2010 All-Stars: 3-24
2011 All-Stars: 7-11
San Francisco was the venue for a memorable hurling battle last weekend, as this year’s GAA hurling All-Stars lost out by the narrowest of margins to their 2010 counterparts.
The exhibition match took place last Sunday at Treasure Island, a popular base for the San Francisco’s GAA community and Irish diaspora and the wider Bay area.
Two hundred local juvenile hurlers were among those to greet the hurlers, as the Ireland Reaching Out organisation and the GAA launched a pilot programme aimed at attracting members of the Irish Diaspora into the GAA club network. GAA President Christy Cooney launched the programme at a breakfast shortly before the game began.
The All-Stars tour fixture – often tepid, restrained affairs – was a 10-goal thriller, and in the end, it all came down to a single point as the 2011 crop of All-Stars were pipped at the post. The 2011 team went into the dressing room at half time seven points ahead.
But a second-half resurgence by the 2010 squad proved their undoing.
Waterford’s Shane Walsh registered a total of 1-5 during the game. Three goals from Tipperary’s Lar Corbett were not enough to reduce the deficit, and the game finished 3-24 to 7-11.
The touring party arrived back in Ireland on Wednesday of this week. This year marks the first time that the GPA has been represented on the tour following the merger of the two sets of All-Star awards.
Scorers
2010 All Stars: S Walsh 1-5, D Hayes 0-7 (1f ), N McGrath, S Dooley (1f ) 1-3 each, R Power, E Kelly 0-2 each, D O'Grady, J Tyrrell 0-1 each. 2011 All Stars: L Corbett 3-0 (1 pen ), R Hogan 1-3, P Mahony 1-1, J Mullane (f ), E Larkin1-0 each, L Watson 0-3, D Hannon 0-2, R O'Dwyer, P Curran 0-1 each.
2010 All-Stars team: B Cummins (Tipperary ); J Dalton (Kilkenny ), P Kelly (Dublin ), J Tyrrell (Kilkenny ); D Collins (Galway ), M Walsh (Waterford ), JJ Delaney (Kilkenny ); B Maher (Tipperary ), D O’ Grady (Limerick ); D Hayes (Galway ), R Power (Kilkenny ), N McGrath (Tipperary ); E Kelly (Tipperary ), S Walsh (Waterford ), S Dooley (Offaly ).
2011 All-Stars team: G Maguire (Dublin ); P Murphy (Kilkenny ), P Curran (Tipperary ), M Cahill (Tipperary ); T Walsh (Kilkenny ), B Hogan (Kilkenny ), P Maher (Tipperary ); M Rice (Kilkenny ), R O’ Dwyer (Dublin ); D Hannon (Limerick ), E Larkin (Kilkenny ), P Mahony (Waterford ); L Watson (Antrim ), L Corbett (Tipperary ), R Hogan (Kilkenny ). Sub: J Mullane for Rice.
