Coolderry primed for final test

Today is the biggest date in the GAA club calendar, with the All-Ireland senior hurling and football finals being held at Croke Park.

For Coolderry and their captain Cathal Parlon, however, bidding to overcome the considerable challenge of Antrim champions Loughgiel Shamrocks, this is just another ‘biggest date’ in a whole series.

Late in November there was the Leinster decider against favourites Oulart The-Ballagh; then just over a month ago there was the All-Ireland semi-final against Galway champions Gort. So where must this one rank? Parlon laughs: “It has to be the biggest day in the club history — again!”

Both finalists are something of a surprise packet. Both are county champions for the second successive year but while Loughgiel reached the All-Ireland semi-final last year and ran O’Loughlin Gaels a lot closer than the scoreline (3-10 to 0-10) suggests, Coolderry were beaten in their first provincial outing by Westmeath champions Raharney.

Loughgiel would have fancied their chances of getting back to an All-Ireland semi-final again and their eventual extra-time eight-point win over Limerick and Munster champions Na Piarsaigh should have surprised no-one.

Coolderry, however, weren’t even that fancied to get out of Offaly again, and having done so, well, with the champions of Kilkenny and Dublin waiting, not to mention the experienced Oulart The-Ballagh, theirs was going to be a far more challenging journey.

“We weren’t really rated,” Parlon admits. “I suppose that goes back to Offaly hurling not being rated at the moment either. But we always have the confidence we’ll play well against the bigger teams. No disrespect to Raharney, they beat us on merit, but I suppose an Offaly team getting beaten by the Westmeath champions meant we were looked down on a little. “But what a difference a year makes. Looking back now it’s easy to say it was great for us, but I wouldn’t have said that at the time!”

Much of the credit for the turnaround in Coolderry’s fortunes is down to manager and Tipperary legend Ken Hogan.

“He’s the kind of manager that would put his arm around you, keep you going, but you wouldn’t want to cross him either! His preparation for every game is top-class, he pushes everyone every day, and I suppose he learned from last year as well, that maybe we slacked off after winning the county.”

A few minutes in Hogan’s company and you understand what Parlon means. First there’s ‘the arm around you’, the acknowledgement of what Coolderry have done so far: “I think it’s important to harp on that – you can’t make apologies for being where you are. We’re here on merit, we’ve worked very hard to get here.

“It’s a strange type of championship because you could come out in February a different type of team than you were the previous November and we’re very conscious of that fact too. But the Leinster club championship helped us in that they were big challenges. Now that we’re here we’ve got to justify being there and show what we’re about. This is a huge privilege for both teams and a huge opportunity.

“It’s going to be one of those games where whoever comes out of the blocks, whoever hurls well enough and hangs in there until the bitter end, will probably be team lucky enough to prevail.”