Saturday's 35-team National Championships at Portlaoise RFC saw Dublin Wolves crowned as the overall winners for the 9th year in a row. The headline result belies a tight overall Championship that saw a number of impressive firsts and tight wins.
Mixed Open
The Mixed Open competition was a Dublin 1-2, with Dublin Mixed Senior taking the category for the first time. They won a cagey final with Dublin Mixed Open 7-6, despite trailing 4-0 in the early exchanges. The winners provided both of the category MVPs in Dara Higgins & Niamh Geoghegan.
The category was tight throughout the day; the two finalists drew in the group stage, and Cork Mixed Open also held the winners early on.
Women's Open
The biggest category of the tournament and the biggest-ever women's category at Nationals was claimed by Cork Women's Open, who won for the third-straight year. This achievement is impressive in its own terms, but comes after the championship-winning team was split in two to facilitate Cork entering both a Women's Open and Women's Senior team.
The competition featured an unusual 9-team format, the first phase of which involved three 3-team round robin groups. These were characterised by tight games between competitive teams, with Dublin Women's 37s, Dublin Women's 27s, and North Dublin Warriors coming top of their respective piles.
The final was a tight game between Cork and North Dublin, the latter having entered its first ever women's open team and exceeded expectations by reaching the final and defeating experienced teams along the way. The two sides drew 1-1 in the group phase, and in the end Cork triumphed with a 2-0 win. Cork's Jayne Pennefather took the category MVP award.
Men's Open
There has never been a Men's Open winner's trophy go anywhere but Dublin after Nationals, and this weekend proved no different. Dublin Men's Open went unbeaten in the round robin, and defeated an excellent Limerick Men's Open team in the final after a draw between the two sides in the final round robin game. Adam Cunningham of the winning team took the category MVP award.
The plate final was won by Cork Men's Open, who defeated the Dublin Men's 30s at the end of a long day for the Men's Open teams.
Men's 40s
As in Mixed Open, the Men's 40s final was an all-Dublin affair, contested by Dublin's two Men's 40s sides "Dublin Men's 40s" and "Baile Atha Cliath Men's 40s". The title was claimed by the Dublin side, led by David Lyons, for the second year in a row and in only the second year of the competition. The triumph earned Barry Cahill the MVP award for the category.
The category also featured a first-ever Meath team, sporting their snazzy GAA-inspired green and yellow jerseys and Paul Mescal-style shorts. The plate was claimed by Limerick M40s, who defeated Cork, and Galway overcame Meath and a national Men's 50s team to win the Bowl.
Mixed Development
Having been established as a category in 2016, Dublin Wolves had claimed 7-straight wins and never left the title behind. Corcaigh Mixed Development proved their toughest opponents yet, claiming the title in style and ensuring Cork's best-ever Nationals. Danielle Curran and Adam Finn claimed the MVP titles for their performances.
The category also featured a best-ever performance from the Kildare Nationals team. With two wins and a narrow defeat to Dublin in the group, they finished in the cup places and narrowly lost the Plate final to North Dublin Warriors.
Our next major elite event is the British & Irish Cup 2024 in UCD on 24th & 25th August.
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