WRAP: DCU claim GFP All-Ireland Senior Freshers blitz title to deny UL six-in-a-row

DCU stopped UL’s bid for six in a row as the side managed by Peter Clarke and Pat Ring  fended off the hosts in the Final to claim the Gourmet Food Parlour All-Ireland Senior Freshers title.

UL, DCU, MICL and surprise package IT Tralee were seeded after the completion of group stages, with all four sides continuing that form in seeing off UCD, NUIG, UL2 and DCU2 respectively in the quarter finals.

In the semi finals, UL defeated their neighbours MICL 2-5 to 1-2, while DCU defeated IT Tralee 3-3 to 1-1.

The Final went the way of DCU, who had TG4 All-Ireland winners Niamh Hetherton (Dublin) and Anna Rose Kennedy (Tipperary) in their ranks.

Kennedy lifted the silverware for DCU following a 2-4 to 1-1 victory.

In the Intermediate section, UL (3) ensured that the host college would have a title after they defeated Munster rivals Waterford IT (WIT) in the final. It was a great win considering that UL (3) were bottom of their group after the initial stages.

CIT, IT Sligo, Maynooth College and NUIG (2) all ensured that they were seeded come the quarter finals but CIT lost out to eventual winners UL (3), IT Sligo defeated UCD (2), Maynooth exited at the hands of eventual finalists WIT while NUIG (2) accounted for TCD in the final quarter final.

WIT bettered Sligo IT and UL (3) accounted for NUIG (2) at the semi final stages, with the hosts winning out the final.

In the most competitive section of all, TUD Blanchardstown took the honours in the Junior grade, after 39 games were played.

After the 24 group games were completed, it was UL (5), Galway Tech, MICL (2) and DCU (3) that topped each of the groups as top seeds.

However only DCU (3) were left standing by the time the semi-finals came around as UL (5) exited at the hands of NUIG (3), Galway Tech’s interest was ended by TUD Blanchardstown while the other top seed MICL (2) lost out to DCU (4) in a tight contest that ended 3-4 to 3-2.

The semi finals saw DCU (3) have too much firepower for NUIG (3), while two goals in the last minute helped the 2018 O’Connor Cup hosts TUD Blanchardstown to an unlikely 5-4 to 5-2 win over MICL. It reversed the sides result in the group states when MICL took the honours 4-1 to 3-2.

In the battle of the Dublin teams in the final it was the team with “infinite possibilities” on the back of their jerseys that completed the double over DCU accounting for DCU (3) having already beaten DCU (4) in the group stages to win the Junior Cup for the first time ever.