Massive prize awaits Kilruane or Upperchurch

GAA: FBD Insurance County Senior Hurling Championship Semi-Finals Preview

By Shane Brophy

Kilruane MacDonaghs v Upperchurch/Drombane

FBD Semple Stadium

Sunday 9th October

Throw-in @ 2.00pm (E.T.)

Referee: Conor Doyle

The prize at stake for both Kilruane MacDonaghs and Upperchurch/Drombane is huge in this Sunday’s County Senior Hurling Championship semi-final at FBD Semple Stadium.

Kilruane have been county champions on four occasions (5 including De Wets) the last coming in 1985 when they went onto becoming All-Ireland club champions. However, the 1986 final defeat to Borris-Ileigh was the last time the club reached a county final which feels like an eternity for a club of their standing.

It is an eternity for Upperchurch/Drombane as they have never reached the county senior hurling final in their own right, with the Drombane club winning a county title way back in 1894.

Indeed, it will have raised quite a chuckle within the Mid Tipp club where for whom hurling has always been the number one, it is in football where they have reached a county senior final first following last Sunday’s semi-final win over Loughmore/Castleiney, and with that momentum they can harbour strong hopes of reaching the hurling decider.

“Morale is very very good,” admitted Upperchurch hurling manager Liam Dunphy.

“It isn’t a huge panel of players to be fair, but everybody is working well together. Football and hurling managements work together. Training is light, it has to be light to carry guys from weekend to weekend.

“It’s huge for the people of the parish but we can’t worry about them. We have to worry about our own group, keep focused on the next job.”

The next job Liam speaks of is a hurling semi-final against Kilruane MacDonaghs whose selector Christy Morgan was very impressed with Upperchurch’s come from behind quarter final win over JK Brackens.

“They were very resilient, they came back well and bossed the game at the end,” he said.

“They showed great character. The guys that are with them, James McGrath and Liam Dunphy, they are quality guys and friends of ours as well and we’ll meet on the side-line and whoever wins wins, and we’ll shake hands and move on.

The tradition within Kilruane decrees that they contend for county titles most years and off the double under 13 county hurling final success last weekend, the conveyor belt of talent is moving nicely and getting to a first senior hurling final since 1986 would add to that as well.

“It is huge,” Morgan said of the prize at stake on Sunday.

“We just have to prepare and go out and perform. It’s just another game of hurling but we have to bring it to a high level.”

Sometimes you have to do things outside the box as well to get to where you want to go and Kilruane did that in the quarter final win over Toomevara where they sprung Seamus Hennessy and player/coach Brian O’Meara from the bench to great effect with both contributing 1-2 which was the winning of the game.

“Sometimes you have to do things that you hope works,” Morgan added.

“Brian (O’Meara) is an experienced hurler with an All-Ireland medal and sometimes you need him for a few minutes. Age might be going against him, but he is still a great clubman and stalwart, guys look up to him as well.

“It’s not even that, it is the guys that don’t get much game time that are most important to us, the likes of Robert Austin who trains with us every night and don’t see much gametime. They are as important to us as Brian and Seamus. We are all in this together.”

Verdict

Upperchurch/Drombane are riding the crest of a wave at the moment. To do what they have done in reaching a senior football final and getting to the last four in senior hurling, you need a bit of luck in terms of injury, and they have that, plus they are super fit and are as strong at the end of games as they are at the beginning.

Loughmore/Castleiney have shown over the past two years that it is possible to be successful on two fronts and Upperchurch are continuing that, and in terms of hurling, are achieving it with a very even team, not relying on a few players to lead the way, although Paudie Greene will be on Kilruane will be aiming to negate his influence.

Even without the injured Craig Morgan, Kilruane have the more household names and those leaders in Niall O’Meara, Seamus Hennessy, Jerome Cahill, and Cian Darcy need to come to the fore.

They only need to go back to 2019 for motivation when they lost in the semi-final to a fourteen-man Borris-Ileigh who went onto reach the All-Ireland Club final. County final day with Kilruane is long overdue and if they bring their ‘A’ game, they might have just enough to shade Upperchurch/Drombane, possibly needing extra time to do it. Verdict: Kilruane MacDonaghs