Premier JHC: St Catherine's look to draw on experience as semi-finals beckon

St Catherine’s have experienced a range of highs and lows since the Cork county hurling championships were restructured six years ago.

Twice the Ballynoe/Conna outfit have reached the final of the Co-op SuperStores Premier JHC, losing to Erin’s Own in 2023 and Russell Rovers a year later. In the first of those seasons, as the champions were the Caherlag club’s second team, Catherine’s represented Cork in the Munster club championship and won that, going on to reach the All-Ireland final in Croke Park.

Back in 2021, when the competition was known as the lower intermedaite championship, Catherine’s experienced the thin edge of the wedge – while they overcame Milford and Barryroe in their first two games, a defeat to Ballygarvan left a three-way tie on four points, with Catherine’s finishing third behind Milford and Ballygarvan on scoring difference.

Such an outcome was a possibility as they went to Páirc Uí Rinn for Saturday’s clash with Tracton but previous wins against Cloughduv and Milford were followed by an 0-16 to 0-14 victory, sending Catherine’s directly through to the semi-finals as one of the top two seeds.

For selector Brian Sheehan, it was a case of getting the result required.

“Yeah, look, from our perspective it's job done,” he said.

“We knew Tracton were going to be a huge battle there and we’re certainly happy to come through with the win – we ground it out, which is good.

“Certainly, there’s a lot of work to do over the next four weeks between here and the semi-final, a lot of scores missed there on the first half and plenty of room for improvement, but happy to be through.” Catherine’s had a lot of the play in the first half but some wayward shooting meant that they only led by 0-8 to 0-6 at half-time.

As news came through of Cloughduv winning the other game, the fear of missing out was receding for Catherine’s – but if they had lost, they would have finished second to Tracton on a head-to-head tie-breaker.

The lead was never lost though and, while Tracton were back to within a point, Eoin Davis’s massive free near the the end secured the win. In the process, it knocked Tracton out, allowing Cloughduv to take second place.

“I think we knew at half-time we were on top in a lot of positions,” Sheehan said, “we were actually hurling reasonably well, we just weren't converting on the scoreboard.

“But, with the nature of Tracton, we were going to have to grind it out for the second half. It got quite tight, but fair play to our guys, the 15 that started and the three subs, they dug in deep.

“The last ten minutes wasn't ideal but, look, we got there in the end, we have six points and we're through to a semi-final in four weeks' time.” The longer wait presents a challenge but better to be there than not, especially with plenty of experience of the latter stages in the camp.

“Our target was to get to the semi-final,” Sheehan said.

“There’s a big football game next weekend, a do-or-die match, and most of our lads are going to be playing in that, so being through to a semi-final gives us a little break.

“There’s a lot of experience in the dressing-room and some of the elder lads there today stood up – Dan Mangan, Brian Mulcahy, Conor Hegarty, I think that experience pulled us through. “We'll improve over the next four weeks, we've got a bit to do, but we’ll be back in the semi-final in four weeks' time.”