Semple Stadium on the last Sunday of November and a major Munster senior hurling final. A contradiction in terms surely, but it will be an exciting reality nonetheless when our county champions, Ballygunner, throw down the gauntlet to Cork’s Newtownshandrum in a decider full of mouthwatering possibilities.
The rivals are no strangers to each other of course, having also clashed in the provincial arena four, or so, years ago with the spoils of victory going to the Corkmen by a tantalising one point margin. Plenty of incentive then for the present day Gunners to put that particular result to bed and to bring the coveted title back to Deiseland for a second successive year and in the footsteps of De La Salle’s stupendous success of twelve months ago.
There’s a marked similarity about those provincial campaigns of last year and this. No one, but no one, gave De La Salle a realistic chance of emerging top of the pile, but that they did having seen off the best that
Cork(Sarsfields) and Limerick(Adare) could come up with.
Now it’s the turn of Ballygunner to try to emulate Mullane and his merry men, and with one leg of the challenge already accomplished - -the victory against Cratloe - -the Cork champions alone stand in their way of a second Munster title win.
Newtown will go into Sunday’s decider in the deserving role of firm favourites. They’ve already been to Semple Stadium in this campaign and got the better of Thurles Sarsfields after a titanic struggle. That set them up for a semi-final joust with Adare, and while they had the “home’’ advantage of Pairc Ui Chaoimh they were pushed all the way before coming through with just three points to spare.
The certainty is that both of these testing battles will have brought them on even more, and on the spacious expanse of “Semple’’ we can expect to see them at their free flowing best. The twins - -Ben and Jerry - -are probably playing the best hurling of their distinguished careers right now, while centre back Pat Mulcahy is playing at a level that made him an automatic Cork choice a few years back. Add in the emerging young stars - -among them the flying Cathal Naughton - -and you can readily appreciate the all round strength of the side. (PAR)
A big ask then of the Gunners, but have they not answered all of the questions put to them so far in this year of unprecedented success for the club at all of the hurling levels? They are getting better by the match as the young fellows in particular become more and more comfortable in top flight company, and hopeful-ly the enormity of Sunday’s occasion won’t get to them in any kind of negative way.
They found Cratloe a tough nut to crack in the semi-final, and yet when the effort was most needed it was excitingly forthcoming from them with substitutes J. J. Hutchinson and goalscorer Barry Mullane leading the way. Given the decisive impact they, and a third substitute Robert Cunningham, made in that semi-final I don’t envy manager Ger Cunningham and fellow selectors Mick Gaffney and Tom Fives their job this time round. But whatever starting fifteen they opt for they will carry the very best wishes of every club, East and West, in this county of ours.
WALSH OUT
The disappointing news from the Gunners camp is that midfielder Shane Walsh is definitely ruled out with the hamstring injury he picked up in the semi-final, and there some overstating the loss he will be.
There’s “talk’’ that they might consider flying Gearoid O’Connor back from the U. S. but that remains to be seen.
Yes, its definitely a tall order, and yes the “underdog’’ tag is the one the Gunners will carry with them on Sunday. How often in the past however have they torn up the pre match script and gotten on with the job of fashioning victory against the odds? More of the same this time lads will do very nicely indeed. The best of luck to ye.
