Mount Sion plan assault on Munster title

WITH a record 32 county senior hurling titles safely under wraps, Waterford champions Mount Sion are turning their attentions to the upcoming Munster club championship, determined to emulate the feat of arch rivals Ballygunner who won the provincial title with victory over Cork’s Blackrock last December.

Manager Jim Greene, an unapologetic hard task master, will be gathering his troops this week to plan their assault on that Munster title, with Adare or Ahane, who meet in next Sunday’s Limerick decider the first round opposition at Walsh Park on October 27.

Mount Sion was the first Waterford club to bring that provincial title to the Decies in 1981 and there was no

further success until the Gunners made the breakthrough last December.

“With home advantage in the first round and another home game against the Tipp champions if we qualify for the semi-final, we certainly have had the luck of the draw,” said Greene.

“We would dearly love to emulate Ballygunner’s feat, and in the year when Waterford regained the Munster senior hurling championship after a lapse of 39 years, victory in the provincial club campaign would round off a very special year for Waterford hurling.”

Greene said they will have a get together more for a general chat than anything else, before the end of this week and next week resume full training for that October 27 date with the Limerick champions.

Fulsome in his praise for the commitment of his players since the start of the year, Greene said their training sessions totalled 99 and they had played 25 games including, championship, tournament and challenge.

“With so many players (seven) involved with the county senior team, we weren’t always in an ideal situation as far as the club was concerned,” Greene said. “However our county players did their very best to divide themselves in two as it were, and they certainly reaped their just reward last Sunday.”

Greene rated Sunday’s title win “one of the sweetest of them all”.

“We were facing not only the defending county champions but also the reigning Munster kingpins and we knew the Gunners wouldn’t surrender those two titles without one almighty defence of them.

“In the end we were relieved to hear the final whistle, and that’s just about the best tribute I can pay the

Gunners.”

Although Colin Corkery led Nemo Rangers to victory for the second successive year when they beat Bishopstown in the Cork SFC final, he will not captain Cork next season.

“There is a rule in Nemo which stipulates a player may only captain the club for two years. My term as captain is over and whoever Nemo appoint as captain for the coming season will automatically captain Cork next year.”

Of his Cork captaincy, Corkery said: “It was “disappointing to lose, in the manner in which we did, to Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final. I think we were a bit naive, lulled into a false sense of security after winning the Munster championship. Over the campaign we were not consistent and we were unable to handle the atmosphere the revamped Croke Park poses.”

Naturally, he would love to win an All-Ireland senior medal but it is not his priority: “My big aim is to win an All-Ireland club medal with Nemo. We have lost the last two finals and I would give anything to be on the

rostrum at Croke Park on St Patrick’s Day with the lads I grew up with.”