Ballybrown bidding to break Patrickswell's spell

It’s as local and personal as you can get for Tom Ryan. His parish makes up a senior county final. His own Ballybrown play Patrickswell, which his father Willie helped to create. And yet he is bothered by it.

“People tell me it’s great to have two teams from the one parish in a county senior final but I wonder if it is. I’d be looking at the broader picture and I would believe that doesn’t reflect well on the county.”

He couldn’t call it a rivalry. This is the neighbours’ fourth county SHC final and Patrickswell are looking for their fourth win. But for his father relocating to the Ballybrown part of the parish, Ryan may have well have won as many as the nine medals Richie Bennis claimed with the ‘Well.