Shamrocks face Kilkenny men as Ferbane/Belmont minors aim to cause upset

By Kevin Egan

It’s hard to be optimistic about Shamrocks’ prospects against Conahy Shamrocks of Kilkenny, but by Sunday evening they’ll either know that they are in with a great chance of winning Leinster, or else they can draw a line under the year and have a little bit of a wind-down.

Unlike a lot of teams who go through a relegation, Conahy didn’t overhaul their side after dropping to junior in 2024, and while young centre-back Darragh Hennessy has emerged as a key player since they made the drop, it’s more established stars like Edmond Delaney, Tom Phelan and James Bergin - all players who operate along the spine of the team and all former members of the Kilkenny senior panel - who will backbone the team’s charge.

Conahy have experience of this competition and they’ll have their eyes on going deep into the winter, but in a familiar setting in Glenisk O’Connor Park (throw-in 3.30pm) and with plenty of time now to focus exclusively on hurling, notwithstanding the club’s U-20 football quarter-final earlier this week, Shamrocks aren’t without hope.

Minor hurling final tops underage bill

Top of the bill this weekend is Saturday’s Offaly minor hurling final (Birr, 2pm), where Ferbane/Belmont will attempt to upset the odds against Kilcormac-Killoughey, who have another fantastic crop of hurlers and who came through one of the best underage games of the year in the county when they edged out Birr in a thrilling semi-final, 4-22 to 2-25.

There are a fair few survivors from the minor final between the two clubs two years ago (when it was U-17) and Ferbane/Belmont will have their regrets from that afternoon, even if Kilcormac-Killoughey were just about worthy of their narrow victory.

On paper, K-K have perhaps kicked on that little bit more so they will be expected to add yet another trophy to their collection tomorrow, but there is every reason to expect that, hot on the heels of a heart-warming U-20 final, this could be another very entertaining fixture.

Several of those hurlers will then be expected to turn around and pull on the county colours a day later for the first round of the Leinster Schools “Group Team” competition - an away fixture against Laois Schools (LOETB Centre of Excellence, Sunday, 6.30pm)

There’s no doubt that when Offaly Schools won the Corn Uí Dhúill back in 2023, that victory was considered an important part of that prodigious group’s journey that ultimately culminated in that famous day in Nowlan Park in 2024.

Since then however, the other side of the equation has come to prominence. This time last year, a couple of individual schools – most obviously Gallen Community School – were dealt critical injury blows from their players taking part in the combined team, who themselves fell to a surprise loss to Coláiste Mhuire, Mullingar.

Now we see that in the case of a club minor final, which should be the high point of a young hurler’s season (barring a long run with the county side in the first half of the year), instead many of these players, winners and losers alike, will have an hour or two to decompress after tomorrow’s final before they will have to immediately shift focus to another big knockout game.

Either Offaly Schools will lose that tie, in which case there will be legitimate questions about whether it was all worth it, or they will win, in which case the grind continues and the constituent schools all around Offaly will again have to perform another balancing act.

There is no right or wrong answer here and the fact that there are seven combined teams taking part in this round robin series is a sign that the concept is gaining traction. It’s just not immediately clear that anyone involved is thinking about the overall picture, rather than just hothousing the best young players into yet another exclusive ‘development’ environment in the name of short-term gain.