BIG CATS GO ON THE HUNT FOR CLUB SUCCESS
PRECISELY 174 days after their last All-ireland hurling final at Croke Park, Kilkenny duo Walter Walsh and John Donnelly will return for another.
The Cats colleagues will be on AIB All-ireland club final duty with Tullogher
Rosbercon and Thomastown respectively today.
It will be the AIB junior club decider of 2009 that Walsh will immediately rewind to when he runs out this afternoon against Cork side St. Catherine’s.
Tullogher Rosbercon also made it to that year’s junior final but came up three points short of another Rebel county team, Dripsey. They will hope history doesn’t repeat itself.
The Leinster champions’ form-line is positive, trending upwards ever since they captured the county title with a whopping 18 goals scored in their five games since. Walsh himself has hit five of them.
Former Cork dual star and senior hurling manager Denis Walsh is in charge of his native St Catherine’s and will no doubt have a plan to prevent more goals going in.
John Donnelly, Walsh’s Kilkenny colleague, will line out for Thomastown against Castlelyons in the AIB All-ireland intermediate club decider.
After three county final defeats in four seasons, the Noresiders smashed through that glass ceiling this season.
They hammered Mooncoin in October’s final and haven’t stopped hammering teams since, breezing through
Leinster with a neat 50 points to spare.
Castlelyons have it all to do then but they have shown their resilience. They shook off Kerry’s Crotta O’neills after extra-time in Munster and overcame Tooreen of Mayo after a low-scoring arm wrestle most recently.
Four different counties will be represented tomorrow in the AIB All-ireland club junior and intermediate football finals.
Veteran coach John Evans leads his Cill na Marta intermediate team against St Patrick’s Cullyhanna from Armagh.
While Kerry great Marc O Se is coach of Enda Murphy’s Listowel Emmets team who will face Arva of Cavan in the junior final. It’s 20 years since O Se played in the senior showpiece for An Ghaeltacht.