and often, targeting 50 shots a game, and Castlegar seemed to apply the same tactic on Saturday and it certainly worked for them. With a strong breeze at their backs, Matt Murphy’s side had a remarkable 1-20 on the board by half-time and finished with a 2-30 total that was never going to be beaten.

It was hardly a case of Castlegar players swinging for the posts and hoping for the best either. They were finding the target from early on in the contest and once their confidence was up, the scores kept coming.

Despite the chasm between the sides on the scoreboard, it wasn’t a case that Oranmore-Maree capitulated either but they couldn’t live with their opponents around the middle third in that first half as the likes of Ger Farragher, Jack Coyne and the magnificent Greg Thomas rained down points one after the next after next.

Oranmore-Maree, like Castlegar, had ten different scorers over the course of the hour but crucially only Niall Burke (0-5) and Conor Hanniffy (0-3) managed to register more than a single score for the losing side. Farragher and Thomas both finished with 0-9 for Castlegar with Thomas adding three points from frees to his six from play after Farragher was forced off with an injury midway through the half.

Oisín Connolly finished with 1-3 while Jack Coyne’s three points all came in the first half when the game was still a contest. The fact that he was in an individual battle with Niall Burke at the time only added to their value.

Pictured: Castlegar’s Cian Corcoran breaking away from Colm Burke of Oranmore/Maree during Saturday’s Senior A Hurling Championship encounter at Pearse Stadium. Photos: Joe O’Shaughnessy.