{"id":99067,"date":"2025-10-02T12:56:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T12:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/99067\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T12:56:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T12:56:09","slug":"im-loving-my-hurling-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/99067\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I’m loving my hurling right now’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ballinhassig know all about the fine margins in the marvellous and unpredictability of the Cork PIHC.<\/p>\n

The Blues have been stuck at this level since demotion from the top grade in 2013. They have been constantly knocking on the door, but as of yet, they haven\u2019t been able to burst through.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, they take on Cloyne in the semi-final in Ovens with throw-in at 7.30pm. It\u2019s Ballinhassig\u2019s first time back in the last four since a narrow loss to the eventual winners Inniscarra in 2022.<\/p>\n

Ballinhassig have won this grade twice, 2005 and 2012.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Echo’s Diarmuid O’Donovan presents the ‘Player of the Match’ award to Ballinhassig’s Brendan Lombard after his side defeated Aghada in the PIHC final in 2005. Picture: Eddie O’Hare<\/p>\n

Darragh O’Sullivan is well aware of the importance of this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great for Ballinhassig to be in a county semi-final,\u201d the Cork senior hurling panellist says to The Echo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s going on down the club both on the field and off the field, there\u2019s progression there, so it\u2019s great to see.”<\/p>\n

\"BrianBrian O’Shea, Cloyne, and Darragh O’Sullivan, Ballinhassig, ahead of the Co-Op SuperStores 2025 Premier Intermediate Hurling Championship Semi-Final. Picture: Jim Coughlan<\/p>\n

The championship season so far has been up and down for Ballinhassig. It\u2019s just all about being consistent. Now is the time for them to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first day out against Ballincollig, I suppose we came off the pitch that day with a great win, we\u2019ve had great battles with them over the years,\u201d the Blues captain said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter that, we have picked up quite a number of injuries. But, like that, it was the next fella up in our squad. It kind of showed a great team bond once these fellas fell, that the next fella up was always pushing on the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe kind of fell flat against Castlemartyr. But then as well, you can look back at that game, how we finished against them was strong and we were unlucky not to have picked up a win or a draw.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe kind of took that finish into our Kilworth game and that kind of drove us on. We got the last few points to win by a point. That Castlemartyr loss was a big moment for us. We have really been tuned in since then.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose injuries might have knocked down another squad. But for us, it only drove us on, so it was great.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Ballinhassig'sBallinhassig’s Kevin Maguire and Darragh O’Sullivan chase after Joe Stack of Castlemartyr this year. Picture: Jim Coughlan<\/p>\n

Darragh has Ballinhassig blood firmly running through his veins. His grandfather, John O’Sullivan Sr, is pretty much known as \u2018Mr Ballinhassig\u2019, and Darragh\u2019s father, John O’Sullivan Jr, is the manager of the hurling team.<\/p>\n

Getting the Blues back up to senior hurling is the target when you put on the Ballinhassig jersey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been playing adult hurling for a few years and it has been a semi-final, scoring difference in the group stage, a quarter-final, so you\u2019re always knocking,\u201d Darragh states.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fine margins. I\u2019d say, this grade is the toughest grade of them all because every team can win it whether you\u2019re seed number 12 or seed number 1. It\u2019s a brilliant competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know what it would mean for Ballinhassig if we did go all the way. I know how much my father is putting into it. It\u2019s always a good relationship between me and my father. He has been coaching myself and Adam since we were very young.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to have men on the line that have great knowledge. Like, sure, you\u2019ve got my father, John Paul Griffin and Michael Keohane. Three great Ballinhassig men. They all played for years and they\u2019re bringing their knowledge through.<\/p>\n

\"BallinhassigBallinhassig manager John O’Sullivan Jr. Picture: Jim Coughlan<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, like I said, at home with the father, it\u2019s all kept on the pitch anyway, we don\u2019t bring it home with us. We have a bit of downtime.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ballinhassig come into Saturday\u2019s semi-final contest with Cloyne having not played competitively in a month. The reward for going direct. On the other hand, Cloyne came through a tough encounter with Valley Rovers at the quarter-final stage by a point, 1-18 to 0-20.<\/p>\n

For the Carrigdhoun men, having that extended break was beneficial according to Darragh.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith our injuries, having that four-week gap kind of helped us massively. Now, in that gap, we\u2019ve played A versus B games and we trained as hard as we possibly could.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur training sessions have been excellent. We were only saying it in training the other day, we might have won one lost one, won one lost one, that kind of thing over the last few years.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, now, we\u2019re trying to break this trend against Cloyne and back up the win over Kilworth. We know how tough this game will be.<\/p>\n

\"Cork'sCork’s Darragh O’Sullivan celebrates with his grandfather, John O’Sullivan Sr, after the All-Ireland MHC final in 2021. Picture: Stephen McCarthy\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never played Cloyne myself, but I can remember watching them play when I was growing up, they are an intimidating outfit with their name and history.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, we\u2019re just going to focus on ourselves, player by player, so it\u2019s no fear for us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

O\u2019Sullivan is arguably playing his best hurling this year despite a couple of injury problems. He has two All-Ireland medals in his back pocket with the Cork minors in 2021 and the Cork U20s two years later. He got the call up to the Cork senior hurling panel for the inter-county campaign just gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m loving my hurling right now. I am continuing to grow. This year being in with the Cork senior hurlers, it was excellent. It has completely driven me on as a player and as a person.<\/p>\n

\"AdamAdam Screeney of Offaly in action against Darragh O’Sullivan of Cork during the All-Ireland U20 hurling final in 2023. Picture: Michael P Ryan\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

\u201cJust getting to know other people, playing with fellas that are older than you that are trying to juggle their jobs, their lifestyles, everything. This has kind of helped me grow as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cMyself and Patrick Collins, we\u2019re bringing what we\u2019ve learned back to Ballinhassig.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m delighted with Ben O\u2019Connor\u2019s appointment as Cork manager. Sure, I was with him for two years when I was with the Cork U20s.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a clean slate for everyone. It\u2019s nice for everyone to have fresh wheels there. I can\u2019t wait for the challenge and what\u2019s going to come with that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ballinhassig know all about the fine margins in the marvellous and unpredictability of the Cork PIHC. The Blues…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[24,18,19,17,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-99067","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-cork-gaa","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}