Tommy Larkins boss Kelly hails St Thomas’ after stunning All-Ireland champions

TOMMY LARKINS boss Niall Kelly hailed St Thomas’ for inspiring the chasing pack in Galway after stunning the All-Ireland club champions in Ballinasloe. 

Kenneth Burke’s men are chasing a record SEVENTH county title in a row – but suffered their first championship defeat in almost two years at Duggan Park. 

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Thomas’ stormed to All-Ireland club glory in January, and were unbeaten since their All-Ireland semi-final loss to Dunloy in December 2022. 

Woodford club Larkins won their sole Galway senior crown in 1971. 

And Kelly admits watching their neighbours conquer all fired up his squad before a sizzling round 2 group stage performance put them on course for the quarter-finals. 

He told SunSport: “We knew the performance was in them, but Thomas’ have set the bar for us all. 

“Like a small rural club as well, we admire what they’ve done over the last six or seven years in Galway and on the national stage. 

“If anything they’ve driven us on to try and get up there, because there’s no excuse.

“We are delighted with the performance. We kind of knew it was in our lads. The effort they put in this year, last year we had a couple of injuries and we were missing a few guys. 

“They all wanted to put in a big effort this year, but at the end of the day it’s only a win in the group.

“There isn’t any football out in Tommy Larkins, it’s all hurling and we have small numbers down along. 

“There were a lot of happy young faces there today. So it’ll hopefully inspire the next generation to keep hurling as well.” 

Skipper Ronan Murphy – who was cut from Henry Sheffflin’s Galway squad this year starred with 1-5 from play as Tribes hitman Jason Flynn tortured their opponents with 0-7. 

Conor Cooney struck 0-10 for the reigning champs but their second half collapse proved to be their downfall as Tommy Larkins relentlessly turned the screw.  

Thomas’ led 0-14 to 0-12 at the break after a blistering half of hurling saw Evan Duggan, David Burke, Darragh Burke, Oisín Flannery and Eanna Burke score from play. 

They looked in command, but Larkins had a dozen points on the board against the stiff breeze and nine scorers from play. 

Murphy and Flynn led the way and stopper Eanna Murphy fired over a beauty from his own ‘65 and Conor Slatterty summed up their efficiency with one of the scores of the game over the shoulder.  

Just when it looked like Thomas’ would kick on and win, Tommy Larkins won the second half 1-12 to 0-5 to storm top of the group. 

Murphy added 0-3 to his tally after the restart and two of those were in a vital haul of 0-6 in a row for his side to go 0-21 to 0-16 in front. 

Thomas’ had totally lost their way as Cooney missed two frees he would normally score in his sleep and they were left with too much to do. 

Murphy’s goal six minutes from time sealed the deal, before Slattery and the brilliant Conor Gardiner put the icing on the cake. 

Kelly knows they may well cross paths with Thomas’ again down the line. 

But he hopes the result brings some comfort after Woodford native Anne Spelman passed away last Tuesday, the daughter of former club President and ex-Galway selector Mick Fogarty. 

He said: “We had a tough week in Woodford this week. We had a young lady that passed away and there’s four young children left without a mam.

“She was living in Kilnadeema-Leitrim, so it connected both clubs. Mick had been always involved in the club and was a selector for Galway, so they were in our minds today as well and it reminds you that it’s only a game.” 

TOMMY LARKINS 1-24 

ST THOMAS’ 0-19 

TOMMY LARKINS SCORERS: R Murphy 1-5; J Flynn 0-7, 5f; C Gardiner 0-3; C Slattery 0-2; E Murphy 0-2, 1f; C Daniels 0-1, C Flynn 0-1, C Hanley 0-1, C Duggan 0-1, D Hickey 0-1

ST. THOMAS’ SCORERS: C Cooney 0-10, 9f; E Burke 0-4, Darragh Burke 0-2, David Burke 0-1, E Duggan 0-1, Oisín Flannery 0-1