McGrath Cup Senior Football Quarter Final – CIT 5-17 Mary I 2-6

CIT defeated Mary I by 5-17 to 2-6 in the McGrath Cup Football Quarter-Final on Sunday January 5^th at the CIT Grounds.

Hegarty applies finishing touch to CIT stroll

Cork IT 5-17 Mary Immaculate 2-6

A good first-half performance laid the foundations for Cork IT to enjoy a relatively unobstructed McGrath Cup quarter-final victory over Mary Immaculate College. Despite Dan MacEoin’s goal putting the Limerick visitors 1-0 to 0-2 ahead in the ninth minute, CIT responded quickly to establish a foothold in the game. Shane McCarthy and Donal Og Hodnett found the net in quick succession. Then Daniel Daly’s strike shortly before half-time left the score at 3-8 to 1-3 going in at the interval, with the visitors left with a lot to do to claw back into contention.

With Brendan O’Sullivan and Keith O’Connor partnering well in midfield and Pa Kilkenny turning in a very strong display as a sweeper against the wind, CIT had too much nous for their opponents, who were playing in the competition for the first time. While Mary I began the second half brightly, they never managed to get the deficit below nine points as CIT continued to keep the scoreboard ticking over, Cathal Vaughan kicking some lovely points. Another to impress for the home side was Darragh Treacy and he added the fourth goal for Cork IT in the 49th minute before substitute Thomas Hegarty added a fifth. Mac Eoin did get his and Mary Immaculate’s second green flag in the closing stages of the match but CIT’s passage to a semi-final with Kerry next weekend was never in question.

SCORERS — Cork IT: C Vaughan 0-8 (4fs), D Treacy 1-2, D Og Hodnett, D Daly 1-1 each, S McCarthy, T Hegarty 1-0 each, R O’Sullivan, J Collins, B O’Sullivan, C Flanagan (f), J Corkery 0-1 each. Mary Immaculate College: D Mac Eoin 2-1, S Brosnan 0-2, C O’Sullivan, J Wall, P Murphy 0-1 each.

CORK IT — D Hanrahan; J O’Donoghue, E Byrne, TJ Brosnan; R O’Sullivan, P Daly, J Collins; B O’Sullivan, K O’Connor; D Treacy, S McCarthy, D Daly; C Vaughan, D Og Hodnett, P Kilkenny. Subs: T Hegarty for D Daly (43), K O’Dwyer for O’Donoghue (43), C Flanagan for Vaughan (52), J Walsh for Hodnett (54), J Corkery for Treacy (54), S Cahill for Collins (63).

MARY IMMACULATE COLLEGE — A O’Donnell; M O’Shea, C Galvin, P Bane; T O’Brien, J Wall, D Foran; J Wright, P Murphy; E O Grialais, S Brosnan, C O’Sullivan; D Mac Eoin, J Cottrell, J Malone. Subs: C O’Leary for Brosnan (43), M Malone for O’Brien (50), M Hyland for O’Sullivan (62).

REF — R Hickey (Clare)

Fixture Details

McGrath Cup Senior Football Quarter-Final

Cork Institute of Technology v Mary Immaculate College Limerick

Venue: CIT GAA Grounds @ 2:00pm

Referee: Rory Hickey (Clare)

Extra time if necessary

For the Record

Fixtures and Results

Quarter-Finals (Extra time)

Sunday January 5^th

@ Austin Stack Park Tralee           Kerry v IT Tralee                                                       @ 2:00pm

@ CIT GAA Grounds                       CIT v Mary I                                                               @ 2:00pm

@ Mallow                                          Cork v LIT                                                                  @ 2:00pm

@ Gaelic Grounds Limerick           UL v UCC                                                                  @ 2:30pm

Semi-Finals (Extra time)

Sunday January 12^th

Kerry or IT Tralee v CIT or Mary I

Cork or LIT v UL or UCC

Final (Extra time)

Sunday January 19^th

McGrath Cup Senior Football – Odds and Ends

Since 2000, Kerry’s McGrath Cup success rate is 88% (best of any county) winning 15 of their 17 matches (a 88% success rate). In the same period, Cork have won 85% of their matches in the competition with 17 wins out of 20.

There was an average of 2.5 goals per match in the 2013 McGrath Cup Competition (25 goals scored in total). This compares with an average of 2.4 goals per game in 2012 and 1.4 goals per game in 2011.

The record of the Third Level Colleges in the McGrath Cup since entering in 2005 is Won 21, Lost 49 (30% success rate). None of the six colleges have a winning record in the competition during that period. UCC have the best record, winning 7 of their 16 matches (44% success rate). CIT have won 6 of their 15 matches (40% success rate) followed by UL who have won 5 of their 13 matches (38% success rate). Meanwhile IT Tralee, LIT and WIT have won 3 out of 26 matches between them. Mary Immaculate College Limerick will compete for the first time in the 2014 McGrath Cup competition.

Kerry have not lost a match in the McGrath Cup since the 2006 final where the Kingdom lost to Cork by 1-9 to 0-6 at Pairc Ui Rinn.

McGrath Cup Senior Football Roll Of Honour

Clare (12) – 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1990, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2002, 2008

Cork (6) – 1998, 1999, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Limerick (5) – 1985, 1987, 2001, 2004, 2005

Kerry (4) – 1996, 2010, 2012

Tipperary (3) – 1989, 1993, 2003

Waterford (1) – 1981

London (1) – 1988

Visit the Munster GAA web site History section to view the complete Roll of Honour since the competition began in 1981 – https://munster.gaa.ie/history/mcgrath-cup-football/

McGrath Cup

Presented by Joe McGrath on June 21st, 1981 for the promotion of Senior Football in Munster