Ballygiblin have their sights on Mooncoin
A delighted Sean O’Sullivan, who had an outstanding game at full forward, was thrilled with Ballygiblin’s win over Fullen Gaels of Manchester in Sunday’s AIB GAA Hurling All-Ireland Junior Club Championship semi-final encounter.
“We are a small club and to win North Cork, County, Munster and now to be in an All-Ireland final is huge. At the start of the year things did not look so good. Our aim was to do well in the Avondhu championship. We had two County IFC finals to contend with, that came up quickly due to Covid”.
Although Fullen Gaels opened the scoring, Ballygiblin proved far too strong and held a lead of 1-4 to 0-1 at the first water break, extended to 1-12 to 0-1 by half-time. While Gaels registered a healthier scoring contribution of 11 points in the second half, the boys on the border couldn’t be halted and they ran out impressive winners on a scoreline of Ballygiblin 4-20 Fullen Gaels 0-12. Croke Park now beckons on Saturday, February 5th (see match report inside).
Sean and Colin English are the only two players in Ballygiblin’s ranks to have played minor in Croke Park, with Cork and Tipperary. Sean was delighted with the interest in hurling this year and at the moment he feels Ballygiblin have a settled team.
“We will enjoy this evening and look forward to meeting Mooncoin on February 5”.
RONAN DWANE - A DELIGHTED MANAGER
Aghada’s Ronan Dwane took on the job of team manager in May after lockdown. It was a bit difficult at the time, as Mitchelstown were training for a County IFC final that got delayed till August.
“We kept training for hurling twice weekly but numbers were small due to football. Mark Keane’s return was huge to the team. His impact on training lifted the team,” Ronan recalls.
“They gathered the momentum and we had a close win over Killavullen. We then drew with Fermoy. Our third game was against Araglin and we won well. Our team got better as the season progressed. Fellows got confident and we began to win tight games. We drew with Kilshannig in the quarter-final and finished well in extra time. We had a tight game with Charleville in the semi-final. We then won the North Cork JAHC final. Our team has a settled look about it and except for injury to Darragh Flynn, we have had a good bill of health,” he said.
“We came from behind in the county final as we trailed 0-15 to 0-10 against Dromtarriffe. We have a tendency to get goals at the right time and we have a good spread of scorers and free takers”.
KILKENNY OPPOSITION
The All-Ireland final will be the side’s 12th championship game of the season.
“We know that Mooncoin will be tough opposition. They were in the All-Ireland final in 2017 where they lost out to Mayfield. It is great for the parish and for the community in Ballygiblin to be on a winning role. Seeing the huge support we had here today I know there will be a massive turnout to support the team on their biggest day at the hallowed Croke Park,” Ronan said.