Hurling Final preview
Hurling Board Chairman Gerry Minnock presents the Longford Senior Hurling Championship Cup to Wolfe Tones captain Joe Dempsey on Saturday last at Pearse Park.
After their failure to play last year’s Senior Hurling Championship title decider for different reasons, Clonguish and Wolfe Tones, Mostrim will contest the 2012 final with the battle for the JJ Duignan Cup down for decision at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park on Saturday evening next, throw-in 4.30pm.
The Edgeworthstown club were bidding to complete a tremendous five-in-a-row of senior hurling titles in 2011 but that opportunity never materialised amid all the controversy surrounding the staging of the county final which was originally scheduled to be played in August but the game did not go ahead.
Clonguish last won the senior hurling championship title back in 2006 but were most unlucky not to have beaten Wolfe Tones in the 2010 decider. Three late points earned the Edgeworthstown outfit a draw they did not deserve and the reigning champions eventually got their act together in extra-time in coming out on top to retain the county title.
There are now just two senior hurling clubs in Longford with Slashers not competing this year and but at least Clonguish and Wolfe Tones were involved in a number of competitive games in the new Tain League which proved to be a success.
Several clubs from the northern half of the country took part with Clonguish winning Division 5 of the Tain League earlier this year, beating Louth opponents Pearse Og 1-14 to 1-12 in the final after extra-time at Breffni Park in Cavan.
Joe O’Brien was very much the main man in that notable Clonguish success and the accurate forward should be very much to the fore in the county final on Saturday. Other dual players expected to be in action for the hurlers will be Brendan Burke and Paddy Dowd while Ciaran Finnucane, Stephen Connolly and Ciaran Corcoran were members of the Longford team that played in the Lory Meagher Cup this season.
With Seamus Hannon now exiled in London, the regular key figures on the Wolfe Tones team are Sean Browne, Thomas Stakem, Benny Stakem, Martin Coyle, Paddy Cullen and Mark Cassidy and it remains to be seen if all those experienced players will start in the final.
On the basis of their Tain League triumph, a hesitant vote goes to Clonguish to capture the JJ Duignan Cup but Wolfe Tones will be very determined not to relinquish the county hurling title in the usual tough clash between the clubs.
PREDICTION: Clonguish
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Weather for Longford, Ireland
Sunday 19 May 2013
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 10 C to 17 C
Wind Speed: 5 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 8 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North west
