IAHC: Bandon seek to benefit from experience

Bandon can draw on two types of past experience as they gear up for Saturday’s Co-op SuperStores IAHC final against Aghada at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh (5pm).

The Lilywhites are in the decider for the second straight season, having lost to Aghabullogue by a point last year, while their last tie of the season is the same as the first, having beaten Aghada in their round-robin opener back in July.

For Bandon manager Joe Burke, those factors can provide some assistance in preparing for another decider, but equally, the past is the past.

It was November 16, 2025 that they took on Aghabullogue, with the Coachford side’s progress in both codes causing a delay that meant six weeks had passed since Bandon’s semi-final win over Sarsfields.

Though Matthew Bradley struck a late winner to give Aghabullogue a 1-21 to 0-23 triumph, the experience is something that Bandon banked.

Having topped a group featuring Aghada, Kilbrittain and Russell Rovers, Bandon secured a bye directly to the IAHC semi-finals and victory there over Midleton sent them through to a second straight final.

“There was a lot of fellas that it was their first time playing in the Páirc last year,” Burke says, “so you're looking to take the benefits of that, playing in a county final is familiar to us now, but at the same time it's completely different.

“It's obviously a new year. We set out at the start of the year like all the other teams in the competition, everybody dreamt of getting to a final.

“We just took it game by game, treated it as two separate competitions, really. First and foremost, you just wanted to get out of the group and see where you went after that, be it a quarter-final or a semi-final.

“We just wanted to get out of the group and we didn't look any further – to be honest, we didn't look beyond any game.

“We had Aghada first, then Kilbrittain, then Russell Rovers, we didn't look beyond any of them.

“Will it stand to us? I don't know. Maybe we’ll figure that one out on Saturday!

“It's definitely more familiar than it was, I suppose, coming into last year's final.”

In their first outing this year, Bandon won by 2-24 to 1-24 against Aghada in Church Road. The east Cork side then drew with Russell Rovers before victory over Kilbrittain gave them the runners-up spot.

In the knockout stages, they saw off Mallow in the quarter-finals and then Sars in the semis to set up a re-match. Does the previous result give Bandon an advantage?

“We played them in the first round and it was a really tight game,” Burkea says.

“Like any game in that round-robin, there was only a puck of a ball between any of the teams.

“Are we familiar with them? Not really, I suppose – we played them once but before that we hadn’t played them in years.

“We were just looking after our own corner, making sure that we did our very best to get to a final and whoever we were going to come up against, we were going to come up against.

“You just take it from there and go for it.”