Northern exposure for title-chasing Cork sides

CORK hurling may have its high-profile problems at intercounty level but for two clubs, these are glory days.

County and Munster champions at intermediate and junior hurling level respectively, Blarney and Dripsey are on the threshold of All-Ireland glory as the face into semi-finals tomorrow, favourites to make it to their deciders.

Blarney play Gort na Mona in Kinnegad and while they can expect a tough test from the South Antrim club, it would constitute a major shock if the Cork side were beaten.

Meanwhile, Dripsey face Lisbellaw and the Fermanagh club’s secretary Jacinta Teague is enjoying the experience.

She explained: “Our club is situated up the side of a mountain, about five miles from Enniskillen. It may seem strange to you folk down south but we don’t promote football. Hurling is number one for us. We live for it. Our player base is very small but there is a tremendous love for the game and some of our players travel 20 or 30 miles for training and matches. There are only two hurling clubs in the county which doesn’t help in terms of matches, but we take part in an Ulster and Armagh league which provides us with sufficient games.

“To get to this stage of the championship, we defeated the Monaghan and Cavan champions (after a replay) and then caused a big upset by defeating the Donegal champions in the Ulster final. They were the favourites, but on the day we played extremely well and were full value for our two-points win.

“If we could reproduce that form Sunday I would be very happy. We certainly wouldn’t be disgraced. But I understand Dripsey are a very good hurling team with a couple of players who played for Cork at minor, U21, intermediate and senior level. With that kind of talent, our task is very difficult. Few gave us any chance of winning out in Ulster. We weren’t rated, yet we shocked the favourites in the final and I see no reason why we cannot do the same to Dripsey. Like most rural clubs, we are backboned by a number of families. The McGarry family supplies us with four players, Declan, Brendan, Cathal and John Paul while our captain is Carl Keogh who hails from Co Wexford.”

Counterparts Dripsey, in their fourth year of existence, defeated Diarmuid O’Mathunas to claim county honours before accounting for Kilgarvan in the provincial final.

Their coach John Keane — recently appointed a county senior selector — will have spent hours cautioning his charges against complacency. It’s the one thing Dripsey must guard against.

Gort na Mona are a relatively new club having being formed in 1974, but they have made great strides since, reaching the same stage of the championship in 2006 only to lose out to eventual champions Kylemoredaly (Galway).

Secretary Danny O’Neill said: “This is going to be a massive test for us but it’s one we are eagerly looking forward to. To play in Croke Park in the final has been our objective since that defeat two years ago.”

The Ulster champions will be captained by Sean Kelly and will include the Quinn brothers, Ciaran and Brendan, the latter a member of the county senior team.

O’Neill agreed: “We know we are going in as underdogs, but if we can produce the form which saw off the challenge of Robert Emmetts (London) in the quarter-final, we’ll be in with a great chance.”

The strength of the Blarney team throughout the campaign has been their defence and the Antrim side are unlikely to cause them too many problems. The Muskerry club were surprise but deserving county champions in Cork, playing an excellent brand of no nonsense hurling. While it took them a long time to get on top of Broadford (Clare) in the Munster final, they won that game with plenty to spare.

Like the Dripsey coach, Blarney boss Sean O’Brien knows what it takes to win All-Ireland titles and will call on the experience of Ronan Byrne, James Hughes, Joe Jordan, Mark McCarthy, Darragh McSweeney and John Hurley to secure victory. It’s a long journey up to Kinnegad, Co Westmeath for their followers, but despite being without Denis O’Donovan and Derry Cronin through injury, it should be a very fruitful one.