AN all-West Cork final remains a real possibility in the Co-Op Superstores Confined Junior B Hurling Championship.

While Bantry Blues face Araglen on Sunday in Brinny (3pm), St Oliver Plunkett’s take on Castlemagner in Coachford (3pm).

The two Carbery clubs already met in the championship’s group stages with Plunkett’s coming out on top in Dunmanway (2-12 to 1-13).

In that game, Darragh McCarthy and Roy O’Driscoll scored the goals for the Ahiohill club while Darragh Murphy, Niall O’Driscoll and Conor McCarthy were on the scoresheet too.

Since then though, Bantry have been on a three-game winning streak, beating O’Donovan Rossa (3-9 to 1-10) and Delanys (4-18 to 2-9) to finish top of Group 4 before narrowly seeing off Gabriel Rangers (1-13 to 1-12) in the quarter-finals.

Both local sides will have difficult tasks in trying to navigate their way to the decider though.

***

Araglen and Joe O’Donnell’s Bantry Blues have been the form teams heading into the semi-finals.

The Avondhu club have beaten Castletownroche (5-25 to 1-10), Castlemagner (3-12 to 1-16) and Ballinacurra (5-14 to 0-7) in the group stage before dismantling Doneraile (1-20 to 1-10) in the quarter-finals.

One constant in their game, other than their winning habit, has been goals. They have managed to score three or more in three of their four games. Bantry have conceded a goal in every game so they will have to be focused from the start.

Araglen, located on the Cork, Tipperary and Waterford border, have a great spread of goalscorers too. Aaron Hegarty, Eoghan Leddy, Donnacha Kenneally, Peter Finn, Ben Carey, Shay Russell and Jack Kearney have all found the net in this championship.

For the West Cork club, Darragh McCarthy, Tom O’Donnell, Arthur Coakley, Seánie O’Leary, Alan O’Sullivan, Shane Murray, Stephen Coughlan, Jack McCarthy, Ronan O’Mahony, Billy Sheehan and Jack Sheedy have all been on target in this championship.

Whoever wins this game will fancy themselves to win the county title with both topping their group and both carrying great form.

Expect this to be an entertaining clash.

***

St Oliver Plunkett’s, who won the title in 2023, know what it takes to succeed in this competition and have put together another strong campaign.

The 0-14 to 0-8 defeat against Delanys was a setback but they recovered well with comfortable victories over O’Donovan Rossa (1-21 to 0-11) and Ballyphehane (5-14 to 3-10).

While Roy O’Driscoll was the obvious star in their recent win with 4-2 from play, Aaron Lehane and Ciaran Dullea have also struck goals in the last two games.

Darragh Murphy racked up 0-16 against Rossas and Ballyphehane, while Mike Keohane, Niall O’Driscoll, Brian Walsh, Conor McCarthy, Jamie O’Neill and Mike Collins have provided extra scores.

Like Plunkett’s, Castlemagner finished second in their group behind Araglen.

Their tight game against the table-toppers ended in defeat, but their wins over Ballinacurra (0-14 to 0-7) and Castletownroche (0-17 to 1-13) made sure they qualified for the knockouts. A comfortable win over Crosshaven (5-10 to 1-11) earned their place in the last four.

Plunkett’s will be confident of reaching the final and, if Bantry Blues can do likewise, it would underline the strength of Carbery hurling right now.