Irish GAA
By Aiden Begley

Cork’s Hurlers Retain
All-Ireland Crown

It was a close run thing, but Cork managed to secure their 30th All-Ireland hurling title with a 1-21 to 1-16 win over Galway in the final at Croke Park last month.
The best attendance at an All-Ireland hurling final since 1956 of 81,136 (it would have been more had the GAA not ‘misplaced’ one thousand tickets) finally saw Cork’s inspirational captain Sean Og O’hAilpin lift the Liam McCarthy cup after a pulsating final.
The Rebel County headed into the game as favourites over Galway; who had defeated the 2004 All-Ireland champions Kilkenny in order to claim their place in the final. However, Galway did not recapture this form as Cork took hold of the game early on.
Cork’s Ben O’Connor had a personal points tally of 1-7 for the game and opened the scoring in the second minute. The Rebels kept on scoring points at regular intervals and O’Connor increased that lead further with a goal on 17 minutes.
Galway managed to chip away at the deficit and were only two points behind at the break.
Damien Hayes poked in a goal to leave the Connacht men trailing by one point as they attempted to bring the Liam McCarthy across the Shannon for the first time in 17 years.
Lady luck was to favour the men from Munster as Cork had beaten Galway on each of their previous five meetings in the final and decided to step-it-up after this Hayes score.
Cork plundered seven points during the course of the second-half and they proved to be too strong for Galway and eventually ran out comfortable if unconvincing winners to secure their first back-to-back All-Ireland titles since 1978.
Speaking after the game, man-of-the-match Ben O’Connor said that he felt the experience of playing on big occasions played a vital part in their 2005 victory.
He said: “I suppose a lot of the Cork team at the moment have been together for four of five years.
“This was our third final in a row, so that bit of experience was essential. It is a big day and it’s also an energy-sapping experience. It was a great day for everyone from Cork, players and fans alike.”
Captain Sean Og O’hAilpin paid tribute to the hard work and determination of everyone in the Cork set-up and said that the side would be even stronger next year.
“Everyone worked as a team and we all had the same thing in mind at the start of the All-Ireland, to win the Liam McCarthy cup, which we’ve now done twice in two years.
“We want to continue this winning streak and we’ll be ready come 2006 to defend it as hard as we can to win it for a third time in-a-row” said a jubilant O’hAilpin.
There was some consolation for Galway’s hurlers on finals day as their fancied U21 team retained their minor hurling title, defeating Limerick 3-13 to 0-17.