All-Ireland junior hurling joy has been hard to achieve for Cork clubs

In one sense, history is not on Kilbrittain’s side going into Saturday’s AIB All-Ireland Club JHC final at Croke Park – but another omen could point in their favour.

At the beginning of December, the West Cork side became the sixth consecutive Cork team to claim the Munster title – a 17th win for the county since the competition was inaugurated in 2001 – but only one of the five before them has gone on to All-Ireland glory and the county is a distant second to Kilkenny on the national roll of honour (six compared with 17).

Cloughduv in 2018 started the run of Cork provincial supremacy but they were unfortunate in that the draw that year pitted the Munster and Leinster champions together and the Muskerry outfit lost to Kilkenny’s Dunnamaggin after extra time.

The Noresiders would go on to beat Castleblayney of Monaghan in the final and four of the five finals since have seen success for clubs from the Marble County – all at the expense of Cork opponents as Russell Rovers (2020 and 2025), Ballygiblin (2022) and St Catherine’s (2024) all endured defeat in Croke Park.

There was no provincial or All-Ireland club series for the 2020-21 season due to the impact of Covid-19 and so the only year to buck the trend of Kilkenny sides beating Cork teams in the final was three years ago.

Ballygiblin were again the Cork and Munster representatives, benefiting a change in approach from the county board. Where previously the fifth tier in the county was called lower intermediate, it was renamed premier junior, with the winners of that going forward to the provincial championship instead of the junior A champions.

Having gone back-to-back with county titles, the north Cork outfit made the most of their extra opportunity and were able to exorcise the memories of their 2022 loss to Mooncoin by coming back a year later and winning.

That year, like the season where Cloughduv won Munster, the semi-final was against Leinster opposition – but, on this occasion, Blacks And Whites of Kilkenny lost the provincial semi-final and so it was Horeswood of Wexford that Ballygiblin played and beat.

Then, when they made it back to Croke Park, their opposition were the Sligo senior and Connacht junior champions Easkey, who will also provide the opposition for Kilbrittain on Saturday afternoon.

A 1-16 to 0-11 triumph gave Ballygiblin the trophy, Cork’s first win since Mayfield in 2017 – Kilbrittain would gladly take something similar when they go head-to-head with the Yeats County kingpins this weekend.

That win for Mayfield bridged a gap dating back to 2011 and Meelin’s win. The Duhallow side’s victory left Cork top of the roll of honour with four titles to Kilkenny’s three, following in the footsteps of Ballinhassig, Fr O’Neill’s and Dripsey.

However, in between that and the northsiders going all the way, the Cats’ representatives won four of the five editions of the championship and have only solidified the county’s advantage since then.

Obviously, the Kilbrittain team are looking to win for themselves, their club and their community first and foremost but they are also proudly carrying the Cork flag – as well as having the honour of being the first West Cork club to grace the Croke Park turf in hurling.

The fact that Easkey have been there before may be something that will count in their favour – it surely helped their conquerors, Ballygiblin – but ultimately it is the events on the pitch on Saturday that will dictate the outcome.

In winning the county and Munster titles and then triumphing in an All-Ireland semi-final, Kilbrittain have had to show a lot of mettle and if they are not ascending the steps of the Hogan Stand, Easkey will certainly have had to earn victory.