Junior Hurling Championship Final preview
Bagenalstown Gaels and Ballinkillen meet in the JJ Kavanagh & Sons Junior Hurling Championship final on Sunday Photo: Pat Ahern
From a long way back, the junior hurling final looked destined to be between these two clubs. That is no disrespect to any of the other teams in the competition. They are the second teams in the club where both Ballinkillen and Bagenalstown Gaels are fielding at senior level. Those two second teams are lined with talent and experience. In the semi-finals, Mount Leinster Rangers came ever so close before succumbing to the Gaels. Ballinkillen won their game in the first half but Carlow Town hurled with pride before making their exit. Those performances suggested the eventual finalists have plenty to work on.
The Ballinkillen full-forward line is influential. Marty Dalton is almost unstoppable at this level. Damien O’Neill is strong and has so much experience. Cian O’Neill will feed off anything which the other two don’t avail of. Having someone like Padraig Kinsella to come in off the bench is always good to have too. Lauren Kinsella backbones the Ballinkillen centre role position.
On the other side, while they have players like Liam Cummins and Ronan Minchin to call on in defence, Bagenalstown Gaels will have to find another way if Paddy Abbey fails to overcome an injury he picked up in the semi-final. Oisin Dillon scored four priceless points against Rangers.
Despite that, it is hard to look past Ballinkillen. Teams sometimes fail to perform at this stage while others, with nothing to lose, give it their all, play with abandon and carve out a result. This is what Bagenalstown Gaels will have to do. Ballinkillen still have the edge and have enough players in the panel who know what has to be done.
Ballinkillen
Bagenalstown selector David Kelly is a selector on the Bagenalstown Gaels junior hurling team. He has been given the PR role by manager, Jamie Whelan, who has a lot on his mind this week.
“Jamie is getting married on Saturday. Six or seven of our players are going to the wedding. I believe Ballinkillen have a few lads who have holidays planned so it suits everyone,” says Kelly speaking on behalf of a whole panel.
His assessment of the group game where Ballinkillen won easily enough in the end in McGrath Park is much the same as the opposition.
“It was a game where we pressed one another for a while. Ballinkillen then used some of their bench and so did we. We knew the game wasn’t going to make a difference.” The beauty of the group games means teams can have an off-day and still rebound with effect.
“We were beaten by Mount Leinster Rangers in the group games and we overturned that in the semi-final. We hope to do the same in the final on Sunday,” says Kelly.
Bagenalstown Gaels beat Rangers in the semi-final. 2-9 to 1-9. That scoreline looks more like a drab football game on a wet day. Yet both sets of supporters got behind their teams and a close and tense finish saw the Gaels sneak home.
“We had a great first half. They had a good second half. It was a funny game. When Rangers had the wind, they only scored two points and when we had the wind we only scored 1-1. Peculiar. Thankfully our backs stood strong in the heat of it in the last ten minutes. They hassled and carried well. They closed it down well and Rangers didn’t get the shots off,” explained Kelly.
Bagenalstown have injury worries. Paddy Abbey scored a great goal in that last four game. There are others.
“Three lads are fairly doubtful. Paddy Abbey came off and it is not looking great for him. He has been fantastic. I had Paddy when he was a minor. He is as good now as he was then. He is big into his fitness. He minds himself and it is telling. He is a dynamo in the middle of the field,” says Kelly who doesn’t mind being asked how he predicts this one will go.
“They have a strong full-forward line which will be hard stop but it will probably come down to whoever works the hardest will win the match.”
“It can be a mistake. It can be a miss. It can be anything.”
So says Tony Meaney the Ballinkillen manager as he is asked how he thinks the final is going to go on Sunday. His side have played seven games in the league stages and have won them all. They beat the side they are playing next Sunday in their final game.
“Twenty minutes of proper hurling and shadow boxing after that,” remarked Meaney who estimates that group game means little now. At best Ballinkillen laid the merest of markers.
“You would like to win it. It was a game in the group stage. It is well within their locker to win it.” He says, in a matter of fact manner, that he knew the team had good reason to be confident in 2025.
“I would have been disappointed if we weren’t there. When we sat down and saw what players we had available to us we knew we had to be close,” he says. There are plenty of ways to let a season go awry. Ballinkillen stayed focussed and here they are now.
“I suppose at the start of every year you would hope to reach a final. As the year goes you don’t know how injuries go. This year with Carlow Town and Setanta in it, there was a good few games so it was every week for about eight weeks. It was heavy going.” Amazingly after those seven games in the group followed by a semi-final, Ballinkillen have a full-strength panel to select from.
“We are good to go. Nothing really that will prevent people from starting. It is a good headache. It is a headache you would not be too familiar with in our club. There is always someone injured,” notes Meaney who says the rivalry will be intense as both sides go in search of glory. When it is over that is where the edge will disappear.
“Bagenalstown will have prepared well. We will shake each other’s hands at the end of the game. Whatever way it is, that is what it is. That’s it.”
