‘We had a session on Stephen’s Day at 9.30am’

An All-Ireland final appearance next month in Croke Park is the prize on offer as Cloughduv face Dunnamaggin in tomorrow’s junior hurling club championship semi-final in Fraher Field, Dungarvan. The Cork representatives finished 2018 as kingpins of Munster. It is now seven weeks since they defeated Waterford’s Ballinameela in that decider in early December at Mallow.

Truth be told, their passage to the All-Ireland series never looked in doubt, and they will be keen to replicate that high level of performance. It also brought the curtain down on a long but ultra-productive season. A welcome break? Maybe, maybe not?

Cloughduv were ready to go three days later with a crucial Cork U21A hurling championship semi-final to be decided against Fermoy. They duly secured their place in the final the following Sunday before losing out to Bride Rovers.

While the games schedule briefly ran dry, it wasn’t long before they were back out on the training field.

Sean Holland is the club’s busy PRO. He is also an important cog in the Cloughduv backroom team alongside Tim Barry Murphy, Tomás Twomey, Derry Keane and Paddy Maher. He said the downtime was short — by design.

“We were back the week after the U21s and we trained right up to Christmas. We had a session on St Stephen’s morning at 9.30am before the Long Puck. That was a good work out, the turkey and ham was well run off.”

Standing between Cloughduv and a shot at further glory is Dunnamaggin. Any team from Kilkenny is usually a force to be reckoned with. The Black and Amber’s record in Leinster club finals speaks for itself. Dunnamaggin boast a crop of young emerging talent following recent underage success coupled with the more experienced players — namely the likes of inter-county legend Noel Hickey.

They are a bit like ourselves. Their U21s had a good run in the championship, they got to the county semi-final and were only narrowly beaten by Ballyhale Shamrocks. A lot of those U21s are on the team. Any team coming out of Kilkenny has to be respected. And of course there is such great rivalry between Cork and Kilkenny which adds to the occasion.

Since this competition was set up in 2003, Kilkenny sit top of the All-Ireland role of honour with seven titles, followed closely by Cork who are five-time winners. And if further evidence of the competitiveness between these counties was needed, just two years ago Mayfield and Mooncoin played out a thrilling final before the Rebel outfit claimed the silverware by a point. Cloughduv might be a mere one game away from a run out at the Jones Road venue, however Holland assured their minds are firmly fixed on this penultimate round.

“We have a huge task but the focus is on tomorrow only. Croke Park might just be a step away but we still have to get over this match. We do have players who have sampled the big occasion with Canovee (All-Ireland junior football club winners in 2008) and we will be hoping that their experience will rub off on the lads.”