It’s all relative.
Who in hurling have won more All-Ireland junior and intermediate club titles than any other county? Kilkenny. What about football? Kerry.
Who are the most successful hurling and football counties in Ireland? Kilkenny and Kerry. Go figure.
Junior and intermediate matters. The state of play on the club scene matters at senior level and it matters at junior too. All players, not just senior players, need to be playing their club games at a high and a competitive standard and that’s why championship structures matter so much.
Take for example the contrast between the club hurling set-up in Tipperary and in Kilkenny.
Last year there were 32 senior hurling teams in Tipperary. In Kilkenny, there were only 12. That’s way too many in Tipp and as a result, the standard of junior and intermediate hurling in the county is suffering.
It’s no surprise then that Kilkenny are absolutely walloping Tipperary on the club scene. Tipp haven’t won an All-Ireland senior club hurling since the 1980s, they’ve never won a junior and they’ve only ever won one Intermediate All-Ireland. On top of their success in junior and senior, Kilkenny teams have also won 11 senior All-Irelands.
The club scene is way more competitive in Kilkenny than it is in Tipperary and that serves their county team much better than Tipperary’s does.
Anyway, that just underlines how important and telling these junior and intermediate championships are.
There were a host of junior and intermediate games around the country today and here’s your comprehensive round-up.
Munster
Football
Junior semi-finals
Of course, the Kerry champions are lording it. Beaufort beat Clare’s representatives Michael Cusack’s by a whopping 34 points in Beaufort.
When you consider that they beat the Tipperary champions Ballylooby Casltegrace by 18 points a fortnight ago, these lads look like some team.
Final score Beaufort 5-23 Michael Cusacks 0-4. And we're into the Munster Final!! 💙💛
— Beaufort GAA Club (@LiosAPhuca) November 17, 2018
Beaufort 5-23 Michael Cusacks 0-4
They’ll be playing Cork’s Dromtarriffe in the final, who had a comprehensive victory over Austin Gleeson’s Mount Sion.
Dromtarriffe 2-16 Mount Sion 0-10
Hurling
Junior semi-finals
Waterford’s Ballinameela and Cork’s Cloughduv will contest the junior final in the province.
Ballinameela (Waterford) 1-15 Tournafulla (Limerick) 0-14
Boherlahan-Dualla (Tipperary) 0-12 Cloughduv (Cork) 1-16
Leinster
Hurling
In Leinster, of course, the Kilkenny sides are cleaning up.
Junior semi-finals
Na Fianna (Meath) 3-12 Taghmon-Camross (Wexford) 2-13
Dunnamaggin (Kilkenny) 1-25 St Maurs (Dublin) 0-8
If ever proof was needed that the club hurling in @KilkennyCLG is the most competitive championship of all. Big wins for @graiguebcGAA and @DunnamagginGAA today https://t.co/z4Of1jhk4D
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) November 17, 2018
Intermediate semi-finals
Fethard (Wexford) 1-11 Graigue-Ballycallan 2-22
Portlaoise 3-13 Ballinamere 2-11
Connacht
Junior hurling final
Easkey (Sligo) 1-11 Clonbur (Galway) 1-10
