The American side displayed their class in defeating LJMU GAA by 1-07 to 1-05 in Tralee, County Kerry.
John Moores cruised through the British qualifiers after comfortably defeating the University of Liverpool, Stirling University and local rivals Liverpool Hope in the final of qualifying last month.
John Moores headed into the All Ireland series with huge confidence but knew they would have a job to do against a strong Cavan Institute if they wanted the opportunity to face New York in the final.
The US outfit were going for two All Ireland titles in a row.
LJMU got the job done against Cavan in what was no means a simple win, defeating the Ulster side by just three points.
With LJMU looking to take back the title that they won in 2022 and New York trying to retain the Corn na Mac Leinn for the first time, all in attendance had a humdinger of a game to look forward to in Tralee.
The match was also streamed live on YouTube.
It would be an understatement to say that the game was played in tricky conditions. The weather made a big impact on the quality of the game with LJMU unable to get their passing game flowing.
It didn’t just affect the Liverpool side with the New York side used to playing on astro turf. This evened-out the contest.
LJMU started the game strongly going 1-1 to 0-0 up after five minutes with Monaghan man Christian Hughes showing his class.
Despite an impressive start to the game by LJMU they would only score once more before half time with the testing conditions slowing the pace of the game down.
New York showed great resilience to not drop their heads after a disastrous start. Their management made some brilliant tactical adjustments to strengthen things up at the back which led to them getting back into the game and they slowly started to eat into LJMU lead. The first half finished 1-0 to 0-03 at half time.
New York carried the momentum from the end of the first half into the second period and within ten minutes they took the lead scoring a goal and a point with captain Colm Shalvey playing a vital role in New York dominating the second half.
The awful conditions got even worse in the second half with the pitch starting to cut up badly and to New York’s advantage they had a massive wind blowing in their favour towards the LJMU goal.
Unfortunately for LJMU that wind was just too much to overcome in the second half which resulted in the Liverpool university only scoring just two points in the final 30 minutes.
Captain Colm Shalvey continued to show his class and proved to be the biggest apple in the orchard from the Big Apple as they went on to retain the Corn na Mac Leinn for the second year in a row on the scoreline of 1-07 to 1-05.
LJMU manager Michael McPhillips told Mersey Sport Live: “It was a tough one to take. We feel we prepared as well as possible and the lads came into the weekend full of confidence but I guess it just wasn’t to be.
“New York were the better team on the day but I can’t help but feel the weather played a big part on how the game went.”
Although LJMU’s dream of winning the All Ireland is over, they can now look forward to the British Championships in March in hope of winning the British title for the third year in a row.
