BY JJ HURLEY
TRACTON'S ascendancy in the Co-op Superstores Premier Junior A county hurling competition will result in another side lifting the Corn Phádraig Uí Mhurchú in the South East Junior A hurling championship next month.
Belgooly and Valley Rovers, both of whom put it up to Tracton in last year’s championship, will be amongst the favourites to capitalise on the latter’s promotion.
First out of the blocks this year have been Valley’s as they defeated a familiar rival over the past couple of years, Belgooly, in the league decider. A game played at championship pace, ended up going to extra-time with Valleys winning out, but Belgooly had played three games in a week, including a county B football semi-final.
Having already stepped out in the Co-op Superstore Premier Intermediate ranks, a number of last year’s faces, including the talented Sean McEntee, Kevin Dart Flynn, Harry O’ Sullivan and Conor Taheny will now be unavailable to Rovers for the Junior A competition. Still, it is hard to write Rovers off even though their opening game against Ballymartle had
Rovers scraping home by the smallest of margins.
Ballymartle followed up that performance with an easy victory over Shamrocks where former Cork minor, Leo Hennessy, showed his class as did Conor Kelleher, Ken O’Callaghan and Cian Barry.
A similar issue arises here in that will the Riverstick side lose players to the upper ranks? Their neighbours Belgooly will certainly be in the shakedown as they showed their class in dispatching a dogged Courcey Rovers in Kinsale recently.
This game was in the melting pot for much of the first half before Belgooly pushed on thanks to the evergreen Barry Dwyer and their talisman, Ryan Long.
They have the power to do the damage up front, with the O’Donovan brothers, Conor and Eoin, but won’t need reminding of last year, as Carrigaline should have been out the gate in their quarter-final by full time.
Kinsale will play in the same group as Belgooly, a team that should be dominating this competition, but keep falling short.
Kevin Cahill and Paul Forde are doing wonders at minor level and it maybe a year or two before the seasiders return to the dizzy heights of the 1980’s in the particular competition.
Having played in the Red FM Division 6 of the county hurling league, you’d expect Kinsale to have improved but John O’Brien can’t expect to shoulder this team on his own.
Ballinhassig might fancy their chances, but their one-goal victory over neighbours Ballygarvan in the opening game of the championship suggests they lack the heavy-hitters in their arsenal, to reach the winner’s podium.
Carrigaline were something of a surprise package in 2024 but with their Premier Intermediate side already losing out, it could be all hands-on deck at that level.
Last year, Carrigaline lost two of their opening games at the higher level and still reached the final as their junior team almost dumped the champions out of the SE competition.
