Ballyhale Shamrocks 3-12 Loughrea 2-8: Ballyhale Shamrock eased to a comfortable seven point victory over Loughrea in an All-Ireland club hurling final that failed to sparkle at Croke Park.
It proved a comfortable victory for a Kilkenny team driven by Henry Shefflin as they dominated in front of the posts, easily securing their fourth title in the process.
The sides were level after six minutes on two scores apiece and spectators at headquarters were hopeful of a close contest.
But those expectations failed to materialise as Ballyhale rattled off five unanswered points to lead by six at the break.
Patrick Reid, Michael Fennelly and Shefflin, amongst others, all found their range but TJ Reid's goal was the defining score of the half.
Ballyhale stretched their advantage nine minutes into the second half when Shefflin set up Patrick Reid who fielded the dropping ball before firing high into the net.
That superb strike certainly rocked the Galway side and, indeed, Loughrea failed to score for a 15 minute period thereafter.
Ballyhale, on the other hand, reeled off a succession of scores and it was during this spell of the game that they put the contest beyond doubt.
Vinny and John Maher bridged the gap with late goals for Loughrea but by that time the damage was already irreparable.
In any case Loughrea's comeback hopes were already thwarted as TJ Reid had sandwiched his second goal of the game between those two Loughrea strikes.