Club Hurling drama providing a Summer treat

By Shane Brophy

The common perception is that the 2026 senior inter-county hurling championship didn’t live up to much, but that certainly that cannot be said of the Tipperary senior hurling championship so far.

Last Saturday was arguably one of the greatest days in the illustrious history of the competition with all five games determined by a puck of a ball, the accumulated winning margin of nine points.

Sunday didn’t follow entirely the same way although Kilruane MacDonaghs did require an injury time recovery against Upperchurch/Drombane to stay alive while seven late points saw JK Brackens pull away from Toomevara, with Nenagh Eire Og the only winner that had the opportunity to ease home as they got the better of CJ Kickhams Mullinahone by eleven points, although without captain Jake Morris who is nursing an Achilles issue.

They will hope he is available to play in the final round where their clash with great rivals Toomevara is now a winner-takes-all for second place in the group behind table-toppers JK Brackens, with Cloughjordan on Sunday, 23rd September set to host one of the games of the round.

Ahead of the final round, the only certainty is that Cashel King Cormacs and JK Brackens have won their respective groups and are safely into the quarter finals on the weekend of 12/13 September while only Roscrea are officially out of the race for the Dan Breen Cup after another agonising defeat, this time to Drom & Inch, and how face into another relegation battle.

Everything else remains to be decided, the three remaining relegation playoff berths, as well as how many preliminary quarter finals there will be, which are likely to be two as barring a heavy loss to Borris-Ileigh in their final game, Moycarkey/Borris look like they will finish in the top two in group 2 forcing two of Loughmore/Castleiney, Clonoulty/Rossmore or Borris-Ileigh into the preliminary quarter finals.

With one of these three clubs set to finish bottom of the group, it will delay the relegation playoffs as a club can extricate themselves if they go on and win the county championship, which is an anomaly that needs to be revisited where if a club at least reaches a semi-final, they have no business being one of the four best as well as the four poorest clubs in the grade.

Premier & Intermediate

In the race for the Seamus O Riain Cup, the premier intermediate grade is a little clearer with Golden Kilfeacle, Killenaule and Lorrha all having won their groups and through to the quarter finals with a game to spare.

The biggest story so far is that back-to-back defeated finalists Carrick Swan are out of the running after their second consecutive defeat and will be involved in the relegation playoffs along with Templederry Kenyons and possibly Silvermines who will finish bottom of their group regardless of the outcome of their game with Moyne-Templetuohy, but get a second chance via a preliminary quarter final as the North champions, of which there will be two games in that round as one of Mid champions Thurles Sarsfields or South champions St Mary’s will require that route.

Their clash will be one of the key winner-takes-all games from the final round as well as Gortnahoe/Glengoole v Sean Treacys and Moneygall v Burgess while Ballina, Boherlahan-Dualla and Eire Og Annacarty/Donohill will fight it out for the remaining knockout berth in their group.

In the Intermediate championship, Kilsheelan/Kilcash look the class apart at the moment after another impressive win, this time against North champions Portroe. However, they aren’t quite qualified as they have to play last years runners-up Knockavilla-Donaskeigh Kickhams yet but their score difference is strong.

So far, Ballingarry, Borrisokane and Arravale Rovers have secured places in the quarter finals with Shannon Rovers v Clonakenny and Newport v Moyle Rovers two of the key games in the final round, with the relegation spots set to involve at least Ballybacon/Grange and Carrick Davins with the remaining two teams to be determined.