Oulart’s big chance to win first Leinster title

SO, a Leinster Club hurling final with none of the usual suspects.

No Ballyhale Shamrocks and no Birr. Coolderry of Offaly and Wexford champs Oulart-the-Ballagh will take the field tomorrow in Nowlan Park with plenty of confidence.

Neither side have won a Leinster Club title, however, and consequently there’s little in the way of a form guide if the game’s tight with 10 minutes left. Neither can point to long odysseys of the road to St Patrick’s Day in Jones’ Road.

Oulart are probably a bigger story, thanks in no small part to the profile of their manager, Liam Dunne, and his broadside during the week about the veterans with the Wexford senior hurling team, his next managerial job. A distraction for his current squad of club players, or a deflection of attention? He has experience in vital positions, including Keith Rossiter and Darren Stamp at the back, Rory Jacob up front.

Coolderry, under the cool direction of former Tipp goalkeeper and manager Ken Hogan, have their own agenda; elsewhere in these pages Hogan speaks about their determination to do better this year than they did last year, and putting out a fancied Ballyboden St Enda’s side the last day is a fair indication of their quality and their determination. They had Cathal Parlon to thank for a considerable score from play against the Dublin side and will need him on top form again tomorrow.

On the basis Oulart beat a James Stephens side shorn of the considerable presence of Jackie Tyrrell, suspended in the Kilkenny county final win over Ballyhale, we’re inclined to maintain a question mark over their ranking as favourites. Yet on paper they look to have a little too much pedigree for Coolderry. In those circumstances we go for Oulart.

Verdict: Oulart-the-Ballagh