Waterford IT secure ninth Fitzgibbon Cup Title

Waterford IT are Fitzgibbon Cup winners for the ninth time and for the first time since 2008 after they overcame the challenge of Cork IT in today’s final in Belfast.

The Cork side were bidding for their first success in the competition and many were quietly confident that they could secure a maiden title after they accounted for fellow Cork side, the winners with the past two years, UCC in yesterday’s semi finals, beating Cork IT in both of the last two finals.

Many may have wondered what going to extra time in their semi final against Limerick IT what would have taken from the Waterford students.

Both management teams opted to make one change in personnel from their semi final wins on Friday afternoon. For Waterford IT Jack Langton came in at wing back for Shaun Murphy while the Cork students had Paul Virgo starting in the middle of the field for Michael O’Sullivan.

Early in the game it did not appear as though anything was taken from the Waterford students after the went four points up thanks to efforts from Waterford pair Pauric Mahony and Jake Dillon and Eoin Murphy who guarded the net for Kilkenny in last years championship.

For Mahony the past month has been a month to remember. He has put in solid games for the Waterford senior hurlers in their league outings against Tipperary and Galway as well as in the games he played for the Suir-side College in the Fitzgibbon Cup.

He has started March too pretty well scoring four points for Colm Bonner’s charges in this game, finishing the game as joint top scorer for the winners with four points, the same tally as fellow Waterford Colleague Jake Dillon who was judged to be the player of the match in this game. In the overall scoring stakes in this game however, both had to give second best to Tipperary senior hurler and CIT student John O’Dwyer who finished the game with five points behind his name on the score sheet.  

The Cork students did not hit their first score of the game till the eleventh minute when John O’Dwyer put over the first of his four frees and they wasted no time in quickly added to their tally.

WIT were unlucky to have rattled the Cork students net six minutes from the break when Tipperary’s Liam McGrath saw his effort go wide of Stephen Nyhan’s upright at a time when the Waterford students were leading 0-8 to 0-4.

Seldom does any Cork team lie down without putting up a fight and the Students were no different in this game. Bill Cooper and John O’Dwyer landed points for the side in red and white hoops to bring them to within one of the Waterford students who went in leading 0-10 to 0-7 after Jake Dillon and Cathal Kenny landed late scores for the eventual winners.

Early in the second half the Cork College side drew level with the Waterford Students, but they never went in front.

A second half miss from Daniel Dooley who hit the side netting of Stephen O’Keeffe’s net when shooting from a tight angle was to prove costly for the Cork side as the winners hit four unanswered scores to take the title back to Waterford.

WATERFORD IT: Stephen O’Keeffe (Waterford); Ger Teehan (Kilkenny), Pauric Gahan (Kilkenny), Jerome Maher (Waterford); Thomas Hamill (Tipperary), Joe O’Dwyer (Tipperary), Jack Langton (Kilkenny); Stephen Roche (Waterford), Cathal Kenny (Kilkenny); Harry Kehoe (Wexford), Pauric Mahony (Waterford), Eoin Murphy (Kilkenny); Liam McGrath (Tipperary), Jake Dillon (Waterford), Gavin O’Brien (Waterford). Subs: Johnny Hayes (Kilkenny) for Liam McGrath, Andrew Kenny (Wexford) for Joe O’Dwyer.

Scorers for WIT: Pauric Mahony (0-4f), Jake Dillon 0-4 each, Cathal Kenny, Harry Kehoe 0-3, Johnny Hayes, Eoin Murphy, Liam McGrath 0-1 each.

CORK IT: Stephen Nyhan (Cork); Stephen Murphy, Alan Dennehy (Cork), Tomás Lawrence (Cork); Eoin Keane (Cork), Mark Ellis (Cork), Pádraig Butler (Cork); Paul Virgo (Cork), Jamie Coughlan (Cork); John O’Dwyer (Tipperary), John Cronin (Cork), Conor Hammersley (Tipperary); Bill Cooper (Cork), Daniel Dooley (Cork), David Drake (Cork). Subs: Kevin O’Connor (Cork) for Jamie Coughlan, David Corbett (Tipperary) for Paul Virgo, Kevin Hallissey (Cork) for David Drake, Jason Lonergan (Tipperary) for David Corbett, Stephen Murray (Tipperary) for Cooper.

Scorers: John O’Dwyer 0-5 (0-4f), Bill Cooper, Conor Hammersley, John Cronin 0-2 each, Mark Ellis 0-1.

Referee: James McGrath (Westmeath).