Christy O'Connor: Ballygiblin hurlers one win away from returning to Croker Park

IT’S just over 20 years now since then GAA president-elect Seán Kelly warned of the consequences for the association of neglecting club activity in favour of increased inter-county games.

At an event in Dublin, Kelly expressed the view that the status of the club championships had been enhanced to the stage where they deserved an expansion on the national stage.

“I would really like to see an All-Ireland Junior club championship introduced,” said Kelly in 2002. The competition was that year, with the establishment of the first All-Ireland Junior football championship, while the first All-Ireland Junior hurling championship was staged in 2003.

The competition structures were expanded more over the following two years, with the inaugural All-Ireland Intermediate football championship taking place in 2004, followed by the hurling equivalent in 2005.

Kelly’s GAA presidency will always be defined by Rule 42, and the opening up of Croke Park, but the renowned GAA commentator Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh once said that the formation of the All-Ireland Junior and Intermediate club competitions were Kelly’s “best and most appreciated innovation”. Kelly acknowledged as much in his book. “I can see his (Ó Muircheartaigh’s) thinking,” wrote Kelly. “Now all players can aspire to winning divisional, county, provincial and All-Ireland medals each year.”

Given that the finals were played in Croke Park, the formation of the competitions was also hugely important in the context of offsetting some of the discord many GAA people felt towards the association about opening up Croke Park to other sports.

That ill feeling though had been bubbling beneath the surface long before Rule 42 was even passed at GAA Congress in 2005. When former Wexford hurling manager Liam Griffin spoke at an event in Cork in 2003, he was quizzed about the possibility of opening Croke Park to other sports. In response, Griffin told a story of an interaction between himself and a young member of the Burt club in Donegal.

“He said that David Beckham had a better chance of playing in Croke Park than he had,” said Griffin. “The young lad said, ‘It’s because I hurl and I’m from Donegal. We are not wanted there’.” 

TOP STARS

When Croke Park was finally opened up, and the top rugby and soccer stars had access to headquarters, it was important that club players across the board were also granted that right.

When the first All-Ireland Junior football and Intermediate football finals took place in 2003 and 2004, they were played in Castleblayney and Portmarnock. The first All-Ireland Junior and Intermediate hurling finals were played in Walsh Park and Thurles in 2003 and 2005 respectively.

After Rule 42 was passed through, the All-Ireland Junior and Intermediate finals were given a permanent slot at Croke Park. Having that target to aim for added further credence and importance to the All-Ireland finals. Especially when the competitions reached out to the GAA proletariat everywhere.

Since the Junior and Intermediate competitions were inaugurated, club football teams from 18 different counties, along with John Mitchel’s from Lancashire have reached All-Ireland finals. Twelve different counties have been represented on the winner’s podium.

In hurling, club teams from 19 different counties, along with Fullen Gaels Lancashire plus Robert Emmetts, Kilburn Gaels and St Gabriel’s from London have reached All-Ireland finals, with ten different counties, plus Robert Emmetts, being represented on the podium.

The real beauty of the championships is their massive breadth. In total, 71 different clubs have played in All-Ireland Junior and Intermediate football finals. In hurling, 61 different clubs have participated in those finals.

Unlike the senior championship, the environment for serial winners doesn’t really exist. Only seven clubs have managed to return to an All-Ireland football final, in either the same, or both grades; Ardfert, Cookstown Fr Rock’s, Finuge, Carbery Rangers, Rock St Patrick’s and John Mitchel’s.

In hurling, nine clubs have managed that feat; Ballinhassig, Fr O’Neill’s, Charleville, Mooncoin, Conahy Shamrocks, St Patrick’s Ballyragget, Fullen Gaels, Bennetsbridge and Carrickshock.

Ballinhassig won a Junior title in 2003 before losing the Intermediate decider in 2006. Fr O’Neill’s were Junior champions in 2006 before returning to Croke Park for the Intermediate final in 2020, which they lost to Tullaroan in an epic. Charleville reached a Junior final in 2012 and an Intermediate final in 2019 but lost both games.

Stepping up a grade removes the same propensity for repeat winners as there is in the senior club championships. Ardfert though, stand apart because they are the only club to have appeared on the All-Ireland stage at these levels on three occasions; they won the Intermediate championship in 2007, just 12 months after they’d won the Junior title; Ardfert also returned to win the 2015 All-Ireland Intermediate title.

Carbery Rangers are also deserving of special mention for how they recovered from losing an All-Ireland Junior final in 2003 to winning the All-Ireland Intermediate crown a year later. 

The achievement was all the more unique again considering they didn’t even win the Cork championship that year – Ross were nominated to represent Cork in Munster after losing the county final to Nemo Rangers.

On Saturday though, Ballygiblin are trying to do what no club has managed before – reach successive finals in the same competition. A restructuring of the format in Cork facilitated a pathway that was never available to Junior champions in the past but Ballygiblin still had to beat teams ranked higher than them last year to win the inaugural Premier Junior hurling championship.

And now, like so many clubs before them, Ballygiblin stand on the cusp of trying to create more unique history through the All-Ireland Junior and Intermediate championships.