Russell Rovers hoping for final flourish in another Cork-Kilkenny junior final

Sunday’s AIB All-Ireland Club JHC final against St Lachtain’s will be Russell Rovers’ second time to partake in the occasion.

Six seasons ago – the last prior to the reformatting of the Cork club championships – the East Cork club won the county JAHC and then claimed Munster glory. From there, they reached the All-Ireland final, losing out to an impressive Conahy Shamrocks side.

That was the sixth junior final to be contested by clubs from Cork and Kilkenny; Sunday will be the ninth as, since the Covid-19 pandemic, only Easkey of Sligo – who lost to Ballygiblin two years ago – have broken the Cats-Rebels duopoly.

Victory for the North Cork side on that occasion was the county’s first junior club All-Ireland since Mayfield won it in 2017 – the city club beat Mooncoin and that victory stands alone as Cork’s only one against Kilkenny opposition since Meelin’s win over John Lockes in 2011.

There is a quirk in that Russell Rovers wear the Kilkenny colours of black and amber but both of their All-Ireland finals against Noreside opposition have resulted in colour-clashes.

Conahy Shamrocks wear amber jerseys with a black hoop and in 2020 they wore a reversal while Rovers were in white tops; this time around St Lachtain’s mirror the vertical stripes and so Dave Dorgan’s side will wear a mainly amber outfit. The hope is that, like the footballers of St Finbarr’s in 1987 and Newtownshandrum in 2004, a Cork club will win an All-Ireland final in alternative gear and then the traditional colours will be on display for the lifting of the trophy. If Rovers captains Ciarán Sheehan and Eoghan O'Sullivan are to climb the steps to accept the trophy on Sunday, it’s likely that his team will have found the net.

Throughout the campaign – five matches in Cork, two more in Munster and the All-Ireland semi-final – the Ballycotton/Churchtown/Garryvoe/Shangarry side have found the net with a comforting regularity. In total, they have raised 17 green flags, with 11 of those having come from the four games after the county semi-final win over Nemo Rangers.

Sheehan and Mark O’Dwyer have one each, with Brian Hartnertt scoring seven, Josh Beausang accounting for five and Luke Duggan Murray three.

It’s the kind of firepower that sets them apart from most other teams at this level and it will be needed as St Lachtain’s have conceded just three goals across the five games they have played since winning the Kilkenny junior championship.

The Freshford club won the All-Ireland junior club title in 2010 and their presence in the final will be the 16th time that a team from Kilkenny has made it this far – 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2023 are the exceptions.

Much like with Kerry in football, junior champions progressing from Kilkenny generally manage to add more silverware. Of the previous 15 junior champions from the county to have made the All-Ireland final, 11 of them have been victorious.

After their All-Ireland semi-final win over Easkey, which came just a week after the Leinster final triumph against Liam Mellows of Wexford, the St Lachtain’s manager Steven Farrell assessed what he felt was a strong performance, based on the hardworking and common-sense principles that we so readily associate with Kilkenny hurling.

“That second-half performance is probably the best we’ve played all year between a number of factors,” he said, “including workrate, ball-to-hand and picking out the man in the right position.”
Key men Brian Kennedy and James Maher missed that game but their absence only served to underline the strength in depth. Liam Hickey was prominent on the scoreboard, as he has been so often during the campaign. Mark Donnelly, along with Maher, has been a regular goalscoring threat and will test a Rovers defence where James Kennefick and Kevin O’Brien have been impressive.

The presence of Kevin Moynihan around the middle could also be a deciding factor for Rovers as they seek to take the final step.