Down Senior Hurling Championship Final: Portaferry v Ballycran (tomorrow, 2.30pm, Mitchell Park, Ballygalget)
SOME teams can wait years for a shot at redemption. For the hurlers of Ballycran, they only had to wait 13 months to get another crack at Portaferry in the Down Senior Hurling Championship decider.
The clubs played out two pulsating finals last term. After the first final and 20 minutes of extra-time, the sides were deadlocked at 2-18 apiece.
One week later, the teams returned to Ballygalget and, on this occasion, Portaferry ran out 0-15 to 0-13 winners.
Portaferry's success last year was a long time coming having lost the previous three finals - two of them to Ballycran.
Their opponents view last year's griping finals in a very different light. Ballycran were denied a hat-trick of titles and they've been hell-bent on getting another crack at playing for the Jeremiah McVeagh Cup again in 2021.
Mitchell Park will, once again, welcome the Down SHC finalists tomorrow afternoon and Ballycran manager Jamie Fowler feels his side are primmed to regain the title.
"Our aim at the start of the year was to win the Down Championship," said Fowler.
"You want to be back in that final, especially after losing out last year. Portaferry are a great team and we've played them in the last three finals.
"You probably learn a lot more from a defeat than you do from a win. This is a hungry squad and we've about six or seven lads in the squad who are playing in their first senior Championship. It was tough to take last year and everyone in the team want to put that right."
Fowler was a selector in Gary Savage's backroom team last year and stepped up to manage the senior squad alongside James Henry when Savage stepped down at the end of last season.
The round-robin format in the Down Championship gave Ballycran a chance to build momentum having lost their first game to the defending champions.
Fowler hopes Ballycran have progressed enough in recent weeks to emerge victories tomorrow afternoon.
"You know you are going to get six tough games in the Championship," said Fowler.
"We knew what was going after last year when Bredagh took a big scalp off us and you can't take your foot off the gas in any game.
"We knew we probably weren't going to win six out of six. After the first game, our objective stayed the same – we wanted to be in the final on October 31.
"I think with every game, we've improved. I'm not saying we were flying, but we definitely improved as the Championship progressed."
While Ballycran have a clean bill of health ahead of tomorrow's county final, the same cannot be said for Portaferry.
Gary Smyth has a number of injury concerns, not least Down star Eoghan Sands who has only been used fleetingly in the campaign due to an ankle injury.
Daithi Sands also missed the last group game against Ballygalget, but is likely to feature at some stage tomorrow while defenders Barry Trainor and Conor O'Neill are also carrying knocks.
Portaferry will not lack motivation for tomorrow's rematch either having missed out on the opportunity to represent Down in the Ulster Club series last year.
This season's Down champions will take on either Dunloy or Slaughtneil in the provincial decider in the new year.
While Fowler is glad the provincial and All-Ireland club series has been reinstated, he insists the county final is the only fixture on his side's radar at present.
"We are just looking at Portaferry on Sunday," added the Ballycran boss.
"We need to get over the line on Sunday before we even think about Ulster.
"Yes, it is nice to have it back, but we aren't looking past the next game.
"We done that the whole way through the Championship. We just target the next game and we won't be changing that for the final."
An ambitious Portaferry outfit will be keen to prove that they are no flash in pan and back up last year's success. Ballycran are desperate to re-establish themselves as top dogs. It took two games to split these team last year and it would be a surprise if there was little more than the puck of a sliotar between them tomorrow.
