ROUND-UP: Fitzgibbon Cup concludes opening round with Tipp players prominent

The opening week of fixtures in the 2024 Fitzgibbon Cup concluded on Thursday night with plenty of Tipperary players featuring across the three matches played in the competition over the two days.

On Wednesday, the University of Limerick sent out a warning to the whole competition of their intent to defend their title after they demolished ATU Galway which was played at the Connacht GAA Dome after a late change of venue.

Adam English (Limerick) and Mark Rodgers (Clare) ran amok for the Limerick team scoring 2-6 from play between them in a scintillating display which saw the Wolves run out 3-25 to 0-14 victors by the game's end.

Tipperary senior hurler Gearoid O'Connor was a key feature again for UL with the Moyne Templetuohy man hitting 0-6 in the match, with one point of that coming from play. Elsewhere in the team, Michael Corcoran of Silvermines played the full game at cornerback and was solid throughout, while Conal Moran (Shannon Rovers) came on as a second-half substitute in the 41st minute with the game already in the bag at that stage.

UL will play their round 2 fixture next Wednesday in what will be the first Limerick derby of the year with TUS MidWest as the opposition. No Tipp players are on the ATU Galway panel.

Mary Immaculate College of Limerick and Maynooth University's clash was postponed late in the day on Wednesday due to bad weather and will have to be played at another date.

Two games took place on Thursday night with SETU Carlow succumbing to an impressive display from last year's beaten finalists University of Galway at the Carlow college's GAA grounds.

The tribesmen ran out comprehensive winners on a 3-19 to 2-12 scoreline on the night, with the only Tipperary player featuring in the game coming from Moneygall's Joe Fogarty who started at wing forward for the hosts.

Fogarty was prominent early on in scoring an early point before playing a key role in setting up Tomas Keyes' 11th-minute goal to put his side ahead, but the Galway team took over proceedings afterward with Fogarty anonymous for the most part in the rest of the contest. Kenny Ryan of Toomevara was an unused substitute for the Carlow outfit. No Tipperary players are on the UG panel this year.