Big weekend of Premier Intermediate Hurling action awaits

By Liam Hogan

WITH the divisional championships complete, all eyes turn to the FBD County Tipperary Premier Intermediate Hurling championship, which is to commence this coming Friday night and continue right through the weekend till Sunday evening.

Sixteen teams will take part, four groups of four in the bid to replace last year’s champions, Lorrha, who defeated Thurles Sarsfields in the replayed final at Nenagh last October. Lorrha will compete in the Dan Breen this year. In their place comes Upperchurch Drombane, who were relegated from Senior level last October while at the other end of the scale Boherlahan mark their return to the second tier for the first time since 2015 with Portroe making way.

The days, weeks and months leading up next weekend’s championship game is full of stories and ideas but not all the same as the players at last Thursday’s launch in Semple Stadium portrays.

Having lost two championship games last year, to Lorrha in the North final and Thurles Sarsfields in the county quarter final, Burgess will play Killenaule on Friday evening. They were very disappointed to have lost both games but winning North Tipperary Premier Intermediate title just fourteen days old Burgess beat neighbours Silvermines in the North final will erase the disappointments.

Their captain Ronan Tucker sounded relieved to have the victory put to bed as the manor of their North final victory proved as his team has the ability to ride the setbacks as their late late comeback proved. “The game ebbed and flowed. They went up a couple of scores and then we got a few scores and we left it until injury time before we took a two point lead and we were lucky to hold on to it. We spoke a lot about the hurt to the team last year when we didn’t see out games,” said Patrick.

“Those two teams (Lorrha and Thurles Sarsfields) ended up in the county final. We were very disappointed with those two games. We are working hard to rectify that over the next couple of weeks,” added Patrick.

Clonakenny reached the county semi final but lost to Lorrha last year and their team joint team captain John Joe Ryan hopes to make amends when they face newcomers Boherlahan. His team suffered defeat in the Division 3 league final against Cashel last May.

“We were flying it in the league but were disappointed to lose the final. Not been clinical enough seems to be our problem and it was also the problem in the Mid semi final against Upperchurch Drombane when a few things could have worked in our favour but we were up against a Dan Breen semi finalists from two years ago. We were disappointed with last year’s semi final defeat but Lorrha showed their quality in winning the county final and that what we have to aspire to,” said John Joe.

Aidan Moloney will captain the Newport team. Newport avoided relegation last year after they defeated Portroe in the relegation final twelve months after surviving a relegation semi final tie.

“It is well highlighted that Newport are going through a transitional period. Over the last two years we have lost up to ten starting players. We have lost Conor O’Mahoney, Sean O’Brien probably two of the best men to wear the purple and gold of Newport. We have added some younger players this year and they have brought great energy to the team. We are very confident in making a mark this year,” said Aidan.

The third round defeat to Silvermines in 2023 was one of the reasons why Newport had to negotiate relegation. Silvermines sharpshooter Jason Forde scored the winning goal in that game which saved his team for 2023. Two weeks ago, Silvermines coming up just short against Burgess in the North final. They are in a tough group with Ballina, Upperchurch Drombane and Carrick Swan to contend with. Both Upperchurch and Swan won their respective divisional finals two weeks ago while their first round opponents Ballina will provide stiff opposition as all local derbies do.

“We saw Upperchurch come back down and Carrick Swan are very strong in the South. We know Ballina from playing them in the North. There is no easy game and we will have to bring what we did in the recent North championship and even more,” said Jason.

“Look, relegation games are a real dogfight but our lads have upped the training and getting to the North final will surely bring the lads on. We had the Under 19s winning the North final and the Under 21s winning the County so we are bringing them on. Remember they have experienced A hurling along the way which will bring them on,” said Jason.

Ballina’s Terry O’Halloran sees his club on a dual role hurling and football and good planning is necessary if there is to be success. He is looking forward to next weekend’s challenge but felt that Ballina let the north Tipp semi final slip from their grasp. As well as taking part in the Premier Intermediate Ballina have the county senior football championship to contend with and Terry was asked if mixing the two codes at a high level and at the same time was a problem for Ballina.

“It’s easy when you have too good managers. You have to have the understanding that you need to play (practise) more hurling and football. We are very lucky with our coach and management. Its works out very well between the two coaches,” said Terry.

The last word goes to Boherlahan team captain Mark Downey who will lead his team into their first ever County Premier Intermediate Hurling championship game.

“We are looking forward to the challenge ahead. We had a great year in 2023. The league this year went ok and the performance in the Mid championship was ok. We are building slowly but surely. We have a lot of young players,” said Mark. His club has made huge progress since winning the County Junior in 2018.

“Investment in youth is paying off. I can see the players coming into our Premier intermediate team with serious hurling behind them. They are hurling with Harty Cup teams, development squads and we had two boys on the County Under 20 squad this year so we hope to see it all paying off this year,” said Mark.