Glory day for Athenry Minor hurlers

Published: Wed 24 Nov 2010, 10:50 AM

By JIM CARNEY Athenry ...1-8 Gort ....0-9 THE timing of this County Minor (A) title couldn't be better for the great St Mary's, Athenry club. It's been a lean few years at senior level for the three times All-Ireland Club Championship winners (1997, 2000, 2001) and County senior champions seven times in eleven years between their 1994 Cup [private]triumph over Sarsfields and the last of the club's nine titles in 2004, when they defeated Portumna, while it's also indelibly written into the Galway Hurling Roll of Honour that Athenry achieved a magnificent 5-in-a-row in the County U-21 Championship from 1987 to 1991. Now they can look to the future with confidence. This is a massive boost, in a grade that's been good to Athenry: County Minor champions nine times between 1966 and 1995, and that star-studded Three-in-a-Row team of the early '90s (including current Minor team manager Diarmuid Burns) then helped their club go all the way to the top at national level. Over the two days, Athenry did more than enough to leave no doubts about the merit of their ultimate victory. In the drawn game at Pearse Stadium they played their best hurling in the second half and came agonisingly close to winning it, while in the eagerly awaited replay at Duggan Park, Ballinasloe last Saturday they looked likely winners after Mickey Mullins's opportunist goal in the 14th minute of the second half. In the first half, the big young Athenry man Jack Carr had a penalty saved, while for Athenry their fine goalkeeper Aidan Higgins made a crucial save in the second half. It was a proud Athenry captain, Jack Gibbons, who accepted the Fr Michael Griffin Memorial Cup from Galway Hurling Board chairman Joe Byrne. It wasn't lonely around the fields of Athenry last weekend! Athenry scorers: Mikey Mullins (1-0), Cathal Keane (0-3, frees), Conor Caulfield (0-2), Jack Carr (0-1), Thomas Flynn (0-1, free), Colin Whyte (0-1, sideline cut). Gort scorers: Ml. Mullins (0-5, four frees), Albert Mullins (0-2), Gerard O'Donoghue (0-1), Gavin Lally (0-1, a 65). Referee: Alan Kelly.[/private]