AIB Club Championship: The story so far

If a poll had been taken last September asking supporters to nominate the four clubs most likely to appear in today’s finals, there is little doubt that Ballyhale Shamrocks and Portumna would have featured strongly in the hurling picks. Conversely, it is likely that St Gall’s and Kilmurry-Ibrickane would have appeared well down the list of potential football finalists. However, it would be wrong to suggest from the above that the football campaign was littered with surprises while its hurling equivalent was somewhat mundane.

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It’s true that having weaved their way through the minefield that is the Galway Championship, Portumna qualified for the final with a comfortable win over Dunloy, but Ballyhale’s passage was far from straightforward. Indeed, the Noresiders could well have fallen at the first hurdle when they faced Oulart-the-Ballagh at Wexford Park. It looked grim for the visitors when they trailed by 0-4 to 1-10 after 22 minutes, and although they pulled level before the end of the third quarter, it took an injury-time point from Eoin Reid to force extra-time. A further 20 minutes saw Ballyhale eventually emerge winners by two points.
            
A fortnight previously, another of today’s finalists had also required extra-time when St Gall’s overcame the stubborn resistance of Cavan Gaels at Breffni Park by a couple of points. Two points was again the margin when the Glensmen defeated Pearse Óg, who had finally brought Crossmaglen’s monopoly to an end in Armagh. After that it was plain sailing for the Antrim champions as double-digit winning margins were recorded against both Clontibret and Loup.
            
Portlaoise looked the side to beat in Leinster but nobody did. Easy wins over Mattock Rangers and Seneschalstown set up a semi-final meeting with Clara. The original fixture at O’Moore Park had to be abandoned early in the second period with the home side struggling, but they made no mistake the following weekend, winning by 1-9 to 0-3. Garrycastle provided stern opposition in the final at Tullamore, but Barry Fitzgerald’s goal early in the second period effectively sealed the victory.
            
That same afternoon, Kilmurry-Ibrickane caused the shock of the Championship when they defeated Kerins O’Rahillys in the Munster final at the Gaelic Grounds. It appeared the game had gone as predicted when the Kingdom representatives goaled a minute into injury time, but that score was disallowed for a square ball and when play swung to the other end, Evan Talty coolly slotted over the winner for the Clare champions (0-7 to 0-6). It had been the Banner side’s third goalless win of the campaign following victories over Dromcollogher-Broadford (0-11 to 0-5) and Stradbally (0-9 to 0-6).     

Click here to read a preview of the football final. 
            
In the small ball equivalent down south, Newtownshandrum took the honours with three hard-fought successes against Thurles Sarsfields, Adare and Ballygunner with winning margins of one, three and two points respectively. Indeed, that three-point victory over the Shannonsiders was the biggest winning margin of an ultra-competitive provincial campaign.
            
Alas, after Ballyhale’s escape from Wexford Park, the same could not be said for Leinster, where the champions retained the provincial title with something to spare. Four goals was the margin against Ballyboden St Enda’s and in the final against Tullamore (surprise winners of the Offaly Championship for the first time since 1964) there was eight points between the sides at the final whistle.
            
The Connacht Football title was also retained by the defending champions. Corofin recorded comfortable wins over Glencar-Manorhamilton and Charlestown, but against St Gall’s in the All-Ireland Semi-final a few weeks ago, the Corribsiders faced their first test of the campaign. Gary Sice was both the hero and the villain of the clash, scoring the equalising point in the final minute but then getting sent off for a second yellow card in extra-time, after which the Ulster champions pulled clear. Kilmurry-Ibrickane joined the northerners in today’s final with a hard-fought win over Tír Chonaill Gaels of London in the quarter-final and a surprisingly comfortable one against Portlaoise in the penultimate round.
            
The hurling semi-finals were contrasting affairs. As mentioned earlier, Portumna always had something in hand against Dunloy, but very little separated Ballyhale and Newtownshandrum, with Henry Shefflin’s 13-point haul eventually helping the Kilkenny champions into their sixth final by a margin of two points.

Click here to read a preview of the hurling final.