Sligo county hurling team

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The Sligo county hurling team represents Sligo in hurling and is governed by Sligo GAA, the county board of the Gaelic Athletic Association. The team competes in the Christy Ring Cup and the National Hurling League. It formerly competed in the abolished Connacht Senior Hurling Championship, finishing as runner-up in 1900 and 1906.

Sligo's home ground is Markievicz Park, Sligo. The team's manager is Padraig Mannion.

The team has never won the Connacht Senior Championship, the All-Ireland Senior Championship or the National League.

History[]

Sligo is traditionally a weak team at senior level. Despite this, the hurlers have attained noticeably more success than their football counterparts, with the county's most notable early achievement being an appearance in the 1968 All-Ireland Junior Hurling Championship final.[clarify]

Sligo won the All-Ireland Minor 'C' Hurling Championship in August 1986, defeating Tyrone by four points at Croke Park.

Sligo won the 2005 National Hurling League Division 3 title.

Sligo, under the management of Mickey Galvin, won its first All-Ireland hurling title at senior level by defeating Louth in the 2008 Nicky Rackard Cup Final.[1] The team did not achieve promotion however, losing a play-off to Roscommon.

The under-16 team won the 2012 All-Ireland "C" hurling title by defeating Tyrone at the Monaghan Centre of Excellence.

2018 had both senior and minor teams bring national silverware back to the Land of the Shells. Sligo won a senior All-Ireland title for the first time since 2008. The men, jointly managed by Daithí Hand and Darragh Cox in their first senior hurling management role, defeated Lancashire in the 2018 Lory Meagher Cup final, with a last-minute goal (his third of the game) sealing the victory.[2][3] Benny Kenny's under-17 squad, a few weeks later, defeated Donegal to become All-Ireland Celtic Challenge Cup Champions in the Michael Feery Cup, also defeating Mayo, Roscommon and others along the way.

The county team won a second consecutive senior title in 2019 under Hand, Peter Galvin and coach Colum O'Meara. Having been promoted to the Nicky Rackard Cup, the team topped Group 2, eliminating favourite Mayo, in a drawn game after beating Tyrone and Louth in previous games.[citation needed]

Following on from a 2–21 to 2–17 victory over Warwickshire at Celtic Park, Sligo advanced to the 2019 Nicky Rackard Cup final at Croke Park.[citation needed]

Facing a heavily tipped[citation needed] Armagh side, Sligo became champions with a Conor Griffin point, a Gerard O'Kelly-Lynch goal and a 73rd-minute point by young substitute Kieran Prior. The scoreline at the game's conclusion was 2–14 to 2–13; though the team was four points behind Armagh as the game entered injury-time, the two lates points and the goal meant Sligo secured a one-point victory.[4] James Weir, at 19 years of age and the youngest ever All-Ireland winning captain,[citation needed] lifted aloft the Nicky Rackard Cup thus giving Sligo official recognition as a dual county.[clarify]

Hand and fellow management team member Peter Galvin tendered their resignations on the evening of 14 September 2020, less than one month before the team was scheduled to contest a National League final and make its debut in the Christy Ring Cup. Confusion over efforts to register two players from Galway with Sligo heritage and the involvement of one of their coaches with a club, unbeknownst to Hand and Galvin, were cited as partly contributing to this unexpected decision.[5] The county board did not report their departures until 20 September.[6] The coach, later named as Colum O'Meara, then applied (unsuccessfully) to become Hand's successor; O'Meara, a native of Killimor, County Galway, had joined the Sligo set-up as coach ahead of the 2019 season after parting ways with Longford.[7]

Padraig Mannion ultimately succeeded Hand as Sligo manager in late 2020.[8]

Current squad[]

Team as per Sligo vs Armagh in the Nicky Rackard Cup final, 22 June 2019

No. Player Position Club
1 Mark Burke Goalkeeper Tubbercurry
2 James Weir (c) Right Corner Back St Farnan's
3 Niall Feehily Full Back Naomh Eoin
4 Kevin O'Kennedy Left Corner Back Coolaney-Mullinabreena
5 Kevin Banks Right Half Back Coolera/Strandhill
6 Liam Reidy Centre Back Calry/St Joseph's
7 Rory McHugh Left Half Back Easkey
8 Ronan Cox Midfield Calry/St Joseph's
9 Joe Starr Midfield Killimor (County Galway)
10 Gerard O'Kelly-Lynch Right Half Forward Naomh Eoin
11 Conor Griffin Center Half Forward Calry/St Joseph's
12 Kevin Gilmartin Left Half Forward Calry/St Joseph's
19 Tony O'Kelly-Lynch Right Corner Forward Naomh Eoin
14 Keith Raymond Full Forward Calry/St Joseph's
15 Gary Cadden Left Corner Forward Coolera/Strandhill
No. Player Position Club
16 Kevan Brennan Substitute Naomh Eoin
17 Tom Brennan Substitute Tourlestrane
18 Niall McDermott Substitute Calry/St Joseph's
13 Shane Crowley Substitute Kilbrin (County Cork)
20 Brian Shannon Substitute Calry/St Joseph's
21 Mikey Gordon Substitute Easkey
22 Ruairí Brennan Substitute Tourlestrane
23 Kieran Prior Substitute Coolera/Strandhill
24 Tommy Kelly Substitute Calry/St Joseph's
25 Andrew Kilcullen Substitute Easkey
26 Shane Brennan Substitute Coolera/Strandhill

RET Player has since retired from the county team.
INJ Player has had an injury which has affected recent involvement with the county team.
WD Player has since withdrawn from the county team due to a non-injury issue.

Current management team[]

Appointed 13 December 2020:[8]
  • Manager: Padraig Mannion
  • Management team: Donal Tully, Declan Molloy, Darragh Cox

Managerial history[]

Players[]

Further information: Category:Sligo inter-county hurlers

Honours[]

All-Ireland titles (3)[]

Provincial titles (2)[]


League titles (4)[]


Other (3)[]

  • 2015 Lory Meagher Cup Champions 15: 2
    • K. Raymond
    • G. O'Kelly-Lynch
  • 2016 Lory Meagher Cup Champions 15: 1
    • K. Raymond

References[]

  1. ^ "Sligo deny Louth in Rackard final". The Irish Times. 3 August 2008. Keith Raymond (1–08) and Paul Severs (1–04) were integral to Sligo's points tally as Mickey Galvin's [sic] led 2–12 to 2–05 at the break
  2. ^ "Gilmartin's hat-trick wins Lory Meagher for Sligo". RTÉ. 23 June 2018.
  3. ^ "Sligo play full Hand to secure Meagher success". Irish Independent. 25 June 2018.
  4. ^ "Sligo hurlers continue meteoric rise with late show". RTÉ. 22 June 2019.
  5. ^ "How Sligo's most successful management team were forced to walk away". Off the Ball. 26 September 2020.
  6. ^ "County Hurling Management team resign". Sligo GAA. 20 September 2020.
  7. ^ "Ex-coach speaks out on events that made Sligo Hurling a 's***show'". Off the Ball. 17 October 2020.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b "On this All Ireland final hurling day Sligo GAA are delighted to announce the appointment of our 2021 hurling manager Padraig Mannion with his team of Donal Tully, Declan Molloy and Darragh Cox". Sligo GAA. 13 December 2020.
  9. ^ "NHL 2B/3A round-up: Kildare and Sligo promoted". RTÉ. 12 June 2021. Roscommon are the side dropping out of Division 2B after they suffered a 1–26 to 0–14 loss to Derry at Owenbeg… Swapping places with Roscommon will be Connacht neighbours Sligo after their impressive win over Tyrone in Omagh. There is still a round of fixtures to go, but only Armagh can match their points tally and the Yeats men have the head-to-head advantage should they do that.
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