Ballinamere v Coolderry clash stands out this weekend

By Kevin Egan

The Offaly Senior Hurling Championship match which leaps off the page this weekend is the clash of Ballinamere and Coolderry at St. Brendan’s Park later this evening (Friday).

Ballinamere will be the last of the ten clubs to see action when Simon Whelahan throws the ball in for this one. After Durrow picked up a big win last week, it’ll be fascinating to see if that leads to a bounce for the men in green and gold, with a reasonable amount of overlap between the two panels.

Coolderry, for their part, badly need a win too, as while they played quite well for long stretches against Shinrone, this is too competitive a championship for any team to start with two defeats and still feel like they can put themselves in the mix for the big prize.

And ultimately, the nature of the Coolderry club is such that only winning the Seán Robbins Cup matters, they’ll take no satisfaction from a season where there is nothing tangible won at the end of it.

If Ballinamere can find their form, however, they have a much greater upside. In terms of quality, particularly when it comes to players in their early 20s, they’re as strong as any team out there, but that’s no use if there are a lot of big name players who simply aren’t where they need to be in terms of their mindset, and their hurling.

In the other games, Birr’s excellent first round performance against Kinnitty would suggest that if they continue in that vein tonight (Friday) in Banagher against Tullamore, they’ll make it two wins out of two.

Seir Kieran will feel similar to Coolderry in that they’ll want to avoid a second “honourable defeat” on the bounce when they take on Shinrone tomorrow evening (Saturday), also in St Brendan’s Park – and they’re well capable of doing exactly that too.