Ulster Senior Club Hurling Championship final: St Joseph’s, Ballycran v Ruairi Óg, Cushendall (tomorrow, 3pm, Athletic Grounds) OVER the past four years, Antrim club hurling has been stripped bare of its sense of invincibility. There has never been a greater air of uncertainty, even vulnerability, about their champions in Ulster. In the first four years of this decade, the average winning margin in provincial finals was 16 points, all in favour of a dominant Loughgiel side that would win club hurling’s greatest prize in the middle of it. The four years since have seen tectonic plates shift. Having dethroned the Shamrocks, Cushendall rode their luck to even make the 2014 final after a replay with Slaughtneil, and they were caught out by a rampant Portaferry side winning their first Ulster title. Then Slaughtneil took Cushendall to extra-time again the following year, and in the two years after the Emmet’s brought the Four Seasons Cup to the foot of Carntogher. It’s brought Ulster hurling to life. The 6,142 people that spilled into Owenbeg, the big crowds in Armagh the few years before that, they’ve come because it’s no longer a foregone conclusion. Does this one fit the same bill? It depends on how you dissect Ballycran’s destruction of the reigning champions in Corrigan Park. You don’t beat Slaughtneil without playing well. You don’t beat them by ten points without hurling out of your skin. Despite their brilliance, two asterisks are left behind. Just how much were the champions affected by their… [Read full story]
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