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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Robert Hynes

GAA fan on stag dressed as Kilkenny player celebrates with TJ Reid after sneaking on pitch after Leinster final

A man dressed as a Kilkenny player managed to sneak on to the pitch at Croke Park and get a photo with TJ Reid after Sunday's Leinster final.

The Cats defeated Galway by a single point thanks to a dramatic late winning goal by Cillian Buckley.

As Kilkenny celebrated their latest Leinster success, Bredagh club hurler Aaron Maguire, who was on his stag weekend in Dublin, evaded Croke Park security to walk on to the pitch and straight up to Reid.

READ MORE: Joe Canning 'absolutely sick' after Galway's Leinster final loss to Kilkenny

Shane Walsh was on hand to take a photo of Maguire with the Kilkenny great, who was more than happy to pose for the snap and later even shared it on his own Instagram.

Kilkenny's win sees them advance to the semi-finals of the All-Ireland, while Galway now face an extremely difficult challenge if they are to reach their first All-Ireland final since 2018.

Brought on in the 58th minute, just as Kilkenny were in the throes of a mini-collapse, Buckley's dramatic stoppage time goal sealed the four-in-a-row for the Cats with what was his first senior goal for the county.

To underline just how long he’s been soldiering for Kilkenny, Buckley was a playing colleague when Henry Shefflin won his last of 10 All-Ireland medals with Kilkenny in 2014.

Kilkenny’s match winning goal scorer Cillian Buckley celebrates after the game (Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy)

Almost a decade on, Buckley was swamped by celebrating team-mates while Shefflin looked on with a face like thunder. Stunned.

A couple of minutes earlier, it had looked like Shefflin was on the way to his most significant win yet as Galway manager. They had fought back from eight points down in the 50th minute to lead by two and with the five minutes of stoppage time up, only
seconds stood between Galway and a win to highlight their All-Ireland credentials.

Then Buckley struck.

Padraic Mannion will curse his own part in the frantic finale.

Doing his best to clear the danger from deep in his own defence, Mannion booted the sliotar as far as he could but it went straight to Buckley who raced goalwards, stepped around TJ Brennan and blasted low to the corner of Eanna Murphy’s net.

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