Cappoquin and Feakle do battle for Munster Final Spot.

Cappoquin make their Munster Club Championship debut on Sunday afternoon at Sixmilebridge when they take on Clare Champions in the semi final stages of this years Munster Intermediate Club Championship where the prize on offer to the winners will be a meeting with Kerry Senior Champions Lisnaw or Limerick Intermediate Champions Bruff in the Munster Final.

Both sides have qualified for this game with an impressive run of results behind them.

The Clare champions played three games in the league stages of their championship while the Cornerstone Club men played four league games before they reached the quarter finals of the championships.

Feakle in their first championship game had a 3-19 to 2-11 win over Corofin and followed that up with a 2-19 to 1-9 win over Newmarket-on-Fergus and rounded of the league section of the competition with an impressive 0-24 to 1-12 win over Parteen.

In the County Semi Final they had it much tougher against Sixmilebridge. In a high scoring game at the end of the hour just one puck of the ball separated the sides, the side from North-East Clare winning 2-16 to 2-15.

The County Final for Feakle was a repeat of their last game in the league section of the competition, taking on Parteen at Cusack Park.

They had a great opening half to this game cracking four goals in the first thirty minutes and went to the dressing rooms with a 4-5 to 1-6 lead.

Both defences were much more on top in the second half. Feakle in the second thirty minutes added just five points but did enough back in September to win 4-10 to 2-12.

Readers of what happens in different counties during the different championship will know that very little is recorded on what happened in this game, but after match activities were well recorded.

In a lot of team sports there is a need for segregation, but there is no such need for it when it comes to the GAA. Everybody knows or should know of the great family spirit that exists when it comes to the GAA.

I saw this for myself just twelve months ago when my Aunt died, and my Father (who has since died) when it came to getting to his sisters graveside, four or five members of the GAA Club came together and lifted him in his wheelchair to the graveside, and something similar happened after the Clare Intermediate County Final when members of the club went to an area of the stand set aside for wheelchairs and brought the wheelchair bound club president to be with them for the celebrations before going to receive the cup.

The Clare County final may have been played back in September, but the Clare champions have not been idle since as they have played out the remaining league games the Clare Champion Cup where they finished second in division 1B and only a week before Cratloe played in the Ballygunner in the Munster Senior Club Championship Feakle played Cratloe in the semi final of the Cup and put up a good performance, but were to finish second best loosing 0-18 to 1-9.

Cappoquin too have impressed up to now. They are knocking at the door with some while when it comes to the Intermediate Championship in Waterford and it was only a matter of time before they won it.

They began their campaign with a 1-20 to 1-11 win over neighbours Tourin and then had a big 4-20 to 1-10 win over Abbeyside

 An Rinn who played in the Senior championship in 2013 and who it could be argued were somewhat unlucky to be relegated and maybe not to have reached the quarter finals of the competition, beat Cappoquin in the third round of the competition on a 4-12 to 1-15 score line but Cappoquin got back to winning way in round four with a 1-13 to 0-9 over Brickeys.

An Rinn were again to be Cappoquin’s opponents in the semi final, and would have gone into that game confident of beating Cappoquin for the second time this year, but the second game played between two sides in a short space of times is often the hardest to win and this time Cappoquin gained revenge for the earlier defeat winning 2-12 to 1-12 and then went on to beat Ballinameela 2-15 to 2-13 in the Western Final.

Playing in their first Intermediate final since 1976, Saint Saviours were Cappoquin’s opponents and while the side coached by Fintan O’Connor and managed by Fintan Murray ran out 2-19 to 2-11 winners, in truth things were much closer than the score line suggests with the corner stone men only pulling away late in the game.

Cappoquin two weeks ago were to play the Tipperary Champions in the Munster Quarter Final’s but the championships in the Premier County ran late this year as a result of the team reaching the All-Ireland Final and its subsequent replay meaning that Cappoquin received a walk over as the competition was not finished.

Feakle playing at a venue familiar to them and also having played competitive hurling more recent to Cappoquin should stand to them this weekend.

They are set to be without Ger Hanrahan who has done his Cruciate and is set to be operated on this week, while reports coming out of Clare suggests that they will leave it very late in the day before deciding whether to include Colm Haughton, Francis O’Grady and Stephen Conway in their starting team.

However what ever team put out for the Clare side who have former Clare hurler Colin Lynch working with them recently will be hard to beat, which could include the likes of Eibhear Quilligan in goals, Killian Bane, Eoin Tuohy, Shane McGrath, Oisin Donnellan, Colin Nelson, Gary Guilfoyle, Raymond Bane and Henry Hayes.

Cappoquin too are set to make chances to their county final winning team. Keith Landers is away on Army Duty while Aaron O’Sullivan who played minor with Waterford is still out and there could also be at least one chance in their full back line.

However, there should be still plenty of experience in the team for Cappoquin to mount a serious challenge in this game. Donal O’Rourke, Conor, Shane, Paul and Fintan Murray, Andy Molumby, Shane Coughlan, PJ Curran, Killian O’Sullivan and Paudie Landers could all expect to get game time here and are all capable hurlers.

The Clare Champions will go into the game as favourites, but you right Cappoquin off at your pearl. I have seen what Cappoquin can do with a long number of years now and know that often is the case that the later the years go on the better they can be, and it would be no surprise if they travelled home from the game looking forward to a Munster Final in a few weeks time.