Spirit of the Church sees journey continue

The amazing journey being embarked upon by the Upperchurch Drombane senior hurlers and footballers continues this coming weekend when they take on Kilruane MacDonagh in the FBD Insurance county senior hurling semi-final at Semple Stadium.

Coming a week after they qualified for the county senior football final following their win over Loughmore Castleiney last Sunday in Golden, The Church are in uncharted territory, and they are loving every minute of it.

An odyssey along the same lines as Loughmore Castleiney over the last two seasons, Upperchurch Drombane have been fighting fires on a number of fronts and they keep coming up with the answers to the questions being fired at them by a procession of suitors. No talk or fatigue; no evidence of sore limbs; no sense of lethargy at all in their approach to the games - these guys are buzzing, living the dream and mad for road each weekend, to see where the journey will take them.

Right now, they are in a county final and their prospects of progressing to a second final would appear to be decent enough too. The sense of momentum they have behind them is very much reminiscent of Loughmore Castleiney last year and we all know how that worked out.

Of course, a very powerful and potent Clonmel Commercials side awaits them in the football final on October 16th and The Church will be a firm underdog for the silverware in that championship final.

But, the playing field would appear to be much more level in the hurling championship and were they to get over Kilruane MacDonagh on Sunday, they would quietly fancy their chances against either neighbours Drom-Inch, or Kiladangan.

The parish of Upperchurch Drombane has, for many generations, been renowned for resilience and resoluteness. People of the parish have worked hard under trying conditions in keeping with the uplands, but they have always displayed a ferocious determination, unstinting loyalty and a unique togetherness which has made them the envy of many other neighbouring parishes.

The thing is, all of those elements now appear to be coming together on the field of play as well. These sides are hard to beat; hard to play against; and really difficult to shake off. They have found ways of winning games where they have not been fancied; have managed to prize out results from very trying scenarios; and have grinded opponents into submission thanks to their absolute determination to win each and every ball which comes into their sector of the field.

Were they to make it to the county senior hurling final by winning on Sunday next, it would really make for quite a story - the kind of tale you could not make up. It’s well within their capability, but while Upperchurch Drombane is the story over 2022, Kilruane MacDonagh will have them firmly in their gun sight.