New era with first North Premier Intermediate Championship

GAA: Savvy Kitchens North Tipperary Premier Intermediate Hurling Championship Preview

By Shane Brophy

It’s a new era for North Tipperary divisional hurling as the first ever Premier Intermediate Hurling Championship gets underway next Saturday.

With the full splitting up of the Dan Breen and Seamus O Riain level teams at county level, it meant divisional championships had to be established for the O Riain level teams with seven clubs battling it out in the North to be the first winners of the Liam Devaney Cup, in honour of the late Borris-Ileigh and Tipperary great.

While all seven clubs involved would have been competitive in a North Senior Championship, winning the ultimate prize from a second-tier position was becoming increasingly difficult so having the Liam Devaney Cup to play for is a realistic chance of silverware for all seven clubs, going into the Seamus O Rian Cup proper in the county championship.

BALLINA

Ballina are entering new territory as a dual club after winning last years junior ‘A’ football championship, going all the way to a Munster Final and they will hope the momentum from that run will benefit their hurling in 2022 according to Michael Breen.

“The camaraderie and bond that was built last year through the football carried into the start of this year,” he revealed.

“You could see that through the league and getting to the final, losing narrowly to Burgess. It definitely brought is on a journey the whole community was involved in. It kept the off-season very short.

“We have a lot of young guys coming through that have been competing and winning at ‘A’ level and with Tipp. Those guys have given an injection of energy into the set-up, football and hurling. It’s exciting to be involved in Ballina at the minute and hopefully we can convert it into trophies and win a few things.

BURGESS

Burgess will be idle in the quarter finals having secured the bye to the semi-finals and await the winners of Portroe or Ballina.

2021 was a difficult year with Burgess only saving themselves from successive relegations when defeating Lorrha in a playoff final last November and the shock of that has provided a spark in training according to Kieran Ryan.

“We are coming off a bad year last year,” he said.

“We felt we left ourselves down last year so there’ll be an extra bit of edge to get back at it and get back to where we should be.”

They have rebounded well by winning Division 3 of the County League, defeating Ballina in the final and with Brian ‘Chopper’ Hogan at the helm full time, will feel they should be looking upwards in this campaign.

KILADANGAN

Kiladangan are entering their third year in the second tier which is a credit to a club of their size to be so competitive.

“It’s a good sign when your second team is at this level,” admitted Ruairi Gleeson.

“The first year was about staying up and we did by the skin of our teeth against Ballingarry. Last year we kind of exceeded our expectations by getting to the county quarter finals so it was great progress.

“This year again we’ll be up against it, but we’ll aim to play to our best and see where that takes us.”

With their senior team hit with injury and player unavailability, this premier intermediate team could find the going tough but should be at their strongest for their quarter final with Silvermines.

“We are still up against it and playing other clubs first teams, but we’ll give it a go and hopefully the last two years will stand to us going forward.

“It is great to have this competition in the North and have another chance to win some silverware as well,” Gleeson added.

NEWPORT

Newport were one of the big disappointments of last years championship after reaching a county semi-final in 2020, they failed to emerge from their group, despite producing some good performances but their inconsistency from one game to the next really hurt them and that is one aspect they are keen on rectifying according to player Peter O’Sullivan.

“Last year we played unbelievably well in two or three games but then in the Clonakenny game we fell apart,” he said.

“Having a good consistent year would take us a long way. That is something we will have to figure out.

“We are hoping for the first match to get off to a good start and see where we go from there. Obviously, Roscrea will be fairly tough, and it will be a good measuring stick of where we are going. If we can get on well the sky is the limit after that.”

They will have to do it without the experienced trio of Sean O’Brien, who is abroad, while Conor O’Mahony and Andrew Hickey have called it a day at this level, with county board secretary Tim Floyd at the helm of his native club.

PORTROE

Portroe were one of the unluckiest clubs in the 2021 championship where they missed out on the knockout stages by the slenderest of scoring difference.

They will be hoping to have a greater slice of luck this year but are focused to take things into their own hands according to county man Robert Byrne.

“We were probably one of the unluckiest teams last year, but it is something we didn’t reflect on too much,” he said.

“We took good few learnings from last year on and off field and are really looking forward to the two upcoming championships.

“We have a dingdong battle with Ballina coming up which they always are. The way it is now, no matter who you get.”

ROSCREA

Roscrea are arguably favourites to win the first North Premier Intermediate title, as well as the County Championship.

They were relegated from senior last year for the first time in their history but have gone all in this year to bounce back immediately with Liam England, who guided Moyne-Templetuohy to Intermediate success last year, hoping to work the oracle in his home club.

“We were very disappointed last year to go down,” admitted Enda Moloney.

“We feel on our day we can mix it with the best of them and it is definitely a driving force to get back to senior.

“Not too long along we won a minor county final and we have seen a couple of boys coming from that team. You need young lads coming through and keeping it fresh.”

SILVERMINES

Silvermines are another club in this competition that are hoping for better after a disappointing 2021 where they only just avoided being in the relegation playoffs with a last day group day win over Templederry. However, they did show in that game against the future county champions of the potential they have.

“It was up and down last year,” admitted Darragh Noland.

“We never really got going but have new (management) in this year and I think we are progressing nicely and hopefully next Saturday goes our way and get up and running.

“We just need to get a bit of momentum going for our team, we are a young team but are up and coming. We have been together for a bit now, but momentum is key and if we can get a win under our belt we can progress on and hopefully win something later in the year.”