Reigning champions UL power past UCD and into Fitzgibbon final four

The home side led from pillar to post on an evening where they never really got out of third gear.

Reigning champions, the University of Limerick showed just why they are the favourites to retain their title with a dominant display over UCD in their Fitzgibbon Cup quarter-final.

Brian Ryan’s men secured safe passage to the last four by virtue of a 4-19 to 0-10 win where they led from start to finish in Castletroy.

Goalscoring hero from the 2022 triumph Mikey Kiely continued his incredible form for the college with a hat trick in Maguires with James Power grabbing the other three-pointer. 

Kiely’s first came after 12 minutes as the Waterford natives effort bundled home to move the champions 1-5 to 0-1 clear. Adam English had a pair in this time which would become 0-5 by the final whistle.

English and Limerick teammate Colin Coughlan combined for arguably the score of the half after 20 minutes with the Ballybrown native firing over from long range.

Scores from Gearoid O’Connor, who would finish with 0-5, Sean Twomey and English had UL 1-10 to 0-5 to the good at the interval. 

Kiely had his second three minutes after the restart, firing home first time from a Mark Rodgers hand pass with the Waterford man oozing in confidence. 

To their credit, UCD hit five unanswered scores over the next ten minutes to bring the game back to 2-11 to 0-10. But they wouldn’t score again as UL emptied the bench to devastating effect. 

The lively James Power made it 3-14 to 0-10 with a quarter of an hour to play, soling in from the wing before finding the corner of the net.

The imperious Bryan O’Mara fired over from long range shortly after with impressive Cork native Brian O’Sullivan also adding his name to the scoresheet. 

Ryan wrung the changes with Conor Flaherty introduced less than 24 hours after helping the footballers into the Sigerson Final to continue his hopes of claiming a memorable double. The Galway native struck over a fine effort but was wayward with another, although it did little to hamper a UL side who seemed to play within themselves at times.

Nonetheless, Kiely completed his hat trick with ten to play and English rounded out the scoring with a beautiful double as UL marched on.