All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship 1981

Infobox Hurling All-Ireland
year=1981


team=Offaly
titles=1st
captain=Pádraig Horan
manager=Dermot Healy
munster=Limerick
leinster=Offaly
ulster=
connacht=
poty=
matches=
The All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship of 1981 was the 95th 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 6 September. The match was contested by Offaly and Galway, with Offaly taking the title by 2-12 to 0-15. It was Offaly's first-ever All-Ireland title.

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 6 September was the date of the 1981 All-Ireland senior hurling final between Offaly and Galway. It was Galway’s third consecutive appearance in the championship decider after losing to Kilkenny in 1979 and after defeating Limerick in 1980 to take their first title in fifty-seven years. Offaly, on the other hand, were appearing in their first-ever All-Ireland final. Both sides last met in the championship in the All-Ireland semi-final of 1980 when Galway 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, as reigning champions, were the favourites going into the game as it was felt that Offaly may be overwhelmed by the occasion. After fourteen minutes the first goal of the day went to Offaly as Johnny Flaherty passed the sliothar to Pat Carroll who made no mistake in sending it into the net. This came against the run of play because Galway looked the superior outfit for much of the game. Immediately after the half-time interval Galway took off and racked up a six-point lead over Offaly. With about ten minutes left in the game Galway were still three points ahead when Noel Lane broke through the Offaly defence. His shot was heading to the top of the net, however, a superb reflex save by goalkeeper Damien Martin. It was one of the game’s major turning points as Offaly gained renewed hope. With three minutes left in the game Johnny Flaherty sealed the victory for Offaly when he hand-passed Offaly’s second goal of the match. Galway failed to score for the last twenty-three minutes as Offaly ended up the champions for the first time in their history.

tatistics

footballbox
date=1981-09-06
15:15 BST
team1=Offaly
score=2-12 – 0-15
team2=Galway
report=
goals1=
goals2=
stadium=Croke Park, Dublin
attendance=71,348
referee= Frank Murphy (Cork)

{| 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