This Sunday at 3.30pm Nowlan Park is the place to be when O’Loughlin Gaels and Carrickshock will contest the highly anticipated senior county final and set out to win the Tom Walsh Cup. This exciting showdown comes from two exciting and nailbiting semi-finals. O’Loughlin’s joint manager Mick Nolan is excited about this Sunday’s showdown. “We can’t wait now, we’re really looking forward to it,” he said. “We’ve put in all the hard work to get here and now we’re just ready.” As for the opposition, Mr Nolan has plenty of respect for them. “They are powered by five county men and have a fine side, however we have our stars too and it should make for a very good and enjoyable final.” Having suffered injuries earlier in the year O’Loughlin’s are back on track. “We are now injury free and have Martin [Comerford] and Brian [Hogan] back to full strength and we are just ready for battle.”
Carrickshock manager Brendan Fennelly is optimistic about this Sunday’s final despite a few niggly injuries. “We are looking forward to it now, however, we do have a few niggly injuries but thankfully nothing too serious, but we took it easy after the semi-final just not to overwork the players or run the risk of any serious injury.” Fennelly sees O’Loughlin’s as a very strong side and all even in terms of skill. “We think the teams are even, they have great players too on their panel, and it will be whoever gets the breaks on the day— it could go either way.” With O’Loughlin’s surprised victory over the five-in-a-row seeking Shamrocks Fennelly knows what his side are up against. “They are the team to beat, they beat the Shamrocks in the semi-final so naturally we know what we’re up against — but we are confident of our hard work.”
It has been a long time since Carrickshock reached the county final and Fennelly is anxious to break the spell. “We are naturally looking to break the gap, it has been 59 years and our parish and community have been amazing and have really got behind the team, and we would love to make them proud. Now we just look forward to Sunday and go from there.”
Carrickshock bridged a 59 year gap to reach the final of the St Canice’s Credit Union senior hurling championship thanks to a two point victory (1-16 to 1-14 ) over Erin’s Own. Richie Power excelled for the southerners hitting 0-12 (0-9 from frees ) while his brother John contributed the goal.
Erin’s Own put in a tremendous performance battling back from a five point deficit early in the second half to be just a point behind heading into the last quarter. Martin Boran led the way for the Comer men scoring 1-5. However Carrickshock, thanks to the already mentioned John Power and John Tennyson who excelled in midfield, held out to reach the final. The second semi-final was equally exciting with the game in the melting pot right to the end when Niall Mc Evoy got to the end of a Mark Bergin free to score the winning goal for O’Loughlin Gaels and end Ballyhale Shamrocks’ dreams of a five in a row of Kilkenny titles. The John’s Park based team had enjoyed the better of the first half but Shamrocks’ goals in the second half from Michael Fennelly and then Eoin Reid seemed to give the impetus to the southern team. However O’Loughlin’s finished the stronger, winning by 2-16 to 3-10, to set up a novel county final pairing which supporters can look forward to this Sunday — throw in is at 3.30pm.
