Mungret St Paul’s make history after claiming first ever Limerick senior football title:

Paul Shaughnessy Limerick Leader Sports

Mungret St Paul’s claimed their first-ever Limerick Senior Football Championship title, overcoming Newcastle West 0-12 to 1-5 at Mick Neville Park on Sunday afternoon

Kevin O’Hagan’s side delivered an outstanding defensive performance, restricting Newcastle West to just 1-3 from play in the Limerick SFC final. The champions showcased their attacking depth with seven different scorers throughout the contest, a remarkable achievement for a club that only captured the intermediate title in 2023.

Newcastle West struggled to match their opponents’ intensity in the second half. The 2023 county champions will be disappointed to fall short on this occasion, but their record of winning five county titles since 2015 underlines their consistency in Limerick football during the last decade.

Last weekend, Newcastle West needed extra time to get past Fr Casey’s in the Limerick SFC semi-final, while Mungret St Paul’s knocked reigning county champions Adare out of the championship in the other semi-final.

It was a tense and cagey opening half, with both sides maintaining long spells of possession as they patiently tried to work the ball into scoring positions. Mungret St Paul’s and Newcastle West were evenly matched in their efforts, each registering six wides before the break.

In the early stages of the first half, Newcastle West owned the ball but their shooting let them down when they hit three wides in-a-row. Mungret St Paul’s began to settle through a John Hutton free and Limerick senior footballer Killian Ryan followed that up with a point from play to push them 0-2 in front after eight minutes.

Newcastle West responded and had the contest level on eleven minutes when Iain Corbett and Eoin Hurley brought the west Limerick outfit back into this contest.

Mungret St Paul’s attacker Darragh O’Sullivan was providing his side with an outlet in his side’s half forward. O’Sullivan combined with Darragh O’Hagan and O’Hagan fisted the ball over the bar to put his side back into the lead. Eoin Hurley levelled matters for the second time in the first half from a close range free on 21 minutes.

Kevin O’Hagan’s side finished the first half stronger as Hutton nailed his second free and O’Sullivan set up Shane Barry to have Mungret St Paul’s leading 0-5 to 0-3 at the break.

The Raheen side struck the first real blow of the second half on 33 minutes when Oisín Moss fired over from distance. Moments later, Giltenane added the game’s first two-point score to extend their advantage to 0-8 to 0-3.

Newcastle West had chances to claw back the lad but their accuracy in front of goals continued to let them down. However, when it looked like the contest was going away from them, the Magpies wing back Aaron Neville came sprinting down through the centre of the Mungret St Paul’s defence, Neville fisted the ball to Eoin Hurley who slotted the ball past Ronan McElligott and they now just trailed by two points.

Referee Timmy McGrath advanced a Mungret St Paul’s free by 50 metres following dissent from the Newcastle West players, and Hutton made no mistake from the placed ball to push his side three clear. Limerick U20 footballer Tom Lloyd then delivered a superb crossfield pass to Diarmuid Hynes, who clipped over a fine effort to make it 0-10 to 1-3 with six minutes remaining.

Emmet Rigter, returning from injury, was introduced in the second half and narrowed the deficit to three points on 55 minutes.

Wing-back Frank Corcoran struck the insurance score deep into injury time for the city side, while Mike McMahon kept Newcastle West’s hopes alive at the other end. However, Mungret St Paul’s held firm to seal a historic night for the club.

Mungret St Paul’s will play Kerry champions Dingle in the Munster Senior Football Championship semi-final on Sunday November 23 in a Kerry venue.

SCORERS:
NEWCASTLE WEST: Eoin Hurley (1-2, 0-1 free), Mike McMahon and Iain Corbett 0-1 each, Emmet Rigter (0-1, 0-1 free)

MUNGRET ST PAUL’S: John Hutton (0-4, 0-4 frees), Brendan Giltenane (0-2, 0-1 two pointer), Frank Corcoran, Killian Ryan, Oisin Moss, Shane Barry, Diarmuid Hynes and Darragh O’Sullivan 0-1 each

NEWCASTLE WEST: Mike Quilligan; Mike O’Keefe, Darren O’Doherty, Brian O’Sullivan; Aaron Neville, Seamus Hurley, Michael Cremin; Mike McMahon, Sean Murphy; Ruadhan O’Connor, Iain Corbett, Brian Hurley; Thomas Quilligan, Eoin Hurley, Bryan Nix.
SUBS: Emmet Rigter for Thomas Quilligan (36 minutes), Lee Woulfe for O’Connor (39 minutes), Todd Donovan for Murphy (43 minutes), Brian Foley for Brian Hurley (50 minutes).

MUNGRET ST PAUL’S: Ronan McElligott; Jason Hassett, Robert Hegarty, Ciaran Uwatse; Frank Corcoran, Oisin Moss, James Garvey; Darragh O’Hagan, Jack McCarthy; Killian Ryan, Darragh O’Sullivan, James Killian; Shane Barry, John Hutton, Brendan Giltenane.
SUBS: Tom Lloyd for Garvey (39 minutes), Diarmuid Hynes for Giltenane (43 minutes), Darragh Bridgeman for Killian (50 minutes), Jack Somers for Barry (56 minutes).

REFEREE: Timmy McGrath (Oola)