Flashback: 2016 Fitzgibbon Cup Final

By John Harrington

The Fitzgibbon Cup has produced some classic finals over the years but arguably none as dramatic as the 2016 decider between Mary I and UL, the same two teams that will contest this year's final this evening in Croke Park.

It needed two periods of extra-time to decide it with the teams level on 19 occasions before Mary I eventually persevered for a historic first ever success in the competition.

The match has an extra mystique of its own because it wasn’t televised and so didn’t have as big an audience as it might otherwise have.

The 2016 General election had taken place the previous day so the following day’s tally dominated the tv schedules.

Those lucky enough to see it in the flesh will never forget it, and for the Mary I players like Declan Hannon and Niall O’Meara it was a day of days.

Hannon would go on to win five All-Ireland senior titles with Limerick, but that 2016 Fitzgibbon Cup Final remains one of his most memorable days of all.

“It was probably one of the best ever games to be involved in, in terms of the double extra time and the first-time Mary I actually winning the Fitzgibbon Cup,” he told GAA.ie

“I actually met Ronan Maher at a wedding before Christmas and he was kind of saying, sure no wonder we won the match because of the calibre of the player that was actually on the team at that time looking back now.

“It would rate very highly in terms of what you've won over the years.

“The match itself was amazing. Even talking to people years after it they can still remember it. It was two really, really good teams playing at a good standard.

“And obviously, there's the drama of it all going to extra, extra time. And for Mary I it being their first time winning it, I suppose it caught the attention of a lot of people that maybe it wouldn't have in previous years.

“I must watch it back soon! It might be something we'll watch at Christmas time maybe going forward!”

It would certainly make for pleasant viewing for Hannon considering he produced a man of the match performance in the final, scoring 1-12.

It was a star-studded Mary I team that included Limerick team-mates like Richie English, Darragh O’Donovan, and Cian Lynch; Tipperary’s Ronan Maher, Niall O’Meara, and Thomas Stapleton, and Clare’s Colm Galvin.

But, according to O’Meara, it was their team spirit as much as the quality of the individuals that enabled them to make history in 2016.

“The camaraderie in Mary I, it's like a secondary school, to be honest,” O’Meara told GAA.ie.

“It's quite a small building and because it’s primary school teaching a lot of the students are females so there was actually a very small cohort of players compared to other colleges.

“We had reached the Fitzgibbon Cup Final for the very first time in 2013 which was regarded as a very big achievement for us.

“The craic we had that year, I couldn’t even tell you the stories! There were some brilliant characters on the team and that created a great culture.

“Some of that 2013 team were still there three years later and we also had influx of great players like Cian Lynch, Darragh O'Donovan and Ronan Maher. We just had a really good group of lads. It put Mary I on the map in terms of hurling.

“If they win this year’s Final on Friday evening it’ll be a fourth title in 10 years which is something I don’t think anyone would have foreseen before this period of success.”

23 years after he’d first gotten involved with Mary Immaculate College hurling teams, that 2016 Fitzgibbon Cup Final victory was the perfect finishing flourish for team manager, Eamon Cregan.

It was the Limerick legend’s last time to manage the team, and it couldn’t have ended with a better final chapter.

“Eamon was a gas man,” says O’Meara. “He'd said it exactly as it was. And if he wasn't happy what you'd done, you would hear it!

“At one training session Ronan Maher was pucking the ball and he goes, "that lad can't hit the ball at all!" I think Ronan Matter had the hurl in his left hand messing or something, but Eamon didn't know who he was, like. We always laughed back about that.

“Eamon was great. He was such a talented hurler himself and a really good manager.

“He wouldn't say too much, but everything he said would be spot on and what you wanted to hear. A great character.”

Cregan had a strong coaching team behind him in 2016 that included Jamie Wall who had hurled for Mary I in the 2013 Fitzgibbon Cup Final before he was paralysed from the waist down the following year by an abscess on his spine.

For players like Hannon who had played alongside Wall three years previously, having him involved in the 2016 success made it all the sweeter.

“It did of course,” says Hannon. “I played with Jamie in the 2013 final. He was a fantastic player, playing beside me in the halfback line.

“And then for everything that happened, it was really tough. Just to see the character of him, even to come back and get involved in the college and be a real shining light for us...definitely it made it more special.

“He's a great hurling man, a great hurling brain. He knows his stuff, has fierce intelligence. So, yeah, to even have shared the whole thing with him was fantastic.”

Wall was appointed Mary I Fitzgibbon Cup manager the following year and led the team to back to back titles in 2017.

He’s been in the position ever since and led the college to another Fitzgibbon Cup in 2023. O’Meara believes the Cork man deserves a lot of credit for Mary I’s ability to consistently punch above their weight in the competition.

“Jamie epitomises college hurling, if you ask me,” says O’Meara. “He's got that Cork passion, as I like to call it.

“He's there for over a decade now and it just shows you that he loves it. And to love something, you probably have to have passion and you have to be the right man.

“You walk into the dressing room there, he'd be over to you and getting to know you, talking to you, I always remember that about him.

“He was a big driving force in 2013 as well. A lot of work went on off the field to get everyone involved that year.

“And after everything that happened, for him to be there in 2016, he was just a brilliant hurling brain.

“He's really intelligent fella and fact that he had been involved in inter-county teams, he knew the load players had coming into training. Eamon Cregan was the manager, but might not have been aware of all that.

“Jamie was the same age as most of us, soldiered with us, and he knew how to get us to the right pitch of the game, rather than flogging lads, he always had us in the right frame of mind.

“There is a good rivalry between UL and Mary I because a lot of them are teammates and a lot of them are friends. And in Munster you'd meet a lot with underage hurling. So he knew the right kind of emotional touches to have as well.

“That moment after the game we shared with him in the dressing-room will live long in the memory. It was a really special occasion.”

Seven players involved in that 2016 Fitzgibbon Cup Final would be part of the Limerick panel that would win the Liam MacCarthy Cup two years later.

With the benefit of hindsight, it’s clear now that the battle-hardness earned in the competition played a very formative role in the development of a truly great generation of Limerick players.

“Yeah, I think that winning thing maybe gave lads the confidence that maybe was lacking because we wouldn't have been winning at that sort of level I suppose,” says Hannon.

“You had the Limerick U20s then that did fantastic and they brought that experience into the senior set-up as well and that's just that bit of confidence of maybe we are good enough to actually compete at this high level and to win at this level.

“I would say I was lucky to be involved with those teams and, you know, at that age to experience that Fitzgibbon Cup and to experience the Limerick U20s coming into the senior panel and, you know, go on that journey with them as well.

“It’s great that there are so many Limerick players involved again in Friday’s Fitzgibbon Cup Final.

“It’s just a brilliant competition and I really enjoyed my time in Mary I. I've made great friends from going through the college and, you know, still in touch with a lot of them today. So, yeah, I owe Mary I a huge amount.”

***

2016 GAA.ie Fitzgibbon Cup Final Report

Mary Immaculate College 1-30 UL 3-22 (After two periods of extra-time)

Late points from Darragh O’Donovan and Cian Lynch proved to be the winning of a first Fitzgibbon Cup for Mary Immaculate College after 90 minutes of pulsating hurling at Cork IT on Saturday.

In a game where the sides were level at half-time, full-time and extra-time, an extra period of five minutes each was required. In that, Lynch’s fourth point put Mary I in front only for UL sub Tommy Heffernan to get his sixth and leave the teams tied once more. Ultimately, however, Mary I had the greater scoring power when it mattered.

It was a feat all the more impressive given that they had to play the additional extra time without Declan Hannon, who had scored 1-12 up until then. He had a counterpoint in John McGrath, who finished with 2-7 for UL.

Normal time had seen the game ebb and flow, with Mary I leading down the stretch until an injury-time point from Heffernan meant that the additional 20 minutes were required.

While a goal from Tom Morrissey had given UL a great start, the free-taking of Declan Hannon helped Mary I to grab a foothold and three in a row from him gave them a 0-7 to 1-3 lead by the 22nd minute.

In keeping with the to-and-fro nature, back UL came with scores from Jason Forde and Morrissey, Darragh O’Donovan ensured that it was level at half-time after Paul Maher had saved well from him moments earlier.

Kevin Hehir put UL ahead upon the resumption only for Hannon to respond with a great Mary I goal but McGrath’s second for UL followed immediately. While four from Mary I - two by Hannon, one each from Lynch and Seán Linnane – looked to have put them in control, McGrath’s second goal gave UL a new lease of life.

They were inseparable from there to the end and in extra time, with O’Donovan and Lynch having the final say for Mary I.

Scorers for Mary Immaculate College: Declan Hannon 1-12 (0-9f), Cian Lynch 0-5, Sean Linnane, Darragh O’Donovan (0-1f), David Reidy 0-3 each, Tadhg Gallacher, John Meagher, Stephen Cahill, Darragh Corry 0-1 each.

Scorers for UL: John McGrath 2-7 (0-5f, 0-1 65), Tommy Heffernan 0-6, Tom Morrissey 1-1, Conor Martin, Kevin Hehir, Aidan McGuane 0-2 each, Jason Forde, Cathal McInerney 0-1 each.

UL: P Maher; G Ryan, J Browne, S Roche; B Heffernan, J Forde, B Stapleton; A McGuane, K Hehir; D Fitzgerald, J McGrath, C Martin; K O’Brien, T Morrissey, C McInerney. Subs: T Heffernan for Fitzgerald (42), G Hegarty for Stapleton (45), A Murphy for O’Brien (58), M Casey for Hehir, P Ryan for Forde (both 60), B Maher for McGuane (72).

MARY IMMACULATE COLLEGE: M Ó Conghaile; E Quirke, R English, A Ryan; R Maher, T Stapleton, J Meagher; C Galvin, D O’Donovan; S Linnane, C Lynch, D Reidy; D Hannon, N O’Meara, D Corry. Subs: M O’Neill for Galvin (42), T Gallacher for Corry (51), S Cahill for O’Donovan (54), S Kennedy for Linnane (60), Corry for Quirke (start of extra time), O’Donovan for O’Meara (70, injured), S Linnane for Gallacher (75), Gallacher for Hannon (80).

Referee: J Owens (Wexford).