Gortnahoe aiming to complete rise through the ranks

By Michael Dundon

Gortnahoe-Glengoole will be hoping to join the county’s hurling elite by becoming the first winners of the newly-titled County Premier Intermediate Hurling Championship on Sunday when they take on a fancied Roscrea in the final at Semple Stadium.

The Mid Tipp side have been competing in the O Riain Cup senior hurling section since their county intermediate success in 2020 and while they go into the final as outsiders there is a confidence locally that the momentum generated by the team through a string of notable victories will carry the day for them.

The club have had an impressive run so far. Their round-robin series got off to a great start when they defeated championship favourites and neighbours Killenaule in their opening game. That really set the tone for the year. Wins over Ballina and Thurles Sarsfields followed to qualify them for the county quarter-finals. In the semi-final they came up against a St Mary’s, Clonmel team which had high hopes of winning the championship, but they had no answer to a rampant Gortnahoe-Glengoole combination.

Now another major stumbling block presents itself in the shape of a Roscrea team who were on everybody’s short-list to succeed at the start of the campaign. The sides met in the county league earlier in the year and Roscrea were winners, but Gortnahoe coach Richie Ruth doesn’t believe that game will be of too much relevance now.

“I’m sure both teams have improved since that league game,” he said.

“Roscrea were a very slick out fit in that game and they will be the same again, so we know we are facing a huge challenge.”

The Thurles Sarsfields clubman, a key-member of Sarsfields four-in-a-row winning side from 2014-17 and also a Munster Club medal winner in 2012, knows a thing or two about winning county championships

In his coaching career he has been involved with Sarsfields teams and has also guided St Kieran’s College, Kilkenny where he teaches, to Leinster and All-Ireland colleges titles. Richie has no fears of his lads’ ability to cope with a big crowd in Semple Stadium on county final day.

“They won the intermediate there two years ago so it should not be a problem,” he continued.

“We will play our game. The lads will give it everything and hopefully it will be good enough to win. “We are just taking each game as it comes. We have a very honest bunch of players who work hard for each other. It is difficult to say how this will go.

“We will need a lot to go right for us playing a team like Roscrea. They have a great tradition, and they know well what it takes to win a county final.”

Richie is joined in the backroom by manager Jim Rafter and Richie Power and is happy to report that there are no injury concerns as the big day approaches. The team is very settled with each man in the squad knowing what is expected of them. The club too is in a good place right now and reached the county under 17 ‘B’ hurling final also, so the player supply line is healthy.

The immediate target is to be playing Dan Breen Cup hurling next year and the belief in Gortnahoe-Glengoole is that they have the men to achieve that goal.