Mungret St Paul’s complete memorable year with Limerick Premier U20 football final win over Oola:
By John Redington Limerick Leader Sports
“LEFT IT late again, we never make it easy for ourselves, but our subs delivered when we needed that extra energy right at end,” was how manager Shane Barry summed up Mungret St Paul’s cementing their dominance of Limerick club football in 2025 by adding the the county Premier U-20 championship to the Premier minor as well as their first ever success at senior.
Mungret St Paul’s defeated Oola 1-14 to 0-13 in the Premier U20 final at Ahane GAA Club’s Mackey Park on Sunday afternoon.
On the year’s last day of action for 2025, the Raheen club were stretched to the limits by a tenacious Oola side before clinching the treble of elite grade titles with an injury-time penalty just as the game looked as if it could be destined for extra-time.
It was a real gut-wrenching outcome for Oola who had made it all the way to the final on the back of keeping their focus right to the end and getting the last ounce out of the resources at their disposal.
But on this occasion, they were facing opponents who had dominated their group all the way up through the age grades and, even though the pressure of standing at the gates of history held them back when they had chances to close off the result, Mungret St Paul’s greater depth of talent finally wore Oola down.
The City team’s early attacks broke down before they could get the shot in but, after they fell behind to a Tom Ryan pointed free, they found the combination and space for Ciarán Scully’s equaliser and Mark O’Brien putting them ahead just after a breakaway Oola foray ended with Paddy Ryan’s shot being stopped on the line.
Continuing to dominate midfield, the city side kept up their offensive push for Luke Walsh’s fisted effort on a ball dropping in behind the defence and his follow-up free to extend their lead to three points coming up to the quarter mark.
Their line of engagement retreated, however, to give Donal Coughlan the opportunity to pull one point back for the East Limerick side.
After that was negated by O’Brien’s point in response from the resulting kickout, Dylan McGrath’s score ended a cagey scoreless spell in which Mungret missed chances.
Points from skipper Tom Lloyd and Scully moved the gap out to four, but Oola had the last word of the first half as Ryan’s score off Coughlan’s lay-off left the score standing at 0-7 to 0-4 at the bresk.
A blitz start to the second half had the lead changing hands within three minutes as Tom Ryan sent over a two-pointer off a quick free and then repeated the dose after bursting onto a pass and return just outside the big arc before Mungret St Paul’s rediscovered their shape in the middle third.
Walsh could have had them back in front at the end of their first sustained attack, but his shot off Lloyd’s lpass screamed just over the crossbar. The sides were level again going into the final quarter after Seán McDonnell’s fisted effort was cancelled out by a score from Conor Mangan.
Seán Hanley then restored Oola’s advantage before Mungret again had to settle for the point rather than the goal as Rory Mullins’ fly-kick on a breaking ball over the advancing Cian McGrath shaved the wrong side of the crossbar.
The sides were back together again when quickfire points from Shane O’Grady and Coughlan were replied to by Mullins blasting another shot just over the bar and then Conor Ó Longaigh collecting off the returning kickout to split the posts.
Both sides regrouped for the closing assault. Mungret St Paul’s chalked up a few wides, and O’Grady ended six scoreless minutes with a shot from way out on the right for Oola.
However, that disappeared when Mullins levelled at the end of the next move. Even though their next efforts failed to break the stalemate, the energy injected by Mungret St Paul’s substitutes paid off in added time when Mangan was fouled as he burst into the square.
O’Brien made no mistake with the penalty and, just to make sure they weren’t caught again, they turned over the kickout and fed the ball to Tomás Ó Dónaill to point with the last kick of the hour.
SCORERS: MUNGRET ST PAUL’S: Mark O’Brien 1-2 (1-0 penalty), Rory Mullins, Luke Walsh 0-3 each, Ciarán Scully 0-2, Tom Lloyd, Conor Mangan, Conor Ó Longaigh, Tomás Ó Dónaill 0-1 each; OOLA: Tom Ryan 0-5 (1 free, 2 2x), Donal Coughlan, Shane O’Grady 0-2 each, Dylan McGrath, Paddy Ryan, Seán McDonnell, Seán Hanley 0-1 each.
MUNGRET ST PAUL’S: Jake Foley; Brian Hassett, Cian Kinnevane, Conor Collins; Conor Ó Longaigh, Conor Mangan, Tom Lloyd; George Lloyd, Killian Begley; Fintan O’Kelly, Mark O’Brien, Ciarán Scully; Luke Walsh, Rory Mullins, Muiris Ahern. SUBS: Amhlaoibh Bohane for George Lloyd (43 minutes), Aaron Morrow for Fintan O’Kelly (44 minutes), Darragh Hogan for Cioaán Scully (54 minutes), Tomás Ó Dónaill for Muiris Ahern (60 minutes).
OOLA: Cian McGrath; Pádraig Crowe, Sean Ryan R, Fionn Roche; Éamonn Richardson, Paddy Downey, John Stokes; Dylan McGrath, Darragh Coughlan; Seán McDonnell, Tom Ryan B, Seán Hanley; Shane O’Grady, Donal Coughlan, Paddy Ryan M. SUB: Jamie McGrath for Seán McDonnell (56 minutes).
REFEREE: Paddy Lyons (Staker Wallace).