Limerick SHC Final – Adare v Na Piarsaigh

Adare won the Limerick Senior Hurling Championship title thanks to a 1-17 to 0-3 victory over Na Piarsaigh on Sunday at the Gaelic Grounds Limerick.

Foley leads way as Adare romp to historic hat-trick

From the Irish Independent newspaper

Monday October 19 2009

Former Clare star Ger ‘Sparrow’ O’Loughlin guided Adare to a first ever three-in-a-row Limerick hurling championship titles. Mark Foley won his fifth medal and he marked the occasion with two superb points from frees inside his own half. It a was a fifth win in this decade for a side which totally dominated one of the most one-sided finals for many years. Foley inspired the other players from the start and none of the other wins came as easily as this one as Na Piarsaigh played like a team happy to have reached the first final in club history.

The losers failed to score from play until the 53rd minute, when Kevin Downes managed to elude the outstanding Adare defence. By that stage the game was well out of their reach as Adare led by 1-14 to 0-3. Na Piarsaigh managed only a single point in the first half, and that was from a fifth-minute free by Downes, who was his side’s only scorer all afternoon. Declan Hannon and Brian Foley had points to put Adare into a lead they never relinquished after 11 minutes.

And the game was as good as over after 15 minutes, when a powerful clearance by Mark Foley found Diarmuid Sexton unmarked and he slammed in a goal that signaled the intent of his side, who went on to build up a 1-7 to 0-1 half-time lead. Adare might also have had a penalty in that first half and such was their dominance that they could afford to hit seven wides — the same number as Na Piarsaigh, who squandered two great goal-scoring chances in the final minute of the half. The second half was just as one-sided as the Adare defence held firm, with goalkeeper Timmy Houlihan making two fine saves as Na Piarsaigh went in search of goals rather than points.

Scorers — Adare: D Sexton 1-3, D Sheehan 0-4, D Hannon 0-3 (1f), M Foley 0-2 (2f), B Foley, L Costello, W McNamara, J Fitzgibbon, A O’Connell 0-1 each. Na Piarsaigh: K Downes 0-3 (2f).

Adare — T Houlihan; S O’Connell, JP Healy, S Lavin; R Kennedy, M Foley, P Keane; W McNamara, A O’Rahilly; D Hannon, B Foley, D Sexton; L Costello, A O’Connell, D Sheehan. Subs: C Fitzgerald for McNamara (inj), N Mulvihill for O’Connell (41), M Clifford for O’Rahilly (42).

Na Piarsaigh — P Kennedy, P Guinane, B Hartnett, K Bermingham; A Hennessy, P McNamara, N O’Gorman; D Lynch, K Breen; F McNamara, D Breen, J O’Brien; K Downes, S O’Neill, K Ryan. Subs: C King for O’Gorman (24), R Sheehan for McNamara (h-t) M Broughan for Lynch (40), J Madden for Downes (56).

Ref — P Coffey (Cappamore)