THOROUGHBREDS
Young Hands canter past dogged Kildare
TYRONE claimed their sixth All-ireland title – and first since 2015 – when they emerged worthy six-point winners over Kildare yesterday.
The Ulster lads always looked likely winners in a game where they only briefly trailed by a point at the end of the opening quarter.
Man of the match Ruairi Canavan finished with a 1-7 haul, his goal coming after only 19 seconds.
It was the result of a flowing move involving Ciaran Bogue and Conor Cush with Canavan giving Cormac Barker no chance with a thumping finish to the roof of the net.
That stung Kildare into action in Carrick-on-shannon and they responded with a Daniel Lynam major after he palmed a Shane Farrell centre to the net from close range. The Lilywhites followed that up with points from Niall O’regan and Dean O’donoghue to lead by the 18th minute but the Red Hands began to take control with well taken points from Cush, Canavan and team captain Niall Devlin.
Tyrone, playing against the wind, went on to fire five unanswered points from Canavan, Ciaran Daly, James Donaghy and Devlin to leave it 1-9 to 1-5 at half-time.
Tyrone picked up where they had left off with Canavan on target again but Eoin Bagnall and wing half back Devlin exchanged points and with 10 minutes to go the gap was still only four.
Two superb frees from Canavan settled Tyrone nerves and they never looked back.
Bagnall and midfielder Luke Killian tried to rally the Leinster champions with a few points but they couldn’t find any way past a Tyrone defence that had stars in Michael Rafferty, Brian Conway and Steve Donaghy.
Darragh Swords got a Kildare point but that produced a response from Tyrone through scores from Michael Mcgleenan and sub duo Gavin Potter and Luke Donnelly.
Kildare played to the final whistle but Tyrone deserved their win. TYRONE: S Mcmenamin, M Rafferty, B Conway, E Corry, J Donaghy (0-1), S Donaghy, N Devlin (0-3), R Mchugh (0-1), C Daly (0-2), C Cush (0-1), C Bogue (0-1), R Canavan (1-7, 3F), S O’donnell, M Mcgleenan (0-1), D Muldoon (0-1). Subs: G Potter (0-1) for Muldoon, F Taggart for O’donnell, S Daly for Cush, L Donnelly (0-1) for Bogue, L Mcgarrity for Canavan KILDARE: C Barker, H O’neill, D O’donoghue (0-1), M Maguire, T Gill (0-1), J Mcgrath, R Burke, B Gibbons, L Killian (0-3), N O’regan (0-2), D Lynam (1-0), S Farrell, A Browne, A Fanning (0-1), E Bagnall (0-5, 4f). Subs: D Swords (0-1) for Lynam, J Mckevitt for Gibbons, J Dalton for Browne, A Boyle for O’neill, A Conneely for O’regan. REFEREE: L Devenney, (Mayo).