On a weekend when Waterford lost to Clare, Davy Fitzgerald will be more disappointed with confirmation Stephen O’Keeffe won’t be returning to intercounty hurling. The brilliant Ballygunner goalkeeper had been invited back to the county squad by Fitzgerald, but speaking at Saturday night’s WLR FM Granville Hotel GAA awards, O’Keeffe said he would not be coming out of retirement.
“I have given it a good decade of my life playing with Waterford,” he said. “I absolutely loved it. I’ve made friends for life. Memories that will last me for a lifetime. But I think life moves on for people. Sometimes you just need to put a pin in it.”
In Waterford’s Munster senior hurling league encounter against Clare on Sunday, 10 points from Aidan McCarthy helped the Banner to a 1-24 to 2-19 victory at Cusack Park. Waterford led by four points at half time, Stephen Bennett’s converted penalty seeing the visitors go in 1-8 to 0-7 ahead at the interval. But Clare were the dominant side in the second half and showed some excellent shooting to take the victory.
Elsewhere, Brian Hayes scored an injury-time winner for Cork against Limerick as Cork set up a Munster senior hurling league final against Tipperary next weekend. Cork ran out 0-20 to 1-16 winners over a largely experimental Limerick side at Páirc Úi Rinn, with John Kiely’s All-Ireland champions having only returned from a team holiday in recent days.
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Pat Ryan’s side led 0-11 to 1-7 at the break. The game remained tight and hard-fought on the restart, with good scores from David Reidy helping Limerick take a three-point advantage midway through the second half. Limerick were one point to the good as the game entered injury-time, but Conor Lehane drew the sides level to set up a grandstand finish. Ultimately Hayes was to prove the difference-maker, his late point earning Cork the narrowest of victories. Lehane finished the game with 0-12.
Meanwhile, in Leinster’s Walsh Cup, there were victories for both Kilkenny and Wexford. Kilkenny chalked up a 3-31 to 2-21 win over Laois in Rathdowney, while Wexford were 1-20 to 2-14 winners over Offaly in Birr.
Kilkenny led 2-16 to 1-14 at the break against Laois, Kilkenny’s two goals coming from Billy Drennan. Gearóid Dunne added a third goal for Kilkenny during the second half as they eased away to a comfortable victory.
Lee Chin’s second-half goal, just moments after being introduced off the bench, proved to be a significant score in Wexford’s victory over Offaly. That strike put Wexford 1-18 to 1-10 ahead, and Offaly never really looked like reeling the visitors in afterwards.
In the Kehoe Cup, Carlow beat Down 1-25 to 1-20, while Kildare edged out Wicklow 0-15 to 1-11.
