Ballybrown come good in City derby to claim Premier U21 Hurling crown

The Clarina outfit powered to the finish to claim a fifth county underage title in as many years.

Ballybrown have added Premier U21 honours to their recent collection of titles as they saw off Mungret St Pauls in the decider on Sunday.

The Clarina men powered to the finish line as they claim the championship with a 0-20 to 0-13 win in Ballyagran.

The most recent honour adds to their Minor A, two Premier Minor and Premier U19 titles won since 2018.

Both sides were evenly matched in the opening exchanges, splitting the first eight scores finding themselves level for the fourth time after 15 minutes.

Three successive scores from Ballybrown gave them some daylight with Ross Kenny and Conor O’Neill finding the target. Liam Lynch and Fintan Fitzgerald reduced the margin for Mungret but Bobby Smith had the final score of the half for a 0-9 to 0-7 lead for Ballybrown.

Cian Moloney reduced the deficit for Mungret on the resumption but the response came from Aidan O’Connor. Liam Lynch halved the deficit for Mungret before substitute John Wright had the teams level with twenty to play.

O’Connor restored Ballybrown’s advantage before Colin Coughlan had them 0-15 to 0-12 clear. Lynch had it back to two with ten to play but that was to be their final score of the game as they missed a penalty late on.

In the meantime, four in row came from the stick of O’Connor with namesake Barry adding the final touches on a comprehensive win.

The result was a fifth county title for a share of the squad with Ballybrown retaining a number of key players for next season including All-Ireland winner Colin Coughlan and scorer-in-chief Aidan O’Connor.

For Mungret, they will kick off the 2023 campaign with each of their final XV still underage.