THE FINAL day of 2021 hurling championship action at UPMC Nowlan Park proved to be a super Sunday for South Kilkenny’s Mooncoin and Glenmore.
The former was catapulted to the Intermediate grade with an impressive junior championship final victory over fellow south side Tullogher Rosbercon while Glenmore kept the south flag flying high with a clear cut win over North Kilkenny’s St Lachtain’s of Freshford.
The Glens win in the Intermediate means that brilliant hurling brothers Eoin and Alan Murphy will now play in the local senior championship, complementing their ever presence in Brian Cody’s Kilkenny senior squad.
What would in other days have been termed the curtain-raiser was the more hectic of the two ties but both games provided exciting fare.
In the opener, Tullogher Rosbercon was quickest out of traps and streaked to an early eight-point lead.
But Mooncoin had lashings of hurling power in its tank and, coincidentally, won by eight points after what most dubbed a pre-Christmas cracker.
The final score was 3-19 to 3-11.
In match two, Glenmore had a healthy 1-10 to spare at the end of their head-to-head with the Freshford Saints that, in fairness, put up a great show and some would say, might have been a little closer to Holy Grail territory when the Fat Lady sang.
In summary, the champs of the weekend, Mooncoin and Glenmore were full value for their victories.
The forecast, albeit not an expert one, is that both will do their clubs proud at higher levels next year.
