McGrath Cup Quarter Final – Waterford 0-16 UL 0-12

Déise deliver opening victory for Carew

By Tomás McCarthy for the Irish Examiner newspaper

Waterford 0-16 UL 0-12 (AET)

Niall Carew’s tenure as Waterford football manager got off to a winning start at a bitterly cold Carraiganore yesterday, with Gary Hurney kicking five points to shrug off the stubborn challenge of UL after extra-time. The students looked set for victory as they led by a point entering injury-time before Déise defender Tony Grey surged forward to nab the equaliser. The home side pressed on in extra-time and outscored their opponents by six points by two. This was a hard-fought encounter, which saw both sides commit heavy numbers to defence. UL raced into a four point lead inside eight minutes. Tipperary senior Alan Moloney stroked over two points, with Ed Walsh and Liam McGovern also on target. Moloney was a constant menace and he notched four first half points and six in all.

Waterford, who started with three debutants, took time to settle but they hauled themselves back into contention. Paul Whyte, Darren Guiry and Gavin Nugent bagged two points apiece to leave the sides level at 0-6 each by half-time. Gary Hurney nudged Waterford ahead for the first time with the opening score of the second half. Paul Whyte pushed them two points clear but UL regained a grip on proceedings. Two points from substitute Denis Keohane gave them a slender advantage as the clock ticked down. Tony Grey had the last word in the second minute of injury-time however to tie it up at 0-10 apiece.

Waterford led 0-13 to 0-11 after the first period of extra-time, with Gary Hurney, Shane Ahearne and Grey all splitting the posts. Hurney landed two more in the second period to bring his tally to five and set up a semi final meeting with Tipperary next weekend. Meanwhile, UCC grabbed a late goal to defeat Waterford by 3-18 to 1-23 in a senior hurling challenge match played at Ardmore yesterday afternoon. Déise boss Michael Ryan utilised his full squad in a game played over four periods of 20 minutes. Shane Walsh netted the Waterford goal.

Scorers for Waterford: G Hurney 0-5(1f); P Whyte 0-3 (2f); G Nugent, D Guiry, T Grey, S Ahearne (1f) 0-2 each.

Scorers for UL: A Moloney 0-6 (2f, 2 45’); E Walsh, D Keohane 0-2 each; L McGovern, J O’Rourke 0-1 each.

WATERFORD: S Enright; T Ó hUallacháin, M Scurry, J Hurney; T Grey, S Briggs, R Cahill; T Prendergast, S Ahearne; M O’Gorman, P Hurney, P Whyte; D Guiry, G Hurney, G Nugent.

Subs: C Phelan for Ó hUallacháin (h-t); L Ó Lonáin for Guiry (50); C McGrath for Nugent (52); S Prendergast for J Hurney (63); J McGrath for Scurry (68); S Dempsey for Cahill (80); J Wall for T Prendergast (83).

UL: R Byrne (Mayo); M Tierney (Kerry), T Clancy (Cork), B Maguire (Kerry); L Mulligan (Kerry), N Fitzgerald (Kerry), D Ryan (Clare); D Niblock (Cork), K Canty (Cork); L McGovern (Kildare), A Moloney (Tipperary), G Ryan (Tipperary); J O’Rourke (Cork), S O’Callaghan (Kerry), E Walsh (Kerry).

Subs: D Dolan (Mayo) for G Ryan (32); D Keohane (Cork) for O’Callaghan (54); J Spillane (Kerry) for D Ryan (78).

Referee: B Tyrell (Tipperary)

Team News

Waterford Football team to play UL on Sunday in Carriganore at 2.00pm in McGrath Cup Quarter Final. Opening game of 2013 season under new manager Niall Carew

1 Stephen Enright Ballinacourty

2 Tadgh O hUallachain An Rinn

3 Stephen Prendergast Killrossanty

4 Connor Phelan Brickey Rangers

5 Tony Grey Stradbally

6 Shane Briggs Ballinacourty

7 Ronan Cahill Rathgormack

8 Tommy Prendergast Killrossanty

9 Sean Dempsey Colligan

10 Conor McGrath Brickey Rangers

11 Paul Whyte Killrossanty

12 Maurice O Gorman The Nire

13 John Wall Colligan

14 Patrick Hurney Ballinacourty

15 Gavin Nugent Rathgormack

The University of Limerick panel for the McGrath Cup is as follows –

Manager: Declan O’Keeffe

Selectors: Denis O’Keeffe and Brian Carson

Development Officer: Patsy Morrissey

Runai: Amanda Hogan

Contact Munster GAA PRO Ed Donnelly at pro.munster@gaa.ie for more information

For the Record

Fixtures and Results

Preliminary Round

Saturday January 5^th

@ Fitzgerald Stadium Killarney       Kerry 4-22 IT Tralee 0-10

Sunday January 6^th

@ Miltown-Malbay                            Clare 1-19 LIT 1-2
@ Cork IT GAA Grounds                 Cork 1-15 CIT 0-10

Quarter-Finals (Extra time)

Sunday January 13^th

@ Foynes                                          Limerick v Clare                                                        @ 2:00pm

@ Fitzgerald Stadium Killarney       Kerry v UCC                                                              @ 2:00pm

@ Pairc Ui Rinn                                Tipperary v Cork                                                       @ 2:00pm

@ WIT GAA Grounds Carriganore Waterford v UL                                                          @ 2:00pm

Semi-Finals (Extra time)

Sunday January 20^th

Limerick or Clare v Kerry or UCC

Venue Permutations

Limerick v Kerry – Kerry venue

Clare v Kerry – Clare venue

Limerick v UCC – Limerick venue

Clare v UCC – Clare venue

Cork or Tipperary v Waterford or UL

Venue Permutations

Cork v Waterford – Waterford venue

Tipperary v Waterford – Tipperary venue

Cork v UL – Cork venue

Tipperary v UL – Tipperary venue

Final (Extra time)

Sunday January 27^th

McGrath Cup Senior Football – Odds and Ends

Since 2000, Cork’s McGrath Cup success rate is 89% (best of any county) with 17 wins out of 19 in the competition.  In the same period, Kerry have won 12 of their 14 matches (a 86% success rate).

Despite a goal-less final, there was an average of 2.4 goals per match in the 2012 McGrath Cup competition (22 goals scored in total). This contrasts with 16 goals scored in the 2011 competition over 11 matches (an average of 1.4 goals per match).

The record of the Third Level Colleges in the McGrath Cup since entering in 2005 is Won 21, Lost 47 (31% 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 15 matches (47% success rate) while UL have won 5 of their 12 matches (42% success rate).

Since 2011, the record of Third Level Colleges when playing an Inter-County team in the McGrath Cup is Won 2, Lost 14 (13% success rate)

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.

Limerick footballers have won 1 of their last 6 matches in the McGrath Cup. Waterford have won 1 of their last 5 matches.

Tipperary is the only team to have won at least 1 match in the last 3 years of the McGrath Cup with a 66% record during that period, Won 6 Lost 3.

Clare footballers have won 5 of their last 7 matches in the McGrath Cup over the last two seasons. During that span, Clare have scored 4 goals and conceded 4 goals.

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

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

McGrath Cup – 2013 Scorers