McElligott stars as New York make history at Croke Park

Shay McElligott helped himself to half a dozen points as New York made a little piece of All-Ireland JFC history at Croke Park with back-to-back title successes.

In their third straight final since the competition was reconstituted in 2022, New York relied on a burst of scoring midway through the second-half to secure their latest win.

Trailing by a point early in the second-half, they reeled off seven points to London's solitary score between the 34th and 50th minutes to leave the All-Britain champions in their slipstream.

New York, who had Ryan Corrigan and Danny Corridan from their Tailteann Cup senior panel involved, were aided by the 41st minute dismissal of London midfielder Ryan O'Connell.

London, chasing a first title since 1986, refused to throw in the towel despite trailing by five points after that torrent of New York scoring.

Ryan Kearney had a big influence when he came on, kicking two points for London and setting up another as they reduced the deficit to the minimum.

They almost stole a dramatic 60th minute winning goal when Kearney dropped a ball in from a free which Thomas Waters got a boot to but it was cleared off the New York goal line.

New York ultimately held on and aside from the excellent McElligott, who converted two frees, two marks and two from play, were grateful to Brian Coughlan, who kicked the winner in last year's final, for his efforts across the weekend.

Coughlan added a point to the three he kicked in Friday evening's semi-final defeat of Warwickshire at the GAA's National Games Development Centre in Abbottstown.

Midfielder Gearoid Kennedy struck two points this time and was influential too.

Both sides were unchanged from their Friday evening wins, New York beating All-Britain finalists