Junior hurling championship commences
THE Kanturk Co-Op Mart Junior A Hurling Championship opens this weekend where ultimately by possibly late August, the test will determine can anyone halt Castlemagner’s dominance of the John Joe Brosnan Memorial Cup.
Last autumn, Castlemagner basked in glory after a famous triumph to regain a hold of the JAHC title for the first time in 55 years.
On doing so, Castlemagner held the conviction and the energy to seize a prize from a dream season, digging in with intent and when games were in the melting pot, the black and amber clad side possessed the heart and hunger to succeed and overcome Freemount in the decider,
For Castlemagner, it went all the way back to 1964 since their last appeared in a final and further to 1960 to their previous outright win to claim. Castlemagner begin the defence of their title against Millstreet on Friday evening, reviving memories of an epic semi final from last summer.
At their best, Castlemagner blew Millstreet away in the opening half, producing a devastating display of power, pace and skilful play to assume a clear twelve point grip. Millstreet recovered brilliantly to pare back the arrears to the minimum where the resolve of Castlemagner surfaced to take a valuable stepping stone towards outright honours.
No doubt Castlemagner will be keen to make a firm stance towards figuring prominently again on looking to the guidance of David O’Mahony, Matt O’Sullivan, Bryan Barry, Jack Cott and Conor Murphy.
Not much is known on Millstreet, a disappointing league campaign coupled with injury, County intermediate football and exams have severely hampered their preparation.
However with Mark Ellis, Ger McCarthy, Beirtheart O’Connor, Michael Vaughan and Stephen Barrett their remains plenty of hurling within the side and Millstreet usually raise their game for the championship.
Expect little between the sides yet by virtue of competitive fare and morale boosting wins from last season, the initiative appears to rest with Castlemagner.
Not for the first time, Kilbrin and Banteer makes for an outstanding first round tussle. Of course Kilbrin are past kingpins that included dramatic tussles with Banteer though Kilbrin hopes of a five in a row came a cropper last season.
The sides clashed in the 2015 JAHL final, Kilbrin emerging the winners though disappointment surfaced come championship time. Todate, Kilbrin can be reasonably satisfied from league involvement and with William Egan returning, that will boost the play of Daniel Sheahan, Garreth Linehan, Shane Crowley, William Heffernan and Stephen O’Reilly.
Banteer appear to be one of the inform teams from the league on reaching the semi final stage and another tussle with Kilbrin. Key to Banteer’s game are players of the calibre of the Kearney twins, James Twohig, Brendan Withers, Kevin Tarrant and Colm Coughlan.
That mixture of youth and experience is capable of making inroads yet Banteer for the best part have operated second best to Kilbrin in the championship and the latter may be driven towards erasing a disappointing return from 2015.