Minor hurling: Ballincollg's fate in their own hands as Glen and Douglas remain in hunt
Conn O'Donoghue and Oliver Haynes Barry, Douglas, battle with Diarmuid Wall, Glen Rovers. Picture: Jim Coughlan.
Ballincollig’s fate is in their own hands as they take on Glen Rovers in the Premier 1 Minor Hurling Championship on Tuesday night.
The Village know that a win, or a draw, will be enough for them to top the group and go straight through the semi-finals of the championship. They have been the form team of this championship so far and have had big wins over Douglas and Aghada in their opening two rounds.
Douglas were last year’s beaten finalists but the Village showed them no mercy in the opening round as they ran out winners by 1-25 to 1-13 and it could have been more. In that game, they dominated from start to finish and were by far the better side.
Eoin Dwyer was unstoppable in attack hitting 1-15, with Theo Morgan also getting in on the scoring act. Centre-back David O’Leary was also outstanding, in what was an overall quality team performance.
For them it was all about backing up that result away to Aghada and they did so in style with another impressive 6-29 to 2-11 victory. Corner-forward Tadhg Murphy hit 2-5 from play and Eoin Dwyer scored 13 points, 0-6 from play. Jack Murray was also razor-sharp.
This is testament to a lot of hard work put in the management of this team over a number of years, led this season by Ken O’Connell. They were unlucky last year not to progress beyond the quarter-finals and will be determined to do so this time around.
They will be hoping to make home advantage count tonight as they take on the defending champions, who simply have to win to stay in contention.
The famed northside club had a good win over Aghada in their first game, but then lost out to Douglas in round two, in a quality tie. Going into that Douglas knew they had to win or they were gone and managed to gain some bit of revenge for last year’s loss.
The Glen have been here before and in last year’s group stages they lost their first game and then went on an unbeaten run of five games to win the county title. They will now need to do the same if they are to have any chance of retaining their title.
They are more than capable of doing so and it should see a huge crowd at Ballincollig tonight for a group-defining encounter.
The other group game sees Douglas at home to Aghada and the home side also need to win to have any hope of going through. Credit to Douglas they put their opening round display behind them in that clash with the Glen to get back on track.
They were helped with the likes of Marc O’Brien, Ronan Dooley and Jack O’Brien back in the side. They are three key players for Douglas and they, along with a few others, were missing for the Ballincollig game. They now need to win again tonight to secure at least a play-off spot as they bid to stay in the championship.
But despite two losses, Aghada won’t make it easy for Douglas.
In this complex group wins for Aghada and Ballincollig would then see the former, Douglas and Glen involved in a three-way playoff to see who goes through. Ballincollig would be straight into the semi-final.
So all sides have a massive incentive to win tonight, with the Village and Douglas hoping for victories to go straight through and knock the others out.
Ballincollig v Glen Rovers, Douglas v Aghada, both 7pm.
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