Kilkenny duo eyeing up big All-Ireland hurling club double success

There will be a distinct Kilkenny and Cork flavour to proceedings in both the All-Ireland intermediate and junior hurling finals in Croke Park this Saturday as both Thomastown and Tullogher-Rosbercon face Leeside opposition in their quest to bring home the All-Ireland titles.

The two clubs will be facing into their second ever All-Ireland deciders after both appeared in Croke Park over a decade ago to mixed results.

For Thomastown, it will bring back fond memories of their greatest day when they won the All-Ireland junior title back in 2013.

For Tullogher, they will be hoping to make up for their final loss at the hands of Dripsey in 2009.

The double-header will kick off a huge week for Kilkenny hurling with O’Loughlin Gaels facing St Thomas of Galway in the senior decider on Sunday, January 21 - the possibility of three national titles coming back to Kilkenny is very much alive.

Intermediate

In many ways, Thomastown have already achieved their objective in ensuring that they will be playing at the top tier of Kilkenny hurling in just a few short months.

Right from the moment the final whistle blew at the end of last October’s intermediate county final, the South Kilkenny side were touted as the team to beat in the All-Ireland series. Now it’s just Castlelyons who stand in the way of them clinching those end of season honours. This will be the first time since 2019 that a Kilkenny side contests a final at this grade; on that occasion it was Tullaroan who collected the All-Ireland title when beating another Cork team in Fr O’Neills.

Tullaroan have since gone on to compete very well in the latter stages of the senior championship in Kilkenny and that is something many people are tipping Thomastown to do later this year.

The ’Town would love nothing better than to go into the senior campaign as All-Ireland winners and they are very strong favourites to do so.

Their East Cork opponents have been on a similar trajectory in recent seasons to Thomastown and after three previous final defeats, they finally won the county premier intermediate title this term when defeating Kilworth in the final.

They’ve since overcame Clare’s Corofin in the Munster final but arguably their most impressive win to date came when seeing off last year’s beaten All-Ireland finalists Tooreen in the last four before Christmas.

Unlike Thomastown, they have been involved in a lot of close tussles so far this season and in the likes of Colm Barry, Colm Spillane, Alan Fenton and Anthony Spillane they are very dangerous opponents.

It’s almost impossible to look beyond this Thomastown team though as over the course of their seven championship games through Kilkenny and the Leinster and All-Ireland campaigns, they have found the net on 24 occasions as they accounted for Fenians, Dunnamaggin, Mooncoin, Cloughbawn, Kildalkey, Bray Emmets and Setanta of Donegal.

The experience of Thomas O’Hanrahan and Jonjo Farrell, who were both around for the club’s last All-Ireland success, is added to by the attacking prowess of John Donnelly, Stephen Donnelly, Luke Connellan, Robbie Donnelly and Peter McDonald and with aces to fire all over the pitch, they should have enough to celebrate another milestone success.

Junior

Prior to the intermediate decider, Tullogher Rosbercon will look to finally win an overdue All-Ireland title when facing St Catherine’s in the junior final.

Tullogher were in the exact same position 15 years ago and they’ll be hoping for better luck against Cork opposition than they had when Dripsey ousted them on a 2-15 to 0-18 scoreline.

Rather like Thomastown, the Kilkenny junior champions have had things mostly their own way after emerging victorious from the county championship.

Wexford’s Fr O’Regan’s Craanford and Offaly’s Carrig-Riverstown gave Tullogher something of a game but with such threats as Kilkenny star Walter Walsh, Conor Hennessy and Cian O’Donoghue as well as young prospects Danny Glennon and Marty Murphy, the South Kilkenny side have advanced to Saturday’s final in fine style.

St Catherine’s should provide worthy opposition but while Tullogher are chasing a third trophy of the season, the Cork side are chasing only a second after they lost out to Erin’s Own in the county junior final before claiming Munster honours.

St Catherine’s route into provincial fare arrived after Erin’s Own defeated them in Cork but with second teams ineligible to march on, they claimed the spot of the junior champions.

Something similar happened in Kilkenny a few years ago when Conahy Shamrocks claimed All-Ireland glory on the back of losing out to O’Loughlin Gaels second string side in the Kilkenny junior final.

A one -point win over Sligo and Connacht champions Easkey in the last four has seen the East Cork side advance to a trip to Croke Park where they will look to back up Ballygiblin’s victory from a year ago.

A tight encounter is anticipated but if captain Pat Hartley can help keep things tight at the back and the forward division gets enough ball, there is plenty of firepower to see Tullogher over the line.