Former champions to challenge to remain in senior hunt
It's last chance saloon for Kilrossanty manager Ronan Power centre, and his selectors Paudie Nugent and Noel P Walsh as they prepare to face Ballinacourty in the Co. senior football championship quarter-final. Photo: Sean Byrne
From the arrival of the second millennium to 2018 the custody of the Conway Cup was shared by just three clubs to the exclusion of all others with Stradbally collecting the coveted trophy on 10 occasion, The Nire 6 and Ballinacourty 3. Indeed, in that same period two of that three contested every final but three and that was when Tramore lost to Stradbally in 2003 and Ardmore were defeated by Ballinacourty in 2007. The wind of change began to blow in 2018 when Kilrossanty reached the final for the first time since losing to The Nire in 2000 and one year later Rathgormack arrived on the scene to beat Ballinacourty having been the last team to win the title in 1999 prior to the dominance of the triumvirate and now becoming the first team to break that dominance.
Since then, with Stradbally leaving the scene and progressing their period of transition in the Premier Intermediate grade, Rathgormack have been in all four county finals losing to Ballinacourty and The Nire in 2020 and 2021 but bouncing back to avenge those defeat in the following two years. While Rathgormack appear to have taken over from Stradbally the appetite of the other two contenders has not dissipated and on Saturday both will be seeking passage to yet another semi-final with eyes firmly fixed on another title tilt.
The Fraher Field double header gets under way on Sunday with the clash of Ballinacourty and Clashmore. While Ballinacourty will have been happy to have had a two week break since their Group defeat by champions Rathgormack Sunday’s opponents will be seeking to regroup following last Saturday’s defeat by The Nire.
Ballinacourty will have been happy enough with their performance against Rathgormack which saw them leading for much of the game considering they fielded without Conor Prunty, Michael O’Halloran and Neil Montgomery, all influential players. The further week will have given those players a chance to recover from injury and their presence would make a big difference here alongside such as Brian Looby, Sean Whelan-Barrett, Michael Kiely, Patrick Hurney, Charlie Treen and the Beresford’s.
It has been said here before that Clashmore’s biggest problem has been finding a level of consistency in their performances. In the current campaign they started with a hard earned win over Roanmore but failed to follow up with a similar performance when losing to An Rinn. They hit the ground running in their midweek match against a Gaultier side that since made it to the semi-finals thanks to an impressive win over The Nire. There can be no doubt but that Clashmore have talented young and experienced players in such as the Fitzgerald’s Josh and Sam, Cillian O’Keeffe, Ed O’Halloran, Ciaran Bourke, Brian O’Halloran and Paul O’Connor. Tadhg De Burca continues to nurse an injury ad played just the second half last Saturday and came on as a sub against Gaultier. If fit enough to start on Sunday he could make a big difference for Clashmore.
If the Clashmore team that beat Gaultier turns up on Sunday an upset could be on the cards particularly if Ballinacourty’s injury problems have not been resolved. If Ballinacourty are at full strength they have the experience and the know how to win knockout games such as this.
Results to date point clearly to a Nire victory here. The former champions’ only defeat came at the hands of Gaultier in a game that could have gone either way while Kilrossanty lost out to Rathgormack and Ballinacourty, their only win coming against an unimpressive Brickeys side. Kilrossanty’s record against The Nire since losing the 2017 final has not been good and though they have lost heavily to serious contenders such as Rathgormack and Ballinacourty they enjoyed as much possession in those games as their opponents but failed to translate that into scores.
Against Rathgormack they suffered an eleven point defeat but missed at least nine points for want of a reliable free taker. If Kilrossanty have solved that problem they could cause problems for The Nire for they have some fine young players in the Fitzgerald’s, Padraig, Seamus and Donie, Alan Dunwoody and Caomhin Walsh to tie in with experienced campaigners such as Tommy Prendergast and Martin Dunne.
The Nire will go into this game as strong favourites. They are consider to be the team best equipped to prevent Rathgormack achieving a run of three titles in a row despite their loss to Gaultier. They are a very experienced side made up of title winners such as James McGrath, Dermot Ryan, Dylan Guiry, Jamie Barron and Conor Gleeson backed up by a talented young cohort in such as Fionn Hallinan, Tom Barron, Tholum Guiry, Sean Walsh, Aaron Ryan and Evan Spellman.
Kilrossanty will need to be at their best to trouble The Nire here but if the Ballymac’ men are really up for this game there can be only one result
