Premier Junior Hurling final: Ballygiblin believe while Tracton seek intermediate return

BALLYGIBLIN are in the unusual position of being one game away from contesting the Munster Club JHC for the second year.

With Cork County Board rebranding the Lower IHC as the Premier JHC, it meant a provincial championship spot for the fifth-tier winners compared to last year, when Ballygiblin’s JAHC victory saw them go on to win Munster and compete in the All-Ireland final.

The momentum gleaned from that has brought them through a group featuring Argideen Rangers, Ballygarvan and Dripsey. Having earned a bye past the quarter-finals, an extra-time victory over Russell Rovers brought them to the final against Tracton in Páirc Uí Chaoimh tomorrow evening (5pm).

Captain Fionn Herlihy believes that Cork U20 success for Darragh Flynn as well as the decision of senior panellist Mark Keane to return from playing AFL with Collingwood have been factors in instilling belief.

“It probably all really started with Darragh winning the two All-Irelands with Cork and Mark coming home,” he says.

“We knew there was talent there instantly but it takes a lot and every club would say it. 

A lot of people would have said that we were heartless and gutless but a lot has changed in the last 12 or 18 months.

“There is that inner belief but it’s easy to have it when you’re winning matches, we could lose it again quickly! We haven’t lost a championship game this year so we still continue to have it and it’s a help coming down the stretch in a tight game.

“Again, we’re all realistic enough to know that it won’t last forever so we want to make hay while the sun shines.”

Off the pitch, Herlihy's day job revolves around the GAA too as he is one of the people behind the streaming service PáircTV.

“We stream the Down and Derry championships,” he says.

“We built the platform for it. Pa Magee, our football captain, it was his idea and so himself, myself and Mike Price, who was our football chairman, started it up just before Covid, we probably got lucky with the timing.”

UNLUCKY

Tracton’s Michael O’Sullivan was 20 when he played for the club in the 2010 Premier IHC final, losing to neighbours Ballymartle. Now 32, the former Cork player is keen to win a county medal wearing green and red.

“We had Kieran Kingston involved at the time,” he says, “and we had a crop of players with a great mix of youth and experience.

“I think for the next three or four years, we got beaten by the eventual champions every year – Kanturk knocked us out one year, Newcestown another year, Youghal beat us when they won it – so we were a bit unlucky but it just goes to show that you have to take the opportunities.

You’re down there and you say that, with the history of the club and all that, you feel you should be playing at a higher grade, but the only way to get up there is to win it.

“We’ve been knocking on the door now for the last couple of years. In 2020, we got to the quarter-finals against Kilbrittain and we were beaten, then they beat us in the semi-finals last year.

“The trend is good, at least.”