GAA round-up: Youthful Galway pip Leitrim, Longford into O'Byrne Cup final

Galway 2-18 Leitrim 1-17

A late, late goal from Rory Cunningham saw a youthful Galway side edge out Leitrim in a high-scoring FBD semi-final in the University of Galway GAA Air Dome.

In a chaotic finish, Barry McNulty found the net for Leitrim deep in injury-time to dramatically level the contest at 1-17 apiece.

However, their joy didn't last long with Cunningham hitting back almost immediately to notch his second goal of the game, fellow substitute Ryan Monaghan adding another point to ensure the win for Padraic Joyce's side.

Galway, who fielded none of their 2023 championship side, led 0-10 to 0-09 after a tit-for-tat first half. Cillian Ó Curraoin, from last year's U20 side, and the experienced Antaine O'Laoi carried much of the scoring threat, the former ending up with 0-06 overall.

Shane Quinn and Darragh Rooney were to the fore in the Leitrim attack, the latter finishing as top scorer with 0-06, while Pearce Dolan and Ryan O'Rourke also chipped in with scores.

Galway opened up a six-point gap on 45 minutes when substitute Cunningham was found on the edge of the 13m line and drilled a low shot past Nevin O'Donnell.

They briefly pushed it out to seven points before a flurry of scores from Andy Moran's side. A succession of points from O'Rourke, Rooney (2), Dolan and Mark Diffley narrowed the gap to a couple of points.

With six minutes of injury-time announced, Cunningham landed a long range free to push Galway's lead back to three. Then the fun started with McNulty levelling the game 40 minutes into the second half.

Leitrim had barely stopped celebrating when Conor Flaherty's long kickout found Galway hands. A couple of fist passes later and Cunningham was side-footing the ball into the roof of the net.

They now face the