Athenry 2-16

Loughrea 1-12

By Mike Rafferty at Kenny Park

ATHENRY have gone from relegation candidates to Junior A Hurling champions in the matter of a year, for at Kenny Park on Saturday afternoon, they were never headed as they eased to a merited success over a Loughrea side who were always chasing the game.

Mind you, two late Athenry goals colour the picture somewhat as Sean Keogh scored both in a minute in additional time and with Loughrea still battling to the end, Aidan Fahy netted a free at the other end, but it was too little too late for Declan Loughnane’s side.

Having gone through their campaign undefeated and including a previous victory over Loughrea, Athenry always had an edge over their opponents and while they only enjoyed a four point interval advantage, they opened a seven point lead in the third quarter at 0-14 to 0-7 and while the Loughrea response was committed, some erratic shooting in the closing stages in a total wide count of 12 ended any hopes of a comeback.

Now the opening quarter was certainly slow and tentative as scores were hard to come by with Michael Mullins and Enda Keary exchanging early frees, before Ruairi Keogh and Pierce Mannion swapped scores from play as the sides were level after 15 minutes.

However, from there to the break Athenry opened up a gap as they outshot their opponents by six two over the next quarter. A Mullins free edged them ahead, before he collected a Hugh McCann pass and slotted over his second in succession. Subsequently, Jack MacCullagh fielded a smart Dylan Quirke cross field pass and slotted over an angled effort to open a three point margin.

Loughrea were not enjoying the same freedom in attack as they had just a Vince Morgan score in a 15 minute spell, while Athenry went on to add three more in quick succession. Michael Mullins popped over two frees, while MacCullagh set up Keogh for his second score from 60 metres. The last point of the half fell to Marcus Burns as he combined a fine left wing run with a shot that just squeezed inside a post to leave matters at 0-8 to 0-4 in favour of Athenry at the interval.

Pictured: Marcus Burns of Loughrea is chased by Athenry’s Jack MacCullagh and Gary Moroney during Saturday’s County Junior A Final at Kenny Park. Photos: David Cunniffe.