Junior Hurling final: Eoghan Rua, Coleraine (Derry) v Glenmore (Kilkenny) (tomorrow, Croke Park, 2pm)
SPARKS were flying as Glenmore and Dungourney went at it but 18 minutes into their All-Ireland junior club semi-final tussle Ger Aylward felt “something after coming away from the bone” in his knee.
The Kilkenny Allstar forward down after going into a tackle and didn’t get back up. He was carried away from the action but his side still had too much for the Cork and Munster champions and won 3-10 to 1-11.
“I was going in for a tackle and whatever way we collided knees I could feel a knock inside in me knee,” he explained.
“I knew then it was something after coming away from the bone inside in me knee. I knew straight away that it was serious enough. It’s the sorest I’ve ever witnessed and I’ve had a few knocks before.”
Glenmore made the final, but Aylward will bring crutches instead of hurleys to Croke Park tomorrow when the Kilkenny champions face Coleraine’s Eoghan Rua in the All-Ireland junior club championship final.
“It’s gutting alright, but these things happen.
“Unfortunately it happened to me but we have another lad coming in at corner-forward and he’ll just as well as I’d do.”
Aylward has been ruled out of hurling for the next nine months meaning he’ll miss Kilkenny’s NHL and Liam MacCarthy Cup campaigns.
“I won’t be back,” he said.
“Please God I’ll have big days to come, I have age on my side (he’s 23) so it’s not so bad.”
He admits he hasn’t see much of Eoghan Rua but expects the Ulster champions to provide fierce opposition tomorrow.
“We don’t know much about Eoghan Rua to be honest,” he said.
“The boys are going into it like any other game – they’re expecting a tough battle. They (Eoghan Rua) are going to be fit, they’re going to be strong, and they’re going to have runners all over the place.
“You never know what happens on big days but hopefully for Glenmore we’ll see it through. It would be a great result for the club.”
Glenmore were All-Ireland senior champions in 1991 – two years before Aylward was born – but dropped down to junior level in 2014.
“Back in 1991 they had great players, the likes of Christy, Eddie O’Connor, Eddie Aylward and Hugh Heffernan. They were great players,” he explained.
“They went away from it and we had a bad bit of a streak there. We went down to intermediate and then junior last year and we made a promise ‘we have to get ourselves up out of here’.
“When you go down it’s hard to get back up but we’ve done that anyway thank God.
“You have to go there with high hopes, expecting to win. We have plenty of young lads and it’ll be their first time playing in Croke Park so it’ll be different scenery for them.
“But hopefully they’ll go our and hurl their own game and they’ll come through it.”
