Early Munster battle, Galway final showdown, Shefflin return for Leinster bid
BACK WHEN THE Shamrocks were winning Kilkenny senior hurling titles for fun, during Henry Shefflin’s first stint in charge, a club official made a request to the media.
It was at a county final in Nowlan Park and the Shamrocks official asked if, in future, the club’s proper name could be carried in all reports and broadcasts.
They were, and are, he noted earnestly, Shamrocks GAA club, not Ballyhale Shamrocks, as is widely reported.
The little details matter a lot to a club that has never stopped striving for perfection.
Already record Leinster and All-Ireland club title winners, they moved out on top at the head of the Kilkenny senior roll of honour for the first time in the club’s history last weekend when they blitzed O’Loughlin Gaels.
And, unsurprisingly, with the All-Ireland club title race now whittled to just 19 clubs, they are right up there in the reckoning, just behind favourites Ballygunner.
The thing is, standards dropped at the club last year and Shefflin, back in charge this season after his Galway sojourn, wasn’t slow in pointing out just how far away from perfection they were.
After beating Dicksboro in the recent county semi-final, former GAA President Nickey Brennan, conducting post-match interviews for Community Radio Kilkenny City, put it to Shefflin that he returned this year to regain the county title.
“I wouldn’t agree with you Nickey, no, my aim wasn’t this at the start of the year, my aim was to just get the lads back winning a few matches,” Shefflin shot back.
“I think they won two matches out of 12 last season. That’s a 16 percent win rate. So we were just trying to get back winning a few matches.”
Shefflin didn’t spare the rod either when noting that, in his absence, the players ‘haven’t put everything in and got the best from themselves’.
He repeated the 2024 win ratio stat after dismantling O’Loughlins last Sunday but just try telling anyone, from Leinster title holders Na Fianna to All-Ireland favourites Ballygunner, that Shefflin’s crew aren’t the team to beat in the coming months in Leinster and beyond.
Shefflin and his crack half-forward line of Adrian Mullen, Eoin Cody and TJ Reid will return to Nowlan Park next weekend. They’ll host Kilcormac-Killoughey in what has the potential to be a Leinster quarter-final classic.
By then, the national picture will have come into a little more focus and those 19 teams will have reduced to 17.
Waterford and Munster heavyweights Ballygunner will begin their quest for a record sixth title this Sunday, against Limerick’s Na Piarsaigh in Limerick City. The bookies have Ballygunner down as favourites to win this weekend, return to the summit of Munster and then regain the All-Ireland – but this is an immediate and jagged cliff face for them to climb.
Na Piarsaigh may have required extra-time to see off Doon in the Limerick decider but they are on familiar ground now. Manager Shane O’Neill guided the Caherdavin outfit to an All-Ireland, two Munster and two county titles in his first stint on the sideline. The Caseys, Shane Dowling, Ronan Lynch, Will O’Donoghue and Adrian Breen will certainly fancy another long winter.
Ballygunner beat Na Piarsaigh 0-16 to 1-9 when they met in a semi-final two years ago. It’s a quarter-final this time and if they can win again they’ll qualify for a semi-final against holders Sarsfields, the Cork champions and runners-up in last year’s All-Ireland.
Sarsfields won Munster in 2024 despite losing the Cork final, to divisional side Imokilly, but have advanced to the province as bone fide champions this time, beating Midleton in the Leeside showpiece.
In Munster’s second semi-final, Shane O’Donnell and Eire Og, Ennis will host Tipperary’s Loughmore-Castleiney.
The other reason that this weekend will bring clarity regarding the national picture is because the Galway final is taking place on Saturday evening.
Loughrea will play St Thomas’ and the winners will enter the All-Ireland series at the semi-final stage on the weekend before Christmas, against the Ulster representatives.
St Thomas’, with the evergreen David Burke and Conor Cooney still going strong, relinquished their county title in 2024 after capturing the All-Ireland at the start of that year. As things stand, they are just three more wins from being All-Ireland champions again, with a kind national semi-final draw for this weekend’s winners.
The reigning All-Ireland champions, Na Fianna, held onto their Dublin title but just about, scoring the last three points of last weekend’s county final to beat Lucan Sarsfields by a point. Under new management this season – Aidan Downes replaced Niall Ó Ceallachain after his switch to Dublin – they have fresh injury concerns over AJ Murphy and Kevin Burke ahead of a tough trip to Wexford to play St Martin’s next weekend.
If they reach a Leinster final, Shamrocks could be waiting while Leinster will meet Munster in this year’s All-Ireland semi-final.
Still, Cuala provided a template for ambitious clubs from the capital when they won back-to-back Leinster titles in 2016 and 2017, stitching on consecutive All-Ireland wins.
Kilcormac-Killoughey have been installed on long odds for the All-Ireland but could yet represent decent value. Sure, they have a giant first hurdle in the Shamrocks but the world is their oyster if they can win that one. They have a brilliant team full of established stars – Conor Slevin and Cillian Kiely – and young phenoms – Adam Screeney is still in this category – and finished off Shinrone nicely in the county final when the pressure was on.
All four Leinster club hurling quarter-finals will take place next weekend.
The Ulster semi-finals, as in Munster, will take place the following weekend in mid-November.
Having claimed a first Antrim SHC title since 1973, and a rare win for a Belfast club, the progress of St John’s in Ulster will be intriguing. They will fancy taking down Donegal representatives Setanta to qualify for the final. Slaughtneil or Portaferry will contest the other semi-final, a game that will be billed as the real Ulster final.
Slaughtneil did their best Lazarus impression last December when staging a remarkable recovery to beat Portaferry in the provincial final. They gave Sarsfields their fill of it in a pre-Christmas All-Ireland semi-final in Newbridge that they might well have won too.
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AIB provincial club SHC fixtures
Munster
SHC quarter-final – 2 November
- Na Piarsaigh (Limerick) v Ballygunner (Waterford), TUS Gaelic Grounds, 3.30pm.
SHC semi-finals – 16 November
- Éire Óg (Clare) v Loughmore-Castleiney (Tipperary), Ennis.
- Sarsfields (Cork) v Ballygunner/Na Piarsaigh, Waterford/Limerick venue.
Leinster
SHC quarter-finals – 9 November
- St Martin’s (Wexford) v Na Fianna (Dublin), Chadwicks Wexford Park, 3.30/3.45pm TBC
- Mount Leinster Rangers (Carlow) v Naas (Kildare), Netwatch Cullen Park, 1.30pm
- Shamrocks Ballyhale (Kilkenny) v Kilcormac Killoughey (Offaly), Nowlan Park, 1.45pm
- Clough Ballacolla (Laois) v Castletown Geoghegan (Westmeath), Laois Hire O’Moore Park, 1.30pm
Ulster
SHC semi-finals
- Setanta (Donegal) v St John’s (Antrim), Owenbeg – 15 November.
- Slaughtneil (Derry) v Portaferry (Down), BOX-IT Athletic Grounds, Armagh, – 16 November.
Galway SHC final – 1 November
Galway (enter the All-Ireland club SHC at semi-final stage v Ulster)
- St Thomas’ v Loughrea, Pearse Stadium, 6pm
The 42
