All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship 1979

Infobox Hurling All-Ireland
year=1975


team=Kilkenny
titles=21st
captain=Ger Fennelly
manager=Pat Henderson
Eddie Keher
munster=Cork
leinster=Kilkenny
ulster=
connacht=
poty=
matches=
The All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship of 1979 was the 93rd edition of Ireland’s premier hurling knockout competition. The championship ran from May to September of that year, culminating with the All-Ireland final, held at Croke Park, Dublin on 2 September. The match was contested by Kilkenny and Galway, with Kilkenny taking the title by 2-12 to 1-8.

Format

The All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship was run on a provincial basis as usual. All games were played on a knockout basis whereby once a team lost they were eliminated from the championship. The format for the All-Ireland series of games ran as follows:
* The winners of the Leinster Championship advanced directly to the All-Ireland final.
* The winners of the Munster Championship advanced directly to a lone All-Ireland semi-final.
* Galway, a team who faced no competition in Connacht, entered the championship at the All-Ireland quarter-final stage. Their opponents in this game were the winners of the All-Ireland ’B’ Championship. The winners of this lone ‘quarter-final’ would advance to play the Leinster champions.
* There were no representatives from Ulster in the All-Ireland championship.

All-Ireland final

Overview

Sunday 2 September was the date of the 1979 All-Ireland senior hurling final between Kilkenny and Galway. It was Kilkenny’s second consecutive appearance in the championship decider after losing to Cork in 1978. Kilkenny last won the championship in 1975 while Galway had waited fifty-six years since 1923 for the chance to win their second All-Ireland title. Both sides last met in the championship in the All-Ireland semi-final of 1978 when Kilkenny were the winners.

Match report

After all the pre-match festivities had taken place the referee threw in the sliothar at 3:15pm and the game was on. Galway were the favourites going into the game as the great Kilkenny team of the earlier part of the decade was in the process of disbanding. The day was far from ideal for hurling as a heavy drizzle had been falling all morning and carried on into the first half of the game. The pitch was greasy but conditions were made more treacherous by a deceptive gusting breeze. The opening thirty-five minutes saw a tough battle develop, however, the conditions made striking the sliothar extremely difficult. Galway played with the breeze but they couldn’t rattle Kilkenny. With four minutes left in the opening half Liam ‘Chunky’ O’Brien stepped up to take a 65-metre free but miss-hit it. It seemed that the sliothar would be swallowed up by the Galway defence; however, it went straight through, rebounded of the wet surface, hit goalkeeper Séamus Shinnors on the shoulder and ended up in his net. At the interval Galway were still in the game even though they played with the wind and shot eleven wides. Twelve minutes into the second half Noel Lane scored a goal for Galway to give them a brief two-point lead. In spite of this Kilkenny clawed their way back. With seven minutes to go Galway were two points down again and had the chance to take the lead when the referee awarded them a penalty. John Connolly hit a good shot, however, he couldn’t beat goalkeeper Noel Skehan who blocked it. With three minutes left in the game Mick ‘Cloney’ Brennan sent a high, speculative ball in towards the Galway goalmouth. Goalkeeper Shinnors was caught out of position and the sliothar arced over his hand and landed in the net as he crashed into the upright. With that the game was up for Galway as Kilkenny were the champions a few minutes later with a 2-12 to 1-8 victory.

tatistics

footballbox
date=1979-09-02
15:15 BST
team1=Kilkenny
score=2-12 – 1-8
team2=Galway
report=
goals1=
goals2=
stadium=Croke Park, Dublin
attendance=53,535
referee= G. Ryan (Tipperary)

{| width=100% style="font-size: 90%"MATCH RULES
*70 minutes.
*Replay if scores level.
*Three named substitutes

References

* Corry, Eoghan, "The GAA Book of Lists" (Hodder Headline Ireland, 2005).
* Donegan, Des, "The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games" (DBA Publications Limited, 2005).

ee also