Club hurling championships in Tipperary have reached a vital stage

Above: Action from the last round of the County Senior Hurling Championship involving Holycross Ballycahill’s Darragh Woods and Eoin Craddock and Clonoulty Rossmore’s Ronan Heffernan, Stephen Quinn and Enda Heffernan. Picture: Sportsfocus

Our much-lauded hurling championship hits a critical juncture this weekend with the arrival of the knockouts. Preliminary quarter-finals will see the field reduced to the last eight. Relegation semi-finals too will be hotly contested.

The main focus then this weekend will be on those three preliminary quarter-finals of the senior championship.

Clonoulty and Drom/Inch is a difficult one to call. Both are distant outsiders for the championship but perhaps Drom’s better group form earns them slight favouritism. Clonoulty kept their best hurling for their final game against Holycross but Drom’s only group loss was that one-pointer to form-setters, Loughmore/Castleiney.

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Toomevara will be favourites when they take on JK Brackens, though the fallout from their game with Kiladangan may have a significant impact. They lost key attacker, Kevin McCarthy, to a red card that day and also lost goalie Rory Brislane to concussion.

Following their Mid final win, Brackens have disappointed. Their solitary group win in the championship was against Lorrha but they lost to Loughmore and Drom by a combined total of 19 points. They’ll need to pick up form significantly here if they’re to make the quarter-finals.

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The third game is an intriguing North derby between Kiladangan and Kilruane; it’s arguably the game of this round. It will be remembered that the MacDonaghs won the 2022 final in a replay victory over the Puckane side; Kiladangan rebounded to take 2023 honours. Both then are recent winners of the championship.

Despite a first round win over Clonoulty, Kiladangan struggled in their group, losing to Holycross and Toomevara by a combined total of 20 points.

For their part, Kilruane’s impression has been variable. They began with a win over Borris-Ileigh, then lost to Moycarkey before rebounding with a victory over Roscrea. They have the better form coming into this match so it will be interesting to see if Kiladangan can pick up the pace.

Overall, these are three games with exciting potential; the losers are out and the winners enter the quarter-final draw.

Meanwhile, Cashel KC got a double boost last week, with the draw handing their seniors a direct visa to the quarter-finals and their Under 19s pulling off a shock win midweek over Holycross/Ballycahill in the county semi-final. A rising tide they say lifts all boats, with Cashel surfing a wave at the moment.

That Under 19 outcome raised a few eyebrows. Holycross were chasing a fourth county title on-the-trot and, with a healthy mix of their senior panellists on board, they were expected to progress. That reckoning, however, ignored the resolve of the King Cormacs, who came with a side primed and ready for the event. It proved too much for the favourites.

The game was neatly poised in the first half. Cashel were hit by a Sean Ryan goal early on but remained unruffled. Oisín O’Donoghue was leading the charge from centre forward and they brought high workrate to the event, which seemed to unsettle Holycross. By half-time the Mid champions did well to hold a two-point edge.

However, Cashel’s feisty persistence gradually wore down their opponents in the second spell. They got a major boost with a Denis O’Callaghan goal five minutes after resuming and by the three-quarter stage the West side were ahead by five.

There was no kickback from Holycross. Instead, Cashel kept coming with energy and drive. Oisín O’Donoghue was outstanding on the frees as well as general play and Denis O’Callaghan deservedly got the Clubber man of the match gong. The margin was seven at the end; Holycross managed a mere three points from open play in that period.

Cashel haven’t enjoyed underage prominence since the late eighties and early nineties, so this will be a timely boost ahead of their county senior quarter-final. They’ll face St Mary’s in a novel decider, following the South side’s thrilling extra-time win over Borris-Ileigh.

St Mary’s edged out the North champions in an epic encounter at Coolmore Dr Morris Park with the match going to extra-time and looking destined for penalties before the Clonmel full forward, Finn Napier, struck the all-important winner deep into injury-time.

The South side showed remarkable resolve in this encounter. They were six down at half-time and went eight behind in the third quarter. Their cause looked doomed, so it took brio and bravery from the team to keep battling.

In the end they earned the breaks, with goals from Dara Beckett and Finn Napier rescuing the game. A Patrick Ryan leveller for Borris-Ileigh sent the match to extra-time, where Mary’s’ persistence ultimately paid off with Napier’s winner. For Borris-Ileigh it was a tough one to take. The final with Cashel will be one to relish.

Elsewhere, we note with interest the Central Council’s decision to put forward a motion to next year’s Congress to move the All-Ireland final dates, starting in 2027.

The proposed adjustment is modest, with the hurling final moving forward one week to the last weekend in July; the football equivalent would move forward a fortnight to the second weekend in August.

There has been a loud and persistent campaign on this issue by some elements in the national media. Their target has been the split season, which is arguably the only positive legacy from the Covid pandemic. It has given players some certainty on their fixture schedules and it has been widely applauded by both hurlers and footballers.

Yet for some journalists and pundits this imaginary concept of an idle August has become a target of heavy criticism. They appear unaware – and definitely unconcerned – about a GAA world outside of Croke Park and All-Ireland finals; a world inhabited by around 98% of the playing population.

The latest proposal, which comes from a group set up by Jarlath Burns to investigate the issue, won’t appease the critics. For them, nothing short of a return to September All-Irelands will suffice and to hell with the club and its season.

The proposal, which will need a 60% majority at Congress, is tolerable – just about. Any further squeeze on the clubs’ space should not be entertained.

Finally, any proposal on the handpass in hurling is unlikely to be on the agenda of next year’s Congress following the defeat of Conor O’Donovan’s proposition at last February’s meeting.

There’s a five-year wait to re-enter a motion, though, in typical GAA fashion, there are ways around this clause if there’s a willingness and the issue is seen as a priority.

What was most disappointing about last February’s vote was the fact that key stakeholders, such as the HDC, campaigned so vigorously against the proposal. It was also frustrating to see prominent hurling counties sing dumb on such a crucial issue for the game of hurling. In those circumstances it was easy to understand why football counties, with zero interest in hurling, would vote for the status quo.

There’s a dishonesty around this issue. Everyone knows there is a problem. You hear the cries of “thrown ball” repeatedly at games, where a high percentage of passes are clearly throws. Then a referee penalises the odd one and that adds even more aggravation because of the blatant inconsistency.

Sadly, the message from last year’s Congress was that throwing the ball is okay. It’s now an accepted part of the game; for some, indeed, it’s a great skill.

What I find most exasperating is that the opponents of change probably never took the trouble to watch any of the Freshers’ games where Conor O’Donovan’s proposal was successfully trialled. Why are they afraid of trialling the proposal on a more prominent platform such as the pre-season tournaments or even the leagues? Knocking the suggestion without seeing it in practice is downright lazy and that laziness has characterised much of the opposition.

In the meantime, we continue to suffer the great game being maligned. Football recognised its problems and found solutions. It’s time hurling did the same.