University of Limerick 4-19 University of Galway 1-13
They won't wish to see Mikey Kiely around the University of Galway campus any time soon, that's for sure.
For the second year running the powerful Waterford forward broke UG hearts, blasting 4-01 at the SETU Arena to ensure University of Limerick retained the Fitzgibbon Cup title having memorably scored the match winning goal in last year's decider.
UG were known as NUI Galway for the 2022 final but the heartache afterwards was the same for manager Jeff Lynskey who was powerless to prevent his side plummeting to a 15-point defeat.
They were rocked by a terrible start, with Kiely scoring his first two goals for UL inside 12 minutes to open up an 11-point lead for the favourites.
And while UG did bounce back with a strong 15 minutes or so approaching half-time, reducing the lead to four points at one stage, Kiely's third goal before the interval sucked all the wind from their sails.
A commanding second-half display then from Brian Ryan's side, including a fourth Kiely goal after the restart, ensured the contest was over long before Greg Thomas pinched a stoppage time consolation goal for UG.
It is an eighth title for UL who retained almost two thirds of the starting team from last year's win while UG were much changed and lost, in particular, Limerick superstar Cian Lynch from their 2022 group.
Tipperary's Gearoid O'Connor fired nine points for UL while county colleague Bryan O'Mara put in a strong performance in defence and lifted the cup afterwards as captain at the SETU Arena in Waterford.
Darragh Corcoran, a recent All-Ireland club winner with Ballyhale Shamrocks, Cork's Sean Twomey and Limerick's Adam English played key roles in the win too.
UL beat SETU Waterford in Carriganore on Thursday evening and that experience of the windswept venue perhaps helped as they returned for this decider.
They played into a stiff diagonal wind initially but made light of it with that great start to open up a huge 2-06 to 0-01 lead.
English's dynamism in attack was a real problem for the University of Galway defence and he set up Kiely's first goal before sniping two points himself.
Galway free-taker Evan Niland got his team going with a 16th minute point that kick started a run of scoring as the underdogs suddenly found their groove, outscoring UL by 0-08 to 0-01 between the 16th and 29th minutes.
Kiely's third goal was a hammer blow and with Brian O'Sullivan also on the mark for UL, they led 3-08 to 0-10 at half-time.
University of Galway needed goals to get back into the game but they never arrived as UL took over in the second-half, Kiely's fourth goal coming in the 34th minute when he volleyed in after being set up by the excellent Twomey.
Kiely's four-goal haul was one better than his hat-trick of majors in the quarter-final defeat of UCD.
Twomey pointed himself in the closing stages while O'Connor, Coughlan and Clare's Mark Rodgers all got onto the scoresheet too in a fully deserved 15-point win.
Greg Thomas did pull back a late goal for University of Galway but it was little consolation at that stage.
University of Limerick: Dean Mason (Kilkenny); TJ Brennan (Galway), Mark Fitzgerald (Waterford), Shane Staunton (Kilkenny); Killian Sampson (Offaly), Bryan O'Mara (Tipperary) (0-01), Darragh Corcoran (Kilkenny) (0-01); Brian O'Sullivan (Cork) (0-01), Colin Coughlan (Limerick) (0-01); Adam English (Limerick) (0-02), Gearoid O'Connor (Tipperary) (0-09, 0-07f, 0-01 65), Sean Twomey (Cork) (0-01); Mark Rodgers (Clare) (0-02, 0-01f), Mikey Kiely (Waterford) (4-01), James Power (Waterford).
Subs: Diarmuid Hanniffy (Galway) for Power 38, Mike Gough (Clare) for Staunton 44, Conor Flaherty (Galway) for Sampson 50, Padraic Dunne (Laois) for Fitzgerald 57, Killian McDermott (Clare) for Rodgers 59.
University of Galway (Galway unless stated): Liam Reilly; Phelim McGann (0-01), Eoin Lawless, Oisin Salmon; Mark Hardiman, Tiernan Killeen (0-01), Colm Cunningham; Alex Connaire, Ian McGlynn; Brian Concannon (0-02), Evan Niland (0-05, 0-03f), Darren O'Brien (Clare); Oisin Flannery (0-01), Greg Thomas (1-0), Niall Collins (0-03).
Subs: Shane Morgan for Hardiman 34, Ruben Davitt for Cunningham 47, Cillian O'Callaghan for Collins 55.
Referee: Colm Lyons (Cork).
