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McGrath Cup Senior Football Preliminary Round – IT Tralee 2-14 Waterford 0-14
Owens looking to the future as clinical Tralee punish Waterford
IT Tralee 2-14 Waterford 0-14
By John Murphy for the Irish Examiner newspaper
WATERFORD manager John Owens vowed to get over the loss of the O’Gorman brothers and set a Munster final as a target for his players following yesterday’s loss to IT Tralee at Carriganore. Two defensive lapses in the opening six minutes cost the Déise dearly but, with the O’Gormans choosing to line out with the hurlers this year, Owens insisted his side would cope with the loss of the two inter-provincial defenders. “They are undoubtedly a huge loss but we have to get on now and make do without them,” he said. “There are still a lot of good players around, and while of course the O’Gorman brothers are going to be sorely missed, there is nothing I or my team management can do about that right now. “Our two main objectives for the year will be Division 4 promotion in the national league and, with Cork and Kerry out of the way in our half of the Munster championship draw, we must set our sights on reaching the provincial final.”
It was a richly-deserved victory for the students but the six-point margin did no justice to Waterford’s second-half battling efforts. Indeed, they would have been closer at the death had Liam Ó Lionáin not uncharacteristically squandered a gilt-edged goal chance 10 minutes from time. However they lost this game in the opening minutes when Barry O’Grady set up Mike Brennan for a peach of a goal. Just three minutes later, Alan O’Donoghue did all of the work himself before hammering the ball past goalkeeper Kieran Cotter to give the Kerry students the perfect start.
It was a double whammy from which Waterford never fully recovered although, to their credit, they put in a commendably battling second-half performance. With Barry O’Hehir impeccably kicking points — he had six, from play, in that opening half — the students were comfortably positioned, leading 2-8 to 0-5 at the interval. Three of those Waterford points came from the boot of a lethal Garry Hurney, and the ace forward would tack on seven more in a flawless second-half display that scarcely merited him ending on the losing side. Waterford did manage to outscore the students in that second period, but that missed goal chance by Liam Ó Lionáin, who blazed wide of a yawing goal 10 minutes from time, will haunt them.
Scorers for IT Tralee: B O’Hare 0-7 (3fs, 1 45), A O’Donoghue 1-3, M Brennan 1-0, R Deane 0-2, B O’Grady, A Hegarty 0-1 each.
Scorers for Waterford: G Hurney 0-10 (6fs), S O’Hehir, S Briggs, L Ó Lionáin (f), G Nugent 0-1 each.
IT TRALEE: P O’Sullivan (Kerry); E Murray (Meath), J Sculley (Kerry), D Larkin (Wexford); AJ O’Connor (Cork), S Brosnan (Kerry), K Conway (Kildare); R Deane (Cork), G O’Driscoll (Kerry); S Carroll (Kerry), B O’Grady (Kerry), B Poff (Kerry); A O’Donoghue (Kerry), M Brennan (Kerry), B O’Hare (Louth).
Subs: A Hegarty (Cork) for O’Hehir (60), I Corbett (Limerick) for Poff (61), N Curran (Wicklow) for Deane (68).
WATERFORD: K Cotter; M Cummins, K Connery, T Ó Hualacháin; K Geary, S Briggs, C O’Keeffe; S Dempsey, S Hehir; C McGrath, L Ó Lionáin, P Hurney; S Fleming, G Hurney, JJ Hutchinson.
Subs: S Enright for Cotter (ht), G Nugent for Fleming (ht), J Wall for Hutchinson (56), A Brophy for O’Keeffe (59).
Referee: Kevin O’Brien (Tipperary)
For the Record
| Waterford | IT Tralee | |
| 2011 McGrath Cup Performance | Defeated Tipperary in the Quarter-Final before losing to Clare by 1-10 to 0-10 in the Semi-Final. | Lost to Kerry by 1-14 to 1-13 in the Preliminary Round at Austin Stack Park Tralee |
| Number of McGrath Cup Senior Football titles | 1 | 0 |
| Last McGrath Cup Senior Football Title | 1981 | N/A |
| McGrath Cup Senior Football Record since 2000 | Played – 17 Won – 5 Lost – 12 Drawn – 0 |
Played – 8 Won – 1 Lost – 7 Drawn – 0 |
McGrath Cup Senior Football 2012
Preliminary Round (Extra time)
Sunday January 8th
@ WIT Sportsgrounds Waterford v IT Tralee @ 2:00pm
@ Doonbeg Clare v UL @ 2:00pm
@ Clonmel Sportsfield Tipperary v LIT @ 2:00pm
Quarter-Finals (Extra time)
Sunday January 15th
@ TBC CIT v Waterford or IT Tralee @ 2:00pm
@ Pairc Ui Rinn Cork v Clare or UL @ 2:00pm
@ TBC WIT v Tipperary or LIT @ 2:00pm
@ Michael Neville Park Limerick v UCC @ 2:00pm
Semi-Finals (Extra time)
Sunday January 22nd
Final (Extra time)
Sunday January 29th
McGrath Cup Senior Football – Odds and Ends
Clare have contested 6 Finals since 2000, winning the title in 2000, 2002 and 2008.
Since the Third Level Colleges were allowed to take part in the McGrath Cup competition in 2005, only the Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) and UCC have qualified for the final. CIT lost the 2005 Final to Limerick by 2-10 to 1-3 while UCC lost to Kerry by 1-11 to 0-9 in the 2010 Final.
The record of the Third Level Colleges in the McGrath Cup since entering in 2005 is Won 18, Lost 38. No College team won a game in 2011.
Waterford won the first McGrath Cup title in 1981, captained by Michael Coffey. This is their only McGrath Cup title to date.
From 2000 through 2011, 84 matches were played in the McGrath Cup. Limerick have won the most games in this period, a total of 15 against 9 defeats. Clare have 14 victories since 2000 while Cork recorded 13 victories during 5 campaigns.
Since 2000, Kerry have taken part in the McGrath Cup on 4 occasions (2005, 2006, 2010 and 2011), losing just twice in 13 matches (to Tipperary in the 2005 Quarter-Final and to Cork in the 2006 Final).
The Waterford Institute of Technology have yet to win a McGrath Cup match in their 7 years taking part in the competition. IT Tralee won their first match in 2005 and have lost their last 5.
McGrath Cup Senior Football Roll Of Honour
Clare (10) – 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1990, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2002, 2008
Limerick (5) – 1985, 1987, 2001, 2004, 2005
Cork (5) – 1998, 1999, 2006, 2007, 2009
Tipperary (3) – 1989, 1993, 2003
Kerry (3) – 1996, 2010, 2011
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
