The weekend just gone has brought the curtain down on the group stages of the Wexford Club Hurling Championships, and while attention turns to the knockout stages and the dreaded relegation finals, there was no shortage of drama as the final standings were decided across the grades.
One of the more interesting trends from Round 5 was the number of teams who had already secured their place in the knockout stages being beaten by opponents who still had everything to play for. Last year’s county finalists, St. Martin’s and Rathnure St. Anne’s, both lost their unbeaten records in their final games against Naomh Éanna and Ferns St. Aidan’s respectively, with the victories parachuting the two Gorey district sides straight into the quarter-finals. St. Brigid’s Blackwater and Crossabeg-Ballymurn were among the sides in the Intermediate grade to suffer defeat in their final group game having already secured progression, while previously unbeaten Monageer-Boolavogue and Shamrocks fell in Intermediate ‘A’ and Junior, respectively.
It is perhaps another reminder of how difficult it can be to maintain the required intensity for championship hurling when one side knows its future is secure while the other enters the final round with more at stake. While one defeat is unlikely to cause too much concern after otherwise impressive group campaigns, it will no doubt give coaches plenty of ammunition as preparations for the quarter-finals take shape over the next month.
One of the major talking points that has developed throughout this year’s hurling championships has been the struggles of the promoted teams to adapt to life at a higher grade. First highlighted in the third edition of this bulletin back in July, the trend continued with 2 draws and 18 losses heading into Round 5. It may have taken until the 23rd game out of 25 involving promoted sides, but Davidstown-Courtnacuddy were finally the side to put an end to the sequence. A pointed free deep into injury time against Ballyfad saw them emerge victorious by the finest of margins, securing their Intermediate status and condemning their Round 5 opponents to the relegation decider.
The other four promoted sides, Fethard St. Mogue’s (Senior), Marshalstown-Castledockrell (Intermediate ‘A’), Ballyhogue (Junior) and Rathnure St. Anne’s (Junior ‘A’), all suffered defeats, leaving the final record of promoted sides at 1 win, 2 draws, and 22 losses. All four must now negotiate a relegation decider in the hope of avoiding an immediate return to the grade they won last year.
If any reminder was needed of the importance of every game, the final standings in both Intermediate and Intermediate ‘A’ certainly provided it. In Group A of the Intermediate Championship, Askamore, HWH Bunclody, Fr. O’Regan’s Craanford and Horeswood all finished level on four points, requiring a ‘mini-league’ based on the results between the four sides to determine places third to sixth. Askamore ultimately came out on top, with HWH Bunclody taking fourth ahead of Craanford in fifth and Horeswood, who despite accumulating the same number of points, now find themselves 60 minutes away from potentially dropping to the third tier of Wexford hurling.
Remarkably, there was an even tighter finish in Group B of Intermediate ‘A’, where Oulart the Ballagh, St. Abban’s Adamstown, Shelmaliers and Clongeen each finished on five points. Once again, the mini-league was required, but even that initially failed to separate them. Each had won one, drawn one and lost one of their three games against each other, leaving them level on three points in the mini-league. Scoring difference was therefore needed to finally determine the order, with Oulart the Ballagh and St. Abban’s Adamstown edging out Shelmaliers and Clongeen to progress to the quarter-finals. There was just a single white flag separating Shelmaliers and Adamstown providing perhaps the clearest example yet of how every score, never mind every result, can prove significant under the current championship format.
After five rounds of group action, however, the calculations and permutations are finished, and attention now turns to the knockout stages. For some, the coming weeks will provide an opportunity to regroup and prepare for a quarter-final, while others face the more immediate challenge of preliminary quarter-finals and the peril of relegation finals. If the group stages have taught us anything, it is that little separates many of the teams across the grades. For those still chasing championship honours, the equation from here becomes much simpler: win and move on, lose and the journey is over.
– By Adam Carty
