Easkey are favourites for another hurling title

AT LEAST the Sligo Senior Football Championship offers a new team to lose to Tourlestrane in the county final – as has been the case for the past seven campaigns, with five challengers trying their luck – but in the Sligo Senior Hurling Championship it is currently either Easkey or Naomh Eoin for the big prize.

Sunday’s showdown at Markievicz Park (3pm) will be the fourth successive final involving west Sligo’s Easkey – who have hurlers from neighbours St Farnan’s – and Sligo town’s Naomh Eoin.

Easkey won the finals last year (by 20 points) and in 2020 (by a point), with Naomh Eoin taking the trophy for the first time in 2019 by a threepoint margin.

The Gerard O’Kelly-Lynch-inspired Naomh Eoin, in fact, are looking forward to their fifth final in-arow, having won just one of their previous four deciders since 2018. If Easkey win a third successive title it will mark a special week for their star forward, Andrew Kilcullen, who is Sligo’s only representative on the GAA Christy Ring, Nickey Rackard & Lory Meagher Team of the Year for 2022. Meanwhile, the curtain-raiser to Sunday’s main feast at Markievicz Park is the Sligo Senior Hurling

‘B’ Championship final between Western Gaels and CooleraStrandhill (12.45pm). This isn’t a separate competition – the finalists here were beaten semi-finalists in the Sligo SHC a few weeks ago. Coolera-Strandhill lost by 13 points to Naomh Eoin in their semifinal, but Western Gaels rattled Easkey (albeit the champions were understrength) and were only three points adrift in their last four exit. The winners of the ‘B’ final will be presented with the Martin Brennan Cup. The Sligo hurling team that won an All-Ireland U-16 competition in 1971 will be honoured at Sunday’s county final day.