Sunday saw 2018 Leinster Champions Moorefield begin their title defense away to Westmeath Champions Mullingar Shamrocks at TEG Cusack Park.

The opening exchanges were tight but it was the home team who came out of the blocks early with the first two scores of the game. The first of which came from dead ball specialist Dennis Corroon quickly followed by a neatly worked score from the lively Tye Adamson. It took until the 10th minute of the game for the reigning champions to register a score with the ever reliable Ronan Sweeney stepping up to the plate.

Things began to change soon after this when Moorefield began pumping long ball into the danger man Adam Tyrrell. On 16 minutes he ghosted behind his man fielded a high ball and finished excellently to the net to the leave the score 1-02 to 0-03.

This passage of play would set the tone for the remainder of the game with Mullingar struggling to get to grips with both Tyrrell and the high ball. A repeat of a similar move saw Tyrrell finding the net again on the 25th minute as Moorefield now looked comfortable with it standing 2-04 0-04 at half time.

Things didn’t look to be improving for the home side with the long ball continuing to cause problems early in the 2nd half. With 41 minutes gone on the clock the trailed the Kildare men by 9 points. However, the Mullingar men would now give up on a Leinster run that easily and slowly began eating into this lead. They were only 7 points down when Kieran Gavin was hauled down when baring through on goal. Dean Moore duly slotted the place kick to leave just 4 between the sides. The home crowd began to raise their voice as a sniff of a comeback was on. Some continued pressure around the Moorefield goal did not however result in a Shamrocks score and the Kildare side looked to steady the ship.

Two late points from Eanna O’Connor ensured that the Champions of 2017 march on. One thing that will be certain Portloaise will be looking to curtail the threat of Tyrrell next time out. The meet on the 11th November.

Moorefield v Portlaoise Sunday 11th November 1.30pm.