Novel hurling final pairing product of even title race

Inside Track with John McIntyre

ON the night of April 25 last, there would have been seriously contrasting moods in the Craughwell and Tommy Larkins senior hurling camps after the clubs’ first round championship collision earlier in the day. The promising Woodford men had pulled off a minor surprise in getting their group campaign off to a flying start and would quickly have six points on the board from their first three outings.

Over six months later, however, Craughwell are preparing for their first county final in eight decades, while Tommy Larkins haven’t even qualified for senior A hurling next year. The clubs’ varying fortunes are symbolic of a county championship which has arguably been the most even in years, and has thrown up no shortage of surprise results.

Very few would have envisaged a county final involving Craughwell and Sarsfields for most of that journey. Aidan Ryan and company had to dust themselves down after falling to Tommy Larkins, a process which was hardly routine given the expectations in the parish after their near miss – without Niall Healy – in last year’s semi-final against Portumna. Against that background and often perceived as flaky when the pressure came on, Craughwell were in a hole in late April.

However they have cleared everything in their path since, notably in knock out collisions against Castlegar, Liam Mellows and St. Thomas’. They were in trouble in all those matches, yet somehow found the resolve and tenacity to be ahead at the line. These are qualities not normally associated with them, but Craughwell have toughened up mentally and given their natural hurling instincts, it now makes them a formidable package.

In the past a Craughwell team finding itself six points behind Castlegar and five in arrears of St. Thomas’ in the second-half of both games would not have pulled off successful rallies. They won both those matches the hard way and also held their nerve against Liam Mellows even if opposition free-taker Tadhg Haran let them off the hook in injury time. You need a slice of luck too and Craughwell are starting to get breaks which previously eluded them.

Having contested four semi-finals over the past decade, their qualification for the decider hardly comes out of the blue. They have some quality stickmen in the Healy brothers, Niall Callanan, Adrian Cullinane, Mark Horan, Mark Monaghan and young Thomas Monaghan, while on a going day, both Alan Callanan and Jamie Ryan, are big handfuls for any defence. They also have one of the stickiest markers around in Ger O’Halloran.

When the championship resumed in late September, Sarsfields faced a must-win encounter against Tynagh/Abbey-Duniry given their final outing would see a clash with Loughrea. Former Galway All-Ireland manager John Hardiman hadn’t long taken up a coaching role with them, but he stayed outside the wire in Duggan Park that day and must have been resigned to a short stint with the New Inn/Bullaun men when they trailed by nine points in the final quarter.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.