McGrath Cup Preliminary round: Cork and Clare follow Kerry in to the quarter final stage with wins over CIT and LIT

Cork and Kerry both booked places in the quarter finals of the McGrath Cup today…

Yesterday Kerry blew IT Tralee out of the water, cruising to a 24 point winning margin in Killarney. Clare achieved similar feats today with their victory over LIT in Miltown Malbay, while Cork faced a sterner challenge in the form of CIT. Here is a brief review of the action in both games.

Clare 1-19 LIT 1-02 @ Miltown-Malbay

Mick O’Dwyer took charge of his Clare team for the first time in a competitive game today. Last weekend he fielded two different teams in each half as Clare lost out to NUIG. But it seems his experimenting paid off as his side conceded just 3 scores in today’s game.

The Banner got off to a flying start in the first half, outscoring LIT 1-11 to 1-0. The second half in Miltown Malbay featured just 10 scores, 8 of which fell to O’Dwyers side as the ran out 17 point winners, 1-19 to 1-02.

Clare will play Limerick in the quarter finals of the competition next Sunday at the Gaelic grounds, with throw in at 2pm.

Cork 1-15 CIT 0-11 @ CIT GAA Grounds

The game at the CIT GAA grounds began with a minutes silence being observed for GAA legend, and the competition namesake, Joe McGrath. McGrath was hugely influential as a coach in the Munster and in particular Cork area over the past several decades and passed away earlier this week.

After 10 minutes Cork were leading by 4pts to 2, just edging out the opposition in a close game. Colm O’Neill was the top scorer for Cork in the first half with 3 points and those 3 points would turn out to be the difference between the two sides at half time as Cork led 0-8 to 0-5.

Cork subbed on Donnacha O’Connor in the second half and he wasn’t long in opening his account, with a goal and point in the first 5 minutes to bring the score to 1-10 to 0-6, helping Cork put some daylight between them and the IT crowd.

Cork and CIT both went on to score another 5 points each in an interesting duel, as Cork ran out with a 7 point 1-15 to 0-11 point victory. The win earns Cork a place in the quarter finals of the competition next Sunday 13th January against Tipperary in a venue TBC.

*Lead image via munster.gaa.ie

Tags CIT Clare Conor Counihan Cork it tralee kerry Limerick LIT mcgrath cup Mick O'Dwyer munster Munster GAA Tipperary