High-flying Sylane men sweep to Junior A title

Tommy Larkins  1-8

SYLANE annexed the Junior ‘A’ county championship crown with their Junior 1 county and Connacht titles with a powerful display that swept aside a Tommy Larkins outfit which, ultimately, lacked guile and creativity in Sunday’s decider at Kenny Park, Athenry.

2017 has certainly proved to be a memorable one for the men of Sylane who, as a result of this victory, will be playing intermediate championship hurling next year. On the evidence of this performance, they should more than hold their own at that level.

By half-time, when the victors led 2-8 to 1-5, it looked as if this one was all over and so it was. Even though Tommy Larkins would hit the first score of the second half – albeit a rousing over the shoulder effort from Dara Starr – Sylane venomously struck back with five unanswered points.

This was, for all intents and purposes, Sylane’s modus operandi for the afternoon. For every time Larkins made an attempt to eat into their opponent’s early lead, the Connacht champions would just drop the hand, shift through the gears and floor the accelerator.

They also had a couple of key men in orchestrating this victory. As he had done with Castlegar for many a year, midfielder Kevin Brady – upon his return to his native club – has added fuel to the Sylane engine while also offering a spark and wiliness that they possibly have missed in the past.

In any event, with an exponent of Brady’s quality buzzing about the park, the other players around him have benefitted and this was reflected in a team display that saw both midfielders and all of the six starting forwards scratching their name on the scoresheet.

Full coverage in this week's Connacht Tribune