Hi Ho Hi Ho, It’s Off To Croke Park We Go

Most of us and certainly those of us of a certain vintage have heard the lyrics of the Van Morrison song ‘My Moma told us there would be days like this’.

For the hurlers of West Waterford Club Ardmore and for Wexford side Fethard this Sunday afternoon will be one of those day’s as the two clubs will get a rare chance to play together as a club unit in an All-Ireland Final at G.A.A. in Croke Park where the prize on offer will be the Junior Club Hurling Championship.

For two relatively small clubs chances like this don’t happen very often and the two sides will remember what ever will happen between 2pm and about 3-20pm for the rest of their lives.

Both sides up to now have blitzed their way to this weekend’s decider.

After coming through in their own county, Fethard beat Naomh Brid from Carlow in the first round of the Leinster Championship and followed that up with a win over Erin’s Isle from Dublin in the Leinster Semi Final.

Kilkenny Clubs have dominated the competition in Leinster since the inception of the competition in the early years of the last decade and when Fethard came up against John Lockes at Wexford Park, the Kilkenny side would have fancied their chances but it was the Wexford unit that came out on the better side of a 1-17 to 2-11 score line.

Next up for the Wexford side was a tricky trip to London to play the Brother Pearse club and returned home with an 0-18 to 2-9 victory which set up their recent semi final clash with Galway side Sylane who come from a rich football land in Galway from the Corofin and Headford areas.

Even though they were from a strong football side many expected the Galway side to emerge victors in that game but it was the men from the model county that emerged as victors on a 0-18 to 0-9 score line.

Centre forward Mark Wallace was top scorer for the Wexford side that day with 11 points, all but one of which came from placed balls. With one player contributing so much from placed balls you have to wonder where the scores will come from open play and Ardmore this weekend will be confident that if they can put in a disciplined performance then they can emerge as victors in this one.

Last time our wing forward Edmond Power and corner forwards Ciaran and Mikie Dwyer all ended the game with two points behind their names on the score sheet but you can’t but think that even higher tallies will be wanted from these players and others in the forward will be needed to win this one.

Ardmore it could be also said had things all too easy to date. Their toughest game of the year it could be argued was their Western Final win over a Saint Mary’s side that were looking to win a third final in a row, and the Touraneena outfit looked as if they were going to do that till Ardmore landed a series of late scores to win.

They followed that win up with a big win over Ballydurn in the County Final and then had wins over opposition from Clare, Limerick and Tipperary before beating Donegal Senior Hurling Champions Setanta in last weekend’s rearranged All-Ireland semi final at Navan.

The Round Tower men look as if they will have a full quota of players to pick from for this weekend’s game now that Jack Walsh has sat out his suspension after he was sent off against Ballybacon-Grange in the Munster Final but it remains to be seen if he will win his place back in the team.

With players like former Inter county hurlers Seamus and Declan Prendergast, the Hennessy’s, the Gartland’s, the Keating, Kenny Murphy etc to pick from for this game you have to feel that Ardmore are good enough to win this game. Experience has to count for something and they have it in abundance playing Senior Hurling in the Déise County in 2014 and played Intermediate for two years before they were relegated at the end of 2016, but they have showed since that they are a side too strong to be playing in the third tier of championship hurling, both locally and on the inter county scene.