Last senior hurling quarter-finals spots up for grabs
Roanmore's Sam Pender is tackled by Clonea's Adam Murray. Next up for Roanmore are Tallow.
The final round of Group games will take place this coming weekend with the top seeds in Groups A and C, Roanmore and Ballygunner looking set to join unseeded Mount Sion and Abbeyside in the quarter finals. The four Group games this coming weekend will also decide the seedings for the preliminary quarter final draw where the second team in each group will play a third placed team from another group with the four losers going into the relegation playoffs.
Last year’s beaten finalists De La Salle will be seeking to bounce back from Sunday’s last gasp one point defeat by Mount Sion when they take on Passage in Walsh Park on Friday evening next. While De La Salle will start favourites here Passage cannot be taken for granted as there was very little separating them from Mount Sion in their opening group game. Both sides will be going flat out for victory here seeking to secure a favourable preliminary quarter final draw that will enable them to avoid a relegation playoff.
De La Salle will again be looking to their young stars such as Conor Keane, Daniel Lalor, Rueben Halloran and Jack Twomey to tie in with experienced campaigners like Adam Farrell, Jake Dillon, Thomas Douglas and Jack Fagan to see them through. Passage are dour championship battlers and players such as Mark Fitzgerald, Darragh Lynch, Calum O’Neill, Gary Cullinane, Liam Flynn and Mikey Cummins will not be found wanting here.
There should be very little between the sides at the final whistle with the accuracy of Rueben Halloran from placed balls likely to give De La Salle the edge.
Given Tallow’s heavy defeat at the hands of Clonea in their opening game anything other than a decisive win for Roanmore would be a huge upset here. Roanmore’s performance against Clonea was impressive and they must be regarded as serious challengers to Ballygunner as they confirm their quarter final place with a win here.
Fourmilewater will be pondering long and hard on their disappointing performance against Abbeyside on Saturday last and Ferrybank could well feel a backlash here. Ferrybank’s absence of key players from last year’s side has been well documented and while well beaten by Abbeyside they put in a brave performance with Mark O’Brien their outstanding player. Ferrybank will take heart from having played a draw with Fourmilewater in the league but they will face a much stronger side on Saturday with Fourmilewater determined to recover last year’s form ahead of the knockout stages.
This will be a big test for Lismore against the champions. They go into this game on the back of an impressive win over Dungarvan and with a full deck but for the continued absence through injury of Carthach Daly. There is a balanced look about this Lismore team with Iarlaith Daly and Ray Barry in the central defensive positions and Jack Prendergast, Paudie Prendergast and Maurice Shanahan in a forward unit that could ask questions of a new look Ballygunner defence that fielded on Saturday last without Ian Kenny, Shane O’Sullivan and Philip Mahony. While this weekend be an interesting game, with Ballygunner yet to peak, the champions showed against Dungarvan that they have the firepower to withstand anything that can be thrown at them at this stage of the championship with players like Pauric Mahony, Peter Hogan, Kevin Mahony and, most likely, Dessie Hutchinson to call on.
The Premier Intermediate Championship continues with the final round of Group games taking place this weekend. In Group A Ballygunner should collect both points against a struggling Dunhill side in Kill on Saturday (3pm) while Shamrocks, on the back of a good win over Tramore last weekend, could put it up to Ballysaggart in Fraher Field at 6.30 pm In Group B Cappoquin/Tourin will face Clashmore in Fraher Field in a curtain raiser to the Shamrocks/Balllysaggart game at 5 pm. The remaining Group B game will see unbeaten Brickeys facing Tramore in Fraher Field at 1.45pm. on Sunday preceding the Ballygunner/Lismore senior game.
