East Cork Junior A Hurling final preview: Erin's Own bid to stop Cobh's double drive

IT’S East Cork final week with the blue riband competition, the East Cork Oil JAHC final bringing together Cobh and Erin’s Own in a novel final pairing in Carrigtwohill on Saturday (4pm).

Both teams will have huge motivation — Cobh lost to their opponents in the semi-final last year, while Erin’s Own then lost the decider to St Ita’s.

On the back of their semi-final wins last Sunday both will be looking to produce a top hour of hurling again and bring home the famous Jamesy Kelleher Cup.

Victory would complete a remarkable double for Cobh — 26 years on from Fr O’Neill’s winning both codes and 46 years on from Cloyne’s all-conquering campaign in 1976. Erin’s Own, on the other hand, have seen all three of their adult hurling teams reach the business end of their respective championships. They last won the JAHC in 2007, three decades on from when their first team were the dominant force in the division before moving on to lofty heights.

In this year’s championship, both sides have ticked all the boxes. They go into the final with unbeaten records, having collected seven from a possible eight points in topping their respective groups. It led an automatic passageway to the penultimate round where both responded to the challenge.

Erin’s Own forced extra-time late against St Ita’s at Lisgoold before winning 4-16 to 2-19. Cobh had more daylight on the scoreboard in defeating Midleton by 0-16 to 0-9 but it was not as comfortable as the seven-points margin suggests.

Cobh manager Seamus Ryan acknowledges that it has been a hectic few weeks.

“There was little time to dwell on any game this year; instead it was straight on to the next challenge. This week it's recovery, assess how everybody is, and get rest in for the players. It’s not a week to do a whole lot, in that way hopefully we can be in the best possible shape for Saturday.

"There was a great bounce off winning the football, particularly when we had the flip side of the situation last year.

"After losing the football final in 2021 we had to face Erin’s Own in the hurling semi just six days later and it was a very difficult task. This year we had a whole emotional hangover that we had to take into consideration. 

The lads celebrated, we then trained lightly and thankfully it worked right for us in the semi-final. Let’s hope we can do it right again in the final.”

Cobh’s key result this season was probably their narrow win over champions St Ita’s first day out. They looked in control in the second half but had to hang on for a narrow win.

However, they had a crucial brace of points in the bag against one of their main rivals which gave them a cushion. A draw with Midleton and wins over Sarsfield’s and Carrigtwohill left them in good shape as group winners.

POTENTIAL

Erin’s Own’s form was similar to that of their opponents. They shared the points with Carraig na bhFear in a high-quality game early in the championship and despite losing a few players to senior ranks, they looked impressive in wins over Killeagh, Watergrasshill and Fr O’Neill’s.

They are also by far the highest scoring team in the championship and had a points difference of +57 at the end of their group games.

Centre-back Ian O’Mahony has been one of the lynchpins of the team and says everybody is really looking forward to Saturday.

“Ita’s were well over us in last year’s final when we didn’t really play to our potential. That was on our minds on Sunday and we were lucky to get out of it with a win. There was very little between the teams. I suppose we had luck in the end, but we got our reward for just hanging in there. Looking back on our campaign, the addition of a lot of young players has really brought a lot of training."

After a period without silverware, Ian says a win would be a great boost to the club.

“It’s been a few years since we got a bit of hurling silverware, whatever you can get your hands on means a lot. Any game you play you want to win — from Premier Senior to Junior C. Cobh will be favourites, they are having an unbelievable year and we will be up against it.”