Guts for garters.
You can talk about club senior level GAA all day long, You can talk about the competitiveness, the ferocity, the small margins separating the teams.
But then you’re only beating around the bush because if you’re not talking about Kilkenny club hurling, you’re not really talking about the best of club level GAA at all.
Kilkenny club hurling is a law unto itself, it’s a class apart from any other county, be it in hurling and football, and signs on it too, because look at the domination the Cats have enjoyed over the hurling landscape for the last 20 years.
Club fuels county, and the Noreside club scene is the best set-up in the country.
Saturday’s senior quarter-final clash between two of the giants of club hurling in Kilkenny, in Clara and Ballyhale Shamrocks is a true reflection of this.
The sides were only playing on Saturday because they couldn’t be separated seven days beforehand.
FT: Ballyhale 2-14 | Clara 2-14. What a game! They'll have to do it all again after an absorbing second half. FT analysis next. #KilkennyGAA pic.twitter.com/loyWBn34Sp
— eir Sport (@eirSport) September 30, 2017
It was 2-14 to 2-14 after 70 minutes in Nowlan Park a week ago, it was 4-9 to 2-15 after 60 minutes of pure attrition on Saturday in Thomastown.
Into extra-time they went, and there was still nothing between the sides after the first half of it, 4-11 to 2-17. Still nothing between them into the second half of it, 4-12 to 2-18.
Eventually, Ballyhale hustled and bustled their way to a lead, a one-point lead, then a two point lead, a lead that was cut back again by the gallant Clara men, but at the end of it all, after more than 140 minutes of hurling, Ballyhale just about came out on top with two points to spare, and only one puck of the ball separating the teams.
2-22 to 4-14 it ended, talk about a titanic battle.
What a game that was. Well done to the lads,hard luck to @ClaraGAA on 2 great games. We await tomorrows draw to see who we place next Sun..
— Shamrocks (@BallyhaleGAA) October 7, 2017
The thing about it, though, is that water-tight games like this one are commonplace in Kilkenny club hurling. Three of last weekend’s four senior quarter-finals ended in draws, all of which were being replayed this weekend.
Mullinavat and Dicksboro had nothing separating them after 120 minutes of hurling. It was 2-16 to 2-16 in the 61st minute of Saturday’s replay. Eventually a Cillian Buckley inspired ‘boro scraped into the semis.
The relegation play-offs were also taking place on Saturday, and of course, another one will go into a replay next weekend, with St Lachtain’s and Dunnamaggin deadlocked at full-time.
The thing is, though, you could go on forever about how good it is.
You have clubs like Bennetsbridge and Glenmore winning junior and intermediate All-Irelands and now competing at the top of the senior and intermediate grades in the county, Carrickshock the same.
Tommy and Padraig Walsh’s Tullaroan would be playing senior hurling in any other county. Kilkenny isn’t like any other county.
To find out more about it, we were talking to Érin’s Own club man and Kilkenny senior star Conor Fogarty about the club scene, and he claimed that the fact they only have 12 senior teams, and a competitive league structure, is crucial.
“It’s just so hard to win. The standard there is just very, very high, and I know that from my own club. Unfortunately we’ve never won a county Championship and we’ve been there for years,” he began at a Lucozade Sport ‘Made to Move event.
“I suppose I’d put it down to the quality of teams, and the massive effort going on behind the scenes by club players around the county.
“There’s twelve teams in the senior competition and for any team going out any day in the competition, you’re never guaranteed a win. There’s very little between the 12 teams in senior in Kilkenny,” added the 27-year-old.
It really is dog eat dog.
“The league is very competitive, you’re looking for wins to get into the top 2 in your group because then you’re directly through to a quarter final, and if you don’t do well, you’re looking at being relegated.
Fogarty feels that the gap in the standards between intermediate and senior clubs is minimal, and that’s why promoted teams fare so well.
“You look at Clara, when they came up from intermediate, they went straight on to win two senior county Championships, and even intermediate and junior, they’re very hard to come out of and to win,” he concluded.
That’s what every county wants.
