Four Roads defend their Roscommon crown

Four Roads cruised to their 36th Roscommon senior hurling title after comfortably seeing off the challenge of Athleague.

The defending champions were ten points to the good after only 14 minutes, and that buffer never looked in danger of being eroded by an Athleague side who lost Darragh Heavey to a straight red card after only 13 minutes.

Shane Curley's side made a blistering start in ideal conditions, finding players in acres of space who got on the scoreboard from a variety of angles.

Padraig Kelly got the tsunami of scores underway after only 14 seconds, and the one-way traffic continued with Jack Donnelly (0-03), Darren Fallon, Kelly, Cathal Dolan (0-03, 0-02 frees) and John Moran catapulting their side out of sight by the end of the first quarter.

At this stage, Heavey had been dismissed for a heavy challenge on Jack Donnelly, and Athleague’s prospects looked bleak for the remainder of the afternoon.

To their credit, they rallied against adversity, with Robbie Fallon scoring a good goal all of his own making after 20 minutes.

Eoin Ward knocked over a couple of eyecatching points from play, while Ben McGahon added a point from play and from a free.

But Four Roads remained in complete control of their own destiny with further points from Kelly, Conor Mulry and Eamon Mulry alongside five frees from Dolan to lead by 0-18 to 1-5 at the interval.

Four Roads eased off the gas in the second half as Athleague, despite their numerical disadvantage, tried to keep the contest competitive.

A second goal, this time from Fallon from a free after 47 minutes, gave them a boost but Four Roads were always able to keep the scoreboard ticking over through Micheál Kelly, Conor Mulry (0-02), Dolan (0-03 frees), Moran and Padraig Kelly to run out