‘Tis this the season for club All-Irelands, that’s how the song goes, right?
Whether it does or doesn’t, there will be plenty of singing done this weekend with two Kilkenny clubs heading to Croke Park for big club All-Ireland showdowns.
On Saturday, we’re following James Stephens to GAA headquarters as they take on Down’s Clonduff for the right to be called All-Ireland champions. Having fallen at the final hurdle in the intermediate championship in Kilkenny last year, John Scott’s Village side have gone on an incredible run of form in overturning Rower Inistioge in the intermediate decider this past October before moving on to claim the Leinster club camogie title at the expense of Carlow’s Myshall.
An All-Ireland semi-final went ahead in the University of Limerick last weekend against Connaught champions Castlegar, again James Stephens coming out on top. At 4.15pm on Saturday, they’ll have to give it everything for sixty minutes and more to end 2022 and cap their time at the intermediate grade by claiming this year’s AIB club intermediate All-Ireland title.
We’ll be there as we have been all season long, this time with thanks to Kissane’s Pharmacy Group, for full commentary and analysis beginning just after 4pm on Saturday. Ahead of the game, take a listen to this week’s edition of Camán Caint featuring Ann and Angela Downey, Brian Leahy, Marie Fitzpatrick, Teasie Brennan, family members and more, recorded on location at the James Stephens’ club rooms this week.
Ballyhale are back again
Two weeks on from surviving a second-half surge from Kilmacud Crokes, Ballyhale Shamrocks are back again knowing that improvements will have to be made in a lot of areas if they’re to get past Ballygunner.
Croke Park may be a home-away-from-home for the five-in-a-row Kilkenny senior hurling champions, and four-in-a-row Leinster champions, but all bets are off the second the ball is thrown in on Sunday.
Brendan Hennessy, Michael Walsh and the Scoreline team will be taking you through all the action on Sunday afternoon with the general feeling being that whoever comes out on top this Sunday could be crowned All-Ireland champions in late January. That’s by no way disrespecting Dunloy or St. Thomas who play in the early game, but as club championship fixtures go, this is a draw that fans across the country will be excited about and rightly so considering how last year’s All-Ireland final went.
Remember all the drama at the end of last year’s final? Here’s a reminder just in case you forgot.
Coverage begins from 3pm on Sunday with thanks to Gerry Comerford Drilling Ltd.
Two Christmas crackers, two major games, both live in full on KCLR and Scoreline.ie this weekend.
