UL are Electric Ireland Fitzgibbon Cup champions once again after a superb performance in Saturday's final in Bekan.
Last year's defeated finalists sought to reclaim the crown they won back-to-back in 2022 and 2023, and came up against DCU Dóchas Éireann in Mayo. DCU were chasing their first-ever Fitzgibbon triumph.
The first half was an end-to-end affair and there was just one point in it at the break after DCU grew into the game.
However, the second half belonged to UL.
Ultimately, the Limerick college ran out victors by 0-23 to 1-15, with DCU's goal coming in second-half injury time. It was a ruthless way for UL to reclaim the crown taken off them by Mary I last year.
Tipperary star Gearoid O'Connor was outstanding, rightly winning Laoch na hImeartha after contributing 0-10 of UL's 0-23 total.
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Gearoid O'Connor stars as UL overcome DCU
O'Connor provided the pick of the first-half scores with a sumptuous point from way out on the far touchline.
It was one of four points from play for the Tipperary inter-county man, who also scored 0-06 from frees on his way to rightly winning the man-of-the-match award.
Speaking to TG4, O'Connor admitted that the heartbreak of last year's Fitzgibbon Cup final defeat to Mary I had given the UL squad added motivation for this year's tournament.
A six-year stalwart of the UL squad, O'Connor said:
It's a great buzz getting another Fitzgibbon, especially after how things turned out last year.
Last year, [Mary I] were the better team on the day but we felt we didn't perform to our ability. We're just happy today that we did enough to win in the end.
It's a completely new panel from when I started.
I suppose we reviewed last year, looked over where things went wrong. We didn't get a lot of things right on the day.
We reviewed it and said we'd just park it then after the first game. We took it game-by-game from there.
Thankfully it took us to the final and thankfully we got our best performance of the year in the final.
Meanwhile after the match, UL captain Colin Coughlan summed up what Fitzgibbon is all about, when he said it was 'four months friends, eight months enemies'.
'4 months friends, 8 months enemies..'
See @ul_gaa captain Colin Coughlan explain the magic of the competition after winning the @ElectricIreland Fitzgibbon Cup Final..#FirstClassRivals @officialgaa @LimerickCLG pic.twitter.com/XnGo5fROea— GAA Higher Education (@HigherEdGAA) February 15, 2025
These teammates will be rivals again shortly but they'll surely savour these glory days.
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