There is an interesting little mind game going on ahead of Sunday’s Leinster club hurling final – around experience and taking chances and who believes they have history on their side.
Mount Leinster Rangers have already become the first Carlow club to make the final, upstaging and upsetting Dublin champions Ballyboden St Enda’s in the semi-final, so in some ways they already have history on their side.
Wexford champions Oulart-the-Ballagh are contesting a fourth consecutive provincial final, yet still looking for a first title, so must feel that surely now history is on their side too.
What is certain is that Sunday’s game in Nowlan Park marks an important outing for both clubs: Mount Leinster Rangers have provided a timely reminder of the potential of a county that only has six senior hurling clubs, concentrated in pockets of the south, at a time when Carlow was cut loose from the proposed expansion of the hurling league.
Managed by Kilkenny native Tom Mullally, who also trained Kilkenny champions Clara this season, they’ll certainly start as underdogs. Mullally has been working with the Carlow club for the last seven years.
Amalgamated clubs
The club itself was only founded in 1987 with the amalgamation of club teams Borris, Ballymurphy and Rathanna and that pales compared to the long history of the Wexford champions.
"If you stack up the experience, very few people outside our own group will be giving us a chance," Mullally told the Carlow Nationalist. "We have to try and get something out of it.
“That could be a personal performance or a team performance. If we find ourselves in the game at half-time and into the second half, we will take it from there and see where it goes. We know the way they play but dealing with it is a very different story, trying to counteract it.”
Oulart-the-Ballagh manager Martin Storey has also spoken about the importance of experience but also of letting history take care of itself.
They’ve already became the first team in Wexford history to win a fifth successive county senior title.
“It’s about delivering a performance,” said Storey, who also lost two Leinster hurling finals – in 1994 and 1995 – during his own playing career.
Delivering the goods
"Past performances have nothing to do with it. It's about how you deliver the goods for that 60 or so minutes. So I'm looking forward to a Leinster final, I'm not going to look back. We're treating this as one of the biggest challenges we've ever had. Because if we don't win it, it's game over."
That does sound like history weighing heavily.
Oulart will have the experienced Darren Stamp available for selection. Stamp has been out of action since the county final when he was forced off with a recurring calf muscle injury, but is now fit to play. Eoin Moore also returns from injury after being introduced as a second-half substitute in the semi-final win over Kilcormac/Killoughey.
Meanwhile it has been confirmed that Cratloe forward Conor McGrath is clear to play in Sunday’s Munster club football final against Killarney giants Dr Crokes. McGrath has successfully appealed his red card from the semi-final win over Ballinacourty and is thus free to play.
