Senior Hurling Championship down to the last four

The County Board are set for their biggest day of the year so far and will be expecting a bumper crowd to descent on Walsh Park on Sunday afternoon for the semi-finals of this year’s County Senior Hurling Championship.

Back in May this competition began with twelve teams vying to win the Waterford News and Star Cup and now in mid-October we have four teams left which should be down to two by 5pm tomorrow evening should of course there be no need for any replay.

According to those in the know, the smart money would be on a repeat of the 2013 County Final with both Ballygunner and Passage going into the game as favourites, but have no doubts about it, both Dungarvan and Mount Sion will have something to say about this.

Dungarvan and Passage clash in the opening game at the Keane’s Road venue, the game having a 1-15pm throw in.

The sides have already met twice this year and its one win a piece, but the outcome of the previous two games will have no bearing on this game, and it is the result of this game that both will be judged on over the course of the year.

When the sides clashed in the group stages of this year’s championship at Fraher Field back on the 10 of June, the Old Boro club ran out 1-16 to 2-8 winners.

The two clashed in the final of this year’s Sargent Cup and County Senior Hurling League on the eve of Waterford’s Under 21 All-Ireland win and this time the roles were reversed as Passage ran out 2-14 to 0-16 winners after a late surge to take the laurels again at Fraher Field.

There can be no disputing that these two sides are at this stage of the competition on merit and whichever one of them come’s outs on top they will go into the county final in a confident mood.

Of the two, Passage seems to be going into this weekend’s encounter on the back of the better run of results.

The Old Boro were going well in the competition winning their first three games of the competition, but then lost two in a row against Ballygunner and De La Salle and before this they lost to this Sunday’s opponents in the League/Sargent Cup Final. With many of their senior panel involved they also lost the Under 21 county final in last years delayed Under 21 County Final, a game that many that say it was without doubt the best game of the year so far to be played.

But since then they have got back to winning way’s recording an extra time 3-23 to 1-16 win over a difficult to beat Roanmore side in the quarter finals.

Passage to qualified for the knockout stages of the competition winning three of their five games played, losing to Dungarvan and Ballygunner but they bounced back from the latter defeat last time out with a 0-17 to 1-12 win over Fourmilewater in the quarter finals.

Dungarvan are without Kevin Daly all year due to injury and are without Gavin Crotty for this game following his sending off in the win over Roanmore.

Dungarvan know that if they are to win here, they will have to be solid at the back, something that they have not being in recent games. However if the likes of Darren Duggan, Darragh Lyons, Kieran Power, Michael Kiely, Aaron Donnelly, Conor Sheridan and Kenny Moore are at their best, then they know they stand an excellent chance of advancing.

Jamie Nagle might be moved from attack to the middle of the field for this game while up front the Old Boro will be looking to the Curran brothers and Ryan Donnelly for many of their scores.

Passage are a side that are hard to beat. Eddie Lynch will be between the posts, while Noel Connors will be at centre back. Eoin Kelly will be on the edge of the Dungarvan square, Pa Walsh will be in the middle of the field and is impressing a lot this year and Killian Fitzgerald, Thomas and Eoin Connors as well as Sean Hogan are going to be vital in attack.

Passage will be favourites to advance from this game in the eyes of many, and it’s hard to go against people that make such claims.

But having seen Dungarvan a lot in recent years, I feel their day is coming, and I don’t think it’s not too far in the future that the Waterford News and Star Cup will find a home in the Western side of the county divide for a rear twelve months stint.

The big game for most is the clash of the city giants Ballygunner and Mount Sion who meet in the second semi-final with the game having a 3-15pm start.

Ballygunner even with depleted sides at times have impressed those that have seen them at times and many are making them favourites, not just to win this year’s county final but also Munster Final and maybe go on to become the first Waterford side to win at Croke Park on Saint Patrick’s Day.

Of course nobody in Ballygunner will be looking beyond this game. It would be foolish to do so, as a side next game is always the most important.

They had a good league section to the championship winning four of their five games and drawing the one that they did not win.

In their quarter final game against Abbeyside which was abandoned with fifteen minutes to play due to floodlight failure, the Gunner’s who are going for a three in a row of titles were somewhat labouring and could have gone out of the championship, but in the re-fixture last Sunday evening they proved to be a side back to their best and recorded a comfortable win over Abbeyside.

Right throughout their team they have plenty of class. Stephen O’Keeffe is without doubt one of the best goalkeepers in the game. in defence they can call on the likes of Eddie Hayden, Barry Coughlan, Ian Kenny, Wayne Hutchinson, Shane Walsh and Philip Mahony.

In the middle of the field and in attack they also have plenty of fire power with the likes of Billy O’Keeffe, David, Shane, Brian and Tim O’Sullivan, Pauric Mahony, Conor Power, JJ Hutchinson, Johnny McCarthy and Stephen Power etc. to call upon and who are all able to produce the goods when needed.

Mount Sion have had an indifferent Championship to date.

They lost their first two games against Fourmilewater and Roanmore, but since the completion resumed after Waterford exited the All-Ireland Championship, they have performed well, recording wins over Cappoquin and Abbeyside and drawing with Tallow, before drawing with De La Salle in the quarter finals after extra time and then beating them in the replay last weekend.

Austin Gleeson will be their main man in this game and it will be interesting to see where he will start for the Monastery men.

But they are by no mean a one man team.

If Stephen O’Keeffe is vital to Ballygunner between the posts the same could be said of Ian O’Regan for Mount Sion. Iggy as he is known to so many is as good as his Ballygunner counterpart and if he was in another county he would be the number one keeper on the inter county team.

They have plenty of quality in other parts of the field as well in the likes of John Dee, Michael Gaffney, Owen Whelan, Stephen Roche, Martin O’Neill, Evan Curran, Sean Ryan, Ian Galgey and Richie Roche.

Ballygunner will go into this game as favourites. It would be hard to back against them, but Mount Sion won’t be intimidated against them. They unlike many others will believe that they can win, and more over after beating a fancied De La Salle side so well last weekend.

As pointed out at the start, the smart money is on a repeat of the 2013 county final this year, and I have a feeling we will see it happen, but I for one would not be shocked to see either Dungarvan or Mount Sion, even both to upset a lot of people who have parted with their cash.