Celtic Challenge
The Electric Ireland Celtic Challenge Cup finals took place across three venues over the course of this weekend, and there were wins for Sligo, Kildare Lily Whites, North Cork, Offaly and Tipperary in their games played at Abbottstown, Markievicz Park and the TUS Gaelic Grounds. The action will also extend into next week as Wicklow Blue and Laois played out a thrilling 1-16 to 2-13 draw in Sunday’s only contest, with the replay provisionally set to take place next Saturday.
Tipperary and Galway played out a contest of incredible intensity and physicality on Saturday afternoon at the National Centre of Excellence in Abbottstown, with the Premier County eventually showing their class to lift the Corn Michael Hogan.
The contest was live streamed and can still be viewed on the official GAA youtube channel, and there should be plenty of viewers from the Premier County after they produced a masterclass of powerful, direct and classy hurling to win by 3-17 to 0-9.
Robbie Ryan top-scored for the winners with a bountiful haul of 1-10, but it was the industry and power of players like Simon Blackmore, Daniel Rossiter and Bill Flanagan that helped set the tone to Tipperary.
Vice-captain Jim Ryan played a free role as a sweeper and Galway couldn’t find a way to keep the ball away from the Holycross/Ballycahill player, despite some excellent hurling from players like Niall Feeney and David Mannion.
Robbie Ryan set the tone with a magnificent strike from out on the right wing while David McGrath also led the line well and popped over two good first half points, at a time when both sides struggled to adapt to swirling breeze. Shane Buckley notionally lined out at corner forward but dropped back to play a marking role at centre back, which freed up Jim Ryan to control the game from the edge of his own arc.
At 0-9 to 0-4 in arrears at half-time, Galway were just about hanging in, but they were rocked back when a barnstorming run from Blackmore set up Rossiter for the game’s first goal in the opening minute of the second half.
Darragh Kelly fired in a second with his very first touch after coming onto the field, also laid on by Blackmore, and Tipperary were well on their way to their 3-17 to 0-9 victory by the time Ryan whipped in their third goal with roughly ten minutes to play.
Tipperary team: James O’Dwyer; Oisín O’Donoghue, Darragh Linnane, Pádraic O’Dwyer; Eoin Larkin, Jim Ryan, Kieran Purcell; James Doyle, Kieran Grace; Bill Flanagan, Robbie Ryan (1-10, 0-6f), Simon Blackmore (0-1); Daniel Rossiter (1-0), David McGrath (0-2), Shane Buckley.
Subs Used: Joey Davis, Anthony Walsh (0-1), Darragh Kelly (1-1), Jamie Lahart (0-1), Andrew Irwin, Jack Bergin, Conor Cooney, Luke Ryan, Daniel McAllister (0-1), Emmet Ralph, Cathal Treacy, Danny Quinn, Filip McIntyre, Cormac Bourke.
Munster Senior Hurling Championship
Last Sunday was a big day in FBD Semple Stadium with the hosting of this year’s Munster senior hurling championship final. With over 45,000 people in the stadium which was the biggest attendance in a number of years, it was a credit to all those involved in the running of the event. We thank everyone who contributed in any way to making the day the success it was and making sure that all those who attended the game had the best experience possible. Congratulations to Limerick on claiming the title once again this year.
All Ireland Minor Hurling Semi Final
Following the conclusion of the round robin phase of the Minor hurling championship, Tipperary now know our that Galway will be our opponents in this year’s semi final. The game is scheduled to take place on the weekend of June 18th and the CCCC will finalize the full fixture details in the coming days. Under the watchful eye of manager James Woodlock and his management team, the players have been preparing diligently for this game and over the coming week or so they will be putting the finishing touches to their preparations for what will no doubt be a very tough test.
Health & Wellbeing:
Studies have shown that how people manage their conditions on a day to day basis greatly determines their symptoms and quality of life. The HSE Living Well programme is a group self-management programme which supports eligible participants to develop the confidence and skills required to deal with the day to day management of living with their health conditions and to become active partners in their own healthcare.
The programme is currently being run online for 6 weeks, 2.5 hours per week and addresses topics such as fatigue, sleep, pain, stress, physical activity, healthy eating, difficult emotions, low mood, depression and general wellbeing. Tools used include problem solving, action planning and decision making. There is no charge for the programme.
The structured programme is Peer led and at least one Leader will have a long-term health condition. The workshop is delivered in a relaxed and friendly manner where participants can share their experiences and learn from each other. Each participant will receive a resource book for self-management skills and living a healthy life.
Living Well is an evidence based, structured Self-management Programme originally developed in Stanford University, California in the 1990’s. The programme has been delivered in Ireland since 2005 and is used worldwide. It has been shown to improve quality of life and mental health. Furthermore, this programme increases awareness of local supports available to help self manage long term health conditions. The programme is now being launched in North Tipperary, Co. Limerick and Co. Clare.
If you would like further information please contact our HSE Living Well team as follows: Philip Hennessy at 087-1799396 or Liz Cox at 087-1799392.
To watch a video about the programme and find out about upcoming programmes in our area please see www.hse.ie/livingwell
FBD Insurance County Leagues
Last weekend saw semi finals in both the FBD County Hurling and Football leagues taking place across the county. In the football semi finals the action commenced on Friday evening when Fethard took on Cappawhite in Fethard in their Division 3 tie. This was a very well contested game all through that resulted in a win for the home side on a score line of Fethard 1-11 Cappawhite 0-09. Fethard now await the outcome of the second semi final in the group between St Patricks and Killenaule which is scheduled to take place this coming Friday evening June 10th in Cloneen at 7.30pm. Both semi finals in Division 2 were played simultaneously on Sunday at 12 noon. In Bansha, Galtee Rovers proved too strong for Ballina as they ran out 2-13 to 0-06 winners, while in Golden things were much closer with Golden Kilfeacle having the narrowest of wins over Fethard 2-08 to 0-13. At 1pm on Sunday Templemore was the venue for the Division 1 semi final clash between JK Brackens and Ardfinnan. The South Tipperary side were without a number of regulars which made the task more challenging as they faced a very strong JK Brackens side. Ultimately it was the Templemore side who ran out convincing 2-16 to 1-07 winners. The second semi final in the group which is between Clonmel Commercials and Ballyporeen is scheduled to throw in on Saturday next June 11th at 4pm in Ballyporeen. Last Saturday also saw the staging of the semi final clash between Eire Óg Annacarty and Gortnahoe-Glengoole in Division 2 of the County Hurling league. The game took place in Annacarty and resulted in a four point win for the hosts 1-23 to 2-16. This coming weekend will see six finals taking place in the hurling leagues, the action starts in Dolla on Saturday when Ballina and Burgess meet in the Division 3 final at 2.30pm while at 6.30pm in Moneygall, Knockshegowna and Thurles Gaels meet to decide who will be crowned Division 6 champions. FBD Semple Stadium will host a double header on Saturday evening commencing at 5pm with the Division 2 final between Eire Óg Annacarty and Moycarkey Borris in what is sure to be a very keenly contested game. The Division 1 final between Clonoulty Rossmore and Drom & Inch will be the second game and throw in for this tie is set for 7pm. On Sunday in The Ragg at 2pm Borrisokane and Moyle Rovers will meet to decide the destination of the Division 4 title for 2022 and at the same time in Golden, Clonoulty Rossmore will again be in action when they play Upperchurch-Drombane in the Division 5 final. All these games are result on the day clashes and tickets priced at €10 for adults and €5 for students can now be purchased via the ticket section of the Tipperary GAA website. There will also be chip and pin contactless payments in operation at a number of venues which will allow supporters pay by card on entry to the game. Under 16’s are free and do not require a ticket.
Tipperary GAA Scene
If there is anything you feel should feature in this column going forward, please feel free to forward it to pro.tipperary@gaa.ie
By Jonathan Cullen Wed 8th Jun
