ESB All Ireland Minor Hurling and Football 2007

While Kilkenny and Kerry spent the summer marching relentlessly to umpteenth All Ireland senior titles the under 18 hurlers and footballers throughout the country gave us some memorable games to savour.

This is the 3rd year of the ESB's sponsorship of the All Ireland Minor Championships and it is one that has proved to be an excellent partnership for the two major players in their respective fields.

Tipperary won the hurling title for the second year on the trot while Galway footballers took over where their hurlers left off two years ago when they tasted ultimate glory on the 3rd Sunday in September.

This current batch of Tipp minors bodes well for the county's future well being at senior level as they demonstrated a superiority over their opponents that was at times awesome

They beat Cork convincingly in the final in what was a repeat of a much closer Munster Final earlier in the summer.

The Rebel County flattered only to deceive with an early five point lead but the boys from the Premier County hauled it in rapidly with a succession of points and the game was long over before the final whistle as Tipp cantered to an impressive victory.

Cork had had a tremendously exciting semi final win over Galway and were disappointed at the way they failed to capitalise on their bright start.

Mind you Tipp had shown how good they were in their semi final win against Kilkenny; the Cats turned an early deficit into a half time lead but once the Blue and Gold clad boys got into a powerful rhythm in the second half they blew away the Black and Ambers with another controlled display of hurling.

Under the stewardship of onetime- great Declan Ryan it'll be interesting to see if they can capture a hat trick of titles next year, although Ryan is being seriously touted to succeed "Babs" Keating as senior manager.

While Galway won the football crown the minor campaign will be forever remembered for the finish of the Laois v Derry semi final by those of lucky enough to have seen it.

Laois faced certain defeat as they trailed by five points with the game in injury time but remarkably they scored a goal and two points in the added four minutes; they even had a difficult chance to win as time elapsed.

The replay however didn't go their way and the Derry boys completed the job in Navan six days later with a good solid victory.

Galway faced Kerry in the other semi final in a game that was exciting from start to finish.

Two high quality teams went head to head and it was the Tribesmen that eventually prevailed.

Derry drew first blood in the final, quickly opening up a five point lead. They used this as a buffer to keep Galway at bay for most of the game and indeed can consider themselves unlucky not to have stretched it further when a second half shot came back off the woodwork when they were three points to the good.

Galway persevered to the end and a late goal gave them victory by the slenderest of margins.

It has to be said that it was a good year for minor hurlers and footballers with the outlook looking bright for both codes despite the high profile nature of some of other sports.

Indeed it was also a good year for the ESB as the sponsorship is now reckoned to be one of the best in the GAA.