Joe Cooney

Joseph Cooney (born 17 March 1965) is an Irish former hurler who played as a centre-forward at senior level for the Galway county team.

Born in Bullaun, County Galway, Cooney first played competitive hurling during his schooling at St Raphael's College.

He arrived on the inter-county scene at the age of seventeen when he first linked up with the Galway minor team, before later joining the under-21 side.

Joe Cooney was born in Bullaun, County Galway in 1965.

The tenth child in a family of fourteen, he was educated locally and he later St. Raphael's secondary school in Loughrea.

Here his hurling skills came to the fore and he was quickly spotted by the Galway inter-county selectors.

Cooney played his club hurling with his local Sarsfields club.

Cooney first came to prominence on the inter-county scene as a member of the Galway minor hurling team in the early 1980s.

He made his senior debut during the 1983 championship.

Cooney immediately became a regular member of the starting fifteen and won two All-Ireland medals, three Connacht medals and three National Hurling League medals.

He was an All-Ireland runner-up on four occasions.

As a member of the Connacht inter-provincial team on a number of occasions, Cooney won four Railway Cup medal.

At club level he is a two-time All-Ireland medallist with Sarsfields.

In addition to this he has also won three Connacht medals and five championship medals.

Cooney's brother, Jimmy, was also an All-Ireland medallist with Galway while his son, Joseph, also lined out with Galway.

His career tally of 10 goals and 102 points ranks him as Galway's fifth highest championship scorer of all-time.

Throughout his career Cooney made 35 championship appearances.

He won an All-Ireland medal in this grade in 1983 after Galway defeated a Dublin team that contained a young Niall Quinn.

He first experienced success in 1984 when he won a county under-21 title.

He made his debut in 1985 and lined out in his very first senior All-Ireland final.

Offaly provided the opposition on the day and the game was a close and exciting one.

Cooney scored a goal towards the end, however, it was disallowed.

Three years later in 1986 Cooney won an All-Ireland medal with the Galway under-21 team following a defeat of Wexford.

By this stage Cooney was also lining out with the Galway senior hurling team.

During his playing days, Cooney won five All-Star awards in six seasons as well as being named Texaco Hurler of the Year in 1987.

He has been repeatedly voted onto teams made up of the sport's greats, including at midfield on the Club Hurling Silver Jubilee Team and at centre-forward on the Galway Hurling Team of the Millennium and the Supreme All-Stars team.

Five years later in 1989 Cooney captured his first senior county title before later winning a Connacht club title.

In the subsequent All-Ireland semi-final Sarsfields played Ballyhale Shamrocks.

It was an unprecedented occasion as five Cooney brothers lined out against seven Fennelly brothers from Ballyhale.

Unfortunately for Cooney it was the Fennellys who ended up on the winning side on that occasion.

1992 saw Cooney win a second county title.

He later captured a second Connacht club title before lining out in his first All-Ireland club final against Kilmallock.

The game was very close for much of the hour, however, with five minutes to go Cooney sent a long-range free into the net to secure an All-Ireland club medal for himself.

Sarsfields retained their county and provincial club titles in 1993 and Cooney later lined out in his second consecutive All-Ireland final.

Once again Cooney proved to be one of the heroes of the game.

A sixty-fifth-minute goal, set up by Cooney, gave Sarsfields the victory over Toomevara and gave Cooney his second All-Ireland club medal.

Cooney added a fourth and a fifth county and Connacht club medal to his collection in 1995 and 1997.

He announced his retirement from inter-county hurling on 24 January 2001.

Cooney was also chosen as one of the 125 greatest hurlers of all-time in a 2009 poll.

In May 2020, the Irish Independent named Cooney at number eleven in its "Top 20 hurlers in Ireland over the past 50 years".