Magnificent 7 battle it out for Frank

GAA: The Hibernian Inn North Tipperary Senior Hurling Championship Preview

By Liam Hogan

Following an unforeseen lengthy senior inter-county campaign, it’s straight into the club season for all and sundry as the first round of the North Tipperary Senior Hurling Championship gets underway on Sunday with three games.

Borris-Ileigh

Borris-Ileigh’s James Devaney, or JD as he is better known, has no North championship medal to his name, yet. A winner of a Munster Minor medal plus a Munster & All-Ireland Under 20 medals in 2019, will hope to see his club bridge an eight year gap by winning the Frank McGrath for the sixteenth time this year.

The next few weeks will define that but, in the meantime, Borris-Ileigh have prepared well. As one of those clubs not hampered by having too many players on the inter-county scene, the club captured the Division 1 County League title with victory over JK Brackens in the final.

“We put a target on the County League,” he said.

“We weren’t missing a lot of bodies but for Ray & Paddy McCormack on the senior panel, plus Tom Delaney who was with the under 20s, and it was a good starting point.

“We have Dan McCormack back full time. He is our captain while we are not sure about Brendan Maher yet. He hasn’t decided yet if he will hurl this year yet.

“We have Jerry Kelly back from America. Things are going well under David O’Connor, Paddy Stapleton, and Niall McGrath.”

Borris-Ileigh lost to Kiladangan in last year’s quarter final and to add salt to the wound they failed to reach the knockout stages of the county championship and ended up in a relegation battle which they won.

Borris-Ileigh has a bye in the quarter finals.

Kiladangan

Having appeared in eleven North senior finals in seventeen years, one could term Kiladangan as specialists now. The holders have nine to their credit and Alan Flynn, who has been their captain for the last three years, led them to a 1-22 to 1-19 final victory over Toomevara last year.

The former Tipp All-Ireland winner led his team to county honours in 2023 but they failed to retain the title after losing to Moycarkey/Borris in the quarter final. Their preparation for this year’s championship haven’t gone according to plan with form in the league very poor. Alan suggests that the absence of players on the Tipperary panel has made life that bit difficult.

“Tipp are going very well but you are waiting to see what is going to happen,” he said.

“We stayed training away and get the odd challenge game in. Some of the players tried to get their holidays in and around the time of the County league,” said Alan who leads a team determined to win and other North and go one better than their disappointing county quarter final loss last year.

“We are determined to win as much as we can,” he added.

“Last year, we took our foot of the pedal in the county quarter final when we were firmly in control. We were caught and it was totally our own fault. But it’s a learning curve. The last few years have been good to us. Now we back to a first round clash with Roscrea in the quarter final and that is our focus,” said Alan with John O’Meara from Sixmilebridge staying as manager for a third year with former Tipperary player and coach Declan Fanning joining the back-room team with trainer George Hannigan, and selectors John Hassett and Martin Minehan.

Kilruane MacDonaghs

Defender James Cleary admits that Kilruane MacDonaghs had a mixture of good and bad last year starting with a disappointing defeat to Templederry in the North quarter final, and the aim is to hit the ground running better this year, starting against Nenagh Eire Og on Sunday.

“Nenagh are strong and will be even stronger when they get the county boys back into the team,” Cleary said.

“Last year, we didn’t perform against Templederry in the first round when we lost by ten points. Maybe it was the wake-up call we needed.

“We went on and beat Borris-Ileigh in the county championship and qualified for a quarter final against Loughmore/Castleiney. We were doing well in that game but gifted them two easy goals something you don’t need to do against a team like Loughmore. We know ourselves we made silly mistakes.

Cleary first played senior in 2013 and has one North senior medal from 2017, adding a county medal in 2022, and is hoping the later start to the championship will be worth the wait.

“Preparations are going okay. We are buying a little bit of time with Tipperary going so well,” he said.

“We have a few niggling injuries plus holidays and J1s so with so many absentees Kilruane didn’t do so well in the County league. We were struggling with numbers all along,” said the vice-captain under skipper Niall O’Meara. Thomas Williams remains as manager but former Tipperary star John O’Dwyer is in as coach while respected Galway player and manager Fergal Healy is also part of the backroom team, along with stalwart selector Christy Morgan.

Lorrha

Lorrha love facing Toomevara as evidenced by some great battles involving the teams over the years. With eight north senior medals to their name, Lorrha’s last North win was in 1989 when they defeated Toomevara in the final, and current manager Ken Hogan was the captain that day.

“There were always great battles. They always bring out the best in us,” he said.

“Toomevara had a great season last year in both North and County championship. Getting to a county final was a huge achievement for such a young team. Ken Dunne has done great work as manager.”

“We have Lee Hogan and Liam Donoghue coming into the set-up. Unfortunately, our biggest stumbling block is injuries we have lost Darragh Guinan to a cruciate injury. At twenty years of age, it is such a huge blow. Potentially he was showing great form.

“Tom Duggan appears to be in trouble for the championship. Eoin McIntyre has some worries also while Daniel Donoghue is another absentee.

“Otherwise, our league preparation was good for us. We were in a position to play a lot of our team because we had no inter-county players.”

John Benton is in as coach this year in a backroom team which contains Shane Brophy and Willie Fogarty, added to by Barry Moran and Niall O’Meara for this campaign.

Nenagh Eire Og

Conor Ryan captains the Nenagh senior hurlers this year. The experienced defender has played for the Sky Blues since 2014. He made his first championship start the following year and has won three North senior medals so far.

By Nenagh’s standards, 2024 was a disappointing year when Nenagh lost to Toomevara in the semi-final, and to Thurles Sarsfields in the county quarter final. However, the year’s league has been a benefit to the club.

“We have had a decent league and probably a puck of the ball away from a final,” he said.

“The last few years we didn’t give the league the respect it deserves. This year we focussed game on each game. We have a few new players coming on stream like Jake Houlihan and Billy O’Brien, although Billy is recovering from injury.

“To see Jake Morris, Sam Farrell, Josh Keller, and Mason Cawley coming back will be a massive boost to the team. We are training hard but getting over Kilruane will be our main target. We can’t really look beyond that. It’s a big game.”

Nenagh have a new management team with the 2022 mentors Noel Maloney and John Brennan back in charge, joined by Hugh Maloney.

Roscrea

Roscrea enter the senior championship for the third year after promotion from Premier Intermediate grade in 2022.

Roscrea’s best performance in the North Championship was last year against Toomevara in the quarter final when losing by a point. Defeats to Moycarkey/Borris, Mullinahone and Thurles Sarsfields meant a relegation battle with Templederry which they won with a bit to spare meant there were lots to do when preparing for this year. They competed well in this year’s League under new manager Paudie Bourke.

“We were competitive enough and probably could have won one or two more games,” said the Clonmore native.

“It was all about getting to know the players what with new management, but we got plenty of good game time into the lads.”

He added: “We have a few injuries at the moment and a little tight on bodies. Lee Cashin, our free-taker, is out for the year with a broken ankle. There, a few niggling injuries we hope to get back over the next few weeks with Michael Campion and Sam Dooley both carrying knocks. We have a few lads in America like Kenny Lee and Conor Dooley, and they won’t be back for the North championship.

He relishes the challenge against Kiladangan, a team that has great battles with over the years.

“Kiladangan are the standard bearers and have been over the past few years. We are under no illusions. We will be going in as underdogs and we will be putting the best foot forward and see where that takes us,” Bourke said, who is joined on his management team by JK Brackens clubmate Shane Scully and Stephen Butler.

Toomevara

It’s hard to imagine a prolific club like Toomevara haven’t won a North Senior title since 2011. The 2024 beaten North and county finalists hope to correct that statistic and manager Ken Dunne, who won nine North senior medals, isn’t reflecting on the past.

“2024 is over and we kick off again,” he said.

“We are looking forward to getting going.

“Our preparations were different this year because getting to the county final last year we didn’t get back to training until later this year. As a result, the league was a little bit difficult for us but still we used every game a preparation for championship.

“We were able to give a lot of new faces a chance and give some other players a rest. The split season has been good. I can’t see any reason to go back any other way unless they can tweak the scheduling of it a little bit.”

He added: “The Frank McGrath Cup is always a great championship. We didn’t win too many for years leading up to 1991. It’s important to win. The link with the Dan Breen is important and if it were taken away it would reduce the importance of the divisional title.”

Liam Ryan will captain Toomevara for the second year running and the defender - who hopes to win his first north senior medal to add to his two under 21 titles.

“Last year was disappointing,” he admitted in coming up short in two finals.

“We were nearly there but didn’t get over the line. The lack of experience on the big day cost us a little bit.

“I remember growing up watching Ken and all the great Toome teams winning and coming back to the schools with the cups. I was always looking forward to the North championship. It’s a great competition and one we would love to win again.”

Toomevara have the same backroom team of Joe Hayes, John Manley, Francis Devaney, and Philip Shanahan, but Ballinahinch native and current Tipperary minor coach Cormac McGrath has replaced Shane Hassett as coach.