Mikey Kiely plunders four goals as UL power to Fitzgibbon Cup

University of Limerick 4-19 University of Galway 1-13

They won't wish to see Mikey Kiely around the University of Galway campus any time soon, that's for sure.

For the second year running the powerful Waterford forward broke UG hearts, blasting 4-01 at the SETU Arena to ensure University of Limerick retained the Fitzgibbon Cup title having memorably scored the match winning goal in last year's decider.

UG were known as NUI Galway for the 2022 final but the heartache afterwards was the same for manager Jeff Lynskey who was powerless to prevent his side plummeting to a 15-point defeat.

They were rocked by a terrible start, with Kiely scoring his first two goals for UL inside 12 minutes to open up an 11-point lead for the favourites.

And while UG did bounce back with a strong 15 minutes or so approaching half-time, reducing the lead to four points at one stage, Kiely's third goal before the interval sucked all the wind from their sails.

A commanding second-half display then from Brian Ryan's side, including a fourth Kiely goal after the restart, ensured the contest was over long before Greg Thomas pinched a stoppage time consolation goal for UG.

It is an eighth title for UL who retained almost two thirds of the starting team from last year's win while UG were much changed and lost, in particular, Limerick superstar Cian Lynch from their 2022 group.

Tipperary's Gearoid O'Connor fired nine points for UL while county colleague Bryan O'Mara put in a strong performance in defence and lifted the cup afterwards as captain at the SETU Arena in Waterford.

Darragh Corcoran, a recent All-Ireland club winner with Ballyhale Shamrocks, Cork's Sean Twomey and Limerick's Adam English played key roles in the win too.

UL beat SETU Waterford in